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John Sturges is a Director, Scriptwriter, Producer, Other and Editor American born on 3 january 1910 at Oak Park (USA)

John Sturges

John Sturges
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Nationality USA
Birth 3 january 1910 at Oak Park (USA)
Death 18 august 1992 (at 82 years) at San Luis Obispo (USA)

John Eliot Sturges (January 3, 1910 – August 18, 1992) was an American film director. His movies include Bad Day at Black Rock (1955), Gunfight at the O.K. Corral (1957), The Magnificent Seven (1960), The Great Escape (1963) and Ice Station Zebra (1968). The Great Escape was entered into the 3rd Moscow International Film Festival. He was not related to director Preston Sturges.

Biography

Au début des années 1930, il entre à la RKO où il travaille sur les décors et la post-production de divers films. Il devient par la suite assistant de David O. Selznick avant d'être mobilisé par l'Armée de l'Air pendant la Seconde Guerre mondiale. Il revient ensuite comme assistant réalisateur à la Columbia. En 1948, il réalise Le Signe du Bélier, un drame psychologique mettant en vedette Susan Peters. L'année suivante, il signe Les Aventuriers du désert, son premier western. Genre dont il deviendra rapidement un habitué.

Il fait tourner les grandes vedettes de l'époque : Barbara Stanwyck, Spencer Tracy ou Robert Taylor. Son premier succès arrive en 1953 avec Fort Bravo, un western mettant en vedette William Holden et se déroulant pendant la guerre de sécession.

En 1955, il présente un de ses films les plus connus, Un homme est passé. Le film, mélange de suspense et de parabole sociale, lui vaut sa seule nomination à l'Oscar du meilleur réalisateur et permet à sa vedette, Spencer Tracy, de récolter le prix de l'interprétation masculine au festival de Cannes. C'est en 1957 qu'il accède à la gloire internationale avec un western resté célèbre : Règlements de comptes à OK Corral, nouvelle version de l'histoire de Wyatt Earp (interprété par Burt Lancaster) et de Doc Holliday (joué par Kirk Douglas).

Après un autre western, Le Trésor du pendu, il change de registre et dirige une adaptation du roman Le Vieil Homme et la mer d'Ernest Hemingway. Le film devait initialement être réalisé par Fred Zinnemann et Spencer Tracy y tient à nouveau le rôle principal. L'œuvre reçoit un accueil tiède. Sturges revient alors à son genre de prédilection, le western, et retrouve Kirk Douglas, cette fois-ci au côté d'Anthony Quinn, dans Le Dernier Train de Gun Hill.

En 1960, il connaît à nouveau un grand succès, inattendu, avec Les Sept Mercenaires, transposition dans le Far West du film d'Akira Kurosawa les sept samouraïs sorti en 1954. Là encore il met en scène des "gueules" du cinéma américain comme Charles Bronson ou James Coburn et des vedettes : Yul Brynner et Steve McQueen. Sturges retrouve McQueen, Coburn et Bronson en 1963 pour un autre triomphe international : La Grande Évasion (The Great Escape). Le long-métrage est inspiré par une histoire vraie : l'évasion de 76 prisonniers d'un camp allemand pendant la Deuxième Guerre mondiale.

Il tourne une suite de Règlements de comptes à OK Corral en 1967, Sept secondes en enfer avec Jason Robards (Doc Holliday) et James Garner (Wyatt Earp), et met en scène Gregory Peck dans Les Naufragés de l'espace deux ans plus tard.

Durant les années 1970, il dirige Clint Eastwood dans Joe Kidd, film scénarisé par Elmore Leonard, et retrouve Charles Bronson pour la cinquième et dernière fois dans ce qui sera son ultime western : Chino, produit par Dino de Laurentiis. Puis, pour la première et unique fois de sa carrière, il travaille avec John Wayne. La seule collaboration entre les deux hommes ne sera pas un western mais un polar urbain : Un silencieux au bout du canon.

Le dernier film de Sturges, L'aigle s'est envolé, date de 1976 et raconte l'improbable mission d'un commando allemand pendant la guerre, celle d'enlever le Premier ministre Churchill. Inspiré d'un livre à succès de Jack Higgins, le film met en vedette Michael Caine, Donald Sutherland et Anthony Quayle.

