Book review - "How to Survive a Killer Musical: Agony and Ecstasy on the Road to Broadway" by Douglas J. Cohen

 The story of writing and producing a musical based on William Goldman's No Way to Treat a Lady 0 I was unaware this existed, as in the musical, although I'm a Goldman fan. It has had several productions around the world and made some coin.

The book is kind of interesting - no big epic dramas, not really, a lot of trudge and hard work, some personality clashes. Cohen's always pushing sh*t uphill basically. The work is always being tinkered with.

Goldman plays a decent part in the book - he asks for a big fat cut of the money, though he does ease off later on to help out. And he makes a creative contribution. People like Sondheim and Frank Rich offer thoughts. 

A welcome addition to Broadway books because it does feel more realistic. It's mostly about a lot of hard work and medium success rather than a huge flop or a huge bomb. 

Movie review - "Silence of the Lambs" (1991) *****

 A magnificent combination of material, writer, director, approach, and stars. Joanthan Demme didn't always has the best scripts he wasn't great on story and sometimes his take on the material didn't match but it works beautifully here. Few movies better demonstrate the power of close ups.

Also he lucked out with casting. Jodie Foster was never better as the plucky, intimated Clarice, who is constantly shown surrounded by men, leering/dismissive. Even Jack Craword (Scott Glenn, very good) can be dismissive. Tony Hopkings is electric. Charming. Gene Hackman and even Sean Connery wouldn't have been as good.

Full of spectacular set pieces. Stunningly well made. Orion were a great studio. William Goldman advised a whole section be cut out apparently. Roger Corman has one of his best roles.

Diller versus Evans

Am reading Barry Diller’s excellent memoirs which discuss his time running Paramount in the 1970s which made me decide to compare his regime with the fabled Robert Evans regime that proceeded it. (These lists below attribute films to various regimes as well as I can... it's entirely possible some started development under other regimes)

So films from the Evans regime which film bros (deservedly) always bang on about...  

Love Story, The Godfather Part 1 and 2, Harold and Maude, A New Leaf, Willy Wonka, Play It Again Sam, Lady Sings the Blues, Paper Moon, The Friends of Eddie Coyle, Serpico, The Conversation, Daisy Miller, The Parallax View, Chinatown, Death Wish, The Longest Yard, Three Days of the Condor, Hustle, Italian Job, Medium Cool, True Grit, Goodbye Columbus, Rosemary’s Baby, The Odd Couple, Romeo and Juliet, Barbrella, if..., Oh what a Lovely War, Downhill Racer. 

Great stuff. 

But films from Evans regime which film bros forget he made (or blame on Charlie Bludhorn)...

 The Molly Maguires, The Adventurers, Darling Lili, Friends, Little Fauss and Big Haley, Norwood, a weirdly large number of flop Neil Simon adaptations (Plaza Suite, Last of the Red Hot Lovers, Star Spangled Bannered Girl), Murphy’s Law, TR Baskin, Such Good Friends, Bad Company, The N***** Charley Films, Save the Children, Sterile Cuckoo, Hello Down There, My Side of the Mountain, Where’s Jack, Blue, No Way to Treat a Lady, 5 Card Stud, Skidoo, The Brotherhood, A Talent for Loving, Jonathan Livingston Seagull, Scalawag, The White Dawn, Paint Your Wagon.

Not so great stuff. You just don't hear Peter Bart go one about these as much. 

Films from the Diller regime which film bros go on about:  

Saturday Night Fever, Bad News Bears, Marthon Man, King Kong, Mikey and Nicky (in its own way), Looking for Mr Goodbar, Saturday Night Fever, Pretty Baby, Grease 1 and 2, Heaven Can Wait, Foul Play, Days of Heaven, Up in Smoke, The Warriors, Escape from Alcatraz, Meatballs, North Dallas Forty, Star Trek 1 and 2, American Gigolo, Friday the 13th series, Urban Cowboy, Flying High 1 and 2, Ordinary People, Popeye, Raiders of the Lost Ark and Temple of Doom, Mommie Dearest, An Officer and.a Gentleman, 48 Hours, White Dog, Flashdance, Trading Places, Terms of Endearment, Uncommon Valor, The Keep, Footloose,  Top Secret, Beverly Hills Cop, Witness.

