Book review - "Elizabeth and Monty: The Untold Story of Their Intimate Friendship" by Charles Cassilio

 Montgomery Clift comes out of this badly - bitchy, self pitying, smart, whining about his loss of beauty, a junkie, a pain. People loved him though. And even people he annoyed worked with him again. Liz Taylor comes out of this wonderfully. Brave, funny, loyal, smart.

Gossipy but done with scholarship. And you know something? The small size of Clift's manhood is not insignificant. 

Each film the two made together were iconic in their way - Place in the Sun, Raintree County, Suddenly Last Summer and (in planning) Reflections in a Golden Eye.  But sorry Clift was a bit of a loser.

Movie review - "A Place in the Sun" (1951) **** (re-watching)

 Some serious 50s cinema - George Stevens at his most post-war, Montgomery Clift at his most moody lonely young man. This was a breakthrough for Elizabeth Taylor and also Shelley Winters - Winters is particularly superb. Taylor is pretty good too. Clift was never better as the handsome loner.

This has been called a seering indictment of capitalism. I don't think it is, not really. Maybe I'm missing something. Rather it's about aristocracy. Taylor is an aristocrat, Clift is an impoverished aristocrat, Winters is a peasant. Clift is marking time until he can get royal favour (he could always work his own way up somewhere else but he's basically trying to get a short cut by going via his uncle, yes). He's bored so he roots Winters. He falls for Taylor, a fellow aristocrat - both gorgeous. Then Winters his pregnant so Clift has to crush a peasant revolt. He can't go through with it but still gets caught.

Whatever the social commentary it is a first rate melodrama with big stars and beautiful images. You can hear the audience watching this devouring popcorn going "oh... she's making a mistake... aw, they're so pretty... if only he'd been honest... it's sad he died... but he had to."

The scenes between Taylor and Clift have remarkable heat. Fred Clark and especially Raymond Burr are excellent lawyers.

Book review - "Five Came Back" by Mark Harris

 Excellent look at the war career of top directors. A lot I was already familiar with but some stuff was fresh. The filmmakers spent a lot of time on these documentaries. They are lively characters - George Stevens whose life was changed, party boy John Huston, angsty Frank Capra, driven William Wyler. Entertaining.

Movie review - "The Only Game in Town" (1970) **

 A notorious flop that is impressive for the sheer number of dumb ideas: casting plump Elizabeth Taylor as a show girl, managing to cost $11 million in 1970 money despite being a two hander set in Vegas, teaming Taylor opposite Warren Beatty.

Maybe it would've worked with Taylor and original choice Frank Sinatra... actually no, Taylor just didn't look like a chorus girl. And so many better options were out there who did: Debbie Reynolds, Ann Margret... Being a chorus girl wasn't that essential to the story, I wish they'd changed her job to, I don't know, blackjack dealer or something.

I never believed her and Beatty as a couple either. He seems too young. They have no sexual chemistry. I wonder why Beatty did this. To work with George Stevens and Taylor probably. Also, he used to be a pianist, so playing one presumably had appeal.

Taylor is shot through soft focus. It's badly directed. The script adaptation doesn't work. Once Taylor turns down her married lover for Beatty you know they'll be together but there's still an hour to go. This went for almost two hours!

The treatment the material required is obvious. It's about two battered down people seeking for a last grasp of happiness. That is totally, utterly missed.

Movie review - "King Cohn: The Life and Times of Harry Cohn" by Bob Thomas (1967)

Its frustrating this isn't footnoted but it was very entertaining and remains perhaps the best known book about Cohn, one of Hollywood's legendary tycoons. Like most of them he was Jewish, and admirable and terrible and missed.

Cohn's reputation has suffered in recent years along with Darryl F Zanuck because they are the tycoons probably most like Harvey Weinstein - i.e. skirt chases - which means it's highly likely they would have engaged in sexual harrasment and possibly worse. Cohn was also a bully like Weinstein who swore and was prone to fits of rage.

He could be kind and decent but also a prick. His second marriage seems to have been happy - they had three kids, lost one, adopted another. He had a lot of admirers but a lot of that was due to his business acumen.

He worked his way up the hard way like all the great tycoons. He was a song plugger and fur salesman before going into films. Columbia started as a poverty row studio but Cohn and his brother (like the Warners there was a brother) pulled it up to the majors. He was helped by the skill of Frank Capra, but a lot of it was Cohn... he was very well informed, and he had a nose for talent: Leo McCarey, George Stevens, Cary Grant, Sidney Buchman, Stanley Kramer, Daniel Taradash, Buddy Adler are among those who benefited and prospered from working for Cohn... then had to leave because there can only be one. He built some stars like Rita Hayworth and Kim Novak.

Things that were once seen to hold Columbia back like having no theatres helped it thrive in the 50s - also he got in on the ground floor with TV via Screen Gems.

People have affection for Cohn in part because he exemplified the role of Hollywood tycoon so well - lecherous, foul mouthed, cunning.

Thomas has a journo's gift for funny/scary/ touching anecdotes - there are moving accounts of his last months, funny tales of Norman Krasna teasing him, the unexpectedly strong friendship with Buchman,  bullying Jean Arthur and John Wayne, enjoying fighting with Broderick Crawford. Very human, very smart, very ideal for his job, very good man to stay away from.

The Surprisingly Interesting Cinema of Pat Boone

Pat Boone had a decent career as a movie star. He was no Elvis Presley, but he starred in over a dozen films, had a couple of huge hits, and for a few years was one of the biggest box office draws in the US. He was famous for being a "clean" teen idol on screen - a non-smoking, non-drinking church goer, he was married with three kids by the age of 22, and who insisted on finishing college even while a huge star. Few of his movies are well remembered today. But a closer look at Boone's filmography reveals a series of works that are, in fact, surprisingly complex. Stephen Vagg looks at fifteen of his most notable movies.

1) Bernadine (1957)

Boone's first film was based on a play that 20th Century Fox had optioned intending to turn into a Robert Wagner vehicle. When Elvis Presley hit big in Love Me Tender (1956) - also at Fox - Wagner was out and Boone was in. He was signed to a multi-picture deal at the studio by Buddy Adler, who had recently taken over as head of production from Darryl F. Zanuck, and was keen to turn Boone, one of the biggest singing acts in the country, into a movie star.

