Robert F. Boyle

Birth : 1909-10-10,

Death : 2010-08-01

Movies

Fiddler's Journey to the Big Screen
self
The fall of 2021 marked the 50th anniversary of Fiddler on the Roof, the film Pauline Kael (The New Yorker) called "the most powerful movie musical ever made." Narrated by Jeff Goldblum, FIDDLER'S JOURNEY TO THE BIG SCREEN captures the humor and drama of director Norman Jewison's quest to recreate the lost world of Jewish life in Tsarist Russia and re-envision the beloved stage hit as a wide-screen epic. Oscar-nominated filmmaker Daniel Raim puts us in the director's chair and in Jewison's heart and mind, drawing on behind-the-scenes footage and never-before-seen stills as well as original interviews with Jewison, Topol (Tevye), composer John Williams, production designer Robert F. Boyle, film critic Kenneth Turan, lyricist Sheldon Harnick, and actresses Rosalind Harris, Michele Marsh, and Neva Small (Tevye’s daughters). The film explores how the experience of making Fiddler deepened Jewison as an artist and revived his soul.
Writing with the Camera
self
A short documentary made for the 2019 Criterion Collection DVD release of NOTORIOUS featuring new and archival interviews with scholars Steven D. Katz and Bill Krohn, storyboard artists Gabriel Hardman and Harold Michelson, production designer Robert F. Boyle, and others. Filmmaker Daniel Raim delves into the extensive preproduction and previsualization processes Alfred Hitchcock undertook to ensure his cinematic vision for NOTORIOUS would be realized precisely.
Hitchcock, Hopper, and the Penultimate Moment
(Himself)
In this new video by filmmaker Daniel Raim, production designer Robert F. Boyle uncovers how two great artists—Alfred Hitchcock and Edward Hopper—mastered the subtle art of suspense.
Something's Gonna Live
Himself
The Los Angeles Times Critics' Pick Something’s Gonna Live is an intimate portrait of life, death, friendship and the movies, as recalled by some of Hollywood's greatest cinema artists. Academy Award®-nominated director Daniel Raim (The Man on Lincoln’s Nose), captures the late life coming together of renowned art directors Robert Boyle (North by Northwest, The Birds), Henry Bumstead (To Kill a Mockingbird, The Sting) and Albert Nozaki (The War of the Worlds, The Ten Commandments), storyboard illustrator Harold Michelson (The Graduate, Star Trek: The Motion Picture), and master cinematographers Haskell Wexler (Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, Medium Cool) and Conrad Hall (In Cold Blood, Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid). These prolific artists have worked on a total of 400 films, garnering 25 Academy Award® nominations and 8 wins.
Masters of Production: The Hidden Art of Hollywood Film
Self
Using interviews with top designers, art and plans from their workshops, and the films themselves this documentary explores the influence of these artists on the iconography of our culture.
Who Killed 'Winter Kills'?
The troubled production of Winter Kills (1979) is covered here in this documentary with interviews with a few cast and crew members. The film was shut down 3 times, and to save the production they had to make The American Success Company (1980) get themselves out of debt. They also talk about the first time director and the "old crew" that was used.
The Man on Lincoln's Nose
Himself
Set design has been one of the most overlooked jobs in film, receiving little critical attention until recently. In this Oscar-nominated documentary short, director Daniel Raim puts the spotlight on one of the best in the field, creating a witty, informative inside view of the filmmaking process.
Destination Hitchcock: The Making of 'North by Northwest'
Self
Hosted by Eva Marie Saint, the film's leading lady, this 40-minute documentary of Alfred Hitchcock's only M-G-M film combines interviews (Martin Landau, Patricia Hitchcock, production designer Robert F. Boyle and screenwriter Ernest Lehman), movie clips and behind the scenes photos to make for a fascinating look at one of the silver screen's glowing gems. For fans of North by Northwest (1959) and Hitchcock aficionados, this is a must-see treat.
