Play review - "Equus" by Peter Shaffer (warning: spoilers) (1973)

 Marvellous play. Yes I know the psychiatry is no doubt dodgy - building to the big breakthrough. And it's all because dad is upset about sex. And someone wanting to sleep with you isn't a great excuse for blinding horses. But the shrink character is memorable. It works brilliantly. 

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 - "The Bramble Bush" (1960) **

 Warner Bros tries to get some of that Peyton Place cash with this adaptaiton of secrets and lust in a small New England town. Richard Burton is a doctor coming home who tends sick friend Tom Drake who asks Burton to root his wife Barbara Rush; sexy nurse Angie Dickinson is having an affair with married Jack Carson but wants to hump Burton.

The film doesn't work. It's got some of the ingredients but there's no feel for small town life - there's not enough family drama. Burton needed to be Drake's brother and maybe even Carson's brother. There's too many middle aged people - it needed some youngies. I never thought I would write these words but it cries out for the Troy Donahue treatment.

Angie Dickinson plays it in the right style - her throwing herself at Burton is a highlight of the movie. Jack Carson can act but is too old and fat - the part needed someone sexy like one of Warner Bros TV stars like Clint Walker. Burton has charisma and the voice but feels out of place. He has this entertainingly bad monologue where he reminiscies about discovering his mother cheated. Barbara Rush is quite good but the film would be more fun with a Lana Turner/Susan Hayward.

Phil Yordan and Milton Sperling were credited for the script- they weren't the right people. They specialise in male tales. This needed someone more emphathetic to women. 

A fair bit of sex - Rush gets pregnant to Burton, Rush talks about the healthy sex life of her and Drake (which I didn't believe, neither actor give that impression, but it was refreshing to hear), Dickinson poses nude for a lecherous journo and we see her bare aback.

Misses the mark. But Dickinson good. 

Book review - "We did okay, kid" by Anthony Hopkins

 Is Hopkins a great actor? He's been great - Silence of the Lambs, Howard's End - but  a lot of dreck. Hollywood thinks he's great - Hollywood is like that. It was Hollywood who kept his career going when he walked out of the National in the 1970s.

Hopkins always seemed like he had his head in the clouds. This confirms it. Internal. Quiet. A loud alcoholic.

The book livens up in some spots - being sledged by Paul Sorvino making Nixon, discussing his process in Silence of the Lambs. I wish there had been more of that. But I think he lives in Hopkins land. This is low on anecdotes and actors insights. 

Movie review - "Nineteen Eighty Four" (1984) ****

 Kind of forgotten now - Brazil has overshadowed it - but beautifully done. I mean, beautiful in a drab way. Like a dream, only a nightmarish dream. Wonderful design. Superb work from John Hurt and Richard Burton (clearly dying and sad - what a great last film). Suzanne Hamilton warm. Made to go nude a fair bit. Devastating ending. Depressingly still relevant.

Rex Harrison top ten

 1. My Fair Lady (1964)

2. Cleopatra (1963)

3. Anna and the King of Siam (1946)

4. The Ghost and Mrs Muir (1947)

5.  Blithe Spirit (1945)

6. Night Train to Munich (1940)

7. Dr Doolittle (1967)

8. Midnight Lace (1960)

9. Major Barbara (1941)

10. The Rake's Progress (1945) 

Book review - "The Cleopatra Papers", by Jack Brodsky and Nathan Weiss

 Hugely fun. Bitchy. Two PR people bitching about the movie and Fox. Actually they speak up well about the big stars and Mankiewicz. Mock Spyrous. This book really illustrates how Fox were suffering flop after flop - this was really damanging. There was no cushion for Cleopatra. 

Movie review - "Cleopatra" (1963) *** (re-watching)

 Thoughts 

- It’s a good movie. Not a great one. But much to admire. Sets. Costumes. Dialogue. Acting. Stars. Key support.

- Main problem - the film has a repetitive structure. Roman leader goes to Egypt. Falls for Cleopatra despite being married. Romans hate him. Dies.

- Second half takes forever. So many repetitve beats. 

- Film needed a story editor. Someone to keep an eye on the scenes. Mankiewicz writes great dialogue.  But not good on story. So many scenes are repeated - Harrison enters Rome, then Taylor enters Rome... just do the one, her. Burton is always going to Rome and then to Egypt and back. We didn't need to see all the Battle of Actium. And once that's over the tension is over - theu've lost the war.

