This career biography of the prestigious Hollywood director, George Stevens, is lifted a level or two above the norm by the fact that it was written, directed, and narrated with love by the subject's son.
GEORGE STEVENS: A FILMMAKER'S JOURNEY begins with James Dean's Jett Rink proudly pacing off his little piece of Texas--a correlative for the way in which Stevens the filmmaker took the measure of the American West he loved so deeply. Next Katharine Hepburn recalls how at age 30 Stevens came to
direct ALICE ADAMS (1935), his first major assignment.
Born in San Francisco to actor parents, Stevens acquires his first camera at 10. The burgeoning popularity of motion pictures motivates the Stevens family to relocate to Los Angeles in search of movie work. At 17, the boy is hired by Hal Roach and works on 35 Laurel and Hardy shorts as gagwriter
and director of photography. After clashing with Roach over their divergent approaches to comedy, Stevens is signed by RKO, for whom he directs several pictures, including SWING TIME (1936) with Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers. Interviewed by George Stevens Jr., Rogers intimates that his father
contributed more to the style of Fred and Ginger's dance numbers than is generally believed. On location with GUNGA DIN (1939), Stevens for the first time betrays a costly tendency to work very slowly and expose exorbitant amounts of film stock, but the picture is a smash hit and turns a small
profit.
Hepburn returns to discuss the daringly pokey pace of Stevens-style comedy; the kitchen scene from WOMAN OF THE YEAR (1942) is offered by way of illustration. Frank Capra shows up to talk about the famous apartment stoop love scene from THE MORE THE MERRIER (1943). "It's probably the sexiest and
funniest scene I've ever seen," he declares. Joel McCrea reports that the sequence was partially improvised and recalls "copping feels" off costar Jean Arthur (strictly in character, of course) as their director laughed. He testifies also that Stevens was an excellent director of actors as well
as "a regular guy." (Watch for a rare glimpse of the customarily camera-shy Arthur mugging between takes.)
Stevens serves as a lieutenant colonel in the Army Signal Corps during WWII. Included in this documentary, and never before seen by the public, is home-movie color footage he shot of the war in Europe. On hand to photograph the liberation of the Nazi death camp at Dachau, Stevens is profoundly
shaken by what he sees there.
Back in Hollywood, Stevens directs I REMEMBER MAMA (1948) and A PLACE IN THE SUN (1951), for which he receives his first Oscar. Joseph L. Mankiewicz recalls Stevens's principled behavior on his behalf when Cecil B. De Mille attempted to oust Mankiewicz from the Screen Directors Guild for refusing
to sign a political loyalty oath.
Stevens directs SHANE (1953), GIANT (1956), and, after revisiting Dachau, THE DIARY OF ANNE FRANK (1959). The failure of THE GREATEST STORY EVER TOLD (1965) makes him "unbankable" for the first time in his career and he settles into semiretirement before dying in 1975. GEORGE STEVENS: A
FILMMAKER'S JOURNEY concludes with the final scene from SHANE ("Shane! Come back!). This tableau of a man leaving behind a boy who hero-worships him is, clearly, included here as a metaphor for Stevens Jr.'s love for Stevens Sr. and as the son's fond farewell to the father.
GEORGE STEVENS: A FILMMAKER'S JOURNEY is packed with the movie clips and testimonials customary to documentaries of its genre. The clips tend to be dauntingly long--one from A PLACE IN THE SUN threatens to go on indefinitely--and look murky.
In producing this tribute, Stevens Jr. quite fittingly chose to eschew any dissenting opinions on the oeuvre of his father, whom Andrew Sarris characterized as "a minor director with major virtues" who evolved into "a major director with minor virtues." So be it. The occasional soggy longueurs in
Steven's works and his inclination sometimes to pander to his audience are easily outweighed by the riches of ALICE ADAMS, ANNIE OAKLEY (1935), SHANE, GIANT, et al.
What impresses one most in GEORGE STEVENS: A FILMMAKER'S JOURNEY is not its subject's career accomplishments, which the world knew about beforehand, but his strength of character and gentleness of soul--an unusual combination of traits (particularly in Hollywood) cogently illustrated by Stevens
Jr.'s testimony that his father always listened to the front office's complaints and agreed to its provisos with enormous courtesy, and then did whatever he wanted. Among moviemakers perhaps only Jean Renoir achieved a higher synthesis of art and heart. (Violence, adult situations.)
