by Incredibly moving look at the life of the movie star, specifically his friendship with Fruchter, who interviewed him over music and became his friend, performed with him on concert tours, then looked after him for the last few years of his life. Moore had been a star ever since his Cambridge days, mostly on stage and television; he moved to Hollywood in the 70s and became an unexpected film star for around a decade. I always liked Moore and remember hoping that a hit movie would come along in the late 80s to revive his career. His only two copper plated hits were 10 and Arthur although I think Mikki and Maude did OK. But thing is he would flop in comedies, a genre in which he was supposed to be a star in. TV didn't help out and he never managed to segue back into supporting roles, in which he would have been wonderful (his illness saw hi removed from The Woman with Two Faces)(One of Moore's favourite roles was the 1982 flop Six Weeks.) In the 1990s he turned increasingly to music as the films dried up and enjoyed success. I remember people seeing his Australian tour and being stunned how good he was (reading this it seems he had a wonderful time here).
Fruchter was a devoted friend to Moore (despite his reptuation as a ladies' man it wasn't romantic, she was married with kids) but not blind to his faults. It seems Moore never got over the insecurity of his club foot and could be a bit hopeless. He never did much with his two children, was not very good at marriage. He strikes me as the sort of person of whom everyone would go "oh, Dudley" but always accompany it with an affectionate laugh, so great was his charm and talent (and his name suited his look so well). His final illness was a horrible tragedy. No one deserves that, but it seems Moore took it on with tremendous bravery. I got a bit teary at the end.
No comments:
Post a Comment