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Richard Fleischer
8 December 1916 - 25 March 2006
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Written
by: Rick Mitchell,
İ 2006, Universe rights reserved. |
Date:
26 May 2006 |
Because he chose to work mostly as a director for hire within the studio
system, Richard Fleischer was never given the respect due him by
auteurist critics ignorant of a director's true role in film production
or the intricacies of studio politics.
Fleischer's memoir "Just Tell Me
When To Cry" (New York: Carroll & Graf Publishers, İ1993) rarely gets
into detail about his role in either the writing of many of his films
and doesn't mention his involvement in their editing, and the flaws in
some of them can be traced to producers or studio executives. Yet, a
look at a selection of his films (unfortunately, I have not seen them
all) reveals a definite and recognizable personal style in both his
handling of actors and his mis-en-scene.
Fleischer took a low-key understated approach to the performances in his
films. While this was fairly standard in Hollywood films in the Forties,
when he started out, it was something of a house style at RKO Radio
Pictures, where he began his career, as can be noted in the films of his
contemporaries at the studio, Edward Dmytryk, Nicholas Ray, Mark Robson,
and Robert Wise. Even where the role called for a certain flamboyance,
such as Marie Windsor's in "The Narrow Margin" (RKO; 1952) or Orson
Welles´ in "Compulsion" (20th Century-Fox; 1959), there is a restraint
that enhances the character's believability rather than making it an
exercise in scenery chewing. At the same time, he allows or encourages
an underlying and appealing sense of humor in many of the actorsı
approaches to their roles, a lightness that makes the most outrageous of
plot situations acceptable. This is best illustrated in the blasé
insouciance of the scientists and military men in "Fantastic Voyage" (20th
Century-Fox).
This may also be the reason why Fleischerıs more fantastic and
adventurous films work as well as they do. Like
Robert Wise, he took
such projects seriously, and not only has his "20,000 Leagues Under The
Sea" (Disney; 1954) and "The Vikings" (United Artists; 1958) never been
equalled or surpassed, to date no one seems to have tried to do so. In
retrospective, what has long been considered his best known big budget
disaster, "Doctor Doolittle" (20th Century-Fox; 1967), comes off as more
a victim of bad timing than an unwatchable film. Even "The Big
Gamble"
(20th Century-Fox; 1960), the last three-quarters of which Fleischer
claims were written by producer Darryl F. Zanuck, holds the attention
despite the feeling that it would have worked better set in the Twenties
or Thirties.
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More
in 70mm reading:
Historical Overview Of
Wide Screen
Robert Wise - a rememberance
Internet link:
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"Doctor
Dolittle" Fox 1967
Though he came to the attention of RKO through his off-Broadway stage
work, and did shorts and documentaries for them in New York before being
brought out to Hollywood, he was the son of legendary animation pioneer
Max Fleischer, and had a strong understanding of the importance of a
film´s visual side that he particularly brought not only to his wide
screen movies, but to one of the surprises in the 2003 3-D Expo, "Arena"
(MGM; 1953). Fleischerıs wide screen films, like those of
Robert Wise
and David Lean, are textbook examples of how the format should be used.
While the compositions and staging of "20,000 Leagues Under The
Sea" may be attributed
to Disney and his storyboard artists, the continuity of his approach in
later films, including "intimate" dramas like "Compulsion" and
"Crack in the Mirrior" (20th Century-Fox; 1960), done in collaboration with
different production designers and cinematographers, suggest these
images came from Fleischer.
Although there are contemporary "pretenders" to the action-adventure
genre that directors like Fleischer, Don Siegel, Phil Karlson, among
others, seem to do so effortlessly, none of them, especially not Peter
Jackson, have come close to even their lesser efforts. Those directors
came from a different time and a different, more innocent sensibility.
Fleischer was the last of a noble breed and itıs doubtful if his, or
their, like will ever be seen again.
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