The Trouble with 'Marnie'
Self
This hour long documentary on the making of Alfred Hitchcock's "Marnie" incorporates the usual melange of contemporary interviews with surviving participants and liberal helpings of film clips and production shots. It also presents a nice selection of script pages and memos as well. In the former category we find cast members 'Tippi' Hedren, Diane Baker, and Louise Latham, rejected screenwriters Joseph Stefano and Evan Hunter, final screenwriter Jay Presson Allen, daughter Pat Hitchcock O'Connell, production designer Robert Boyle, makeup artist Howard Smit, unit manager Hilton Green, Hitchcock historian Robin Wood, composer Bernard Herrmann biographer Steven C. Smith, and Hitchcock fan/filmmaker Peter Bogdanovich. An entertaining account of the film's production, the participants offer loads of valuable information and anecdotes. Highly enjoyable for Hitchcock fans and the film's growing number of admirers.
Beyond Doubt: The Making of Hitchcock's Favorite Film
Self
A short documentary about the Making Of Hitchcock's Shadow of a Doubt (1943).
Saboteur: A Closer Look
Self
A documentary about the making of Alfred Hitchcock's movie Saboteur.
Troop Beverly Hills
Production Design
A Beverly Hills housewife in the middle of a divorce tries to find focus in her life by taking over her daughter's Wilderness Girls troop.
Dragnet
Production Design
LAPD Sgt. Joe Friday -- the equally straight-laced nephew of the famous police sergeant of the same name -- is paired up with a young, freewheeling detective named Pep Streebeck. After investigating some strange robberies at the local zoo and the theft of a stockpile of pornographic magazines, they uncover cult activity in the heart of the city and are hot on the case to figure out who's behind it all.
Jumpin' Jack Flash
Production Design
Terry works for a bank, and uses computers to communicate with clients all over the world. One day, she gets a strange coded message from an unknown source. After decoding the message, Terry becomes embroiled in an espionage ring. People are killed, and Terry is chased. Throughout, she remains in contact with this mysterious person, who needs Terry's help save his life.
Explorers
Production Design
The visionary dreams of three curious and adventuresome young boys become an exciting reality in Explorers, the action-fantasy from director Joe Dante, who combines keen humor, warmth and fantasy with unexpected twists. In their makeshift laboratory, the boys use an amazing discovery and their ingenuity to build their own spaceship and launch themselves on a fantastic interplanetary journey.
Explorers
Starkiller's Girlfriend's Father
The visionary dreams of three curious and adventuresome young boys become an exciting reality in Explorers, the action-fantasy from director Joe Dante, who combines keen humor, warmth and fantasy with unexpected twists. In their makeshift laboratory, the boys use an amazing discovery and their ingenuity to build their own spaceship and launch themselves on a fantastic interplanetary journey.
No Small Affair
Production Design
The 16 years old amateur photographer Charles accidentally takes a photo of Laura - and falls in love with her, when he develops the picture. He finds out that she works as singer in a bar, but is about to be thrown out. Although rejected at first by the 23 years old, he wants to help her and starts an ad campaign behind her back... with unexpected results.
Rhinestone
Production Design
After a big-time country singer brags that she can turn anybody in to a country-singin' star, she's out to prove she can live up to her talk when she recruits a cab-driver as a country singer. He's scheduled to sing at a big-time NYC country night club and she puts her ample powers to work in preparing her protege.
Staying Alive
Production Design
It's five years later and Tony Manero's Saturday Night Fever is still burning. Now he's strutting toward his biggest challenger yet - making it as a dancer on the Broadway stage.
Table for Five
Production Design
J.P. Tannen (Jon Voight) wants a second chance to be a father to his children ... but someone else has taken his place. Determined not to just be a friendly 'uncle' in their lives, he gets permission from his ex-wife Kathleen (Millie Perkins) and her new husband (Richard Crenna) to take the kids on a Mediterranean cruise. On the journey he comes to realise it's not that easy and, feeling overwhelmed, begins to doubt his abilities until a tragedy back home forces him to become the father he always hoped to be.
Private Benjamin
Production Design
A sheltered young high society woman joins the army on a whim and finds herself in a more difficult situation than she ever expected.