Bernadine is a coming-of-age piece about about a small town teenager, Sanford, who falls for a pretty telephone operator, hangs out with his friends, hoons around in jalopies and boats, struggles to pass his high school exams, and cock blocks his mother's relationship with a man he doesn't like. A good role for Pat Boone, right? Only, get this -  he doesn't play Sanford; that job is done by Dick Sergeant, a.k.a. the second Darrin on Bewitched - while Boone appears as his buddy, Beau. Boone isn't great but he doesn't have much of a character to play, and at least he has looks, charm and can sing. Sergeant is awful. The role really required a young Mickey Rooney but it could have been tailored for Boone, who is wasted in his part.

This weird casting decision was presumably made so as not to burden Pat too much on his first time out - after all in Love Me Tender Elvis plays a support role to Richard Egan, and later in Hound Dog Man (1959) Fabian would support Stuart Whitman. But those were good parts - Pat Boone's role is lousy. The main thing he does in the movie is sing (including "Love Letters in the Sand" which became a huge hit), and introduce an elder brother (James Drury) who runs off with Terry Moore. Boone's presence even throws the movie off a little - he gets this screen time his character doesn't deserve, and when he sings love songs despite not having an on screen love interest it feels weird.

Fox gave Bernadine all the trimmings - colour, Cinema Scope, a support cast that included Janet Gaynor (in her last movie) and Dean Jagger, and old pro Henry Levin behind the camera - but it's the sort of story that needed love and care (and perfect casting) to really work... and it didn't get it. The end result is awkward, unfocused, and not a little creepy, especially in the relationship between Sergeant and his mother. However the public were keen to see Boone on the big screen and his popularity turned this into a box office success.

2) April Love (1957)

Boone's second film is much  more satisfactory, in part because it puts him front and centre, but also because the material is more fool-proof. It's a remake of an earlier Fox hit, Home in Indiana (1944), with Pat stepping into a part originally played by Lon McAllister, an actor who had a brief heyday in the forties playing All-American types like Pat.

This is a sweet, wholesome tale where Pat is a "juvenile delinquent" i.e. he stole a car... though we never see the theft. He's sent out to a country town, where he has to take lifts from people (which is actually a jolt to see, such is our conditioning that movie heroes should drive) and falls for Shirley Jones. He also gets lectured to by Arthur O'Connell, who played an on-screen paterfamilias for most of the screen teen idols during this era, from Elvis and Fabian to George Hamilton and Sandra Dee.

This was the film where Boone refused to kiss Jones on the lips for fear of upsetting his wife. He was about to do the kiss then realised he hadn't checked with Mrs Boone; he asked to postpone the scene, then got his wife's approval overnight... but by the next day the story had leaked, Buddy Adler was furious, he and Boone fought, and Boone arced up and refused to do any kissing. So Jones goes in for a kiss but he pushes her away (this is motivated by story at the time), and at the end he goes to kiss her but they are interrupted. It feels odd - these sort of movies are so wholesome you need a kiss as a form of release and you don't get it.

But it has nice colour and charm, Boone sings a few pleasing tunes and he teams marvellously with Jones, who had a similar all-American image (though she was a lot raunchier in her private life than her co-star). Boone loved the movie and later said he wish he could have made twenty more of them: "a musical, appealing characters, some drama, a good storyline, a happy ending." Why didn't he? The film was a hit - it helped Boone be voted the number three box office star in the country at the end of 1957. And it wasn't as if Fox lacked Americana stories in their back catalogue that they could remake: Kentucky (1938), Maryland (1940), Margie (1946), Smoky (1946), Scudda Hoo! Scudda Hay! (1948), etc. The only other remake he'd wind up doing was State Fair and that wasn't even a star vehicle. Why didn't someone put him together with Jones again?


3) Mardi Gras (1958)

Pat Boone became a famous homophobe so it's ironic to see him in a movie based on a story by gay Curtis Harrington and directed by bisexual Edmund Goulding who was notorious for hosting orgies.  Mind you, gays were hard to avoid in Hollywood - Boone's first co star, Dick Sergeant, was one, as was Lon McAllister, and Shirley Jones' husband during the making of April Love, Jack Cassidy, was bisexual. And Boone has always denied accusations of homophobia, saying some of his best friends were gay (he and his wife did Bible readings at Rock Hudson's house when the latter was dying of AIDS), and co-writing two books about gays who gave up the "lifestyle", Joy: A Homosexual’s Fulfillment, and Coming Out: True Stories of the Gay Exodus. So that's settled, then.

Mardi Gras is a three-servicemen-on-leave musical, a subgenre that prospered in the fifties after On the Town (1949); the plot also borrows liberally from The Fleet's In (1942) and Roman Holiday (1953). Producer Jerry Wald liked the chance to showcase Fox's contract talent - Tommy Sands and Gary Crosby play Boone's fellow West Point grads while Christine Carere, Sheree North and Barrie Chase are the girls.

The film is bright enough but is hampered by its casting - Boone is fine but Carrere looks like a stunned mullet for most of the running time. (Boone kisses her on the cheek, incidentally - still no mouth!) Goulding shoots a scene where Boone, Sands and Crosby have an extended shower together... presumably this was a fun day at the office for the director, whose last film this was. It was a minor hit at the box office, though not as successful as Boone's first two movies. His box office ranking dropped to number eleven in 1958, which was still pretty good.

4) Journey to the Centre of the Earth (1959)

Boone was reluctant to be part of this fantasy adventure, well aware he would be a support player (the film was originally conceived as a vehicle for Clifton Webb before he became too ill and James Mason stepped in). He was persuaded to sign by a healthy fee and was rewarded with the biggest hit of his career.

And it's no surprise - for this is an utterly magical, charming adventure that works on every level. It's restrained, intelligent and enchanting - easily the best film for both director Henry Levin and Boone (and, come to think of it, co-star Arlene Dahl).

As in Mardi Gras, Boone's physical beauty is exploited - he walks around shirtless a lot and takes a shower that's as gratuitous as any that had to be performed by a starlet in the fifties. He originally performed several songs in the film but they were cut when it was seen how they slowed up the action. And his role brushes up uneasily with that of Peter Ronson - it's like these two parts should have been combined in one.

