From his early days as a film editor at RKO studios, where he helped Orson Welles shape Citizen Kane, to his success as a director and producer of musical blockbusters of the 1960s, Robert Wise's film career was long and illustrious. Unlike contemporaries, such as Alfred Hitchcock, John Ford, or Howard Hawks, however, Wise's films lack a clearly discernible characteristic. Furthermore, Wise never specialized in one or two genres, but brought his directing skills to all manner of films. His work as a director resists auteur categorization, a large reason why some critics have been unduly negative in their consideration of his work. In The Films of Robert Wise, Richard Keenan examines the nearly forty features that represent the director's career. From Curse of the Cat People in 1944 to A Storm in Summer in 2001, Keenan offers a reappraisal of Wise's films so that the true quality of his work can be better appreciated. Wise was a conscientious craftsman who saw his work not primarily as a vehicle for his own ideas and visual style, but as an opportunity to present narrative that--quite simply--engages, informs, and entertains. It was this perspective that helped produce a number of memorable films over the years, including classics like Born to Kill, The Set-Up, Somebody Up There Likes Me, The Day the Earth Stood Still, and I Want to Live!. Wise also won a pair of Oscars for two of the most memorable--not to mention successful--musicals of all time West Side Story and The Sound of Music. Drawing on more than thirty hours of interviews with Wise--as well as additional interviews with a number of his collaborators--Keenan reveals both Wise the craftsman and the artist. In doing so, The Films of Robert Wise finally confers upon this underappreciated director the recognition he deserves.
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