San Sebastian Film Festival ::

Gunther von Fritsch, Robert Wise

USA

The first film directed by Wise had been started by Gunther von Fritsch. In just ten days he completed what was supposed to be a remake of The Cat People, but in actual fact was a marvellous gothic tale with producer Val Lewton's characteristic shadows and with Simone Simon as the friend of a bright little girl in the great beyond.

Mademoiselle Fifi

Robert Wise

USA

Two short stories by Guy de Maupassant, Mademoiselle Fifi itself and Boule de suif, which inspired John Ford's Stagecoach, with a French woman standing up to the Prussian invaders. A parable of support for the resistance to the Nazis, with lavish sets despite being a B-movie.

The Body Snatcher

Robert Wise

USA

A story by Robert Louis Stevenson, adapted to producer Val Lewton's liking, about a body snatcher trapped in a spiral of horror and death, with an impressive Boris Karloff. The final sequence in the storm already shows Wise's mastery of latent terror.

A Game of Death

Robert Wise

USA

The new version of the film The Most Dangerous Game (1932) reused some scenes from the original film. A writer is shipwrecked and ends up in a castle, whose owner will make him share his favourite hobby: the manhunt.

Criminal Court

Robert Wise

USA

A light-hearted thriller full of surprises in which a lawyer tries to save a nightclub singer, who is accused of killing her boss. Crime, romance, a bit of comedy and a couple of songs in a standard B-movie from the RKO studios.

Born to Kill

Robert Wise

USA

Wise's first great film noir, with a magnificent production and a perverse sordid story in which a woman is attracted to a murderer, knowing that he has killed two people. Claire Trevor, as the title of the original story says, may well be deadlier than the man.

Blood on the Moon

Robert Wise

USA

One of the most surprising westerns of its time, with an atmosphere that is pure film noir and an unusually violent struggle between shadows in a Wild West with rain, snow and darkness, in which Mitchum is torn between a dark past and a clash between ranchers.

Mystery in Mexico

Robert Wise

USA

Wise went south of the border to film a thriller full of high-speed action, starting with the disappearance of a necklace and an insurance broker. Mysterious messages, romance and nightclub settings in a B-movie in which they even play jai alai.

The Set-Up

Robert Wise

USA

Stoker Thompson, an over-the-hill boxer, tries to struggle on in the ring. He is the victim of a rigged fight, while his wife is depressed by his grim fate. An astonishingly realistic story told in real time, a genuine classic of boxing cinema and of films about losers, admired by Scorsese and Stallone. It won the Jury Award at Cannes.

Two Flags West

Robert Wise

USA

A group of Confederate prisoners in the American Civil War agree to help their captors fight the Indians. In the fort, an anguished colonel faces up to the wounds inflicted on him by war and a lack of love. A multi-sided human conflict with an almost phantasmagorical ending.

Three Secrets

Robert Wise

USA

A plane crashes in the mountains. A child survives; his parents are killed. The child was handed over for adoption five years before this. During the rescue, his three possible mothers recall their difficult pasts. A journalistic melodrama with the atmosphere of a thriller and three splendid actresses.

The Day the Earth Stood Still

Robert Wise

USA

A real 1950s sci-fi classic, with the alien who lands on Earth to warn humanity that it is heading for destruction. But only a woman and her son pay him any attention. The aesthetics, the use of electronics in Herrmann's music and the robot Gort have been imitated again and again

The House on Telegraph Hill

Robert Wise

USA

A melodramatic thriller with elements of Hitchcock and an over-elaborate script, that starts out with a Polish woman who takes on the identity of a dead fellow-prisoner in a concentration camp, and looks after her son who's in search of a better life in America. There's also a spooky mansion and a menacing governess.

The Captive City

Robert Wise

USA

A man goes to the police to tell his story before the people who are after him can kill him. He's a journalist who has tried to expose the gangsters in a small town. One of Wise's favourite films, a brilliant film noir B-movie, full of clever visual and narrative touches.

Something for the Birds

Robert Wise

USA

A comedy written by Boris Ingster and I.A.L. Diamond, who collaborated with Billy Wilder in the second part of his career. A sarcastic environmentalist critique, that starts with the drilling work that a gas company plans to carry out in a condor reserve.

The Desert Rats

Robert Wise

USA

A sequel to Henry Hathaway's The Desert Fox (1951) that Wise turned into a realist reconstruction of the battlefield and of the average citizen faced with the horror of war. Rommel (James Mason) makes a brief appearance this time around.

Destination Gobi

Robert Wise

USA

A little-known episode in the Second World War: the help that a Mongol tribe give to a group of soldiers lost in the desert in exchange for a shipment of saddles. A frenetic, entertaining adventure that includes a Mongol Harpo Marx impersonator.

So Big

Robert Wise

USA

A selfless woman faces up to the death of her bankrupt father, becomes a teacher and a countrywoman and struggles to get over various reversals of fortune. But she does have her son, who she calls So Big. Melodramatic vehicle for Jane Wyman, based on a best-seller from this period.

Executive Suite

Robert Wise

USA

The ambitious struggle for power in a company whose president suddenly dies: the 24 hours needed to elect his successor become a clash of tensions, desires and betrayals, with an amazing cast, that won awards at the Venice Festival. It was nominated for four Oscars.

Helen of Troy

Robert Wise

USA

Almost 40 years before Wolfgang Petersen's Troy (2004), Wise shot this family drama in Italy that ends with the city being overrun in a wooden horse with genuine extras, sets built in Cinecittà, original Cinemascope and without digital effects. A young Brigitte Bardot appears in the international cast.