But that's griping. This is the one Boone film I can recommend unreservedly and it remains a mystery why Boone never appeared in another fantasy/sci fi adventure in his entire career. He was believable in them, he could easily sing a song over the credits if he wanted, he wouldn't have to worry about kissing any of his co stars, or "morality" issues. And it wasn't as though Fox weren't making them - when he was under contract they turned out The Lost World (1960), Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea (1961) and Five Weeks in a Balloon (1962)... the last two even featured pop stars, Frankie Avalon and Fabian respectively. But no Boone. Was he too expensive? Did the dates not work out? Did he insist on playing the lead? Whatever the reason it was a great shame... for me the biggest misstep Boone made in his film career.

The second biggest was he never again supported a star like James Mason, at least not during his prime. Boone could have benefited from being teamed with an older "name," like say John Wayne in The Comancheros (1961) (he could've played the Stuart Whitman part) or Frank Sinatra in Can Can (1960) (he could've played the Louis Jourdan part). But he didn't - at least not until Goodbye Charlie by which stage he really wasn't a movie star any more. Was it cost? Ego? Dates not working out? Anyway, it was silly of him.

Incidentally, in Journey Boone kisses Diane Baker on the forehead then is about to kiss her on the lips when they're interrupted... but at the end he kisses her briefly on the lips. His first lip kiss. Awww.

Despite the film's success, his box office ranking dropped to 22 in 1959. He kept that the following year despite appearing in no movies that year, and thereafter did not make any of the lists.

5) All Hands on Deck (1961)

Boone took a break away from movies for a few months, studying acting with Sanford Meisner, before returning to the screen in this service comedy. He plays a naval officer who has to babysit a madcap Native American sailor (Buddy Hackett in brownface) whose family are rich on oil money. The racism against native Americans here is both casual and formal, but it's a rare Hollywood film at the time where they are shown to have some status in the modern world.

Towards the end of the movie the writers got bored with that plot and make the story about a turkey, which tends to make for a patchy storyline... but it is all done with high spirits and Boone is quite animated; it's a relaxed performance, and his best to date - the Meisner training did pay off. Director Norman Taurog worked several times with Elvis Presley and this feels like it could have been a Presley vehicle. Barbara Eden plays Boone's love interest and again he struggles to kiss her on camera; he comes close a few times but they pull away, which is distracting.

6) State Fair (1962)

Fox blew the dust off another old property for Pat Boone, in this case the 1945 musical State Fair, which had originally been filmed in 1935. Boone (who is top billed) plays the son of a family who have various adventures at a state fair; he gets to romance singer Ann Margret and it's heavily implied they sleep together... the film goes from them embracing then cuts to a shirtless Boone lying in her lap. He also gets drunk on screen for the first time. Way to go, Pat!

This movie has its fans but was a financial disappointment and I think that's because it just doesn't work. It's not the material - sure, it's cheesy, but The Sound of Music (1965) was cheesy and that came along three years later. I feel the main problem is too many key people were miscast. Jose Ferrer was not the right director and most of the cast fall short of their 1945 counterparts:  Tom Ewell seems too urban to play "paw" compared to Charles Winninger; Pamela Tiffin looks like an urban ditz rather than a sweet naive country girl like Jeanne Crain; Bobby Darin (another pop star turned actor) comes across as sleazy rather than sharp like Dana Andrews; Ann-Margret was always better as good girls who looked as though they wanted to be naughty (Viva Las Vegas, Bye Bye Birdie) rather than straight-out naughty girls; Alice Faye looks like Alice Faye coming out of retirement (it was her last film) whereas Fay Bainter felt like a character.  The one exception is Pat Boone who is far better than Dick Haymes - but he can't save things.

Everyone assumed this would be a big hit but it wasn't. Still, Fox signed Boone to a new three-picture contract, although his next movie would be made for MGM-Seven Arts.

7) The Main Attraction (1962)

Pat Boone would later talk how he turned down a chance to star with Marilyn Monroe in an adaptation of William Inge's play Celebration because he felt the material was immoral (it later became The Stripper (1963) with Joanne Woodward and Richard Beymer). However two box office disappointments meant Boone was susceptible to overtures from producer Ray Stark, suggesting the actor change his image.

The Main Attraction was a tale of an amoral drifter (Boone) who lives out of wedlock with an elder circus performer (Mai Zetterling), then falls in love with a bareback horse rider (Nancy Kwan). This was racy stuff for Boone, who says he was attracted by the moral of the picture where his no-good character is redeemed by The Love Of a Good Woman.

Boone says in the original script his character resisted having sex with Kwan, which he liked because he felt it showed his character was growing emotionally. He claims when it came to filming this had been changed so that they slept together. Miscegenation and sex! There was a stand off, Boone complained to the press, and Stark agreed to re-shoot the scene so it's implied Boone and Kwan sleep together instead of showing it. They did this in order to get Boone's co operation publicizing the movie.

It's a weird film, not quite successful, but interesting, which benefits from being shot in Europe and a catchy theme tune. The public didn't particularly like it. Pat Boone said it was because it was too sexy for something starring him, and he's probably right. It was a role that needed an Elvis.

8) The Yellow Canary (1963)

While Elvis Presley was turning out three films a year that were all basically the same, Boone was continually changing genres. In The Yellow Canary he agreed to play another anti-hero, an egotistical singer whose son is kidnapped. A script was prepared by Rod Serling and Boone was going to make it under his new three-picture contract with Fox at $200,000 a film... but then the studio changed management. Daryl F. Zanuck returned to take over and did an audit of all projects. He disliked The Yellow Canary and would have shut it down completely but since Boone had a pay or play contract (as did Serling and co stars Barbara Eden and Steve Forrest), Zanuck flicked it over to Fox's ""B" unit, run by Robert L. Lippert, whose regular director, Maury Dexter, shot it in ten days on a below-the-line budget of $100,000 - less than Boone's fee.

