Robert Siodmak (1900-1973) began his film career in Germany but hit his stride in Hollywood as the director of taut, character-driven suspense films that were described as "more Germanic" than his German movies.

Born in the U.S. of German parents, Siodmak was taken as a child to Germany, where he began directing in 1929. Being Jewish, Siodmak sought refuge from the Nazis, first in Paris and, beginning in 1940, in the U.S. After making his American film debut with West Point Widow (1941), he was assigned to B-movies like Son of Dracula (1943) and eventually attracted critical attention for Phantom Lady (1944), the first of three melodramas in which he directed the enigmatic Ella Raines to striking effect. (The others were The Suspect and Uncle Harry, both released in 1945).

Noted for his perceptive work with actors, Siodmak drew exceptional work from Dorothy McGuire in The Spiral Staircase (1946), Burt Lancaster in his film debut in The Killers (1946) and Barbara Stanwyck in The File on Thelma Jordon (1950). Siodmak was one of the first directors to cast Lancaster against type in Criss Cross (1949), in which the virile star plays the gullible husband of temptress Yvonne De Carlo.

Siodmak returned to Germany in 1953 and finished out his directing career in Germany, where his films included the U.S./German production Escape From East Berlin (1962), in which a chauffeur (Don Murray) leads a group of East Berliners in an attempt to tunnel into West Berlin. Siodmak's younger brother, Curt, was a screenwriter who also occasionally directed films.

The movies in TCM's tribute to Robert Siodmak are Phantom Lady (1944), The Spiral Staircase (1946), Criss Cross (1949) and Escape From East Berlin (1962).

by Roger Fristoe