Stanley Kramer, 1913-2001

Kramer was a socially conscious film director and producer. The problem was that the films were so socially conscious that they lost something on the whole film art front. They tended towards preachiness.

Born Stanley Earl Kramer on September 29, 1913, in New York, New York, USA; died on February 19, 2001.

His films as director are largely pedestrian: Not as a Stranger (1955), an early "E.R" with Sinatra, Mitchum, De Haviland and Lee Marvin; a lesser Cary Grant costume epic with Sinatra and Loren The Pride and the Passion (1957); Sidney Poitier and Tony Curtis handcuffed together dealing with race issues in The Defiant Ones (1958); the naughtiness of nuclear power On the Beach (1959); Scopes-Monkey trial as Inherit the Wind (1960) with Tracy and March as our great American lawyers; Judgement at Nuremberg (1961), fancy cast and bad Nazis; It's a Mad Mad Mad Mad World (1963) saved and made hilarious in parts due to an amazing cast: Tracy, Berle, Caesar, Merman, Rooney, Hackett, Durante, Benny, Lewis, Eddie Anderson, Peter Falk, etc.; the dreadfully impotent Ship of Fools (1965); Guess Who's Coming to Dinner (1967); and then the fall-out The Secret of Santa Vittoria (1969), R.P.M. (1970) Bless the Beasts and Children (1971), Oklahoma Crude (1973), Judgement: The Court Martial of Lieutenant William Calley (1975) for TV; The Domino Principle (1977) and The Runner Stumbles (1979) "a particularly aloof and unconvincing thriller, was dismissed by critics and audiences alike, making it a dismal swan song to Kramer's career. In 1980 he retired and moved to Seattle, where he taught and wrote a newspaper column; a decade later he was back in Hollywood, planning new film projects" -- Leonard Maltin.

As producer, besides the films he directed are A Child Is Waiting (1963); The Caine Mutiny (1954); The Wild One (1954); The 5,000 Fingers of Dr. T. (1953); The Juggler (1953); Eight Iron Men (1952); The Happy Time (1952); The Member of the Wedding (1952); The Four Poster (1952); The Sniper (1952); uncredited on High Noon (1952); My Six Convicts (1952); Death of a Salesman (1951); Cyrano de Bergerac (1950); The Men (1950); Home of the Brave (1949); Champion (1949); So This Is New York (1948); and as associate on The Moon and Sixpence (1942).

To be fair (in re my own negativity), Maltin also says this: "Although unfashionable with latter-day film critics who find some of his "message movies" to be simplistic, Stanley Kramer can take credit for producing (and later directing) some of Hollywood's boldest, most so cially conscious movies-at a time when much of the industry was reverting to formula and cowering in the wake of the Communist witch-hunts. Moreover, his projects consistently attracted the top talent working on both sides of the cameras in Hollywood."