As the cinetrix trotted out Casablanca yet again as example par excellence of the classical Hollywood/"invisible" continuity editing, a name leapt from the opening credits sequence we analyzed today: Don Siegel.
Not the Don Siegel, I thought. Yup. It's the original Alan Smithee himself, and his IMDb listing is lousy with miscellaneous crew credits for "montage." Now, does this mean he's behind the assemblage of second unit/documentary footage that we see tracing the path of the refugees from Europe to Casablanca and all those inserts of planes? Seems so. Thus, he's also the guy responsible for the footage of the Christ statue in Rio as seen from the cruise ship in Now, Voyager [another illustrious title on Siegel's CV].
This leads me to two questions:
When did "second unit director" replace "montages" as the credit for this work? Having invoked both the Eisensteinian and the Team America variety of montage to the kiddies this week, I want to know the historical background of this third, overlapping use.
And what's your favorite early credit for a film figure--on either side of the camera? For example, the cinetrix is fond of Paul Reubens as the unctuous Chez Paul waiter in The Blues Brothers. Chime in with your picks in the comments.