Again, a great line up of films. 

But there are films from the Diller regime which seem to be forgotten: 

Won Ton Ton the Dog That Saved Hollywood, Lifeguard, Handle with Care, First Love, The One and Only, Going South, Oliver's Story, An Almost Perfect Affair, Prophecy, Bloodline, Sunburn, French Postcards, Nijinsky, Rough Cut, The Hunter, Coast to Coast, Going Ape, Dragonslayer, First Monday in October, Paternity, Ragtime, I’m Dancing as Far as I Can, Some Kind of Hero, Partners, Jekyll and Hyde Together Again, It Came from Hollywood, Ladies and Gentlemen the Fabulous Stains, The Man Who Wasn’t There, Racing with the Moon, Best Defence, River Rat, Thief of Hearts, Falling in Love, King David, Rustlers Rhapsody, Compromising Positions. 

Don't forget the flops, that's all I'm saying. 

Documentary review - "The Making of Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid" (1970) ***

 Fascinating look at the film - narrated by George Roy Hill mostly, with some voice over from Paul Newman and William Goldman, full of on the set footage. Hill is matter of fact about his decisions and vision- he was a smart guy.

Book review - "Son of Any Wednesday" by Muriel Resnick

William Goldman alluded to this book in The Season though he didn't name names - he quoted the comment about all English directors being called Peter and the quote that the author had never read an Ibsen play. It was a little mean.

This is an entertaining book. I had a lot of fun reading it. Resnick decided to write a play after the failure of her last novel, feeling that it at least would get reviewed. She joins the Group Theatre writers workshop of Molly Kazan, writes something that she is told will be sellable (part for a star, one set, small cast)... pitches it to Greer Garson who turns it down, but it gets optioned quite quickly, money is raised quite quickly.

But then the troubles start. There's never enough money so more producers have to be brought in. They have troubles getting directors then when they geet them have trouble keeping them. George Morrison for instance keeps wanting changes and things added, and slows the play down. They keep getting people as they go before eventually getting Henry Kaplan.

They get a cast, after a lot of rejection but have trouble holding on to it. Sandy Dennis doesn't want Gene Hackman because he's not hot enough so they get Dick York who quits so they get Gene Hackman who does so well that Michael Rennie, the big star attached, gets jealous and quits so they bring in Don Porter.

There are nice reviews but a bad one from Eliot Norton makes everyone panic. They have trouble getting a theatre. Trouble with balloons the author wrote in. Mike Nichols pops in periodically and assures her it's fine but people still panic. Opening night goes terrifically well, the piee runs and runs and sells for a huge amount to the movies.

Triumph. Although exhausted.

Resnick lists the short runs of the next shows her cast and crew did which is a little mean, as it the appendix of all the people who turned down the play, but I guess she's entitled to.

This is like a season arc of Mrs Maisel where she wrote a play. She gets married to some dude during it too. I really enjoyed it.

Musical soundtrack - "Golden Rainbows"

 Listened to this because of the discussion about this in Wiliam Goldman's The Season. The songs are quite good, very well sung. The opening track is a banger and there's catch ballads. You can see this being fun. I'm sure Goldman's comments on the book were accurate.

Book review - "Shy: The Alarmingly Outspoken Memoirs of Mary Rodgers" by Mary Rodgers and Jesse Green (2022)

 I didn't know a lot about Rodgers - had heard the name and the title of Once Upon a Mattress and Freaky Friday - didn't put it all together. She's Richard Rogers' daughter but had her own successful career.

This is like Marvelous Mrs Maisel only her first husband was gay, dad a top composer, her BFF was Steven Sondheim (they contemplated getting married even knowing he was gay), and she's trying to make it as a composer rather than a comedian. But the milieu is the same, as is the fact she farms out her kids to nannies, and has an action packed sex life (dating Bill Goldman, Harold Prince). She worked on TV specials with Woody Allen.

