Arthur H. Nadel | Subjects
| Structure and Story Telling
| Visual Style | Rankings
Feature Films: Clambake
The Rifleman: The Assailants
The Big Valley: Hide the Children
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Arthur H. Nadel
Arthur H. Nadel is an American film and television director. He began as an editor.
Arthur H. Nadel: Subjects
Common subjects in the films of Arthur H. Nadel:
Subjects:
- Deceptive identities (disguises: The Assailants,
disguises: No Drums, No Trumpets, as Gypsy: Hide the Children, switched identities: Clambake)
related (masked thieves: Hostages to Fortune)
- New clothes (uniforms, suit: The Assailants, uniforms: No Drums, No Trumpets,
Gypsy clothes: Hide the Children, rich man's duds: Clambake)
- Learning experiences (family and life goals: Hostages to Fortune,
relationship to society: No Drums, No Trumpets, prejudice: Hide the Children)
- Threatened violence that ends in rejection of violence (revenge: End of the Hunt, attack: No Drums, No Trumpets)
- Trading families (Hostages to Fortune, Clambake)
- Children (The Assailants, The Most Amazing Man, Hostages to Fortune,
No Drums, No Trumpets, Hide the Children)
Minorities and Civil Rights:
- Racial prejudice attacked (Hide the Children)
- Sympathetic views of minorities (Sammy Davis, Jr in Western: The Most Amazing Man,
Japanese: The Sixteenth Cousin, Mexicans: No Drums, No Trumpets)
Arthur H. Nadel: Structure and Story Telling
Detection:
- Detective work (Lucas and Mark study horses and uniforms: The Assailants)
Arthur H. Nadel: Visual Style
Geometry:
- Rotating machinery (Gatling gun: The Assailants, Gatling gun: No Drums, No Trumpets,
playground in "Confidence" musical number: Clambake)
Camera Angles:
- Elevated angles (from hotel window, looking from outside facade of hotel down to ground: The Assailants)
Rankings
Here are ratings for various films directed by Arthur H. Nadel. Everything at least **1/2 is recommended.
Feature Films:
- Clambake ("Confidence" musical number) ***
- Clambake (rest of film) **
The Rifleman:
- The Assailants ***
- The Most Amazing Man **1/2
- The Sixteenth Cousin **
- Hostages to Fortune **1/2
- End of the Hunt **
The Virginian:
- No Drums, No Trumpets **1/2
The Big Valley:
- The Lost Treasure **1/2
- Target **1/2
- Hide the Children ***
Clambake
Nadel and prolific Rifleman screenwriter Arthur Browne Jr. made the Elvis Presley vehicle
Clambake (1967), a film also produced by The Rifleman producers Laven, Gardner and Levy.
The Rifleman: The Assailants
The Assailants (1962) is Nadel's first film as a director.
It is an entertaining macho fantasy.
The plot premise of The Assailants resembles the premise of the movie thriller
Suddenly (Lewis Allen, 1954), written by Richard Sale.
Characters in the two works are different. So are many plot aspects. SPOILERS.
In Suddenly the crooks pose as government agents, in suits and ties.
In The Assailants they are posing as uniformed Cavalry troops.
The use of uniforms gives an entirely different feel to the story.
Nadel hasn't neglected phallic symbols. Lucas makes his speech at start with
one leg up and a lamp sticking up in front of him.
After he sits down he puts his hat in his lap.
The Assailants is full of gracefully done overhead camera angles.
These are part of the plot - they are built right into the script.
But they are well-executed, both in conveying the story. and as visual style.
Nadel went on to re-make The Assailants unofficially as a
The Virginian episode, No Drums, No Trumpets (1966).
Both films have a similar plot premise.
But The Virginian episodes are three times as long as The Rifleman.
This lead to a great deal of development and change of the political background,
characters with new personalities, and new plot incidents. I enjoyed both films.
The Assailants has a premise that anticipates Terror at 2:00 (1971),
a Bonanza episode written and directed by Michael Landon.
Terror at 2:00 is also much longer and with more material than The Assailants.
The Big Valley: Hide the Children
Hide the Children (1966) is is a powerful look at the prejudices faced by Gypsies.
By implication, it offers full support of the Civil Rights movement, then in progress
in real life.