Omar Sharif Top Ten

 (I recognise this article is very English language focused)

1) Lawrence of Arabia (1962)

2) Dr Zhivago (1965) 

3) Genghis Khan (1965) - no kidding! Surprisingly good.

4)  Top Secret! (1984) - small role but he's very funny.

5) The Tamarind Seed (1974) - decent thriller. 

6) The Burglars (1971) - excellent as a villain in this Belmondo movie. 

7) Funny Girl (1968) - his third hit.

 8) The Last Valley (1971)

9) Mackenna's Gold (1969) - not a good film but he's strong. 

10) Oh! Heavenly Dog (1980) - look, I remember this fondly. 

Play review - "I'll Eat You Last: A Chat with Sue Mengers" by John Logan

 Very funny, cute, great role, I loved the name checks, the love of Streisand and Ali McGraw and Gene Hackman. 

Play review - "Buyer and Seller" by Jonathan Tollins (2013)

 Really funny bright one man show which takes a fun concept - Streisand's shopping centre under her house - and runs with it. One actor plays different roles. Lots of show biz in jokes and we meet James Brolin as well as Babs. There's Arthur Laurents jokes and Elliot Gould mentions. That sort. Campy but there are people like this. Fun digs at screenwriters.

Book review - "My Name is Barbra" by Barbra Streisand

 I'm not a big Streisand head but have no particularly strong feelings about her. This book is very good though. Well written, enjoyable. Feels "her". Strong willed, eccentric, passionate. She's copped a lot of bad press over the years but from men trying to punish her. Arthur Laurents and Garson Kanin struggled to direct her with their "set and forget" methods. She had better luck with people like Jerome Robbins, William Wyler, and Peter Bogdanovich, people who challenged her. Did badly with weaker directors like Gene Kelly, Frank Pierson.

She writes affectionately of Elliot Gould which I liked - they had issues (he was partial to marijuana, jealousy and had a gambling habit) but was basically supportive. Also she has a lot of time for most of her exes: Ryan O'Neal, Geoge Lazenby (! - it was just a flirtation during On a Clear Day You Can See Forever), Kris Kristofferson, Warren Beatty (who she's not sure if she slept with), Pierre Trudeau, Omar Sharif, Anthony Newley (I didn't know that). Isn't nice about Sydney Chaplin who she had an affair with then called off and he behaved badly (Walter Matthau was a mate of his, hence his bad attitude on Hello Dolly). Likes most of her co stars even if she didn't fall in love with them (she was a method actress that way) - eg James Caan. She adored Brando and they had a friendship but not an affair (I don't think).

Full of "gee I wish you'd done that" moments-  she should've turned director on A Star is Born, should've made Merry Widow with Ingmar Bergman

She's ambivalent about Sue Menges (says Menges begged her to be in All Night Long), Jon Peters.

Particularly fascinating accounts of her musicals and movies especially The Way We Were (admits to not remembering much about For Pete's Sake). Also deep dives her albums and TV specials.

Lots of good juice like Arthur Laurents sending her a mean letter after her first album - but she also liked him because of The Way We Were; Mandy Patinkin demanding to have an affair; Complex descriptions of Ray Stark, Sydney Pollack

There's a bit too much about clothes and blocking of scenes. And the last few chapters are really grim - the Clintons, politicis, philanthropy, her 21st century career. But def read the first bit.

Movie review - "The Main Event" (1979) ***

 This film doesn't get a good wrap, unlike say What's Up Doc? with its non-auterist director (Howard Zieff) - as if Barbra Streisand isn't an auteur regardless of credit, and the basic plot was ripped off for Moonlighting and she and Ryan O'Neal are marvelous together.

O'Neal was at hs best with a strong female to bounce off against. He's great here. Believable as a boxer. Relaxed, Handsome. Does a fabulous slow burn. I don't think he had enough charisma on his own to hold the audience he needed someone to play off against.

Babs is funny. Frizzy hair, aerobics gear. They could've done a lot more with the character of her ex husband Paul Sand. And with the embezzling accoutant. Actually they could've done a lot more with the premise. The film was rewritten a lot and it shows. But the concept is there. The stars are there. They have fun. There's scenes in camp in the snow. The two have sexual chemistry. There's no dodgy power imbalance becanse she's so strong.

