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American Heritage MagazineMay/June 1998    Volume 49, Issue 3
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OVERRATED & UNDERRATED


Motion-Picture Director

BY DAVID BROWN

Most Overrated Motion-Picture Director:

Cecil B. DeMille. He was not an artist; rather he was a conductor on a grand scale and therefore does not belong in the pantheon of great film directors.


Most Underrated Motion-Picture Director:

Alfred Hitchcock. Unlike DeMille, he was a true artist, as any careful study of his films will verify. He “camera cut” his movies so skillfully that he left his editors only the simple, noncreative task of assembling his cuts. From the start the film existed in its entirety in Hitchcock’s head.

—David Brown is a producer of many movies, including The Sting and Jaws.

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