Film director Paul Bartel enjoyed flouting the expectations of audiences and critics with his amusing movies about murder, greed and transgressive sex. Strange stories that aroused laughter, he felt, carried the potential to disorient viewers and problematize their beliefs about American culture and its values. Among his best-remembered features are Death Race 2000 (1975), Eating Raoul (1982) and Scenes from the Class Struggle in Beverly Hills (1989). The first book-length study of its sort, The Life and Films of Paul Bartel provides readers with a detailed biography tracing Bartel's emergence as an independent low-budget auteur whose work aroused admiration from figures like Steven Spielberg, Jim Jarmusch and Brian De Palma. It considers the manner in which his experience as a gay man motivated him to introduce subversive subject matter into his work, too. Readers will also find interviews with several people who knew Bartel, including Roger Corman, Joe Dante and John Waters, and critical material that considers the thematic and technical aspects of each film.

This traditional auteurist survey closely examines the films of director John Frankenheimer, assessing the thematic and stylistic elements of such films as ""The Iceman Cometh"", ""The Manchurian Candidate"", and ""The Bird Man of Alcatraz"". It begins with a complete overview of Frankenheimer's life and career. A chronology lists production history details for each of his films, and a comprehensive biography draws attention to Frankenheimer's early artistic development. Subsequent chapters categorize his films by genre and theme, examining each film through analytical critiques and plot synopses. Multiple appendices include an analysis of Frankenheimer's short films ""Maniac at Large"" and ""Ambush"", a complete filmography, and a suggested reading list.

Here is a comprehensive survey of the film and television career of London-born director Andrew V. McLaglen. An opening biography considers the events and circumstances that contributed to his development as a filmmaker, including his relationships with his actor father Victor McLaglen, fellow director John Ford, and motion picture icon John Wayne, who collaborated with Andrew McLaglen on such films as McLintock! (1963), Hellfighters (1968), The Undefeated (1969) and Chisum (1970). An extensive annotated filmography covers every theatrical feature film McLaglen directed, as well as his television productions and the films he worked on prior to becoming a director. Appendices provide information on the numerous documentaries in which McLaglen has appeared, and a list of stage plays he has directed since his retirement from motion pictures in 1989.

John Frankenheimer's career as a professional director began and ended in television. In the mid-1950s, he won acclaim working on live productions for anthology series like Playhouse 90, and from the mid-1990s until his death in 2002 he helmed a string of Emmy-winning features for cable TV, including The Burning Season (1994) and Andersonville (1996). Despite these successes, Frankenheimer's reputation rests primarily upon the nearly thirty feature films he directed, which range from bona fide classics like Birdman of Alcatraz (1962) and The Manchurian Candidate (1962) to such lesser achievements as Prophecy (1979) and Dead Bang (1989). Unfortunately for Frankenheimer, the discrepancy between his best films and his worst led many critics during his lifetime to dismiss him as someone whose talent dissipated in the late 1960s. In the decade since his death, however, several critics have emerged who reject the assertion that the quality of Frankenheimer's output faded after an impressive start. In John Frankenheimer: Interviews, Essays, and Profiles, Stephen B. Armstrong has collected the most interesting and insightful articles and features published on this underrated director. While question-and-answer exchanges make up the bulk of the items featured here, also included are journalistic profiles of the director at work and essays Frankenheimer himself wrote for magazine audiences. In addition, readers will find a series of interviews of people who worked with Frankenheimer, including actors Roy Scheider, Tim Reid, and the director's wife of 40 years, Evans Frankenheimer. In this volume, the director and others look back on a career that included such films as Seven Days in May, The Train, Grand Prix, The Iceman Cometh, Black Sunday, and Ronin. The first collection of its kind, John Frankenheimer: Interviews, Essays, and Profiles enables those who value the director's work to develop a better understanding of the man through his own words and the words of others.