SCFZ poll: William Wellman

[flip]

Polling the films of director William Wellman

The rules:

- your list can include no more than half of the Wellman films you've seen, up to a maximum of 5. So if you've seen seven of his films, for example, you can list only a top 3. It's only if you've seen ten or more of his films than you can list the maximum of five.

- i'll assume ballots are ranked unless you tell me otherwise. unranked ballots are fine.

- deadline for ballots: next Friday, in seven days, whatever day that is

- if anyone is watching films for these polls, then i'll extend the deadline three days, if someone requests an extension

- next poll: whoever posts the first ballot in this thread is free to nominate the director we poll next, unless you've nominated in this round already (everyone should get a chance). Already nominated this round: brian d, greennui, ofrene, kanafani, bure, greg x, oscarwerner, silga, dt, umbugbene, roscoe, rischka, wba, thoxans, mesnalty, caracortada, joks, zulawski, nrh, evelyn

umbugbene created an index on letterboxd of all of our previous polls here: letterboxd.com/umbugbene/list/index-of-all-scfz-director-polls/

one rule for nominees: at least 3 scfzers need to have seen 10+ of a nominee's films, or at least 4 scfzers need to have seen at least 8 of the nom's films, so if it isn't clear if that will be the case, we'll confirm that's true before moving forward

if 24 hours pass after a poll opens, and no one eligible to nominate has posted a ballot, then i'll nominate someone, and then we'll start over, and everyone will be able to nominate again

[flip]

The Ox-Bow Incident
Battleground
Nothing Sacred
The Hatchet Man
Safe in Hell

seen eleven

[kanafani]

Wild Boys of the Road
The Ox-Bow Incident
Track of the Cat
Heroes for Sale
Safe in Hell

[Curtis, baby]

seen 9

The Ox-Bow Incident
Yellow Sky

[Umbugbene]

Seen 14.

Nothing Sacred
The Ox-Bow Incident

[...]

Public Enemy
The Hatchet Man
Beggars for Life
Yellow Sky
Nothing Sacred

Wellman seems to have been a talented lunkhead. When he was on, he could do some exceptional work and hit notes in scenes not many other directors could. The opening of Beggars for Life, the end of Public Enemy, the look of Track of the Cat, the tone of The Hatchet Man, and so on are top notch craft, but that's intermixed with lot's of less inspired work that has the feel of director for hire over it as the direction is competent but more routine. What seems to have caught his interest most are the more id oriented elements and stories he worked on more than the character beliefs or motivations as such. The scripts provided some of that anyway of course, but he tended to allow consistency of character to be loose or border on incoherent if there were other elements in the movies that interested him more. That attitude, though, also seemed to give him opportunity to sometimes provide real force to a scene or film for the shock of an action having added force for not fitting the accepted logic of Hollywood convention. 33 Wellmans viewed

[Lencho of the Apes]

/11. W.W. seems to have handled most of the pictures that most exemplify that good ol' Warners/pre-code rabble-rousing, so hooray.

Heroes For Sale
Public Enemy
Wings
Beggars Of Life
Wild Boys Of The Road

[Roscoe]

THE PUBLIC ENEMY
WINGS
SAFE IN HELL
BEGGARS OF LIFE

[St. Gloede]

Seen 18:

Beggars of Life
Other Men's Women
Safe in Hell
Heroes for Sale
Night Nurse

[flip]

lencho technically can nominate if he wants, but he passed last time, so if he does again, st gloede can choose our next director.

but if lencho wants to make a nomination, he'll have priority.

[Lencho of the Apes]

No, St. G can have it.

[rischka]

wild bill W00T

heroes for sale
wild boys of the road
beggars of life
the public enemy
westward the women

the go-to (somewhat) socially conscious WB director

Wellman was born in Brookline, Massachusetts. His father, Arthur Gouverneur Wellman, was a New England Brahmin of English-Welsh-Scottish and Irish descent. William was a five times great-grandson of Puritan Thomas Wellman, who immigrated to the Massachusetts Bay Colony about 1640. He was also a great-great-great grandson of Francis Lewis of New York, one of the signatories to the Declaration of Independence. Wellman's much-beloved mother, Cecilia McCarthy, was an Irish immigrant.

Wellman was expelled from Newton High School in Newtonville, Massachusetts, for dropping a stink bomb on the principal's head. His mother was a probation officer who was asked to address Congress on the subject of juvenile delinquency. Wellman worked as a salesman and then at a lumber yard, before ending up playing professional ice hockey, which is where he was first seen by Douglas Fairbanks, who suggested that with Wellman's good looks he could become a film actor.

-- wikipedia

he was a flying ace in WW1. the movie hero fairbanks was fascinated with wellman's real life adventures. wellman married four times before he was 40, when he settled down for the next 40 with the cute irish cross dressing girl in 'wild boys of the road,' dorothy coonan

[greennui]

9.

