Movie review - "Act One" (1963) **

Moss Hart's memoirs about his early days as a playwright became a classic of the form. It was adapted, produced and directed by Dore Schary, then in his brief writer-director phase

It's a very Dore Schary movie - intelligent, sensible, polite, self conscious. Look at the way Hart talks to other writers - "I'm the soul of graciousness". The polite way he talks to actors. The awkward comedy. This was effective in telling the story of Franklin Roosevelt recovering from polio, not so much in a tale of a young man trying to Make It Big in Theatre.

It should be a racy, affectionate valentine to old Broadway but it's made with a pole up its backside, as if it were directed by Hilary Clinton. The jokes are awkward - Hart has dream sequences about being famous; his friends bicker and banter. But there's no atmosphere. It's shot like a serious 50s American TV drama.

Hart/Hamilton does a reading of the play - where he reads all the parts. Eli Wallach's theatre producer talks like an essay on playwriting. There's so much serious talk about comedy. A joke were women are attracted to a young Cary Grant ("Archie Leech") is funny at first then repeated like three or four times without much change. There are montages of people writing. We are never clear why Once in a Lifetime didn't work or how they got to make it work.

George Hamilton tries - he's a polite, well mannered man, it's a conscientious performance - but he's simply miscast playing a young struggling Hart. Too handsome. Too unlike a writer. I think Hamilton would've been perfect for the late period Hart - a darling of the social scene, well dressed, sophisticated. But not a young man on the make. He's got no energy or chutzpah: James Woolcott suggested a young Richard Dreyfuss would've been ideal. I think George Segal, who plays Hart's jealous friend, would've been better.

The support cast for this is strong - Segal, Jason Robards as George S Kaufman (tousle haired and grumpy - he seems like a real writer whereas Hamilton never does), Eli Wallach, Jack Klugman as an investor who seems to be in love with Hart/Hamilton. So too does sensitive David Starr played by Sam Groom who I later found was based on a young Dore Schary.

It's a failure as a film really - it lacks energy, is too stately, doesn't capture the atmosphere of the theatre. But it is interesting, because so few films are made about these people. There's a party sequence with Alexander Woolcott, Fanny Brice, Dorothy Parker - I wish there'd been more stuff like that.