GESCHEITERTE PROJEKTE

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1.All the King's Men (1949) (second unit director) (uncredited)

2.This Is the Army (1943) (montage)

3.Action in the North Atlantic (1943) (montage)

4.Background to Danger (1943) (montage)

5.Mission to Moscow (1943) (consultant)

6.Northern Pursuit (1943) (montage)

7.George Washington Slept Here (1942) (montage)

8.Gentleman Jim (1942) (montage)

9.Now, Voyager (1942) (montage)

10.Yankee Doodle Dandy (1942) (montage)

11.Across the Pacific (1942) (montage)

12.Casablanca (1942) (montage)(Regie: Michael Curtiz)

13.Hard Way, The (1942) (montage)

14.Blues in the Night (1941) (montage)

15.Sergeant York (1941) (second unit director) (uncredited)

16.Brother Orchid (1940) (montage) (uncredited)

17.Roaring Twenties, The (1939) (montage) (uncredited)(Regie: Raoul Walsh)

Montage nach Lovell: Confessions of a Nazi Spy, Knute Rockne,
All American, Edge of Darkness, They Drive By Night,

Rom 1939-1943 Siegel also worked as 2nd unit director on some
40 Warner Bros films including Passage to Marseille, Sergeant York,
Saratoga Trunk

"Later, when Litvak was dubbing the picture, he told me that he was worried about the title song, 'Blues in the Night'.
ME: I wouldn't worry about that. It's the best blues I've ever heard. If I were you, I'd worry about your picture, which is five per cent as good as the song...
LITVAK: (Annoyed) You think you're pretty good, don't you Don?
ME: (Fresh as usual) You said some pretty nice things about the montages.
LITVAK: True, but when you dolly into the poster you could have had someone walk past the poster. And you should have started on that person and ended on the poster. You must always have a reason for your camera movement, be it a dolly or a pan.
And you know something, he was right. he taught me a lesson I used for the rest of my life.
Incidentally, one of the musicians in the jazz group was played by Elia Kazan."

"When doing montages and second units, I tried to shoot in the style of the director. Raoul Walsh usually shot from eye-level and didn't move his camera much. he had his actors come up to the camera rather than dolly or pan. Michael Curtiz, on the other hand, dollied in on his actors and did considerable panning. Howard Hawks didn't make many set-ups, nor did he shoot much footage. Anatole Litvak shot endless takes."

"Siegel muß für einen Tag für den Regisseur Vincent Sherman einspringen, ohne das Buch zu kennen. Mit dem Hauptdarsteller, Thomas Mitchell, muß er eine Schlüsselszene drehen:
ME: When you're walking the 'last mile', are you thinking of the dreadful woman you murdered? Or are you thinking that you knew you only had a few months to live anyway? Or do you think of Geraldine Fitzgerald or Jeffrey Lynn? And, most important, how do you show who or what you're thinking about as you're on your way to being electrocuted?(...)
MITCHELL: When I worked for John Ford on The Long Voyage Home, I had a similar problem. I was on a ship, having a glorious fight with certain members of the cast and lots of burly stuntmen when, according to plan, I crashed into the main mast. I was presumably knocked senseless. When I regained consciousness, i was supposed to think of many things that had happened in my life(...). So I went to Mr Ford and explained that I had a problem knowing how to portray my wonderful memories. Ford said, 'You don't'. 'Then what do I do, sir?', I asked. 'Nothing', he replied. 'You don't have a thought in your head. Your mind is blank. If the audience thinks you are thinking of the fight, fine; of your wife, fine; of the joy of sailing the seas, finde. Whatever the audience thinks, fine.' So you see, it's quite simple.
ME: What a brilliant idea! 

