TCM lists 15 overlooked directors

LOS ANGELES, June 4 (UPI) -- Turner Classic Movies this week unveiled its list of 15 of what is says are some of the most overlooked classic Hollywood directors.

The list includes stylish visionary Frank Borzage, who helmed "Seventh Heaven," sci-fi director Jack Arnold, whose credits include "The Incredible Shrinking Man," the prolific Allan Dwan, who headed up "Sands of Iwo Jima," Disney stalwart Robert Stevenson, who gave the world "Mary Poppins," screwball-comedy director Gregory La Cava, of "My Man Godfrey" fame and blacklisted filmmaker Robert Rossen, who shot "All the King's Men."

The list also includes Clarence Brown, John Cromwell, John Farrow, Edmund Goulding, Henry King, Mitchell Leisen, Fred Niblo, W.S. Van Dyke and Sam Wood.

TCM said its selection of overlooked directors is part of a June special event as the network celebrates the movies of more than 50 top directors.

The network's Great Directors festival will feature nearly 350 films from directors such as Alfred Hitchcock, John Ford, Orson Welles, Billy Wilder, Ingmar Bergman, Federico Fellini, Francois Truffaut, Akira Kurosawa, Steven Spielberg, Martin Scorsese and Woody Allen.

"As much as we love the work of famous directors, those of us at TCM also respect the work of the men and women who never gained widespread fame," Charlie Tabesh, senior vice president of programming for TCM, said in a statement. "There are a lot of great filmmakers who are, to many film fans, still almost unknown."