Boone whined about Fox's cheapness but you know something? Zanuck was right. Serling's script isn't very good with too much flowery dialogue. Because it's a thriller the low budget didn't necessarily have to hurt in the hands of an imaginative director - but Dexter was a second-rater. It is interesting to see Boone play someone unpleasant who proves his manhood by shooting someone dead - this was a rare film where the actor used a gun. The movie flopped at the box office.

9) The Horror of It All (1963)
 

 Zanuck doesn't seem to have been a fan of Boone's; the next film he put the actor in was another cheapie for the Lippert unit, this time filmed in England. It was a "comedy chiller" set in an old dark house, directed by Terence Fisher and is populated by a fine supporting cast of English character actors playing various eccentrics (doddery inventor, sexy dame, etc). Boone is a solid straight man and the film lively. It's not up to something like The Cat and the Canary (1939) which it was clearly aping, but those films are harder to do than they look. It's not bad. It could have done with colour and songs.

10) Never Put It In Writing (1964)

Boone's next film was his third cheapie in a row, this time a screwball comedy for Seven Arts. It was written and directed by Andrew L. Stone, best known for his realistic thrillers but who actually started his career with comedies; based on the results here, he had gotten rusty at making them. This is a sluggish, underwritten effort about a man who writes an abusive letter to his boss in pique then tries to retrieve it.

The most interesting thing about this is part of the action was shot in Ireland and there was an accident involving planes while filming at Shannon Airport that led to questions being asked in the Irish parliament. This is the sort of movie that needed songs and colour to compensate for the script; it has neither. Boone's performance is fine, by the way.

By 1963 Boone's albums weren't selling as strongly as they used to (his last top ten hit was in 1962), but it's a mystery why he allowed himself to appear in the three low budget films in a row.  It was this run more than anything that ended his reign as a film star. He did have one more studio picture to go, but it would be as a supporting actor...

11) Goodbye Charlie (1965)

This was gender bending comedy based on a play by George Axelrod that really needed to star Marilyn Monroe and be directed by Billy Wilder - instead it got Debbie Reynolds and Vincent Minnelli. The plot is about a womanizing man who is shot dead and reincarnated in the body of woman (Reynolds) and has to fend off advances from Tony Curtis and Pat Boone. It's not that shocking to see the star of Spartacus (1960) and Some Like It Hot (1959) make moves on a woman not knowing she's a man, but it is a surprise to see Boone to do it. He later admitted to having a drinking problem around this time and shot some scenes for the movie while drunk. You can't tell.

This film remains resolutely undiscovered by queer/feminist film analysts, despite its subject matter and bisexual director (Boone's second!)... I think in part because Reynolds' performance is so utterly sexless it holds any feeling of kinkiness at bay. But there's no denying it - Boone plays a guy who effectively tries to make out with a dude.

The film does have another point of distinction - the opening scene involves a long tracking shot at a party that results in a middle aged man getting annoyed at his wife having sex with a younger hunk, taking out his gun and shooting at the guy...just like in Boogie Nights (1997). The movie was a financial disappointment (though not a flop) and Boone made no further films for Fox.

12) The Greatest Story Ever Told (1965)

After all the sexual confusion in Goodbye Charlie it must have been a relief for Boone to go into his first religious film.  He's one of many star cameos in this George Stevens epic, playing an Angel at the Tomb.

Boone (who is perfectly fine in the role, by the way) was proud of his association with the movie, making you wonder why he didn't appear in more Biblical stories. After all, Fox made a bunch in the early sixties - The Story of Ruth (1960) with Stuart Whitman, Esther and the King (1960) with Richard Egan, and Francis of Assisi (1961) with Bradford Dillman. It might be because shortly after Mardi Gras Boone turned down a role in a film Buddy Adler wanted him to make - The St Bernard Story, where Boone would play a monk who falls in love with a woman. After much soul searching, Boone turned the part down because he felt he couldn't play a Catholic. The film was never made - but if he wouldn't play a Catholic, would he play a Jew? There weren't many Protestants around in Jesus' day. Maybe an angel was the only sort of part he was interested in.

13) The Perils of Pauline (1967)

One of the mysteries of Boone's career was why he didn't support major stars more like say John Wayne or James Stewart - I'm assuming this was due to ego and/or cost. But by the late sixties he was willing to play the leading man alongside the little known Pamela Austin, who is really the protagonist of this silly light hearted adventure. It  was a pilot for a TV series that didn't sell, so was released as a theatrical feature by Universal. It was Boone's fifth comedy of the sixties - he just kept trying to make them.

The basic story has Austin and Boone as childhood sweethearts at an orphanage - he goes off to make his fortune in order to marry her, and spends the rest of the running time of the movie trying to be reunited with her.  They are constantly thwarted by the fact men keep falling in love with Pauline.

There's a surprisingly strong emotional undercurrent to the story - Austin and Boone are soulmates, and just want to get married, but others stop them: lecherous sheiks, pukka sahibs (Terry Thomas!), Russian secret agents, Italian film directors, cosmonauts, gorillas, etc. It's a repetitive storyline, though - Boone and Austin are about to get together, but something stops them - and has the cheerful racism of films of this era (horny Arabs, midgets in Africa).

It is is full of energy and never lets up. The movies it most reminded me of were the 60s AIP beach party comedies, with Frankie Avalon and Annette Funicello. Boone throws himself into his silly role with much enthusiasm  and little kids will like it, especially girls who might identify with Pauline. Incidentally Boone was starting to lose his hair by now and the hair pieces would soon kick in... for all this later talk about the importance of being honest, Boone, like many a star, was cagey about the reality of his hair.

14) The Pigeon (1969)

Boone played a support role in this TV movie starring Sammy Davis Jr - the billing says he made a "special appearance". He did it for the chance to do a dramatic role and says he was surprised to be offered. Was this true? Had he really become so unfashionable that the only role going was supporting Sammy Davis Jr in a TV movie? Boone did seem out of step in the swinging sixties but it's still surprising he wasn't signed up to make, say, a family sitcom. This was The Brady Bunch era after all.

15) The Cross and the Switchblade (1970)

This was Boone's last role as a leading man in a feature until the 2010s. It was a religious themed biopic about a pastor who goes to the streets and teaches gang members about Jesus. It was done very cheaply and looks it but was widely seen among its target audience - I actually think a major studio would've make money out of this had they picked it up.