Patti d'Arbaville has some fun as O'Neal's girlfriend but really no one gets much of a look in.

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.

Book review - "Mainly on Directing: Gypsy, West Side Story and Other Musicals" by Arthur Laurents

 Could have done with an edit especially on the bits about Gypsy - some of it is interesting but it just goes on and on, and it was a revival. But the interesting stuff is really interesting and there are entertaining recaps too of I Can Do It For You Wholesale, West Side Story, Anyone Can Whistle, Nick and Nora, La Cage. Everyone is keen to sack people all the time in theatre. My favourite story is sacking Robert Stack from La Cage - that's very funny.

Merrick wanted to replace Elliot Gould on Wholesale with Michael Callan.

Book review - "The Rest of the Story: A Life Completed" by Arthur Laurents

 Fascinating memoir. Sequel to his autobiography Original Story By, the gossipy, harsh, entertaining sex obsessed account of his life. This was written right up to just before Laurents died. This prose is still fresh and vigorous,. Odd sort of book (understandably). It's mostly a love poem to Laurents' partner of fifty years, the great love of his life (they did have an open relationship but it worked - it helped too he made a fortune in real estate so Laurents always had cash). Sometimes it's like a primal scream of loneliness. Fascinating.

Also talks about friendships, including Sondheim (once devoted then strong). Mentions Mary Rodgers. Devotes a whole chapter to a hit piece on him - this one. Sections on directing revivals of Gypsy and West Side Story. No mention of Lin Manuel Miranda. Depictions of Jerry Robbins, Herbert Ross, Lena Horne, Streisand (who was going to do a film of Gypsy  - alas, still hasn't been done). Says he's less bitter more about love but the teeth are still there. Remarkable, odd work. I really enjoyed it.

Thoughts on Michael Callan (1935-2022)

 I was thinking of doing a piece on Callan but I'm not sure there's one in me at the moment. Still, I felt I should jot down a few thoughts.

An interesting quasi-star, was Callan. He had looks and the backing of a Hollywood studio but the studio system was in decline. 

He was born "Martin Calinoff" in Philadelphia in 1935 - dad ran restaurants - and was something of a showbiz baby, taking singing and dancing lessons at an early age, and appearing on local radio shows. He was a very good dancer, later saying his idol was Gene Kelly. “I thought unlike Fred Astaire, Mr Kelly has that double whammy of sex appeal… Not that I even knew what sex appeal was, but I liked athletics and he moved like an all-star athlete.”

By the age of fifteen he was dancing professionally in local nightclubs. Two years later, when he graduated from high school, he moved to New York, got work in summer stock in St Louis, performing under the name "Mickey Calin".  Callan/Calin/Calinoff successfully auditioned for a small part on Broadway in The Boyfriend with Julie Andrew (you might've seen the Ken Russell film version), playing various parts over seven months; he was then in Catch a Star. He also danced on television and in nightclubs. 

Then came the big big break - Riff in West Side Story. "“There were a great many kids like me up for that part,” said Callan. “I was told I was too cute! Imagine! But I really wanted it, I was asked if I could backflip, so I did a backflip, and eventually, after a year of rounds, I got it. Riff set me on my way.”

Riff is one of the best parts, if not the best part, in one of the greatest musicals of all time and really established Callan, who was in it for seven months. During the show's run he was spotted by Joyce Selznick a famous casting director (her discoveries included James Darren) and she signed Callan to a seven year contract to Columbia off the back of his appearance. 

The studio system was dying off but there was a bit of a revival of signing young talent in the late 1950s, especially at studios that made a lot of television and continued to make B pictures, like Columbia. The studio also signed Evy Norlund, Glenn Corbett, Carol Douglas, Jo Morrow, Margie Regan, Joby Baker, Rian Garrick, Joe Gallison, and Steve Baylor... not a big list of future stars.

Callan was, however, given what those actors weren't - a nice support part in a big budget film, They Came to Cordura, playing one of several seemingly heroic soldiers escorted through the Mexican desert by Gary Cooper along with Rita Hayworth. The studio put him in a low budget circus picture for Sam Katsman, The Flying Fontanes. They also put him in a Dick Clark teen film, Because They're Young (as a delinquent trying to go good who romances Tuesday Weld) and he danced in Pepe. In Oct 1960 he left Columbia's record arm to sign with Paramount (see here) but he never enjoyed Darren's success as a singer.