Il s'éteint plusieurs années plus tard, le 18 août 1992, à l'âge de 82 ans, à San Luis Obispo en Californie.

Best films

Gunfight at the O.K. Corral (1957)
(Director)
The Great Escape (1963)
(Director)
Joe Kidd (1972)
(Director)
The Magnificent Seven (1960)
(Director)
Sergeants 3 (1962)
(Director)
Marooned (1969)
(Director)

Usually with

Source : Wikidata

Filmography of John Sturges (50 films)

Display filmography as list

Director

The Eagle Has Landed, 2h15
Directed by John Sturges
Origin United-kingdom
Genres Drama, War, Thriller, Action, Adventure, Spy
Themes Spy films, Political films
Actors Michael Caine, Donald Sutherland, Robert Duvall, Jenny Agutter, Donald Pleasence, Anthony Quayle
Rating68% 3.4477653.4477653.4477653.4477653.447765
The film begins with captured Second World War film footage of the rescue from Italy of Mussolini by German paratroopers.
McQ
McQ (1974)
, 1h51
Directed by John Sturges
Origin USA
Genres Drama, Thriller, Action, Adventure, Crime
Themes Medical-themed films, Films about drugs
Actors John Wayne, Eddie Albert, Diana Muldaur, Colleen Dewhurst, Clu Gulager, David Huddleston
Rating61% 3.098813.098813.098813.098813.09881
It is just before dawn in Seattle. A man dons dark glasses and gloves and loads a 9mm silenced automatic handgun. He drives into town, where he shoots a policeman (Officer Philip Forsell; in the film the character is identified only as Hyatt) on his beat, then drives to a police impound yard and shoots the officer on duty (dialogue identifies him as Wally Johnson). At a luncheonette, as he washes his hands, he momentarily flashes a police badge belonging to Detective Sgt. Stan Boyle (William Bryant). When a car pulls up, Boyle goes outside and gives the driver a satchel containing the 9mm and proceeds to his own car – but is shot in the back by the unseen driver.
Chino
Chino (1973)
, 1h35
Directed by John Sturges, Duilio Coletti
Origin Italie
Genres Action, Western
Themes Films about animals, Films about horses
Actors Charles Bronson, Jill Ireland, Marcel Bozzuffi, Vincent Van Patten, Fausto Tozzi, Ettore Manni
Rating59% 2.9955552.9955552.9955552.9955552.995555
Chino Valdez (Bronson) is a lonely horse breeder, whose life is thrown into turmoil when a young runaway (Van Patten) turns up at his door looking for work and, later, he falls in love with a beautiful woman (Ireland) whose brother (Bozzuffi) hates him.
Joe Kidd
Joe Kidd (1972)
, 1h24
Directed by John Sturges
Origin USA
Genres Action, Adventure, Western
Actors Clint Eastwood, Robert Duvall, John Saxon, Dick Van Patten, Paul Koslo, Don Stroud
Rating64% 3.2006453.2006453.2006453.2006453.200645
Set In the early 1900s, Clint Eastwood stars as Joe Kidd, a former bounty hunter who is in jail for hunting on Indian land and disturbing the peace in the New Mexican town of Sinola. Mexican bandito/revolutionary Luis Chama (John Saxon) has organized a peasant revolt against the local landowners, who are throwing the poor off land that rightfully belongs to them.
Marooned
Marooned (1969)
, 2h14
Directed by John Sturges
Origin USA
Genres Drama, Science fiction, Thriller, Adventure
Themes Space adventure films, La fin du monde, Films about music and musicians, Dans l'espace, Films about the Apollo program, Films based on science fiction novels, Musical films, Space opera, Disaster films, American disaster films
Actors Gregory Peck, Richard Crenna, David Janssen, James Franciscus, Gene Hackman, Lee Grant
Rating59% 2.950272.950272.950272.950272.95027
Three American astronauts – commander Jim Pruett (Richard Crenna), "Buzz" Lloyd (Gene Hackman), and Clayton "Stoney" Stone (James Franciscus) – are the first crew of an experimental space station on an extended duration mission. While returning to Earth, the main engine on the Apollo spacecraft Ironman One fails. Mission Control determines that Ironman does not have enough backup thruster capability to initiate atmospheric reentry, or to re-dock with the station and wait for rescue. The crew is marooned in orbit.
Ice Station Zebra, 2h28