Winter Kills
Desk Clerk
19 years after President Timothy Keegan was assassinated, his brother Nick discovers a dying man claiming to have been the gunman. While trying to avoid his wealthy and domineering father's attempts to control his actions, Nick follows the clues that have been handed to him. As he progresses, it becomes increasingly difficult to discern the real trails from the dead ends, and increasingly dangerous as unknown parties try to stop Nick from uncovering the truth.
Winter Kills
Production Design
19 years after President Timothy Keegan was assassinated, his brother Nick discovers a dying man claiming to have been the gunman. While trying to avoid his wealthy and domineering father's attempts to control his actions, Nick follows the clues that have been handed to him. As he progresses, it becomes increasingly difficult to discern the real trails from the dead ends, and increasingly dangerous as unknown parties try to stop Nick from uncovering the truth.
The Big Fix
Production Design
Private detective Moses Wine is hired by his former college girlfriend to investigate a political smear campaign and he sets out to find out who is responsible, with deadly results.
The Shootist
Production Design
Afflicted with a terminal illness John Bernard Brooks, the last of the legendary gunfighters, quietly returns to Carson City for medical attention from his old friend Dr. Hostetler. Aware that his days are numbered, the troubled man seeks solace and peace in a boarding house run by a widow and her son. However, it is not Brooks' fate to die in peace, as he becomes embroiled in one last valiant battle.
Leadbelly
Production Design
The life of Blues and folk singer Huddie Leadbetter, nicknamed Leadbelly is recounted. Covering the good times and bad from his 20s to 40s. Much of that time was spent on chain gangs in the south. Even in prison he became well known for the songs he had composed and sung during and before the time he spent there.
W.C. Fields and Me
Production Design
In 1920s New York City, W. C. Fields is a successful headlining entertainer, but when his girlfriend leaves him and his broker loses his money, Fields begins anew in California. Working at a wax museum, Fields eventually lands a film role that ascends him to stardom. Back in the limelight and palling around with John Barrymore and the like, Fields meets an aspiring actress Carlotta Monti at a party, with whom he forms a rocky relationship.
Bite the Bullet
Art Direction
At the beginning of the 20th century, a newspaper organizes an endurance horse race : 700 miles to run in a few days. 9 adventurers are competing, among them a woman, Miss Jones, a Mexican, an Englishman, a young cow-boy, an old one and two friends, Sam Clayton and Luke Matthews. All those individualists will learn to respect each other.
Mame
Production Design
Following the death of his father, an orphan is sent to live with his free-spirited aunt.
Incident on a Dark Street
Art Direction
A small-time hood is murdered just as he is about to blow the whistle on an organized crime ring.
Portnoy's Complaint
Production Design
During a session with his psychoanalyst, Alexander Portnoy rants about everything that is bothering him. His complaints include his childhood and his family with an emphasis on his mother, his sexual fantasies and the problems that he has with women, and his obsessive feelings about his Judaism.
Fiddler on the Roof
Production Design
In a small Jewish community in a pre-Revolutionary Russian village, a poor milkman, determined to find good husbands for his five daughters, consults the traditional matchmaker – and also has words with God.
The Landlord
Production Design
At the age of twenty-nine, Elgar Enders "runs away" from home. This running away consists of buying a building in a black ghetto in the Park Slope section of Brooklyn. Initially, his intention is to evict the black tenants and convert the building into a posh flat. But Elgar is not one to be bound by yesterday's urges, and soon he has other thoughts on his mind.
Gaily, Gaily
Production Design
After runaway Ben Young is robbed and left on his own, he is taken in by Lil, the head of a Chicago brothel. Acting as a surrogate mother for Ben, who thinks she runs a boardinghouse, Lil gets him a job with Francis Sullivan at the local newspaper. As Ben is exposed to the workings of the big city, he realizes the extent of government corruption and sets out on the daunting task of reforming Chicago politics, finding several allies along the way.
The Thomas Crown Affair
Art Direction
Young businessman, Thomas Crown is bored and decides to plan a robbery and assigns a professional agent with the right information to the job. However, Crown is soon betrayed yet cannot blow his cover because he’s in love.
