Book review - " Charles McGraw: Biography of a Film Noir Tough Guy" by Alan K. Rode

A biography of Charles McGraw? Well, why not, I guess...

McGraw is has a little bit of a cult, mostly due to The Narrow Margin. Thick set leading men were in vogue in the late 40 and early 50s - Howard Duff and Edward O'Brien were some others. If you're a film buff you would recognise McGraw - either from The Narrow Margin or his support bits in films like The Killers, His Kind of Woman, Sparactus or In Cold Blood.

I think in his heart of hearts he was a support actor - great presence and growly voice, but lacked the individuality of, say, Wallace Beery or Humphrey Bogart. He made some interesting films, though his life wasn't particularly interesting. He sort of bummed around in the Depression, got the acting bug, struggled for a bit, got some roles, broke through with a bit in Golden Boy. He was part of the Group Theatre crowd for a bit - he knew Elia Kazan, though never worked with Kazan once the latter became a director.

He eventually went to Hollywood. His breakthrough was one of The Killers and he had a decent career, with a few years as an actual leading man. He was so castable (as gangsters, cops, detectives) that he steadily worked for most of his life, but he had a fondness for the bottle which wrecked his marriage (to a Eurasian lady) and his reputation.

Actually McGraw comes across as a bit of a f*ckwit at times, spending all his spare time at the local bar, ignoring his wife and daughter. He dies interestingly - accidentally shoving his hand through glass in a shower and bleeding to death (honestly, I don't mean to be rude but he probably just sped up an inevitable early end, he drank that much); his daughter had an unhappy life - her son was murdered in an accident.

Rode occasionally seems bored by McGraw's actual life and goes off on detours to discuss the making of films. This isn't as good as his book on Curtiz - the scholarship looking into the making of the films isn't that great. It's fine - the sheer novelty of a book on McGraw gets it over the line but I was a bit underwhelmed.