The film ended Boone's career as a leading man though he's remained active as an actor, guest starring on TV series like Owen Marshall and Moonlighting. He returned to films in the 2010s in Christian themed tales like Boonville Redemption (2016) and A Cowgirl's Story (2017). He continues to sing, and regularly commentates on cultural matters, such as promoting the theory that Barak Obama was born in Kenya and is a Muslim.

His film career remains a fascinating grab bag of genres and missed opportunities with one unadulterated classic, Journey to the Centre of the Earth, one sweet romance, April Love, and two films which spoke very much to his personal beliefs, The Greatest Story Ever Told and The Cross and the Switchblade.

It's completely bizarre that Boone never tried to repeat these movies. It's also weird there are no war films in his oeuvre (he must have been one of the few Fox contract players to not appear in The Longest Day), no Westerns, no adaptations of a Broadway musical - genres that might have given him an extra lease of life as a movie actor. He could have taken roles played by Stuart Whitman, Tom Tryon, Al Hedison but didn't. He wondered why Hollywood no longer made family films but never appeared in any - Fox made some, like Mr Hobbs Takes a Vacation with James Stewart, but also Disney and filmmakers like Joe Cap... yet Boone was MIA.

But to be fair, movie making was just one chapter of Boone's life. He's devoted more time and attention to his efforts as a singer, TV presenter, writer, real estate developer and cultural commentator. But he was the most successful fifties pop star turned movie star after Elvis and that deserves some respect.

Book review - "All That Heaven Allows: A Biography of Rock Hudson" by Mark Griffin

Hudson gets a decent biography with this well researched, even handed account. It tackles head on Hudson's sexuality - the thing that really distinguished him as a Hollywood star, especially the AIDS stuff - but does with compassion and footnotes, and also analyses his appeal and skill as an actor.

Hudson was one of the luckiest stars around - he was blessed with great looks, height and charm. With no training or even stage experience, after a few years of bit parts he was a leading man, and a few years after that he was one of the biggest stars in the world. He remained a star in TV until the early 80s and a leading man all his life.

His great gift was he could play a tough guy but be sensitive - he had a warmth lacking in, say, Jeff Chandler or Audie Murphy, other leading men at Universal. He was more accessible and had more charisma than say Dale Robertson or Rory Calhoun.

He was also lucky. Universal was a good studio to learn your trade at in the late 40s and early 50s - the standard of acting wasn't too high, they turned out a lot of potboilers. Ross Hunter came along at just the right time to put him in Magnificent Obsession then George Stevens put him in another league with Giant and Hunter and Day put him in Pillow Talk which led to half a decade of comedy hits. He was less popular in the late 60s - even sure fire stuff like teaming with John Wayne and doing an Alistair MacLean adaptation and Julie Andrews musical didn't work out - but he found new life doing McMillan and Wife. I was surprised how much theatre he did - including several musicals on the road.

It wasn't all luck. He worked very hard, was conscientious and a nice person. Everyone comments on how nice he was.

He had an exotic personal life. While good friends George Nader and Michael Miller were married to all intents and purposes for years, Hudson had a revolving door of boyfriends, some okay, others a bit less suitable. He drank and smoke very heavily - even if AIDS hadn't have come along this could have knocked him off early anyway.

There's plenty of juicy stuff - stories which you'd assume were urban legends, like Hudson fathering a child after the war, and servicing a college football team, actually could have been true. His father shot through when Hudson was little. When he found out he had AIDS he informed ex lovers anonymously. His last few days were this weird combination of genuine friends paying call, Pat Boone and his wife bringing around the bible, Elizabeth Taylor getting in bed with him for a cuddle, and his friends arguing over memorial services and the estate.

Very good book. Depressing at the end - but Hudson had a pretty good life, a lot of success, and a lot of sex and good friends. He never had a great One True Love but I'm not sure he really wanted one. Like many actors he was probably most comfortable playing other people.

Script review - "Giant" by Ivan Moffatt and Frank Guignol

This apparently was George W Bush's favourite film and many other Texans love it which bewildered Larry McMurtry who thought it showed them in an unflattering light. But I get why he'd love it - it's a film about family, and proud men struggling with changing times, and sons in the shadow of their father, and race.

The writers know how to focus the story - making it about Bick and Leslie the mismatched couple who fall in love and go to Texas, and their marriage over the years, as Leslie tries to soften Bick. These two are the heart and soul of the piece - and while Bick has the bigger journey Leslie is still a decent role. There are some showy support parts - the sister Link, Jett the surly ranch hand who becomes super rich, the trashy daughter and sensitive son. There's also a dull daughter but she doesn't matter.

The script is solid. Many scenes end with a visual flourish that were surely written with the input of George Stevens the director.

It's a very human story - about family, and changing times. Texans come across as idiots it's true - boorish, stupid, self centered - but you can see why so many of them relate to it.

You wonder why adapters of Edna Ferber novels which followed - Cimarron, Ice Palace - didn't follow this more closely.

Documentary review - "Five Came Back" (2016) ****

Lots of books get written about Hollywood, but only a few get the deluxe documentary treatment - I'm guessing this got up because it focuses on directors who were so idolised by A list baby boom directors who agreed to appear on camera - this has Steven Spielberg, Francis Ford Coppola, Guillermo de Toro, Lawrence Kasdan, Paul Greengrass.

It is a good story - some leading Hollywood directors going off to war and being affected by the experiences: John Huston, John Ford, George Stevens, William Wyler, Frank Capra. All were characters of very different stripes: Huston was an adventurer, who couldn't help bucking against army authority, making several masterpieces including one on PTSD; Ford loved the military, probably had a high old time but was affected by it - took great delight in tormenting John Wayne while making They Were Expendable, and saw action; Wyler was a Jew, very conscious of the Jewish issues underlying the war; Capra was an Italian-American patriot (well they were all patriots), determined to show his new country how loyal he was; Stevens a great liberal.

The war affected them in several ways: Capra never really recovered his former position; Stevens lost his sense of humour.

The fact this is a documentary means you can see the films, especially important for the war films. The directors interviewed, not surprisingly, are good communicators. It's very touching how much del Toro feels a kinship for Capra, and Spielberg and Coppola's enthusiasm is always winning. Kasdan is a very bright analyst.

