THE LINEUP
THE LINEUP
Dir. Don Siegel (86 min, USA, 1958)
Narrative
In
this classic film noir directed by the legendary Don Seigel, Eli
Wallach shines as psychopathic gangster in San Francisco who uses
unsuspecting travelers to traffic heroin. When one of the deliveries
goes awry, a cop gets killed, throwing the police into action.
In his autobiography, The Good, the Bad and Me,
Wallach recalled, "I first met Siegel at the plush Columbia Pictures
office in New York, where he told me he wanted me to play a sadistic
professional killer...’ ‘The guy has to kill five people in one day,’ I
said. ‘That's not for me; I'm not that sadistic.’ ‘Oh, it's only a
movie,’ he said. ‘Besides, you'll enjoy San Francisco.’ ‘All right,’ I
said, and then added as a joke, ‘But I want ten grand a killing.’
Playing as Part of The Year That Was: Filmmakers of 5774