Callan had looks, and could move, and act. But I think the main thing holding him back was he gave off a sort of intense swaggering self-love vibe. I'm not saying he was like that in person, not at all - but he lacked the sensitivity of say a Tony Curtis or Rock Hudson. He had charisma and was a potential star but needed careful handling.

Callan auditioned for the film version of West Side Story but didn't get it - possibly due to his Columbia contract, possibly they wanted a fresh slate. But he did dance in the film Gidget Goes Hawaiian (1961), opposite Deborah Walley as Gidget. He was one of the troops in Mysterious Island .

He was well cast as a thug tormenting a puffy Alan Ladd in 13 West Street and romanced Deborah Walley again in Disney's Bon Voyage! The latter film demonstrates the issue with Callan - he lacked the affability of Tommy Kirk and when he rough houses Deborah Walley it's really scary. As I wrote in a piece on this film "he was a good looking guy, Callan, who could act, and dance, but his performances often had a strand of cruelty about them, he looked like a villain, and I really didn't want him and Walley to wind up together."

However he had a big hit with The Interns as a compromised doctor. Callan was in this alongside a lot of other Columbia contract talent like Cliff Robertson. It was a fun role with some meat in it - Callan plays a super ambitious intern, who dates a rich girl but also sees an older nurse on the side so she'll help his career; this gives him a packed schedule which leads him to take drugs... it's very well done and handled, leading to Callan breaking down at the end. The film was a hit and would have rejuvenated Columbia's faith in him. 

David Merrick offered Callan the lead in a Broadway musical, I Can Get it for You Wholesale, but they couldn't agree over money apparently so Elliot Gould took the part instead - and wound up marrying his co-star Barbra Streisand.    In November 1962 he talked about how he had his own publicist - see this here.

Callan had a showy small part as a pimp in Carl Foreman's cynical war picture The Victors - he's not in the film for very long and the leads went to other new faces (George Hamilton, George Peppard), and Callan presumably thought "hey why not me" but at least the film was a big hit.

The did The The New Interns, one of the few to return (along with Stefanie Powers and Telly Savalas with Dean Jones playing James MacArthur's role). He didn't have as much to do in this one, which hurt the film - in the original his character was comic and romantic but also serious, here he's just comic (in drag for one sequence) and romantic (Barbara Eden); the film hints it's going to deal with his character's past as a druggie, which would've been great, but throws it away. It's a NAGOATO sequel (not as good as the original).  Still it encouraged Columbia to sign him to a new six picture contract. Jack Lemmon had started his film career at Columbia and many pieces from this time would refer to Callan being a new Jack Lemmon.

Callan was announced for a film musical remake of Cover Girl which was never made and a Broadway musical Kelly. See here. But Callan was lucky to miss out on the Broadway Kelly which shut after one night

There was talk of Callan starring in King Rat from the novel by James  Cavell about a smooth operator in Changi during World War Two.He would've been perfect. But he lost out to George Segal who was also in The New Interns which must have really really hurt. Because that film, while considered something of a commercial and critical disappointment, kicked up Segal to a higher plane that he never really left. In fairness, Segal had more acting chops than Callan - he'd done heaps of Broadway and TV.

 It wasn't over yet - He did guest stints on television, Breaking Point and Twelve O'Clock High, then had his biggest hit to date as Jane Fonda's love interest in Cat Ballou but most of the attention for that movie went to Fonda and Lee Marvin. 

He was sent to England for You Must Be Joking, a farcical army comedy for Michael Winner - Callan was cast at Columbia's insistence but didn't do much for the film's box office. He doesn't fit in the movie, he sticks out - the whole film is like a trial run for Winner's better The Jokers.

In August 1965, Callan signed a four-picture deal with Columbia. Jackie Cooper, former actor turned exec at Columbia's TV arm, Screen Gems, offered Callan the lead in a pilot for a sitcom Occasional Wife. Callan asked Cooper what he needed TV for: Cooper replied, "This year we're asking you to do the series. In three years you may be asking us?" The deal was a good one -  $100,000 a year plus a percentage according to this. This didn't last long.  TV Guide did a profile on him here which refers to a partying lifestyle, "a reputation along the Sunset Strip-Vegas axis as one of the great new swingers. He had a Sinatra-like coterie of hangers on and regularly made the columns."