Directed by John Sturges
Origin USA
Genres Drama, Thriller, Action, Adventure, Spy
Themes Spy films, Seafaring films, Transport films, Underwater action films, Submarine films, Political films, Arme nucléaire
Actors Rock Hudson, Ernest Borgnine, Patrick McGoohan, Tony Bill, Lloyd Nolan, Alf Kjellin
Rating65% 3.2971253.2971253.2971253.2971253.297125
A satellite reenters the atmosphere and ejects a capsule which parachutes to the Arctic, coordinates 85N 21W (approx 320 miles WNW of Nord, Greenland, in the Arctic Ocean ice pack). During an ice storm, a figure soon approaches, guided by a homing beacon, while a second person secretly watches from nearby.
Hour of the Gun, 1h41
Directed by John Sturges
Origin USA
Genres Drama, Action, Western
Actors James Garner, Jason Robards, Robert Ryan, Albert Salmi, Charles Aidman, Steve Ihnat
Rating65% 3.298153.298153.298153.298153.29815
Outnumbered but determined, Wyatt Earp (James Garner), his brothers Virgil (Frank Converse) and Morgan (Sam Melville) and ally Doc Holliday (Jason Robards) confront and clearly get the best of the Ike Clanton gang in a violent shootout at the O.K. Corral in the Arizona town of Tombstone.
The Hallelujah Trail, 2h45
Directed by John Sturges
Origin USA
Genres Comedy, Action, Adventure, Western
Actors Burt Lancaster, Lee Remick, Jim Hutton, Pamela Tiffin, Donald Pleasence, Brian Keith
Rating63% 3.195513.195513.195513.195513.19551
1867, la disette d'alcool menace la cité de Denver, Colorado. Chaque habitant de la ville pense que l’hiver sera rude et risque d'empêcher l'arrivée d'un convoi de quarante fourgons avec six cents barils de whisky et de champagne. Les Sioux guettent, le long de la piste Hallelujah, le convoi en provenance de Julesburg, tandis que les dames de la Ligue de Tempérance, avec à leur tête Cora Templeton Massingale, entendent s'opposer à l'arrivée de l'alcool. À la tête du convoi, se trouve Frank Wallingham sous la protection du détachement de cavalerie du capitaine Paul Slater.
The Satan Bug, 1h54
Directed by John Sturges
Origin USA
Genres Science fiction, Thriller, Spy, Horror, Crime
Themes Spy films, Medical-themed films, Films based on science fiction novels
Actors George Maharis, Richard Basehart, Anne Francis, Dana Andrews, Edward Asnere, Richard Bull
Rating60% 3.049923.049923.049923.049923.04992
Lee Barrett, a private investigator and former intelligence agent discharged for his outspoken views, is approached by a man with a tempting offer to join a political organization opposing bioweapons. His refusal proves the correct response, as the man is an impersonator sent by his former boss Eric Cavanaugh to test his loyalty. Barrett is asked by Cavanaugh to investigate the murder of the security chief of Station Three — a top-secret bioweapons laboratory station in the desert of Southern California — and the disappearance of its director and head scientist, Dr. Baxter. After they arrive at the station and wait for a time lock on the sealed lab to open, they are advised by another scientist, Dr. Gregor Hoffman, to seal the lab using concrete. Hoffman informs them that there are two lethal bioweapons in the lab, a strain of botulinus that oxidizes eight hours after its release, and a recently developed virus that he calls the "Satan Bug", which could kill all life on Earth in a matter of months. Determined to discover what happened in the room and taking extreme cautions, Barrett enters to find Dr. Baxter dead, with the vials containing the "Satan Bug" and 1200 grams of botulinus missing.
The Great Escape, 2h45
Directed by John Sturges, John Flynn
Origin USA
Genres Drama, War, Thriller, Action, Adventure, Historical
Themes Prison films, Transport films, Aviation films, Motocyclette, Political films, Évasion, Disaster films, Films about aviation accidents or incidents, United States Armed Forces in films
Actors Steve McQueen, James Garner, Richard Attenborough, James Donald, Charles Bronson, Donald Pleasence
Rating81% 4.0987454.0987454.0987454.0987454.098745