"Working with Cagney was electric. He is truly one of the great actors of our time. I worked with him on a number of films, including Angels with Dirty Faces (1938), Each Dawn I Die (1939), but I didn't really get to know him until we worked together on Yankee Doodle Dandy in 1942.(...) 
The most difficult montage in Yankee Doodle Dandy was a continuus dolly shot across the roofs of Broadway, panning down to the various marquees, identifying the theatres on both sides of Broadway. On each marquee, in lights, was the name George M. Cohan, starring in the hit show that was playing at that particular theatre. (...) The effect was truly exhilarating. it was accomplished by painting a huge matte shot of the roofs on both sides of Broadway. Each of the lighted marquees was painted in with the names of the shows realistically lit up with real lights. The camera, on a boom, would sweep across the roofs and swoop down to each marquee long enough to read it." 

"Two of the montages that I did i felt were interesting, not only because they turned out well, but because the front office had no idea how I did them and were very upset at the possible cost.
For one, I found five camels, took their picture in dozens of poses, printed the pictures, cut them out and mounted them on a camshaft to have them move. Then I set up a scene with Fredric March projected on a miniature screen on a minature minaret. As the camera pulled back, it picked up the camels and came through a cut-out crowd of Arabs - it looked as though there were thousands of them. The camera stopped at two of the five real actors, who turned to each other and laughed at mark Twain's joke. (...) The second montage apparently took place in London's Albert Hall. I used cut-outs for the audience, which numbered over 1,000 people because the balconies were also filled; and I had a matte made, which in essence means that I had the structure, walls, etc., of the Alber Hall painted in. On the stage stood Fredric March. i made my reverses on his face when he talked, as well as making shots from the stage at the huge audience facing him." 

"Don had erected an enormous machine plant in back of a stairway that led up a treadmill. We walked on the treadmill and the process screen in back of us teemed with action. At a signal from Don, Huston and I started up the real stairs, Don followed us with a camera on a crane. he was sitting right on top of it. At the top of the stairs, the door to what was supposed to be my office was rigged to break away so the camera could follow us right in."

"I thought that the trouble with Passage to Marseilles was its construction: flashbacks into flashbacks into more flashbacks, etc. I wrote a number of montages that covered those sequences ineptly and I didn't particularly like the picture; but there were two second units that were reasonably well done and in some ways were physically quite difficult.
In the first, Humphrey Bogart leads four of his comrades (...) to make an escape from Devil's island. This meant going through slime and muck and mud and swamp - very difficult physically not only for me, but certainly for the acots. But they didn't complain (...). 
The second one took place on the French freighter. A mutiny erupts and, in addition, the freighter is attacked by German aircraft. this was quite difficult to do. We had miniature aeroplanes attacking and when the bullets from the planes hit the ship you could see the bullets cutting through the wooden deck, the mast and other areas."

"There was a large sequence of two trains, one carrying the 'bad guys', headed by Frank Hagney, the other carrying the 'good guys', headed by Gary Cooper. We used 175 stuntmen representing both the good and the bad. (...) So we made long shots and close shots of the engines supposedly crashing into each other. We had shots of stuntmen jumping off the moving freight trains, shot from outside up as they jumped. We had shots from inside the moving freight cars from behind the men, showing them jumping off. this posed a new problem for me. When shot from outside the moving freight cars, jumping off, the men were moving camera right to left. Yet when I made the reverse shot of the same men jumping off from inside the freight cars, they were jumping off camera left to right. The script girl, the cameraman and, of course, the assistant dirctor said I couldn't do it; it would never cut together. (...) Actually, when I cut it together, the geography being established, it worked.(...) I (...) watched Sam Wood direct Ingrid Berman and Gary Cooper on his set without being invited to be there. I noticed that in explaining the scene to his stars he seemed almost inarticulate. When he walked back to the camera, Cooper smiled knowingly at Berman, who smiled back and shrugged helplessly.
Yet Sam Wood directed many fine films. What talent or knowledge did he have that enabled him to be so successful? he had good taste, a requisite for a fine director. he had the patience and the stubbornness not to give up until he got the scene. The front office meant nothing to him. Wood was fearless."