Very honest. Funny. Moving. She can get wearying at times, then recovers with a great observation.

A child died. Had six kids. Gay husband hit her. Bad health towards end of life. Found things to whinge about. Kids turned out well. Smart. 

No other book quite like it.

Script review - "Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid" by William Goldman (re-reading)

 A script of set pieces ending in a revearsal gag. Sundance's intro. The fight with Logan ending in the kick in the balls. Meeting Etta the reveal that he knows her. Train robbery sequence. Bike riding musical number. Etta's departure. Final shoot out. Some catch phrases don't land - "I got vision and the rest of the world wears bifocals" etc. In hindsight, wonderful material - two friends, time running out, manage to repeat the past, a woman comes along for both to be in love with and she's part of the gang giving it female appeal, moving ending.

Script review - "Mr Horn" by William Goldman

 Goldman refers to this as a "bad experience" in his memoirs. It was filmed, as a TV movie. This script is better than that. I haven't done a comps analysis. This film is really good.

It's long - over 200 pages - and splits into two. I could see where it could be edited. You could get going with the story quicker. Sometimes Goldmans' prose is deceptive - you read it and go "wow this is a movie" but it doesn't necessarily play. But I think most of this would played.

It's in two parts. Part one is about the search for Geronimo, focusing on Horn's relationship with Al Sieber, and sub relationship with an officious army officer, plus the side bars of Crook and Miles. Part two is Horn as a bounty hunter/hired killer for the rich.

Lots of finicky changes in the TV movie. For instance, when Horn and Sieber first encounter Indians in the script it's at night and Horn senses Indians first before we see them. In the movie, we see a cut of the Indians and it's in the less scary day. It cuts a scene where Horn hears Geronimo's two lieutenants talking in Apache, unaware he can hear - this was a dumb cut. So too was reducing the stupidity of Lt Lawton. The suspense is reduced. Horn's achievement in the first battle is reduced. That sort of thing.

Movie review - "Wild Card" (2015) ** (re-watching)

 Better cast. Jason Statham isn't as good an actor as Burt Reynolds but he's fine. It was shot in New Orleans, apparently - that can't help. Shoots the original script. Still lacks flavour. Christmas decorations are in the script but it seems to lack the point of setting it at Christmas. Excellent support cast. Cyrus plot doesn't work.

Movie review - "Heat" (1986) **

 I enjoyed William Goldman's novel and liked his script but this film doesn't work. It had a troubled production. There's good moments but not enough. Robert Altman who was going to direct would've been ideal. Not to be. Some of the support cast work (Howard Hesseman) others not up to it. Burt Reynolds should've been sensational. This needed a top top director.

Book review - "The Chill" by Ross MacDonald

 A lew Archer book that was adapted into a (as yet unfilmed) script by William Goldman. There's a lot of plot. A lot. I got distracted. Competently done. I wasn't into it, I'll admit that. I think the script was different, and better.

Book review - "The Princess Bride" by William Goldman (re-reading)

 Bright, smart, funny. Lousy female characters. Its heart is with the villains. Serious subtext about pain and loss to counterbalance the silliness. Very Jewish in spirit. Slightly weird introduction - like he turned his kid into a fatty and his wife into a bitch.

Book review - "Father's Day" by William Goldman

 Sequel to The Thing of it Is starts off a lot better than that one because more stuff has happened - the lead, Aaron (a Goldman surrogate with his bad back, neurosis and early success) has been fired off a musical and his marriage has ended, and he's seeing a dancer and his wife has a new guy. That's all interesting. But then it goes grim... he has his daughter for the day, she gets injured on a swing, the wife yells at him on the phone... so he abducts her. Tries to get her to go to Miami. He's a complete shit - injures a suss pawnbroker, is mean to his girlfriend, his daughter is scared and wounded... He's a terrible person and it's unpleasant to spend time with him.

Written in an easy to devour style just hard to hang around this selfish idiot.

