DON SIEGEL TRIBUTE COMING SOON

I know I'm jumping the gun on this by about a week and a half (and I'll probably throw a shout out about it before another week goes by), but while I'm thinking about it I wanted to remind anyone who has an appreciation for the hard-boiled films of Don Siegel to sit up and pay attention the Sunday after next, January 31, for a six-film tribute to the director on Turner Classic Movies. Siegel directed Clint Eastwood in Dirty Harry, The Beguiled, Two Mules for Sister Sara, Coogan's Bluff and Escape from Alcatraz, and appeared in the action star's first directorial effort, Play Misty for Me. He's also an acknowledged mentor of Eastwood's, and the Oscar-winning director paid tribute to him and Sergio Leone, director of Eastwood's star-making Dollars trilogy, in the end credits of Unforgiven. The TCM festival includes none of Siegel's Eastwood films, but it does offer a nice overview of the director's style, and each one is a terrific movie. Included in Sunday's festival are Invasion of the Body Snatchers, The Big Steal, Hell is for Heroes, Telefon, Madigan and one of my personal favorites, Charley Varrick. You can check showtimes at http://turnerclassicmovies.com/ where there are also links to terrific articles on each of the six films, as well as a nice profile piece on Siegel himself.