"My next assignment was o Have and Have Not. This picture, an excellent one, was produced and directed by Howard Hawks. It starred Humphrey Bogart and a new, lovely young girl, Lauren Bacall. Hawks handled his stars very differently from Mike Curtiz. Before starting to direct a new sequence, hawks would have them sit around a large table with himself at the head and would discuss the various important things that he hoped to get over int he sequence. he would seek their input, encourage them to voice their ideas. I noticed, for the forst time, that Bogey was happy and full of ideas. If Hawks didn't agree, he would explain very carefully and lucidly why it wouldn't work. if he liked any of their ideas, he thanked them praised them and used their ideas.
Thas was all new to me. Curtziz talked to his cast in broken English, which they didn't understand, only when they were rehearsing, with the result that his actors, like bogey, were unhappy and disgruntled. (...) All I did was sit in a chair where I wouldn't disturb Hawks or his cast." (Siegel stand noch unter Acht von Jack Warner weil er den Vertrag nicht unterschrieben hatte.) 

"(Hal Wallis) gave me a book entitled The Conspirators, by Frederic Prokosh. it was to be filmed starring Hedy Lamarr. The rest of the supporting cast would be of the same calibre as Casablanca. (...) To be given the opportunity on my first picture to work with Hal Wallis, which made it automatically an A picture, was reason enough to direct it. (...)" 

(Die Vertragsbedingungen, die Siegel für sieben Jahre an Warner gebunden hätten, waren, was sein Gehalt betrifft, lächerlich. Er weigert sich, den Vertrag zu unterschreiben. Er wird für sechs Monate unbezahlt beurlaubt.)

"The second three-month suspension was up and I was assigned to The Conspirators as an assistant director, a role I had never had before. This, of course, was the picture I was to have directed for Hal Wallis. I guess Warner or Trilling or Wright felt this manoeuvre would break my spirit. (...) On the set I saw Negulesco turn his back to me. I felt strange that at no time did he express to me any feeling about his taking over what was to have been my picture. he could have at least offered me some condolences. The phrase 'If you have a Romanian for a friend, you don't need an enemy' seemed to be only too true in Jean's case. 
One pleasant note. The picture turned out to be a complete failure, both financially and artistically."

Siegel schrieb an einer Story der Serie mit. Titel: The Bogeyman. Regie Alex Segal

"According to the US Steel Corporation and the Theater Guild which supervised the series, no tape, film or script for the show still exists." Kaminsky, S. 317

THE DOCTORS (1954)

Siegel inszenierte drei halbstündige Episoden.

"The very first television show I did was on a series titled The Doctors. I did three half-hour shows. They were narrated by Warner Anderson... In one of them I had Lee Marvin playing the lead opposite Dorothy Malone. The alternate direcor (who was also the production manager and directed many, many more than I did) was Robert Aldrich." Kaminsky, S. 316/7

THE LINE UP (1954)

Siegel führte Regie beim halbstündigen Pilotfilm mit Warner Anderson, Tom Tully und Charles Bronson

FRONTIER (1961)

Regie bei der ersten Episode, 'The Paper Gunman'. Produzent Worthington Miner

CODE THREE (1961)

Regie und Co-Drehbuch des Pilotfilms für Hal Roach jr.

THE MAN FROM BLACKHAWK (1961)

Co-Autor des Pilotfilms, mit Herb Meadows.

BUS STOP (1963)

Regie beim 50minütigen Pilotfilm nach dem Originalskript von William Inge. Kamera: J. Peverell Marley. Produzent: Roy Huggins. Drehbuch: Robert Blees. Cast: Tuesday Weld, Gary Lockwood, Buddy Ebsen, Joseph Cotten, Marilyn Maxwell, Rhodes Reason.

BREAKING POINT (1963)

Regie der ersten 50minütigen Episode: 'There are the Hip and there are the Square', geschrieben von Mark Rodgers. Produzent: George Lefferts. Kamera Robert Houser. Cast: John Cassavetes, Carl Lawrence, Paul Richards, Arthur Franz, Woodrow Parfrey, Virginia Gregg, Seymour Cassel, J. Pat O'Malley.