Book review - "Ladd: A Hollywood Tragedy" by Beverly Linet (1979) (re-reading)

Why was Alan Ladd so sad? It's hard to fathom - he was so determined to be an actor for so long, putting in years upon years of plugging away, scraping together his pennies to attend acting school, playing all sorts of small parts, refusing to give up even though he had a wife and small baby to feed, finally getting regular work in radio and earning the devotion of Sue Carol, who pushed his career to the next level and eventually the career defining role in This Gun for Hire.

After a decade of effort he became an "overnight" star and remained a star, really, until he died - for the last few years he was a second tier star, for sure, but still a name capable of headlining movies. This was in part because Ladd tended to be co-operative and professional, but also because he made so many easily commercial films - Westerns, noirs, gangster flicks. He had several healthy children and step-children, a keen brain which meant he earned money with his investments and films, his own production company, a seemingly happy, devoted spouse... why did he become an alcoholic? Why did he get so puffy and so depressed he tried to kill himself in 1962 and take a (possibly accidental, possibly not) overdose of tranquilisers shortly afterwards?

No one ever really knows but Linet's excellent look at Ladd's life - I've read it a few times now and it holds up - offers clues: a father he never really remembered dying of a heart attack, guilt from burning down a house accidentally when he was young, lack of extended family (no grandparents, aunts, uncles), a poverty stricken childhood in the depression, a step father who died young of a heart attack, an alcoholic mother who killed herself in front of Ladd, guilt from divorcing his devoted first wife in favor of the ambitious Carol, crippling insecurity from his seeming lack of acting ability.

Ladd had enough drive to become a star but lacked the ability to enjoy it when he arrived. He was looked after pretty well by Paramount, who cast him in some decent vehicles - The Glass Key, The Blue Dahlia, Whispering Smith, even The Great Gatsby - but left them over money. In hindsight he probably should have stayed, where he was comfortable, although some of his movies for Warners and Warwick were entertaining. He definitely should have tried to push his range and work with better directors, because when he did - with George Stevens in Shane - it resulted in the biggest success of his career.

But he wanted to play it safe - when he should've tried cutting his price and/or pushing his name forward to work with people like John Ford, Howard Hawks, Hitchcock or Anthony Mann, he stuck with old professionals like Frank Tuttle and Gordon Douglas. He foolishly turned down the role of Jett Rink in Giant because it wasn't the lead, wasn't a particularly bold producer (unlike say Burt Lancaster) and just made more and more crap. He physically disintegrated, didn't appear enough times against a star of equal popularity, and his films got worse. Watching his last few movies is almost uncomfortable.

But in his day there was no one like Ladd - cold, ruthless, with considerable grace, blonde hair and that imposing voice. At his best he was a compelling star and it's a damn shame he didn't enjoy acting more.

Movie review - "Swing Time" (1936) ***1/2

Some believe this is the best of the Astaire-Rogers musical - I saw it on a double bill with Top Hat and actually preferred that, because it had a stronger story and support cast. Yes, okay, laugh at me enjoying it because of the story, but that's the truth. The plot is convoluted and involves Astaire having to raise $25,000 so his fiancee will agree to marry him; the shenanigans where Fred meets Ginger involving trying to retrieve Fred's lucky penny was confusing and weak. I also found Victor Moore, as Fred's friend irritating - he took forever to spit out his lines.

However Fred and Ginger are in magnificent form; the director was George Stevens, and his influence can be felt on the scenes which seem as though they've had all this work done on them and are full of naturalistic touches and bits of warmth.

There are three classic songs: "The Way You Look Tonight", "Pick Yourself Up" and "A Fine Romance" and some typically brilliant dance numbers.

Book review - "Musts, Maybes and Nevers" by David Picker (2013)

I was mostly familiar with David Picker as the smug, gruff, tightly-spoken figure who popped up in Bond docos, talking about his involvement in the series, but of course his name is well known for all those students of cinema in the 60s and 70s. Picker was head of production at United Artists in their hey day when they seemed to touch the zietgeist at will - among the films Picker greenlit were Tom Jones, the Bond series, A Hard Day's Night, Midnight Cowboy, Last Tango in Paris.

It's an incredible record, and yes while Picker mostly said "yes" and then stayed out of the way, what he said "yes" to was very impressive. This was Picker's great time in the sun - he became an independent producer with more mixed success, as well as short stints being head of Paramount and Columbia.

Picker puts up the impression of being down to earth but not really; some places in this book seems downright petty, slagging off on Robert Altman for calling him a prick and Mike Medavoy for not inviting him to a party, whingeing about inadequate press coverage of his achievements (he says the story of how the Bond series was started has never been told by a person who was there before... but Cubby Broccoli published his memoirs in the late 90s) and how UA execs got paid less than execs at other Hollywood studios and how Transamerica made them stay at a corporate camp rather than a nice hotel. If his films don't succeed its normally the fault of someone else eg Stella and Leap of Faith was because of the nasty and incompetent directors, The Greatest Story Ever Told was down to its megalomaniac George Stevens. It was Arthur Krim not him who turned down American Graffiti and Bonnie and Clyde, Bob Benjamin Planet of the Apes (to be fair he admits he turned down The Graduate because he didn't get it).

But some anecdotes are gold: Charles Bludhorn being determined to make a movie featuring Buffalo Bill and Hitler, Picker being talked into buying Grease purely on the basis of Allan Carr's enthusiasm, Harold Mirisch desperately trying to get Truman Capote over to his house as a guest, falling out with friend Herb Gardener, George Roy Hill's mistress inspired the native extras to come to his defense and save his job on Hawaii, Picker suggesting John Newcombe as James Bond in On Her Majesty's Secret Service. I liked that he actually praised some critics (Pauline Kael and Clive James) and took the fall for some things, and there are lively sketches about people such as Richard Lester and Harry Salztman. It's an important book by one of the most significant film execs of his time; I just wish he was a little less pompous on the page and that he had spoken about some of his works like Royal Flash.