- Still a lot of fun. 

Richard Burton shag list

 I’ve been listening to the TCM podcast on the making of Cleopatra (1963) where there’s the claim Richard Burton, up to the making of that film, slept with all of his leading ladies except Julie Andrews. As I’m currently watching Cleopatra and it’s four hours long (it has some great stuff in it) I thought I would fact check this. 

Unless specified it’s a movie...

* Last Days of Dolwyn - mostly male cast
* Waterfront (1950) - with Susan Shaw... yes they would’ve done it, she was wild
* The Woman with No Name (1950) - can’t imagine anything happened with no nonsense Phyllis Calvert but second female lead Helen Cherry was married to boozer Trevor Howard and might have liked a crack at Burton
* The Lady’s Not for Burning (1950) - Broadway play with Pamela Brown... yeah I reckon that happened
* Legend of Lovers (1951) - Broadway play with Dorothy McGuire... I doubt this one but you never know
* Green Grow the Rushes (1951) with Honor Blackman - honestly couldn’t say
* My Cousin Rachel (1952) with Olivia de Havilland... maybe, she could be a little minxy (had a hot fling with John Huston).. maybe something happened with Audrey Dalton who was also in it
* The Robe (1953) - Jean Simmons was in this and she was prone to flings with co stars even when married (she was with Stewart Granger at this time) so yeah I reckon that happened
* The Desert Rats (1953) - all male cast but both Burton and Robert Newton were notorious drinkers so anything is possible
* Prince of Players (1955) with Maggie McNamara - a possibility
* Rains of Ranchipur (1955) with Lana Turner - this would’ve happened 
* Alexander the Great (1956) with Clair Bloom, who he did have an affair with
* Sea Wife (1957) with Joan Collins... what do you reckon? Of course they did
* Bitter Victory (1957) with Ruth Roman... maybe
* Time Remembered (1957) - Broadway show - he did have affair with Susan Strasberg
* Look Back in Anger (1959) - he definitely had an affair with Claire Bloom
* Ice Palace (1960) - with Carolyn Jones, Martha Hyer, Shirley Knight... he would’ve had one of those

* The Bramble Bush (1960) - with Angie Dickinson... yeah I reckon that happened
* Camelot with Julie Andrews - didn’t happen

Book review - "My Life with Cleopatra" by Joe Hyams and Walter Wanger

 This book has traditionally been dismissed but it's terrific - self serving but so what? It's in diary form so there is tremendous urgency and fascination as Wanger gets a movie greenlit by being high concept - Liz Taylor as Cleopatra - without ever being really sure of the story (you can spin it in all directions).

The producer gushes about Liz and Burton and Mankiewicz, is more exasperated on Spyrous Skouros.

Looking back it's kind of scary how many mistakes were bad luck and understandable - makes sense they'd hold out for Liz, and to film in England where they had a deal with Rank, and to cast Peter Finch and Stephen Boyd, and even to use Robert Mamoulian, and to try to rewrite the script, and not their fault she got sick, but that meant she won an Oscar which made her invaluable. And a lot of things they did were to make the movie better, like hire Mankiewicz. Other things more avoidable - the movie is basically people talking they could have cut a lot of spectacle (yet they had to add some).

Some things I didn't know like Taylor recommended Peter Finch, and they went after Laurence Olivier first for Caesar. 

Fun to read little asides like Wagner commenting that he hadn't dealt well with being cheated on. 

Movie review - "Candy" (1968) **

 Cripes. The novel was popular, apparently. I don't think anyone reads it anymore. I haven't heard anything good about this movie so I was surprised to find myself enjoying it so much at first. It got off to a flying start with its groovy visuals and music and all star cast. Ewa Aulin isn't much of an actress but she's gorgeous - apparently Terry Southern wanted an All American type like Hayle Mills which would've been interesting but maybe too confronting.

Candy has a series of encounters with men who all manhandle her. This isn't a film that's strong on consent. What it does have is a series of encounters with stars, and you find yourself marking the vignettes. Richard Burton is hilarious as a Dylan Thomas type poet - he really commits and goes all out. Ringo Starr is less fun as a lechy Mexican. John Astin (in probably the second biggest role) is Candy's dad. Walter Matthau is a funny as a general but as Pauline Kael pointed out this sort of character was old hat by then. James Coburn is very funny as a doctor, he plays it in the right spirit as does Anita Pallenberg (sexy nurse) and John Huston.

