Richard Fleischer

Journeyman

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by Jason A. Ney

Type

Biographies

Subject

Director > Richard Fleischer

Keywords

Richard Fleischer, director

Publishing date

2026 (May 12, 2026) (Upcoming)

Publisher

University Press of Kentucky

Collection

Screen Classics

Language

English

Relative size

Physical desc.

Paperback • 440 pages
6 x 9 inches (15 x 23 cm)

ISBN

978-1-9859043-2-3

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Book Presentation:
When it came to filmmaking, Richard Fleischer had big shoes to fill. His father, Max, was one of America's most influential animators. However, Richard's own passions led him not to the animator's desk but to the director's chair.

After garnering an Academy Award for Best Documentary with Design for Death (1948), Fleischer became known for an eclectic mix of pictures such as 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea (1954), Fantastic Voyage (1966), Doctor Dolittle (1967), The Boston Strangler (1968), Tora! Tora! Tora! (1970), Soylent Green (1973), and Conan the Destroyer (1984), directing such luminaries as Orson Welles, Kirk Douglas, Charlton Heston, Joan Collins, Lee Marvin, and Arnold Schwarzenegger.

In Richard Fleischer: Journeyman, author Jason A. Ney reveals how Fleischer navigated Hollywood's shifting standards, kept a good-humored outlook on his career, and earned lasting appreciation from those who worked with him. In addition to drawing on Fleischer's archived personal papers, Ney conducted interviews with his family members and dozens of his professional collaborators, taking the reader behind the scenes. This comprehensive biography is the story of a genre-spanning director, a son of a pioneering animator, and a multifaceted man whose art continues to influence filmmakers today.

About the Author:
Jason A. Ney lives in Colorado with his wife and four children. His writing has appeared in several anthologies and magazines, and he has contributed dozens of audio commentaries to home media releases of films from Hollywood's golden age.

Press Reviews:
"Richard Fleischer: Journeyman is an entertaining, informative, and thoughtful look at the career of an often-undervalued director who interacted with pivotal characters from a storied era. Jason A. Ney's language sparkles, and he engages readers through the life, work, and basic decency of an influential man who deserves his due. Richard Fleischer is a charming and essential work―a true treasure."―Susan A. Compo, author of Warren Oates: A Wild Life

"Those who dismiss Richard Fleischer as a 'journeyman director' underestimate the journey of a man whose directorial credits include such Hollywood classics as The Narrow Margin, 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, and Compulsion. Beautifully written and as compulsively readable as a great novel, Jason A. Ney's biography of Fleischer corrects the record and, like its subject, unfailingly entertains."―Max Allan Collins, author of Road to Perdition

"The son of a legend, and the director of nearly fifty movies (some classics), Richard Fleischer has inexplicably been overlooked by critics and cognoscenti. Thanks to this simply terrific biography, that ends now."―Charles Ardai, founder and editor of Hard Case Crime, and an Edgar and Shamus award-winning author

"A longtime studio employee who worked in many genres, Richard Fleischer has usually been dismissed as an anonymous craftsman, a point of view that Jason A. Ney's biography skillfully dislodges. Ney is a reliable guide who acknowledges the clunkers, revealing everything you would ever want to know about Fleischer's most notorious misfire, the has-to-be-seen-to-be-believed Dr. Dolittle. At the same time, he illuminates under-appreciated works like Barabbas, a visually dazzling religious epic; Violent Saturday, a film noir in color and shrewdly used CinemaScope; and The Boston Strangler, an intense true-crime drama. Ney also lingers on The Narrow Margin, a thriller-on-a-train noir that may be Fleischer's signature achievement. Throughout these tales, he depicts Fleischer as a patient man who nonetheless holds his own against a rogues' gallery that includes Howard Hughes, Rex Harrison, Orson Welles, Anthony Quinn, and Charles Bronson. This chronicle is candid, solid, and necessary."―Foster Hirsch, author of Hollywood and the Movies of the Fifties: The Collapse of the Studio System, The Thrill of Cinerama, and the Invasion of the Ultimate Body Snatcher – Television

"Richard Fleischer is the most underrated director in Hollywood history, despite having conquered every genre. This compelling biography covers every aspect of his fascinating career and poignant personal life and should finally get Fleischer the respect he deserves."―Paul Talbot, author of Mondo Mandingo: The Falconhurst Books and Films

"In Richard Fleischer: Journeyman, Jason A. Ney does the long-overdue task of giving the criminally underrated Fleischer his proper place in the pantheon of great directors."―Dwayne Epstein, author of the award-winning New York Times bestseller Lee Marvin: Point Blank and Killin' Generals: The Making of the Dirty Dozen

"An absolute joy! Jason A. Ney has given us a magic ticket to visit an overlooked but important corner of Hollywood history. These pages are informative, enlightening, and most important, fun."―Reid Mitenbuler, author of Wild Minds: The Artists and Rivalries That Inspired the Golden Age of Animation

"In an era in which the cinematic auteur is deified at the expense of the equally talented and even more versatile "journeyman," Jason A. Ney corrects this injustice with his exhaustively researched and thoroughly engaging profile of an adaptable and adventurous movie director whose work is well-known―while his name, criminally, is not. Richard Fleischer: Journeyman is the most engrossing of Hollywood biographies, with intimate details of Fleischer's life, relationships, and most importantly, his work. The most knowledgeable of film scholars, Ney creates a portrait of a professional who was eager to move from film noir to sci-fi, musicals to historical dramas; who could step into and take over troubled productions; who worked with the most troublesome stars; and who brought in picture after picture on time and under budget. I guarantee readers will be stunned more than once as they turn the page and discover another classic work of cinema was directed by Richard Fleischer."―Burt Kearns, author of Marlon Brando: Hollywood Rebel and Lawrence Tierney: Hollywood's Real-Life Tough Guy

See the publisher website: University Press of Kentucky

See the complete filmography of Richard Fleischer on the website: IMDB ...