Unsung Auteurs: James Goldstone | FilmInk

Many directors have found themselves in the Unsung Auteurs column due to the fact that the bulk of their work has been in the medium of television, toiling on individual episodes of series and crafting that most maligned of productions, the telemovie. With many of these telemovies basically lost amongst the constantly swirling sands of time, and remembered solely by those who saw them when they were first screened on TV networks, the fine work of many directors is basically ignored. James Goldstone is another filmmaker to add to this list, with a long list of small screen dominating his resume, but a handful of films marking him as a talented director with a strong penchant for actors and a slightly off-kilter world view.

Born in 1931, James Goldstone first moved into the entertainment field with a number of writing gigs in the high-turnover world of American TV in the 1950s. This quickly led to Goldstone being tapped to direct episodes of popular TV series such as Highway Patrol, Tombstone Territory, Rawhide, Perry Mason, The Outer Limits, Dr. Kildare, Star Trek, Ironside (even giving famed oddball performer Tiny Tim his first appearance in a club scene), The Man From U.N.C.L.E, Iron Horse, The Fugitive and many, many more. As well as directing constantly for television, James Goldstone was also an active leader in the Writers and Directors Guilds Of America, an occasional director in the theatre, a later professor at Columbia University, and an infrequent but highly effective helmer of feature films.

James Goldstone made his big screen debut in 1968 with A Man Called Gannon, a now forgotten but still interesting western infused with some of the youthful upheaval so prevalent of its era. The underrated Anthony Franciosa is a grizzled westerner who takes innocent young tenderfoot Michael Sarazin under his wing and teaches him the ways of the world. Despite their burgeoning father-son relationship, the duo ends up on the opposite sides of a range war. Spinning on the classic conflict of youth and experience, A Man Called Gannon is certainly a mid-level western, and no classic, but Goldstone gets solid performances from his leads, drives the action well, and effectively punches up the timely themes and ideas.

Goldstone once again had his eye on the counterculture with 1968’s Jigsaw, an unlikely vehicle for unlikely Bonnie And Clyde breakout star and Oscar nominee Michael J. Pollard, in which a man drops acid and ends up in the middle of a murder plot. The unusual film is barely remembered, and was followed by perhaps Goldstone’s best-known film. Becoming embroiled in actor Paul Newman’s well documented love of motor racing, Goldstone’s reputation for making fast paced television on time and on budget saw him tapped to helm 1969’s propulsive drama Winning, in which Newman’s self-obsessed race car driver risks his life and family to fulfill his need for speed. Though not highly regarded in the Newman canon, Winning is an excellent film, combining the “beautiful loser” concept beloved of Newman with a thrilling sports-driven narrative. Goldstone also gets excellent performances out of his glittery stars Newman, his wife Joanne Woodward, and Robert Wagner.

After Winning, Goldstone moved through an incredible eclectic range of films, all while continuing to work steadily in television. Seemingly drawing on his experience with TV’s The Outer Limits, Goldstone created a dark, foreboding mood with 1971’s Sidney Poitier-starring Brother John, an unusual drama which mixed race politics, striking unionists, The Deep South, and a late-game shift into the supernatural with surprising dexterity. Showing off his TV-bred ability to jump genres and make just about anything work, Goldstone then helmed an effective coming of age drama (1971’s Red Sky At Morning, with Richard Thomas), a mob comedy (1971’s The Gang That Couldn’t Shoot Straight, now best known for featuring a young Robert De Niro), and a bizarre, sexually provocative, James Garner-starring comedy-thriller (1972’s They Only Kill Their Masters).

Goldstone’s film career took a surprising budget upturn when he became a chosen director for producer Jennings Lang (the under-celebrated “disaster master” unfairly lost in the shadow of Irwin Allen), who first handed the TV veteran the reins on his big budget 1976 adventure pic Swashbuckler, which starred the wonderfully scenery-chewing Robert Shaw as a pirate battling an evil tyrant in Jamaica with the help of a determined young noblewoman (Genevieve Bujold). Also starring James Earl Jones, Peter Boyle and Beau Bridges, Swashbuckler delivers exactly what its title suggests, and proved that Goldstone was equally at home with a big budget film as he was with a considerably smaller TV budget.

Jennings Lang again turned to Goldstone for his 1977 psycho-killer-meets-disaster-flick belter Rollercoaster, in which George Segal injects much welcome humour (which shows Goldstone again getting the best out of his actors) into his role as a safety officer engaged in a cat-and-mouse game with Timothy Bottoms’ icy madman, who is planting bombs on rollercoasters around America. It’s a compelling, often shocking (the first rollercoaster derailment is an inventive, old-school, pre-CGI visual stunner), and very funny thriller which also has a very engaging 1970s looseness about it, largely due to Goldstone letting his gifted leading man off the proverbial leash.