There's an unfunny sequence with some Italian actors playing gangsters and an even less funnier one with Charles Aznavour as a hunchback and I wasn't wild with Marlon Brando in brownface as a guru or the cimax where she has sex with her dad Astin.

Look, the film exists and it's got stars in it and is weird. Everyone disowned it but it did business.

Movie review - "Night of the Iguana" (1964) ****

 Tennessee Williams' last hit on Broadway was also his last hit in the cinemas. He's helped by gorgeous casting: Richard Burton as a defrocked priest (apparently the original choice was James Garner who wouldn't have been anywhere near as perfect), Ava Gardner as a lusty woman running a hotel in Mexco, Deborah Kerr as the seemingly prim woman with fire underneath.

I love its naughtiness - Sue Lyons is so keen to bonk Burton who's fighting her off, and Burton is this boozy loser who is still charismatic, and Gardner has these beach boys with maracas. A big role goes to Grayson Hall who is the antagonist, crucial to the story. John Huston clearly adores his characters and he's obviously loving working in Mexico.

This is a funny, fun joyous film. The constrant references to Burton sleeping with young girls is maybe a little dubious if you think about it too much. And like a lot of these William adaptations it's half an hour too long. But one of the best adaptations of the work - if you get the casting right there's a lot of fun to be had.

Book review - "Ernest Lehman: The Sweet Smell of Success" by John Krampner

 Excellent book. Looks at the short stories, novels, different drafts of scripts. Compares how he improved apparently easy jobs eg West Side Story, Sound of Music. Retrieves Lehman's contribution to Virginia Woolf from the cult of Mike Nichols and to West Side Story from the cult of Arthur Laurents and Steven Sondheim.

Affectionate towards Lehman to a degree but also exasperated. Hypochondriac, night owl, distant father, workaholic, loving husband but not around, tolerant of wife's long affair, devoted carer towards end, became a dad in his eighties, super talented, decent supervisory producer but bad hands on one, terrible director. Skill as novelist left him in 70s apparently, though could still write good essays. Probably retired at right time, I can imagine him getting kicked off Mission Impossible. Fitted in well at classy studios like MGM and Paramount and Fox. Mate of David Brown's. Should have written another original. Should have teamed more with Robert Wise, they collaborated so well together.

Really good work.

Play review - "Conversation Piece" by Noel Coward

 An old musical from Coward set during the Napoleonic War though it could have been modern -a dodgy French sends his ward to romance a rich idiot. This is an album version with Noel playing the dodgy French and Richard Burton as the rich idiot. I think we're meant to find it charming when the French guy has feelings for the girl in that Gigi like incestuous way. The songs are not to my taste but the gold digging stuff is fun.

Louis Hayward was in the original production. Richard Burton's part isn't very big here.

Movie review - "Prince of Players" (1955) **1/2

 A dream team in a way - Moss Hart wrote the script, based on a best selling novel, with CinemaScope, Richard Burton fresh off The Robe playing a great actor, Maggie McNamara coming off Three Coins in the Fountain and The Moon is Blue, Philip Dunne as producer and director (well, it was his first film as a director but he was associated with "A" product as a producer and writer).

There's great material here - Edwin Booth had a controlling brother, a wife who died, a brother who shot Lincoln. But the material is treated like a musical biopic with renditions of Shakespeare instead of musical numbers. It's interesting to see Burton recite the verse but that's what he does - recite rather than act. McNamara isn't much as the wife. Derek livens up every scene he's in but it's the part more than the actor - still Derek doesn't disgrace himself. Really the film should've just been about the brothers.

Movie review - "Boom!" (1968) **

 Cripes. Odd. Weird. The play is weird but this is weirder because Liz Taylor is too young and Richard Burton too old. Interesting locations. Noel Coward looks half dead as the witch of Capri. Joanna Shimkus is lovely as the secretary but she feel miscast too.

Too random and weird to be a bad movie. Striking locations and set design. Occasionally the camera moves. This is really a two hander. The little person feels extraneous.

Book review - "Mike Nichols: A Life" by Mark Harris

 Fabulous book. Definitive. Nichols was a major player - this book captures it. The background, the upbringing, the college years (he could be mean - not surprised), comedy with Elaine May, straight acting, adventures as a director, early films, incredible success, great disappointment, exotic love life, terrible fathering (at first... he got better), finding his groove as a film director again, compulsive spending, addictions to drugs at a late age.

