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Originally Posted by georgep
I added Mike Hodges just now, and I'm thinking about our friend J. Lee Thompson too, were it not for his brilliant resume with his Gregory Peck films in the 1960s,
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Trust me, J. Lee was my first choice when I started this thread, but I actually think his work on CAPE FEAR and GUNS OF NAVARONE alone should put him in the "auteur" category. Yes, he did end up doing some unusually sordid B pictures late in his career -- THE PASSAGE, anyone? HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO ME? CABO BLANCO? But strangely, even his late era Cannon fodder like 10 TO MIDNIGHT, KINJITE, MURPHY'S LAW, DEATH WISH 4 is easily idenitify as his own, thanks to his trademark push-ins on Bronson, sparse compositions and production design, really gratutious and unpleasant bloodshed, and copious amounts of truly and amusingly unnecessary nudity that looked like it was arranged just to give J. Lee a personal thrill. Dubious as some of those "achievements" may be, I can actually pick out a J. Lee Thompson film quite easily, and again, I think the quality of his Peck movies goes along way toward excusing and even enjoying some of his more "workmanlike" product in the 70s and 80s.