In 1943, having expended enormous resources on recapturing escaped Allied prisoners of war (POWs), the Germans move the most determined to a new, high-security prisoner of war camp. The commandant, Luftwaffe Colonel von Luger (Hannes Messemer), tells the senior British officer, Group Captain Ramsey (James Donald), "There will be no escapes from this camp." Von Luger points out the various features of the new camp designed to prevent escape, as well as the perks the prisoners will receive as an incentive not to try. After several failed escape attempts on the first day, the POWs settle into life at the prison camp.
A Girl Named Tamiko, 1h50
Directed by John Sturges
Origin USA
Genres Drama
Themes Seafaring films, Transport films
Actors Laurence Harvey, France Nuyen, Martha Hyer, Miyoshi Umeki, Gary Merrill, Michael Wilding
Rating57% 2.8594452.8594452.8594452.8594452.859445
Ivan Kalin (Laurence Harvey) is a Eurasian photographer who is trapped in Japan, but who wants to emigrate to the United States.
Sergeants 3, 1h52
Directed by John Sturges
Origin USA
Genres Comedy, Action, Adventure, Western
Themes Poésie, Adaptation d'un poème
Actors Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, Peter Lawford, Sammy Davis Jr., Joey Bishop, Ruta Lee
Rating59% 2.950132.950132.950132.950132.95013
L'action se déroule à Medicine Bend, une bourgade sur les hauteurs montagneuses du Dakota. Attaquée par des Indiens, la personne chargée du télégraphe a le temps, avant sa mort, d'envoyer un message au fort McClelland. Le colonel Collingwood, le commandant du fort, envoie sur place une escouage dirigée par trois amis : les sergents Merry, Deal et Barrett. Un ancien esclave noir, qui souhaite s'engager dans l'U.S. Cavalry, les suit malgré l'interdiction qui lui en a été signifiée. Une fois arrivés à Medicine Bend, l'équipe ne trouve aucune trace des habitants et sont attaqués par les guerriers de Mountain Hawk.
By Love Possessed, 1h55
Directed by John Sturges
Origin USA
Genres Drama
Themes Films about sexuality
Actors Lana Turner, Efrem Zimbalist II, Jason Robards, George Hamilton, Susan Kohner, Thomas Mitchell
Rating54% 2.705912.705912.705912.705912.70591
In a Massachusetts law firm, Arthur Winner, Julius Penrose and Noah Tuttle are equal partners. Each has an ongoing problem in his personal life.
The Magnificent Seven, 2h8
Directed by John Sturges
Origin USA
Genres Drama, Action, Adventure, Western
Themes Seafaring films, Sports films, Transport films, Martial arts films, Samurai films
Actors Yul Brynner, Eli Wallach, Steve McQueen, James Coburn, Robert Vaughn, Charles Bronson
Rating76% 3.84823.84823.84823.84823.8482
A Mexican village is periodically raided for food and supplies by Calvera (Eli Wallach) and his bandits. As he and his men ride away from their latest visit, Calvera promises to return to loot the village again. Taking what meager goods they have, the village leaders ride to a town just inside the American border hoping to barter for weapons to defend themselves. While there, they encounter Chris Adams (Yul Brynner), a veteran Cajun gunslinger. After listening to their tale, Chris suggests that the village hire gunfighters, which would be cheaper than guns and ammunition. The village men relentlessly try to convince him to be their gunman. At first he agrees only to help them find men, but later he decides to recruit six other men to help him defend the village, despite the poor pay offered.
Last Train from Gun Hill, 1h34
Directed by John Sturges
Origin USA
Genres Drama, Thriller, Action, Western
Themes Films about sexuality, Rape in fiction, Erotic films, Rape and revenge films, Auto-justice
Actors Kirk Douglas, Anthony Quinn, Carolyn Jones, Earl Holliman, Brad Dexter, Brian G. Hutton
Rating72% 3.6458653.6458653.6458653.6458653.645865
Two old friends, Matt Morgan (Douglas) and Craig Belden (Quinn), now find themselves on opposite sides of the law. Belden is the de facto ruler of the town of Gun Hill, a rich cattle baron. Morgan is a U.S. marshal living in another town with his Native American wife (played by Ziva Rodann) and young son, Petey.