I was familiar with a lot of the hits - The Graduate, Virginia Woolf - but it was great to read about the disappointments - Day of the Dolphin, The Fortune, Fools. The theatre stuff is gripping. People seem to have really loved him. But he couldn't do everything as those who've seen The Fortune can attest.

A magnificent book.

Movie review - "Cleopatra" (1963) *** (re-watching)

 The first half of this is terrific. Smart, witty, well acted. Elizabeth Taylor is fun in the title role and Rex Harrison isn't a soldier but the intellectual brilliance of Caesar is evident. Motives are clear, everyone is smart. Excellent support work from Martin Landau, Roddy McDowall and Richard O'Sullivan. The spectacle is sparing but awesome eg Cleopatra's arrival in Rome.

The second half is less strong. The acting is still good - Burton steps up, though he looks silly with a sword - but the script wobbly. The spectacle feels more forced - did we really need to see so much of the Battle of Actium? The motivations less clear. Cleopatra wants... power but also Anthony. Anthony wants Cleopatra and power. But both are such whiny brats, it's hard to tell. Act one Cleopatra is smart as a whip. Act two Cleopatra is dumb, making silly decisions like declaring war on Rome and running away during the Battle of Actium. I think the passion of the two of them is meant to lead them to these bad decisions but it just seems silly. 

They have McDowall/Octavius lying in bed everytime there's a battle,  I think to contrast with the macho-ness of Burton's Antony, but Antony looks like a fool especially drinking in strategy meetings.

After the Battle of Actium the film should wrap up but there's scene after scene: Burton being abandoned by his troops, charging the enemy, monologuing, Burton and Taylor saying goodbye to all these people who never got much screen time so it feels like a waste of time.

Still it is a smart epic. Looks gorgeous.

Movie review - "Hammersmith is Out" (1972) *

The seventies must have been wild. A parable about the Faust legend with white trash Beau Bridges busting Richard Burton out of the lunatic asylum, and they travel across the country with white trash waitress Elizabeth Burton.

I always thought the Faust story was about selling your soul but Bridges plays a moronic good old boy who seems to have no ambition so what is the point. And Taylor's character doesn't seem to care.

Everyone seems miscast - Bridges in one of those young southern stud parts pioneered by Tennessee Williams, Taylor as a Southern waitress, Burton as a charismatic nutter (he just seems tired). Peter Ustinov does some funny accent acting as a shrink. I think Ustinov was miscast as a director - it's got a late 60s American smart arse feel.

It's not funny, lacks life or verve or point. The basic story has point but the characters and their interactions are underwhelming.

Maybe it would have worked as a play or a novel. I get the feeling during filming everyone sat around and laughed at how off beat it was. But it's horrible.  Bridges farts in Ustinov's face (I read an interview where he said this was Taylor, perhaps he mis-remembered), Taylor jaunts around by a pool in a bikini and has a very dark tan, Bridges winds up running a corporation and breaks his back water skiing, and there's a topless dancer at a bar and... ugh. Oh there's a good moment where Burton is going to kill Taylor - that's affecting.

George Raft pops up as a nightclub owner. It' nice to see him.

Thoughts on Susan Strasberg

Watching Susan Strasberg in The Other Side of the Wind made me waste/spend an hour or so googling her and her career. I always liked her because of her good work in Taste of Fear (1961), The High Bright Sun (1965) and Psych Out (1968) where she specialised in the role of Woman Who Gets Scared By Things (mean step mothers, Cyprus terrorists, hippies).

The daughter of Lee Strasberg, she started her career with a real bang - she is great as Kim Novak's sister in Picnic (1955) and became a Broadway sensation before she was 20 playing the title role in The Diary of Anne Frank. It was thought she was going to be this incredible star but after she was in Stage Struck (1958), a remake of the Katherine Hepburn film Morning Glory, everyone seemed to decide she was crap and she didn't help by doing things like run off to Italy and believe Richard Burton when he said he'd leave his wife for her. 

As she later admitted she also didn't try as hard as she could in part because she was afraid of not living up to the family name. She kept working for most of her life as an actor and later wrote some memoirs. It's a shame she didn't make more better quality stuff but she had an interesting life. And (SPOILERS) no one seems to comment how the climax of Other Side of the Wind involves the John Huston character punching her character in the face for suggesting he might be gay.