Movie review - "RKO Radio Pictures: A Titan is Born" (2012) by Richard Jewel

Jewell co-authored the excellent RKO Story years ago but thankfully came back with this entertaining history, which goes from the beginning of the studio until the end of the George Schaefer regime in the 1940s - admittedly frustrating, since I was hoping to go through until the end (which only would have been another decade) but presumably volume two is on its way.

RKO was always an odd kind of studio - one of the eight majors, with big backing (RCA, Joseph Kennedy), impressive resources... but it always seemed in a permanent state of crisis, and its eventual death mustn't have been that surprising in the late 1950s. Many reasons for this are raised here, chief of which seems to be management instability - the people in charge kept changing; they had David O. Selznick for a time and could have kept him (and then gotten him back) but foolishly didn't; ditto Pando Berman. (Later they had Charles Koerner who died.)

George Schaefer has a high reputation because he backed Citizen Kane but here comes across as a bit of a stubborn idiot who didn't suit his job and cost the studio millions. They also displayed a bewildering inability to produce stars, letting talents like Joan Fontaine, Lucille Ball and Joel McCrea through their fingers, and being unable to hold onto Astaire and Rogers or Kate Hepburn, and even Orson Welles (who surely could have been used as an actor more).

Still whenever RKO looked weak they manged to pull a rabbit out of the hat: King Kong, Astaire-Rogers, Little Women, Ginger Rogers vehicles, Garson Kanin, Val Lewton, Gunga Din, The Saint. Jewel covers most of this, with particular looks at Astaire-Rogers, Hepburn, Gunga Din, Kong, Welles' films and some other key movies such as Bachelor Mother.

Well written, superbly researched, although it did take me a while to wrap my head around all the non famous crucial executives who appear in it because there are so many. Studios really do work better when they are benign dictatorships and RKO's problem is that it wasn't - or had crap dictators.

Radio review - TGA - "Alice Adams" (1948) **

Katherine Hepburn's performance in the 1935 film was full of ticks and breathlessness so it's appropriate in a way to find Judy Garland cast in this radio version. But after an erratic start she eventually calms down and does fine work. I still didn't like this - too awkward and painful, the family life is so devastatingly portrayed (frustrated, nagging mum and pathetic father). It keeps the unconvincing happy ending of the film and Anne Schoemaker as her social climbing (with reason - her husband is useless) mother. Thomas Mitchell plays dad. The dinner party scene is greatly reduced.

Book review – “Tracy and Hepburn” (1970) by Garson Kanin

Apparently Kate Hepburn regarded the writing of this book as a betrayal. It’s a very affectionate depiction of the two of them but I can understand her point of view – Kanin has invaded their privacy. It’s written in the style of Kanin’s book on Maugham, jumping around in time from story to story. It seems Kanin was an even better friend to Tracy and Hepburn than he was to Maugham – for one thing, he frequently collaborated with them professionally (Kanin directed Tracy’s last Broadway show, plus wrote Adam’s Rib and Pat and Mike); for another, he and wife Ruth Gordon teamed a tight foursome with Tracy and Hepburn.

Hepburn’s feelings aside, I’m glad Kanin wrote the book for the insights on Tracy. I mean, the writings on Hepburn are fine, but she’s such a familiar charcter from so many bios and from her persona that its not that revealing (although I did like the story of her insisting the door was open during performances of Coco because she hates stuffy rooms). It’s the talking about Tracy which is a revelation. Tracy always comes across in books I’ve read as this tormented, boozy whiner. Kanin’s close friendship with the man creates a different picture – amiable, funny, egotistical, quiet and retiring but still desperate to know what’s going on. He would smoke a packet of cigarettes a day – but only in bed while reading mystery novels all night (no wonder he didn’t live very long). He would go on holiday and enjoy the isolation but freak out if he couldn’t call home – if only calling Eddie Mannix to find out what the weather was like.

NB After reading this and the book on Somerset Maugham, and taking into account Kanin’s frequent idolatrous references to George Abbott, Thornton Wilder and Renee Clair, I can’t help wondering – did all Garson Kanin’s friendships involve him worshipping famous people? Did he ever befriend equals?

Radio review – Lux – “Shane” (1955) ***

Because this famous Western doesn’t have that much action (you think it does because what’s there is so memorable) it transfers well to radio. It helps Alan Ladd and Van Heflin are on hand to reprise their film roles, although Jack Palance and Jean Arthur don't and you miss them. The kid is especially whiny on radio. It remains solid drama.

Movie review - "Giant" (1956) ***

Spanning twenty-five years, Giant centres around the life and times of old-style Texan rancher Bick Benedict (Rock Hudson), in particular his marriage to northerner Leslie (Elizabeth Taylor) and rivalry with his former ranch hand Jett Rink (James Dean). It's a sprawling epic that, for all its carefully composed shots of oil wells, funerals and cattle, is most effective in its smaller moments: Jane Withers meeting Elizabeth Taylor, James Dean making a cup of tea, Hudson losing a fist fight, and so on.

The Texans in this are quite obnoxious - proud, loud and dumb, earning far too much money from little work (i.e. oil). Dennis Hopper and Carroll Baker impress as Taylor and Hudson's chiildren; Taylor and Hudson are very effective, as is James Dean (who in all honesty is better than Alan Ladd - George Stevens' original choice - would have been).

Movie review - "The Greatest Story Ever Told" (1965) **

George Stevens was famous/notorious for being so affected by filming concentration camps during WW2 that all his movies from then onwards were weighted down with "significance"; certainly he devoted more time and care on each one, especially when it came to shooting re-takes, but he was a man of great talent and some marvellous films resulted. This one, however, he buckled under the weight of good intentions - the importance subject matter seems to have overwhelmed him, and as a result all the life and humanity and passion is squeezed out of it.

It's certainly beautiful - Stevens was an ex-cameraman and his films are all beautifully shot, none more so than this. The desert landscapes are beautiful, as are the sparse corridors of power of the ruling Romans/Jews (stone floors, curtains, lit by flame), the white robes that people where. Too beautiful - Jesus (Max von Sydow, ideally cast) never seems human, but nor do his disciples, even normally sure-fire characters like Judas and Peter. The best performances were from Jose Ferrer, as the all-too-practical Herod, and Donald Pleasance, as Satan (the scene where he attempts to corrupt Jesus is the creepiest and easily the most effective).