Fitzwilly
Art Direction
When Miss Vicki's father dies, she becomes the world's greatest philanthropist. Unfortunately, she is flat broke! Her loyal butler, Claude Fitzwilliam, leads the household staff to rob from various businesses by charging goods to various wealthy people and misdirecting the shipments, all to keep Miss Vicki's standard of living.
In Cold Blood
Art Direction
After a botched robbery results in the brutal murder of a rural family, two drifters elude police, in the end coming to terms with their own mortality and the repercussions of their vile atrocity.
How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying
Art Direction
A young but bright former window cleaner rises to the top of his company by following the advice of a book about ruthless advancement in business.
The Russians Are Coming! The Russians Are Coming!
Art Direction
When a Soviet submarine gets stuck on a sandbar off the coast of a New England island, its commander orders his second-in-command, Lieutenant Rozanov, to get them moving again before there is an international incident. Rozanov seeks assistance from the island locals, including the police chief and a vacationing television writer, while trying to allay their fears of a Communist invasion by claiming he and his crew are Norwegian sailors.
Marnie
Production Design
Marnie is a thief, a liar, and a cheat. When her new boss, Mark Rutland, catches on to her routine kleptomania, she finds herself being blackmailed.
The Thrill of It All
Art Direction
A housewife's sudden rise to fame as a soap spokesperson leads to chaos in her home life.
The Birds
Production Design
Chic socialite Melanie Daniels enjoys a passing flirtation with an eligible attorney in a San Francisco pet shop and, on an impulse, follows him to his hometown bearing a gift of lovebirds. But upon her arrival, the bird population runs amok. Suddenly, the townsfolk face a massive avian onslaught, with the feathered fiends inexplicably attacking people all over Bodega Bay.
Cape Fear
Art Direction
Sam Bowden witnesses a rape committed by Max Cady and testifies against him. When released after 8 years in prison, Cady begins stalking Bowden and his family but is always clever enough not to violate the law.
The Crimson Kimono
Art Direction
A Los Angeles detective and his Japanese partner woo an artist while solving a stripper's murder.
North by Northwest
Production Design
Advertising man Roger Thornhill is mistaken for a spy, triggering a deadly cross-country chase.
Wild Heritage
Art Direction
Travails of a family heading West in a covered wagon.
Buchanan Rides Alone
Art Direction
A Texan pits a powerful family against itself to save a Mexican from hanging.
The Brothers Rico
Art Direction
Eddie Rico, the erstwhile bookkeeper for a big Mafia boss, is now making a living as an honest merchant in Florida with his family. Things go sour when the police start a search for his syndicate-linked brothers who are on the lam after a big hit, forcing Eddie to get involved with the Mafia again.
The Night Runner
Art Direction
A mental patient with a violent past is released from the institution, against the advice of his doctors, and sent back to his old neighborhood. Was he released too soon?
Lady Godiva of Coventry
Art Direction
Fictionalized account of events leading up the famous nude ride (alas, her hair covers everything) of the militant Saxon lady.
Chief Crazy Horse
Art Direction
When young Crazy Horse, of whom great things were predicted, wins his bride, rival Little Big Man goes to villainous traders with evidence of gold in the sacred Lakota burial ground. Of course, a new gold rush starts despite all treaties, and Crazy Horse becomes military leader of his people. Initial Indian victories lead to the inevitable result. Uniquely, all is told from the Indian perspective.
It Came from Outer Space
Art Direction
Author & amateur astronomer John Putnam and schoolteacher Ellen Fields witness an enormous meteorite come down near a small town in Arizona, but Putnam becomes a local object of scorn when, after examining the object up close, he announces that it is a spacecraft, and that it is inhabited...
Gunsmoke
Art Direction
Kittridge is hired by the villans but turns to defend the rancher Saxon after learning the true situation. Kittrige wins Saxon's ranch with a cut of the cards but Saxon has other reasons for loosing the gamble. Telford and Lake try everything from bushwacking to setting a wildfire to stop the Saxon/Kittridge herd of cattle from reaching the railhead.
Abbott and Costello Go to Mars
Art Direction
Lester and Orville accidentally launch a rocket which is supposed to fly to Mars. Instead it goes to New Orleans for Mardi Gras. They are then forced by bank robber Mugsy and his pal Harry to fly to Venus where they find a civilization made up entirely of women, men having been banished.
