A | B | C | D | E | F | G | H | I | J | K | L | M | N | O | P | Q | R | S | T | U | V | W | X | Y | Z
|
|
|
World of Westfahl |
Encyclopedia Introduction |
All Entries |
Acknowledgements
A | B | C | D | E | F | G | H | I | J | K | L | M | N | O | P | Q | R | S | T | U | V | W | X | Y | Z |
(1916–1992). American director.
The regrettable answer surely involves something that might be regarded as
irrelevant: namely, Arnold's activities after he directed the films he is
famous for. It is not simply that his films of the 1960s and 1970s generally
have little to do with science fiction and are uniformly awful to boot; it is
rather that he was spending most of his time directing for television, a medium
where directors are essentially functionaries, handed a script and assigned to
film it as written within a limited amount of time. No doubt he was very
effective in that role, since he kept receiving assignments for two decades,
but he was never in a position to explore certain issues or express himself.
Indeed, he even specialized in filmed television's most undemanding and less
admired genre, the inane situation comedy aimed at younger viewers. When you
are researching the career of a Film Legend, you do not want to dig up
references to The Brady Bunch (1970-1974) and Nanny and the
Professor (1970-1971); when you are researching the career of a Film
Legend, you do not want to devote extensive time to nailing down how many
episodes of Gilligan's Island (1964-1966) he directed. (The correct
answer: 26.)
Criticizing Arnold for his career choices might seem uncharitable, even
churlish: certainly, a man has a right to earn a living, and any informed
observer of the Hollywood scene in 1960 could see that the B-movie market was
dying, forcing directors to accept any stray assignments that might come their
way, and that most of the directorial assignments in the coming decades would
be for television. in addition, there might have been any number of legitimate
concerns, ranging from financial disasters to health problems, which would
require a fifty-year-old man to trade his creative freedom for a steady
paycheck supplemented by occasional films of any variety. However, other
directors of Arnold's age and stature, such as Samuel Fuller and Don SIEGEL,
resolved to remain in the arena, to keep fighting the good fight to direct the
sorts of films they wanted to direct, and they were able to craft for
themselves filmographies reflecting their distinctive characters that eventually
earned them larger budgets and critical acclaim. Why didn't Arnold do the same?
Perhaps, it is because resolving to compete for desirable work and adequate
resources in a tough, tough market demands a certain amount of self-confidence;
Fuller and Siegel had it, while Arnold didn't.
That theory would be supported by The Incredible Shrinking Man
(1957), the one major film whose virtues can be unambiguously attributed to
Arnold's directorial skills (because no one can plausibly portray its producer,
Arnold Zugsmtih, as an unacknowledged genius). Handicapped both by an evocative
but clunky script co-written by neophyte Richard
MATHESON and by a weak cast
headed by the hapless Grant Williams, Arnold nevertheless imbues the film with
heart and a gravitas that still has an impact today. He may have strongly
identified with its hero, a man who keeps getting smaller and smaller and is
eventually more or less forgotten by everyone he once knew; as they carry on
without him, he finds solace in conquering a tiny spider and telling himself
that even a microscopic man must have a meaningful role to play in the
universe. Arnold may have seen his own future in Williams's saga, a director
who would become more and more invisible in Hollywood during the decades to
come. A certain aura of self-abnegation can also be detected in his first, and
arguably best, science fiction film, It Came from Outer Space (1953),
which at first unfolds as a typically paranoid invasion-from-space nightmare,
complete with familiar friends turned into ambulatory zombies in the manner of Invaders
from Mars (1953) or Siegel's Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956);
yet hero Richard CARLSON,
instead of leading a counterattack, learns that these aliens are really good
guys and becomes their cooperative ally in obtaining the resources they need to
get away from Earth. One might also say, more cynically, that Carlson is simply
a man who is willing to surrender to the inevitable—like Arnold himself.
An overview of his career: after failing to find success as an actor, Arnold
returned from military service and started directing films in the 1950s; an
early documentary, With These Hands (1950), was actually nominated for
an Academy Award. While noted only for his science fiction films, he also
worked on westerns and crime dramas. In partnership with Alland, he directed
five heralded films that slightly but steadily declined in quality—It Came
from Outer Space, Creature from the Black Lagoon (1954), Tarantula
(1955), Revenge of the Creature (1955), and The Space Children
(1958); some would add the strange and marvelous This Island Earth (1955),
to the list, on the grounds that Arnold was brought in to direct its
climactic scenes on the planet Metaluna. Separated from Alland, he directed, in
addition to The Incredible Shrinking Man, the absolutely pathetic Monster
on the Campus (1958) and a serviceable Peter Sellers vehicle, the
Ruritarian The Mouse That Roared (1959), before turning most of his
attention to episodic television.
In the 1960s and 1970s, he became a favorite of sitcom producer Sherwood
Schwartz, helming numerous episodes of Gilligan's Island, It's About
Time (1966), and The Brady Bunch. One also finds him credited with
episodes of all sorts of television series, including Perry Mason (1957-1966),
Peter Gunn (1958-1961), Wagon Train (1959-1965), Rawhide
(1959-1965), Dr. Kildare (1961-1966), The Virginian (1962-1971), Bob
Hope Presents the Chrysler Theatre (1963-1967), The Guns of Will Sonnett
(1967-1969), Mod Squad (1968-1973), It Takes a Thief (1968-1970),
Love, American Style (1969-1974), McCloud (1970-1977), Alias
Smith and Jones (1971-1973), Movin' On (1974-1976), The Love Boat
(1977-1984), The Hardy Boys/Nancy Drew Mysteries (1977-1979), The
Misadventures of Sheriff Lobo (1979-1981), and The Fall Guy (1981-1986).
The list is limited to series that lasted more than one season; gluttons for
punishment can examine his work for less successful series at the Internet
Movie Database. To be sure, he also contributed to some science fiction
television series, but nothing was noteworthy about his direction for the
series World of Giants (1959-1960), Mr. Terrific (1966-1967)—all nine
episodes!—The Bionic Woman (1976-1978), Holmes and
Yo-Yo (1976-1977), The New Adventures of Wonder Woman (1976-1979),
and Buck Rogers in the Twenty-Fifth Century (1979-1981); he also
presided over a forgotten television remake of The Mouse That Roared
(1966). But the eclectic nature of his second career is best conveyed by the
one Emmy Award he received, for directing the variety special The Sid
Caesar, Imogene Coca, Carl Reiner, Howard Morris Special (1967).
As for his later forays into film, Hello Down There (1964),
suggesting Schwartz's baneful influence, was nothing more or less than an
overextended half-hour sitcom about a family living in an experimental
underwater house. Other films included two terrible Bob Hope comedies (Bachelor
in Paradise [1961] and A Global Affair [1964]), two blaxploitation
films with Fred Williamson (Black Eye [1974]and Boss Nigger
[1975]), an excursion into mild pornography (The Bunny Caper [1974]), a
dull thriller (The Swiss Conspiracy [1976]), and two roundly panned
television movies (Sex and the Married Woman [1977] and Marilyn: The
Untold Story [1980]). Call, if you will, the first decade of his career The
Legend of Jack Arnold, but for the rest of his story, the only appropriate
title, quite unfortunately, is The Incredible Shrinking Director.
|
|||||
To contact us about encyclopedia matters, send an email to Gary Westfahl. Hosted & Designed By:
If you find any Web site errors, typos or other stuff worth mentioning,
please send it to our Webmaster.
Copyright © 1999–2018 Gary Westfahl All Rights Reserved Worldwide
