Don Siegel

Clint Eastwood's laconic toughness in Dirty Harry (1971) suits Don Siegel's preference for solitary professionals who dislike interference. The performance has the bluntness his action-driven storytelling needs. We rate him highly when those two things come together, with an actor doing no more than the scene requires. The trouble comes in the more routine assignments, where the story moves efficiently but offers little reason to care where it is going.

His early work as an editor and head of the montage department at Warner Bros. helps explain that concern with pace. The economical action and crime pictures of the 1950s led to higher-profile studio films in the 1960s and 1970s. Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956) is an early example of his gift for sustaining thriller tension. In Charley Varrick (1973), economical storytelling and Walter Matthau's performance make another persuasive case for keeping a thriller lean.

The Twilight Zone (1959), for which he directed two episodes, belongs in this account without being treated as his personal achievement. We admire the anthology for its disciplined storytelling and careful craft; our praise concerns the series rather than his individual instalments. Its weaker entries offer less to think about than their premises promise. That is a useful caution when looking at his films, too: a director can tell a story neatly and still leave us wishing he had chosen a more interesting one.

Eastwood made five films with Siegel, ending with Escape from Alcatraz (1979), a prison drama distinguished by its realism and restraint. We felt hemmed in by its stark prison setting, and Siegel's restraint made that discomfort harder to dismiss. There is more patience here than the description ‘action director’ might suggest. Start there if toughness without much talk appeals; choose Charley Varrick if a tightly organised heist sounds like the better evening.