Girls in the Night
Art Direction
Juvenile delinquents (Joyce Holden, Glenda Farrell, Harvey Lembeck) trap a neighborhood hoodlum in New York.
Lost in Alaska
Art Direction
After two volunteer firemen rescue a gold prospector from suicide, they discover discover that the police mistakenly want them for murder.
The Lady Pays Off
Art Direction
The naive Evelyn Warren, elected school teacher of the year by Time Magazine, goes to Las Vegas, where she loses a lot of money. In order to pay her debts, casino manager Matt Braddock asks her to take care of his sad little daughter Diana.
The Mark of the Renegade
Art Direction
An agent of Mexico poses as a pirate to foil a would-be emperor in 1820s California.
Louisa
Art Direction
Architect Hal Norton and wife Meg invite his widowed mother Louisa to move in with them, only to discover the sweet elderly lady is romantically involved with what seems to be every old coot in town.
Sierra
Art Direction
Ring Hassard and his father Jeff, wild horse breakers, live in a hidden mountain eyrie as Jeff is wanted for a murder he didn't commit. Things change when they take in a lost young lady, Riley Martin, who finds that Ring has "never seen a woman close up." Jeff is injured, Ring runs afoul of horse thieves and the law, and Riley (who is a lawyer) labors to clear the Hassards (who others would prefer dead).
Abandoned
Art Direction
Paula Consodine comes to Los Angeles in search of her missing sister. Newspaperman Mark Sitko, investigating on Paula's behalf, discovers that the sister is dead, a supposed suicide. The whole thing seems a bit fishy to Sitko, and indeed it is: the girl's death was engineered by a black-market adoption racket, headed by one DeCola.
The Gal Who Took the West
Art Direction
In order to gain passage to the West, a woman poses as an opera singer, and causes a feud between two cousins.
An Act of Murder
Art Direction
A man kills his terminally ill wife to prevent her further suffering.
For the Love of Mary
Art Direction
Young girl gets a job at the White House as a switchboard operator and gets mixed up in politics.
Another Part of the Forest
Art Direction
This 'prequel' to The Little Foxes tells how the ruthless members of the old-South Hubbard family got that way.
Ride the Pink Horse
Art Direction
A con man tries to blackmail a Mexican gangster.
Nocturne
Production Design
In 1940s Los Angeles, when womanizing composer Keith Vincent is found dead, the inquest concludes it was a suicide but police detective Joe Warne isn't so sure.
Flesh and Fantasy
Art Direction
Anthology film of three tales of the supernatural. The first story is set at the Mardi Gras in New Orleans. The second involves a psychic who predicts murder. The third is about a man who literally meets the girl of his dreams.
Corvette K-225
Art Direction
The story of a Canadian WWII naval vessel, with a dramatic subplot concerning her first captain.
White Savage
Art Direction
A native boy plays Cupid for a shark fisherman and a South Sea Islands princess.
It Comes Up Love
Art Direction
This modest bit of comedy and romance in the adolescent vein is about a couple of spirited juveniles, Donald O'Connor and Gloria Jean, who carry on a flirtation parallel with that of their elders, Louise Allbritton and Ian Hunter.
Shadow of a Doubt
Art Direction
Just when Charlotte ‘Charlie’ Newton, is feeling especially frustrated by the lack of excitement in her small town in California, she receives wonderful news: Her uncle and namesake, Charlie Oakley, is coming to visit. However, as secrets about him come to the fore, Charlotte’s admiration turns into suspicion.
Who Done It?
Art Direction
Two dumb soda jerks dream of writing radio mysteries. When they try to pitch an idea at a radio station, they end up in the middle of a real murder when the station owner is killed during a broadcast.
Saboteur
Assistant Art Director
Aircraft factory worker Barry Kane flees across the United States after he is wrongly accused of starting the fire that killed his best friend.
The Wolf Man
Art Direction
After his brother's death, Larry Talbot returns home to his father and the family estate. Events soon take a turn for the worse when Larry is bitten by a werewolf.