The Men Who Made the Movies: King Vidor

King Vidor (1894-1982), renowned for his technical virtuosity and humane approach, demonstrates both qualities in Street Scene (1931), a touching study of tenement life in Manhattan in which Vidor maintains interest in the limited setting through striking camera angles. In The Men Who Made the Movies: King Vidor, filmmaker/critic Richard Schickel offers us an intimate interview with this director who worked successfully in both the silent and sound era. Among the many films surveyed in the documentary are the boxing melodrama The Champ (1931), in which Vidor set the standard for the genre and drew genuine pathos from Wallace Beery as a washed-up boxer idolized by his son (Jackie Cooper); The Crowd (1928), Hallelujah! (1929) and Duel in the Sun (1946). A creator of great silent films who brought his brilliance into the sound era, Vidor was described by Jazz Age novelist F. Scott Fitzgerald as "the only American-born director with an interesting temperament and an artistic consciousness." Director: Richard Schickel C-55m. Closed captioning. by Roger Fristoe