Book review - "The Thing of It Is" by William Goldman

 Goldman talked about his attempts to make a movie of this in his memoirs. It didn't sound like much of a movie - a successful songwriter who doesn't like the hit musical he wrote, and who is secretly Jewish. And... And that's about it. The plot has him and his wife go to Europe with their little kid. They visit London then leave the kid with a nanny (!) then go to Venice. They bicker. It's hard to care. He's three dimensional but she's one dimensional - Goldman was never that great on women and there's a lot of talk about the wife's small breasts. She has a bitch other. Two main sequences - an argument over a missing doll and a confrontation about an alleged stolen watch. I would have preferred the action focused on writing the musical. Easy to read, mind.

Play review - "Seven Descents of Myrtle" by Tennessee Williams

Curious to read this because it was slammed in William Goldman's The Season. A good play is in here trying to get out. It doesn't get out. 

It's a three hander with a decent central story - a married couple arrive at a house trying to get possession of it off the man's half brother. The half brother is part black which is interesting as is the fact his brother is a tranvestite. The wife is a former show girl.

But the characters don't really leap off the stage, there's no heat between the wife and the half brother, the ticking clock of the incoming flood is underutilised.. The death of the transvestite has some power but there's too much chat and it feels undercooked.

Movie review - "Butch and Sundance The Early Days" (1979) **

 I guess the original made too much money that 20th Century Fox felt it was too irresistible to not return to the well. William Goldman never talks about this film but he was heavily involved as a producer as well as working on the script. It was directed by Richard Lester, who was going to do Goldman's The Princess Bride (and maybe The Sea Beast too).

It's quite well made, looks handsome and all that. But there doesn't seem to be a lot of point to it. Who cares how they met? The tone is similar to the first, a sort of jokey seriousness... but without them dying it doesn't have the same emotional weight. There's no Etta Place either. William Katt and Tom Berenger are fine but they're not Robert Redford and Paul Newman.

Why didn't they have a decent female role? Jill Eikenberry appears as Butch's wife, and other to his two kids... but it's not a very long sequence and the fact he just takes off and leave her  makes him seem like a drongo, and old. Why not use the Bassett sisters? 

Why not give them fiercer villains? There's Jake Lefors (Peter Weller) who pops up at the beginning and end but he's just doing his job.They have a scene where they note the railroad uses child labor but that's just in passing.

It's so hard to care. There's sequences which don't build, like in the snow when they try to transport medicine to help... and fail. The final train robbery you don't care. I mean, what's the point?

Maybe this would've worked with them as really young kids, like teenagers - Butch being tutored by Mike Cassidy. They could have made up a meeting with Sundance.

It's one of the most 'whatever' movies I can remember having seen.

Book review - "Butch Cassidy" by Charles Leehrson (2020)

 Entertaining book on the famous outlaw. Written in that slightly smart arse Sports Illustrated style I'm not a huge fan of, but there is decent scholarship there. Talks a lot about the movie, inevitably. Doesn't talk a lot about Ethel (etta) Place. A moving narrative.

Book review - "Your Turn to Curtsey My Turn to Bow" by William Goldman (1958)

 Goldman's second novel is more of a novella, running in a ck.130-odd pages. It's very simple and tells the story of a 17 year old who goes to summer camp where he falls for a girl and has a homoerotic friendship with a guy. The girl turns out to be a hooker and the guy cracks up, both things which felt like Goldman figured them out on the spot. Easy to read. The crack up stuff felt realer than the girl-is-a-hooker sho

Book review - "No Way to Treat a Lady" by William Goldman (1964)

 Goldman wrote this during the writing of Boys and Girls Together. Like most of his writing it's easy to read. This one is only short with brief chapters. It's not always easy to follow. It has a black heart too. Lots of chapters are from the POV of a woman who lets in an intruder who kills them. Goldman admits he was comfortable with dark material - the torture in Marathon Man, etc. It isn't very enjoyable to read. I know that's not the point. But there's so much creating women we identify with who are killed. It was too nasty for me.