Dorothy Arzner claimed she didn't have to rely on directing to keep food on the table. She always insisted she could do what she wanted, how she wanted, and filmmaking was just one area in which she would have her way. Arzner grew up in Los Angeles where her parents owned a restaurant frequented b

Corporate, Feminist, Pioneering, Political

Who was Peter Sellers? The ultimate impersonator, the most accomplished of mimics, he kept his identity a moving target. Take Kubrick's "Dr. Strangelove." Sellers played three characters, each with a distinct philosophical viewpoint. As the loudmouthed U.S. president, a British captain, or a mad inve

Chance, Comedies, Event, Excessive, Funny, Physical force, Playful

Most artists, at one time or another, fall out of public favor. But few have fallen so completely, so dramatically, and so fast from the zenith as Michael Powell. From its glory days of the '40s, his career saw a premature burial when British film fell in love with gritty realism in the '60s and '70s

Distorted, Hyperrealism, Perverse, Pioneering, Quirky, Violent

Director John Huston lit up the screen with riveting adaptations of genres ranging from modern epic ("Moby Dick") to Southern Gothic ("Reflections in a Golden Eye," "Night of the Iguana") and pulp fiction ("The Maltese Falcon"). Fiercely independent and uncompromising in his cinematic style, John Hus

Epic, Expansive, Film noir and neo-noir