Wild Boys of the Road
Night Nurse
Beggars of Life
Yellow Sky

[St. Gloede]

lencho technically can nominate if he wants, but he passed last time, so if he does again, st gloede can choose our next director.

but if lencho wants to make a nomination, he'll have priority.

Thanks flip and Lencho, my pick is Kihachi Okamoto, or, if he lacks the views Ming-liang Tsai.

[brian d]

seen 4

track of the cat
wings

[flip]

we'll need to check on okamoto - i've only seen one (it was amazing tho), so i can't help. if anyone has 8+ okamoto seen, please post here!

i'm sure tsai has the views, so i'll go with him as a fallback if i don't get enough replies about okamoto by tuesday.

[wba]

Wellman was soooooo great, I adore his directing! Need to watch more of his work.

01. Safe in Hell (1931)
02. Night Nurse (1931)
03. The Boob (1926)
04. Nothing Sacred (1937)

Wellman seen: 8

Okamoto seen: 6
Tsai seen: 5

[rischka]

i have 5 okamoto and about 15 tsai

[...]

Only six Okamotos, which is sad since he's someone I definitely want to see more of as I've really, really liked what I've seen so far. Eight Tsais

[nrh]

is there anything we can do, like some kind of fund drive, for directors that get proposed for poll but we all agree we are dying to watch more of? i'm really bad at participating in this kind of thing so it's a hypocritical ask, but i feel like it's come up a bunch these last few months (and seen 2 okamotos and would love to see more, 10+ tsai)

[...]

I'd be pleased to have a way to see more Okamotos and get a chance to have a poll on him. There's a couple of his less famous films on youtube but some of the ones I most want to see aren't readily available.

(I just started watching Fort Graveyard and it's got an excellent opening, a group of Japanese soldiers playing When the Saints Come Marching In as they march/dance during the credits that leads to some amusing results in expository information immediately after the credits finish and the events play out. Okamoto is just great with punctuating his movies with edits, visuals, dialogue, and set ups working in unexpected combination.)

[rischka]

yeah the ones i have seen are excellent and i'd love to vote for the elegant life of mr everyman

[Curtis, baby]

I've seen five okamotos, like him, would watch more for a drive or what have you

[Caracortada]

Seen 6

1. The Public Enemy
2. Wings
3. The Ox-Bow Incident

Worst: The High and the Mighty

[wba]

Well, if you enjoy a filmmaker, just watch more of his films, folks. It's pretty easy.

[oscarwerner]

Seen 23
1. The Public Enemy (1931)
2. The Ox-Bow Incident (1942)
3. A Star Is Born (1937)
4. Wings (1927)
5. Wild Boys of the Road (1933)
----------
Seen 9 Tsai Ming-liang and 4 Kihachi Okamoto (i will really try to see more, good director).

[flip]

is there anything we can do, like some kind of fund drive, for directors that get proposed for poll but we all agree we are dying to watch more of? i'm really bad at participating in this kind of thing so it's a hypocritical ask, but i feel like it's come up a bunch these last few months (and seen 2 okamotos and would love to see more, 10+ tsai)

i'm open to other plans, but i'd been thinking that we'd return to these directors later, once we get through the 'easy' picks where enough people know a director that a poll is sure to work. but once a name like okamoto has been floated once, hopefully that inspires a few people to watch more okamoto films, so that he'll be more likely to clear the bar later on. and even if that doesn't happen, eventually (probably not too far down the line, actually) if we continue these polls, we'll need to use directors who don't meet the viewing thresholds i set. the only reason i'm holding off on those polls is because i think we'll need a different scoring system for them (otherwise the most-viewed films will win by default, even moreso than in our current polls), and i haven't given that much thought yet.

[ofrene]

seen 3

Yellow Sky

[St. Gloede]

I love the interest in Okamoto, and the wish for a "drive" to explore his work. I think for the next poll it makes more sense to do Tsai, but we could always set up an Okamoto thread, and run it as a drive/challenge to explore and discuss his films (could be interesting to do this for other directors too).

The great strength in Okamoto is, as greg x very observingly put forward: "Okamoto is just great with punctuating his movies with edits, visuals, dialogue, and set ups working in unexpected combination." This is part of the reason why he can so easily switch between entirely different genres and atmospheres without ever feeling like a chameleon/director for hire - but as a driven artistic genius - granted, very often restrained by studio cinema (early in his career) and sadly - as most Japanese directors - forced to put out lesser films after the financial crisis. However, he made 24 films between 1958 and 1969, most with subtitles, and most great.

[karl]

I've seen a lot of Wellman's movies and consider him perhaps the most underrated American director. So, as usual, to highlight some little-knowns:

1. Robin Hood of El Dorado
2. Buffalo Bill
3. Westward the Women
4. The Story of G.I. Joe
5. So Big!


I'm pleased that Safe in Hell is so popular here.