WISE, Robert

(1914-)

   US film director. RW began as a film-cutter at RKO Studios and by 1939 was a fully qualified editor. He worked on Orson Welles's Citizen Kane (1941) and also - at the studio's insistence when the director wasout of the country - directed a few scenes in Welles's The Magnificent Ambersons (1942). He then worked with the Val Lewton unit at RKO, first aseditor, then as director. He made 3 films for Lewton - Curse of the Cat People (1944; co-dir with Gunther von Fritsch), Mademoiselle Fifi (1944)and The Body Snatcher (1945) - and stayed with RKO until 1949. In 1951 he dir The DAY THE EARTH STOOD STILL . He did not return to the genre until The ANDROMEDA STRAIN (1971). A versatile director, he has made many kindsof films, including the musicals West Side Story (1961) and The Sound of Music (1964). He has made 2 superior contributions to the supernaturalgenre aside from his Lewton films: The Haunting (1963), based on Shirley JACKSON's The Haunting of Hill House (1959) and Audrey Rose (1977). Hereturned spectacularly to sf with the controversial STAR TREK - THE MOTION PICTURE (1979), an ambitious attempt to fuse the simplistic original tvseries with post- STAR WARS special effects and a transcendental 2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY vision. Subsequently he has directed only the feeble youthmusical, Rooftops (1989). RW's work in sf and supernatural fantasy, at least until 1971, did more than that of most directors to bring some maturity to these genres in the cinema.

   JB/PN/KN