Don Seigel

(On Cable TV, June 2022) I know that most people (especially those who haven’t discovered the joys of Classic Hollywood) refer to “old movies” as if that was a damning epithet by itself — as if newer movies were automatically better, or maybe that all movies become steadily worse as soon as they’re released in an echo of new cars driving off the dealership. But even letting slide the idea that great movies are timeless; that this attitude reflects the power of crass marketing making you crave new movies; that all movies appeal to a fundamental human condition… the truth is more complicated. Some very ordinary films can be appreciated in time for mirroring their era, making them special decades after they were commonplace and unremarkable. Maybe they innovate with things that have since become more obvious, maybe they show images that would be impossible to capture today. I’m not going to point at The Lineup and say that it’s an ordinary film that has become great while we weren’t looking. But I will suggest that, in presenting a thriller set against the backdrop of late-1950s San Francisco, it shows a unique glimpse at the city as it existed then, with landmarks now gone or altered. I will rally to the opinion that it features one of the most intense car chases made during the 1950s. I’ll point to its director, Don Seigel, as historically important considering that he’d go on to direct films such as Dirty Harry -also set in San Francisco- and mentor Clint Eastwood. None of these reasons elevate The Lineup over what it is – a competent thriller featuring psychopaths going after an innocent woman and her daughter. But they do manage to make this film better now than in 1958 – a classic case of film as a time capsule.