UNCLE SIMON (15.11.63)

Autor: Rod Serling
Produzent: Bert Granet
Kamera: Robert W. Pittack
Musik: stock
Cast:
Uncle Simon Polk: Cedric Hardwicke
Barbara Polk: Constance Ford
Schwimmer: Ian Wolfe

"Dramatis personae: Mr. Simon Polk, a gentleman who has lived out his life in a gleeful rage; and the young lady who's just beat the hasty retreat is Mr. Polk's niece, Barbara. She's lived her life as if during each ensuing hour she had a dentist appointment. There's yet a third member of the company soon to be seen. He now resides in the laboratory and he is the kind of character to be found only in the Twilight Zone."

Uncle Simon tries to strike Barbara with his cane. She grabs it and he falls down the stairs to his death. His will stipulates that she must care for his latest invention - a robot. The robot begins to take on Uncle Simon's traits. Barbara finally pushes it down the stairs, but that only gives it a limp identical to Uncle Simon's. She finally realizes that she will never be rid of Uncle Simon.

"Dramatis personae: a metal man, who will go by the name of Simon, whose life as well as his body has been stamped out for him; and the woman who tends to him, the lady Barbara, who's discovered belatedly that all bad things don't come to an end, and that once a bed is made it's quite necessary that you sleep in it. Tonight's uncomfortable little exercise in avarice and automatons - from the Twilight Zone."

THE SELF-IMPROVEMENT OF SALVATORE ROSS (17.1.64)

Drehbuch: Jerry McNeely (nach der Kurzgeschichte"The Self-Improvement Of Salvadore Ross" von Henry Slesar)
Produzent: Bert Granet
Kamera: George T. Clemens
Musik: stock
Cast:
Salvadore Ross: Don Gordon
Leah Maitland: Gail Kobe
Mr. Maitland: Vaughn Taylor

"Confidential personnel file on Salvadore Ross. Personality: a volatile mixture of fury and frustration. Distinguishing physical characteristic: a badly-broken hand which will require emergency treatment at the nearest hospital. Ambition: shows great determination toward self-improvement. Estimate of potential success: a sure bet for a listing in Who's Who - in the Twilight Zone."

In the hospital, Ross trades his broken hand, for a cold from his roomate. Using his new-found talent, he trades forty-six years of his life to a millionaire for a million dollars and a nice apartment. He then buys back the years from a variety of young men, a few years at a time. Realizing the girl of his dreams wants a man with compassion, he convinces her father to sell him his. When he goes to ask for her father's blessing, the old man, compassionless now, shoots Salvadore and kills him.

"The Salvadore Ross program for self-improvement. The all-in-one, sure-fire success course that lets you lick the bully, learn the language, dance the tango and anything else you want to do - or think you want to do. Money-back guarantee. Offer limited to ... the Twilight Zone."

THE LLOYD BRIDGES SHOW (1964)

Regie bei einer Episode mit Lloyd Bridges und Glynis Johns.

DESTRY (1965)

Einstündiger farbiger Pilotfilm: 'Johnny, I hardly Knew you'. Produzent: Roy Huggins. Kamera: Bud Thackery. Cast: John Gavin, Tammy Grimes, Broderick Crawford, Neville Brand.

CONVOY (1965)

Regie und Produktion des 50minütigen s/w-Pilotfilms. Cast: John Gavin, John Larch, Linden Chiles, Gia Scala. Kamera: Bud Thackery.

THE LEGEND OF JESSE JAMES (1966)

Produktion und Regie des halbstündigen Pilotfilms. Drehbuch: W.R. Burnet, basierend auf dem Drehbuch von Nunnally Johnson zu Henry Kings Jesse-James-Film Jesse James von 1939. Kamera: George T. Clems. Cast: Christopher Jones, Allen Case, John Marley, Woodrow Parfrey, Don Haggerty, Ann Doran.
Siegel produzierte die 34 Folgen der Serie mit Regisseuren wie Robert Totten, Curtis Harrington und Larry Peerce.