Book review - "George Raft" by Lewis Yablonsky

George Raft has one of the great tragic acting careers - did any actor make so many bad career decisions? In the world of karma, I guess what goes around comes around - if you're unusually lucky as Raft was, you're going to be unusually unlucky. Actually, you can't put it down to luck - I think Raft deserved his early success. He had a rough childhood but worked hard at his boxing and later dancing - he was obviously a great dancer, put in the hard yards, worked his way up; even though he wasn't the best actor in the world or even conventionally handsome he could move and had a sinister presence; he was three things in real life - a great dancer, a ladies man and an associate of gangsters - which all helped him make a hit on screen. Scarface and a flipping coin helped make him a star, and he was put under contract to Paramount.

Few of his early 30s films post-Scarface are remembered that well, except for Bolero but a couple of his late 30s efforts seem to be revived fairly often, e.g. Spawn of the Sea. (As one writer pointed out, because he had such a striking image he enjoyed a high public profile, probably greater than his box office standing deserved). Despite turning down Dead End Raft's luck still held when he went over to Warner Bros and made some strong films there. But then came the idiocy - turning down High Sierra and The Maltese Falcon, apparently also Double Indemnity and Casablanca (though from what I understand he was only considered for the latter). Then to compound it he left Warners in a huff - a studio who knew exactly how to cast him - and freelanced, making very little that was memorable and spending all his money ("I had to keep tipping people, I have an image"; also financial troubles meant he missed an opportunity to invest in the Flamingo Hotel in Vegas, which could have made him a millionaire). OK maybe it was rough the Poms didn't let him in the country in the late 60s but he went out of his way to befriend Bugs Siegel even after knowing what sort of person Siegel was.

This is an extremely sympathetic bio, well written with great interviews with people like Howard Hawks, Jack Lemmon, Dean Martin, the Zanucks and Edward G Robinson as well as Raft itself. The author goes easy on Raft but still can't hide the fact that Raft was a big headed idiot who made the fatal mistake of many film stars, i.e. thinking he knew what he was doing, instead of working with the best people he possibly could have. His life would make a great movie - it has been made into a film, the not very good George Raft Story, but it could be done better than that (even if the ending is kind of glum): his early adventures with gangsters, his friendship with Bugsy Siegel, teaching Jack Lemmon (in drag) and Joe E Brown to tango on the set of Some Like It Hot; working at a casino in Cuba when Castro took over; being used by Daryl Zanuck as a front to make a film just to keep Bella Darvi busy when in fact there was no film (and Zanuck didn't tell Raft) etc. It was a great ride, and Raft can certainly never complain he hasn't been to enough places and had enough women. I just wish he'd been able to hang on to a bit more of his money.

NB for those interested in reading more about Raft, check out his FBI files (mostly concerning his relationship with gangsters) here.