Somebody Up There Likes Me

Robet Wise

USA

Wise's second foray into boxing was this biography of Rocky Graziano, showing his rise from a tough childhood in a crime-ridden neighbourhood to the ring and international glory. A Paul Newman in top form, and photography that won Ruttenberg an Oscar, round off Wise's thrilling narrative.

Tribute to a Bad Man

Robert Wise

USA

A young innocent in search of adventure arrives at a huge ranch belonging to Rodock, a ruthless man who personally strings up anyone who dares to steal a horse from him. His wife, who he rescued from her difficult past, tries to lead him back to the straight and narrow.

This Could Be the Night

Robert Wise

USA

A nightclub, the Tonic, where the focus of attention is on both the stage where the artists perform and on the kitchen and the office, where a snooty girl who will discover the dangers of night life starts work as a secretary. A simple comedy with songs, but not exactly a musical.

Until They Sail

Robert Wise

USA

The Second World War seen from the home front in New Zealand, where four sisters live together waiting for news of their men who are off fighting or who love them, for better or worse. A sound melodrama with a highly concise narrative, where the women steal the limelight.

I Want To Live!

Robert Wise

USA

An early bold denunciation of the horror of the death penalty by Wise who attended an execution to make this drama about a woman accused of murder as realistic as possible. Susan Hayward won an Oscar for her dramatic role. Gerry Mulligan, among others, performed the jazz soundtrack.

Run Silent, Run Deep

Robert Wise

USA

Wise lays all the foundations for submarine films in a film shot on sets built to match the narrow size of a real ship. The battle against a Japanese destroyer also includes an internal power struggle between the veteran captain and the lieutenant who clashes with his superior's orders. Extraordinary tension under the sea.

Odds Against Tomorrow

Robert Wise

USA

An utterly bleak despondent film noir masterpiece, that shows just how important Wise was to the genre, with a trio of bank robbers in a film that combines racism and frustration. Another magnificent jazz soundtrack performed by John Lewis and the Modern Jazz Quartet.

West Side Story

Robert Wise, Jerome Robbins

USA

One of the most popular films of all time, with music by Bernstein and choreography by Robbins, who co-directed the film with Wise, in a restructuring of Romeo and Juliet that brings two gangs face to face in New York in the midst of some thrilling dancing and timeless songs. Wise won two of the ten Oscars that the film was awarded.

Two for the Seesaw

Robert Wise

USA

A film that looks like a romantic comedy, but with a tragic heart, it is based on a play by William Gibson, from which Wise keeps the structure of the adjoining apartments where a man who's just got divorced and a dreamy dancer meet. The complicity between the two actors is perfect.

The Haunting

Robert Wise

USA

A real cult horror film, admired by Sam Raimi among many other directors, in which an investigation at a mansion into supernatural phenomena brings together a whole set of characters. Wise manages to frighten the audience with just camera movements, the framing and light.

The Sound of Music

Robert Wise

USA

The quintessential family film, an enormous success all over the world, made Julie Andrews a star and turned the story of the Trapp family into a popular myth. Rodgers and Hammerstein's wonderful songs, the Austrian landscape and the clash with the Nazis mark this delightful spectacle that won five Oscars.

The Sand Pebbles

Robert Wise

USA

Wise made use of the American presence in the convulsive China of 1926 to make a strict wake-up call about Vietnam, which is still apt for other tragic interventions. A super-production, its unusually intimist and humane character nevertheless make it one of its director's best films.

Star!

Robert Wise

USA

A real tour de force for Julie Andrews, who completely dominates this biography of the singer and actress, Gertrude Lawrence, in a bright and colourful, dynamic musical that introduces documentary techniques into fiction and undeservedly flopped at the box-office. It contains an excellent performance by Daniel Massey as Noel Coward.

The Andromeda Strain

Robert Wise

USA

With incipient digital effects by Douglas Trumbull of 2001 fame and Boris Leven's modern designs, the first adaptation of a Michael Crichton novel for cinema is a disturbing investigation into a strange phenomenon that wipes out the residents of a small town, except for an old man and a child.

Two People

Robert Wise

USA

A young American deserter from the Vietnam War and a model meet in Morocco in a romance with an uncertain future, with a stopover in Paris, in one of Wise's most unusual little-known films. It competed at the San Sebastián Film Festival in 1973.

The Hindenburg

Robert Wise

USA

The disaster of the Zeppelin that the Nazis promoted as a power symbol and which fell to the ground in flames when it reached America at the end of a trip from Frankfurt, is turned into a thriller that uses newsreel techniques and even real pictures of the event with special effects that were amazing for its time.

Audrey Rose

Robert Wise

USA

A young Anthony Hopkins alarms a family when he claims that the couple's daughter is the reincarnation of his Audrey Rose, who died in an accident. The attacks that their little girl suffers hint that he may be right. Wise once again proves to be a master of latent terror.

Star Trek: The Motion Picture

Robert Wise

USA

The first adaptation of the mythical series for the big screen, it restarted the saga, brought together the original cast and had Douglas Trumbull's original special effects and a large crew. The clash with a strange alien craft, the V'Ger, is the main focus of the Enterprise's new mission.

Rooftops

Robert Wise

USA

A story that has certain things in common with West Side Story: tragic violence contrasted with love among abandoned buildings in New York. But here they perform the combat dance, a choreographed fight, and capoeira, with 1980s music from Dave Stewart of Eurythmics, among others.

A Storm in Summer (TV)

Robert Wise

USA

Made with a steady hand by Wise when he was 85, it tells the story of the friendship between a veteran shopkeeper who lost his son in the war and a black boy who he has to take care of for a while. Racism, war and other injustices crop up in a thoroughly good-natured story with two magnificent performances.