Another problem is one endemic to all Jesus films - because so many of the things He said are well known, whenever he speaks its like he's reciting quotes rather than speaking dialogue.

The film was criticised for its all star cast but I think that works - a new star comes along every ten minutes or so to keep things lively. I did find Shelley Winters a bit jarring, and John Wayne is hilarious for all the wrong reasons as the centurion who says "truly this was the son of god". Charlton Heston is effective as John the Baptist (wearing not many clothes, like most Heston roles in the 60s, very restrained compared with Alan Badel in Salome), and there is good work from Sidney Poitier, Claude Rains, etc.

Movie review - Ladd #25 - "Shane" (1953) ***1/2

Sociologists of the future seeking to understand baby boomers could do worse than to look at the character of Joey, played by Brandon de Wilde in this classic Western. Joey hero-worships Shane, a relationship which makes this movie so loved, basically dumping his hard working decent father for him the moment he rides into town.

But Joey's love isn't unconditional - he's always asking Shane questions, nagging him to do things, being a blood-thirsty little pain ("You wouldn't be a coward, would you?" "You'd beat him up wouldn't you?"). When Shane rides off into the distance you don't feel really sad, because Joey hasn't been particularly nice or fun for Shane to be around - you get the impression Shane will be glad for peace and quiet. It doesn't help that de Wilde, whose performance was widely admired at the time, actually acts like a stunned mullet through the film. Joey is your classic boomer - spoilt, never satisfied, always looking for something better on the horizon, resents his parents.

OK, I'm being mean. There is much to admire in the Western, most of all the beautifully constructed shots - although, like other George Stevens movies from this decade, every now and then you can't help mutter "stop it with the beautifully constructed shots, George, and just get on with it" (for instance that final ride into town seems to take forever).

There are some terrific scenes: my favourite are Shane's confrontations with Ben Johnson in the bar, one where he walks away another where he fights him (these are terrifically tense), all the moments with Jack Palance (in a star making turn - NB like a few movie in the 50s such as The Proud Rebel this has the baddy make really nasty anti-Southern slurs - it wasn't until another decade that Hollywood would turn on the south). The use of loud sounds for gunfire became deservedly famous, as did Elisha Cook Jnr's funeral scene with the dog scraping at the coffin (you realise how life is normally so cheap in a Hollywood film - it's lovely that here they give it weight).

Alan Ladd's acting has copped it a lot over the years. He wasn't the best actor in the world but he had presence and Stevens helps him brilliantly. I wondered, could any star have played this role? I think a lot could have (I remember my old English teacher at school said Charles Bronson would have been and I agree - but in the late 60s or 70s not in 1953). Ladd does bring a stillness, and an inherent sense of sadness that he carried with him that totally suits the character. He is also very warm in his moments with de Wilde (probably because Ladd had children around de Wilde's age).

The best performance, though (and this surprised me) was Van Heflin, who carries the "reality" of the film. His farmer is a decent man, hard working, brave, loyal, etc - but when push comes to shove he simply lacks glamour, which Shane has (and Heflin didn't have, so he is perfectly cast). His relationship with Shane is moving - both men admire each other, and although Heflin knows his wife and kid prefer Shane in some way, he doesn't resent Shane. Jean Arthur is strong as the wife - her attraction to Shane is done very subtly and well. Emile Myer is electric as the bitter Ryker - although he's a villain, he's a three dimensional one and is given this great speech where he talks about his history (Ben Johnson also gets a chance to have a bit of lightness and shade).

These sort of films always raise issues on the questions of violence. While it supports the "violence is not the way" argument, it does glamorise the superhero like Shane, who can take on anyone, who everyone love, and so makes violence attractive. (Even Van Heflin is shown to be a tough guy.) Its a film of clear quality but didn't have the emotional impact it obviously does for other (maybe you have to see it as a young boy or with your son).

Movie review - "A Place in the Sun" (1951) ***1/2

There's no denying George Stevens was a man of immense talent - his skills and dedication are all over this melodrama, with its lovingly constructed scenes, beautifully composed and full of interesting touches.

There's also no denying that every now and then you can't help mutter to yourself "get on with it". It's a simple story, sort of a classic film noir plot only where the femme fetale is quite nice -Montgomery Clift is a poor boy who luckily happens to be the nephew of a rich man, who gives him a dead end job at a factory, but just as he's about to get his heart's desire (a great promotion and Elizabeth Taylor), the girl he was banging to kill time (Shelley Winters) gets pregnant.

Some writers have said they can't find what Clift sees in Winters; I don't see that as a problem - the guy has a dull job, she's there and available - he has to have sex with something.
The lead trio of performances are excellent (with a show stopping turn from Raymond Burr as the DA - scary guy, you wouldn't want to be prosecuted by him).

Clift's nervous neuroticism was never more effective (handsome dude - but with a crook nose which we see lots of in side on profile), tormented and indecisive, all soulful torment (he comes up with such a lousy excuse for Winters' death - "I wanted to kill her but I changed my mind" - that he kind of deserves to go to the chair for that alone, even if it is the truth; I mean, what was he thinking?).

He has electric chemistry with Elizabeth Taylor, who is highly effective - she wasn't perhaps the greatest actor in the world but she works here: her beauty of course (she wears a swimsuit at times), but also the slight note of callousness (we're never sure if she genuinely loves Clift or if it's just an infatuation - the film never makes clear, which I think is at it should be). Shelley Winters is also excellent as the all too familiar sad sap - the sort of girl you only crack on to at the nightclub at two am in the morning when there's no other prospects.

The scene where she's on the boat is classic - the prospect she paints of the future for Clift ("OK so we won't have any money or any friends but we'll have each other" is such that you wouldn't blame him for chucking her in the water. Don't you love that priest at the end - "hey Monty, let's find out if do did have murder in your heart... oh, so you let her drown - well, yep that counts as murder, you're basically a killer" - just the sort of thing you need to hear before being executed.

Should also point out that even in these McCarthyism times, this film critiques capitalism - with workers shoved down the bottom of the pile, and rich Elizabeth Taylor's reputation is so important both the prosecutor and defence lawyer (Fred Clark, in a rare non comic role) agree not to mention her in court.