Though now maligned as a massive financial disaster, Goldstone’s final film with Jennings Lang is in fact a highly enjoyable slab of Irwin Allen-style disaster. 1980’s exciting When Time Ran Out sees Paul Newman’s sensible, laconic drilling foreman attempt to lead a huge cast (Jacqueline Bisset, William Holden, Barbara Carrera, Edward Albert, Red Buttons, Pat Morita, Ernest Borgnine and more) to safety in the face of a volcanic eruption on a tropical island. The very definition of a big budget “disaster movie” (even though its box office failure signaled the end of this now largely and very unfairly maligned genre), When Time Ran Out marked the final big screen outing for James Goldstone, who worked non-stop on TV until his passing in 1999. Sadly and very unfairly dismissed solely as a “journeyman”, James Goldstone was not only an accomplished small screen helmer, but also the director of a number of entertaining and unusual features, most deserving far wider attention than they’ve received since their respective releases.

If you liked this story, check out our features on other unsung auteurs Daniel Nettheim, Goran Stolevski, Jared & Jerusha Hess, William Richert, Michael Jenkins, Robert M. Young, Robert Thom, Graeme Clifford, Frank Howson, Oliver Hermanus, Jennings Lang, Matthew Saville, Sophie Hyde, John Curran, Jesse Peretz, Anthony Hayes, Stuart Blumberg, Stewart Copeland, Harriet Frank Jr & Irving Ravetch, Angelo Pizzo, John & Joyce Corrington, Robert Dillon, Irene Kamp, Albert Maltz, Nancy Dowd, Barry Michael Cooper, Gladys Hill, Walon Green, Eleanor Bergstein, William W. Norton, Helen Childress, Bill Lancaster, Lucinda Coxon, Ernest Tidyman, Shauna Cross, Troy Kennedy Martin, Kelly Marcel, Alan Sharp, Leslie Dixon, Jeremy Podeswa, Ferd & Beverly Sebastian, Anthony Page, Julie Gavras, Ted Post, Sarah Jacobson, Anton Corbijn, Gillian Robespierre, Brandon Cronenberg, Laszlo Nemes, Ayelat Menahemi, Ivan Tors, Amanda King & Fabio Cavadini, Cathy Henkel, Colin Higgins, Paul McGuigan, Rose Bosch, Dan Gilroy, Tanya Wexler, Clio Barnard, Robert Aldrich, Maya Forbes, Steven Kastrissios, Talya Lavie, Michael Rowe, Rebecca Cremona, Stephen Hopkins, Tony Bill, Sarah Gavron, Martin Davidson, Fran Rubel Kuzui, Elliot Silverstein, Liz Garbus, Victor Fleming, Barbara Peeters, Robert Benton, Lynn Shelton, Tom Gries, Randa Haines, Leslie H. Martinson, Nancy Kelly, Paul Newman, Brett Haley, Lynne Ramsay, Vernon Zimmerman, Lisa Cholodenko, Robert Greenwald, Phyllida Lloyd, Milton Katselas, Karyn Kusama, Seijun Suzuki, Albert Pyun, Cherie Nowlan, Steve Binder, Jack Cardiff, Anne Fletcher ,Bobcat Goldthwait, Donna Deitch, Frank Pierson, Ann Turner, Jerry Schatzberg, Antonia Bird, Jack Smight, Marielle Heller, James Glickenhaus, Euzhan Palcy, Bill L. Norton, Larysa Kondracki, Mel Stuart, Nanette Burstein, George Armitage, Mary Lambert, James Foley, Lewis John Carlino, Debra Granik, Taylor Sheridan, Laurie Collyer, Jay Roach, Barbara Kopple, John D. Hancock, Sara Colangelo, Michael Lindsay-Hogg, Joyce Chopra, Mike Newell, Gina Prince-Bythewood, John Lee Hancock, Allison Anders, Daniel Petrie Sr., Katt Shea, Frank Perry, Amy Holden Jones, Stuart Rosenberg, Penelope Spheeris, Charles B. Pierce, Tamra Davis, Norman Taurog, Jennifer Lee, Paul Wendkos, Marisa Silver, John Mackenzie, Ida Lupino, John V. Soto, Martha Coolidge, Peter Hyams, Tim Hunter, Stephanie Rothman, Betty Thomas, John Flynn, Lizzie Borden, Lionel Jeffries, Lexi Alexander, Alkinos Tsilimidos, Stewart Raffill, Lamont Johnson, Maggie Greenwald and Tamara Jenkins.