Alongside Helmut Käutner, he was considered the only German post-war director of any standing who, after 1945, could look back on continuous artistic filmmaking far removed from Heimatfilm and the suppression of history.

Staudte's films stood for politically committed cinema as well as for professional craftsmanship, for film art and (good) entertainment with a social claim.

The main focus of his work was to highlight the limits of German national pride.

By the 1970s, his work was no longer considered particularly modern and he moved to television.

He is the great-uncle of the German-Iranian director and novelist Andy Siege.