Marilyn Moss's Giant examines the life of one of the most influential directors to work in Hollywood from the 1930s to the 1960s. George Stevens directed such popular and significant films as Shane , Giant , A Place in the Sun , and The Diary of Anne Frank . He was the first to pair Katharine Hepburn and Spencer Tracy on film in Woman of the Year . Through the study of Stevens's life and his production history, Moss also presents a glimpse of the workings of the classic Hollywood studio system in its glory days.     Moss documents Stevens's role as a powerful director who often had to battle the heads of major studios to get his films made his way. She traces the four decades Stevens was a major Hollywood player and icon, from his earliest days at the Hal Roach Studios--where he learned to be a cameraman, writer, and director for Laurel and Hardy features--up to his later career when his films made millions at the box office and were graced by actors such as Elizabeth Taylor, James Dean, Alan Ladd, and Montgomery Clift.