Robert Wise: American Filmmaker

Hard working, dedicated, inventive, and ready to tackle any genre?that was Academy Award-winning director Robert Wise. Despite all the praise and awards, Wise could easily be called one of Hollywood's always working blue-collar directors. He helmed everything from B movies to Academy Award-winning blockbusters, all while managing to live a quiet life amid the glitz, glamour and scandal of Tinseltown. How this soft-spoken man managed to tame mega-stars' egos while directing film classics remains a mystery. But manage them he did, as he created an amazing resume of films and garnered a slew of awards from the Academy of Arts and Sciences, the Golden Globes, the American Film Institute, the American Society of Cinematographers, the Director's Guild of America and many other industry organizations.

Robert Wise: Hollywood's Blue Collar Director is focused upon Mr. Wise's Guest-of-Honor appearance at the FANEX 10 Film Convention, held in Baltimore, Maryland in 1996 when Wise was greeted on stage to thunderous applause before being interviewed by film historian Gregory Mank. Editor/Director Jeff Herberger infuses the documentary with archival film footage of Robert Wise, throughout all stages of his career, interspersed throughout with rare photographs from many of Mr. Wise's movies, including behind-the-scenes shots. With a wrap-around narrative that illustrates the totality of Robert Wise's career, beginning in the early 1940s and ending in the early 1980s, an expansive career retrospective emerges. Helping to document the progression of Wise's career and interpret the meaning of the movies comes the enthusiastic on-screen commentary from David Sterritt, Ph.D., Chair, National Society of Film Critics.

The 100-minute documentary focuses primarily upon the following movies either edited or directed by the incomparable cinematic icon, Robert Wise.