15 Movies That Say More About Their Makers Than They Realise

7. Shampoo - Warren Beatty

Though Beatty didn't direct Shampoo, the raunchy political comedy about a hairdresser who's able to sleep with more or less any of his female clients because their husbands are convinced he's gay, his fingerprints are all over it: he's the star alongside Julie Christie and Goldie Hawn, he produced the film and co-wrote the screenplay with Chinatown scribe Robert Towne (though it's unclear as to whether Beatty ever actually typed a word of the script). Directing duties were left to Hal Ashby, who for the most part stayed out of Beatty's way as he was running the show. Much of the film revolves around George's (Warren Beatty) relationship with Jackie, and her being cast wasn't on talent alone - Beatty was head over heels for Christie but, other than an off-and-on relationship with the actor, she wasn't much interested... so he - drunk with power (and likely a whole lot else - this was Hollywood in the 1970s, remember) - decided to move heaven and earth to put them side-by-side in a film where the two got to get it on. Bittersweetly, however, while Shampoo posits that Christie's Jackie is George's true love, they're separated by the film's end, and the two never stuck together very long in real life either. There have got to be simpler ways to get women to kiss you, Warren.