A1967 interview with him is here. Occasional Wife only lasted a season but marked a major shift in Callan's private life as he left his wife for his co star, Patricia Harty. 

After the sitcom was axed Callan might've been expected to return to movies or television but instead he appeared in a musical in Las Vegas, That Certain Girl. See here

In 1968 he was in a TV version of Kiss Me Kate with Robert Goulet.

By the late 60s Callan was out of fashion, Ric Dalton style - he no longer had the film offers or television lead offers. It was a very very quick fall, especially considering The Interns and Cat Ballou had been so popoular and not that long ago. I wonder if there were behaviourial/temperament issues. I have no proof of that - it's just conjecture.  But it does seem odd that a good looking, charismatic performer, who could act and move, didn't get any more leads. This was the time of spaghetti Westerns, war films in Yugoslavia, and telemovies. There were star parts going for former contract stars. But Callan didn't get any.

Not that he was unemployed. Callan kept busy on episodic TV like The Mary Tyler More Show,That Girl, The Name of the Game, The Mary Tyler Moore Show, Ironside, Marcus Welby, M.D., Griff, McMillan & Wife, Barnaby Jones, 12 O’Clock High, Quincy, M.E., Charlie’s Angels, Simon & Simon, Fantasy Island, The Love Boat, The Bionic Woman, four episodes of Murder, She Wrote, and eight episodes of Love, American Style. Callan also made the occasional feature like Frasier the Sensuous Lion, The Magnificent Seven Ride, Lepke and the Cat and the Canary. He did have the lead in 1974's The Photographer which was kind of remade as 1982's Double Exposure - in both Callan plays a psychotic photographer. See trailer here.  

He appeared in theatre around the country - a lot of musicals like Anything Goes, The Music Man (program here), George M, Bar Mitzvah Boy plus plays like Absurd Person Singular. He produced some musicals.

I don't think Callan was a great lost star. He was unlucky in that Hollywood made less musicals when he hit down  - at least less dancing musicals. He would've been fantastic as Riff in West Side Story  - too cruel to be Tony though.  The tide went out really quickly for him though. I mean, to go from a sitcom to being a permanent guest? I wonder if something else happened.

Callan appears as a character, in a way, in the novel version of Once Upon a Time in Hollywood. Agent Marv talks to Ric Dalton about Dalton's Western, Tanner, directed by Jerry Hopper, in which Dalton appeared alongside Ralph Meeker and Callan, and Dalton criticised Callan for "sounding like  a Malibu surfer".

TV Guide

Movie review - "Eyes of Laura Mars" (1978) **1/2

 I was reluctant to see this because John Carpenter, who wrote the original script, said his work was needlessly changed, and I'm prepared to believe that (Carpenter was on a hot streak as a writer around this time). But it has charm, of a sorts, especially in its depiction of hedonistic late 70s New York, with fashion photographer Faye Dunaway shooting violent art shots of models (including the lovely Darlanne Fluegel) and her assistant, puffy haired Rene Auberjonois. 

There's also Tommy Lee Jones as the hunky cop, Barbra Streisand on the soundtrack (producer Jon Peters bought the script as a vehicle for her - she opted out but provided a song), stylish photography, Brad Dourif as a loony, Raul Julia as a gigolo type. Everyone looks as though they are on their way to Studio 54.

I'm not a big fan of giallo but there's not too much violence.

I would've preferred the original script was shot starring Roberta Collins, which was Jack Harris' original plan. Still, this is of interest.

(I gather this was Dunaway's big pay day movie after making Network. I understand she wanted big payday movies that focused on her but in hindsight she should've focused on just working on higher end projects. In fairness, this film didn't hurt her - Mommie Dearest is what turned her in to a joke.)

Movie review - "Funny Lady" (1975) **

 Done with gloss but it feels old fashioned for 1975. It's very much in that 20th Century Fox musical mode - a true story heavily fictionalised with plenty of production numbers. I didn't recognise any of the songs. Barbra Streisand fans will like it, with all the songs and outfits and jokes. The bulk of the plot is a squabbling rom com with James Caan, hamming it up with Babs, as Billy Rose. These two are fun. Omar Sharif adds a dash of drama as her ex.

I didn't really like it but it wasn't made for me.

Book review - "Pauline Kael' By Brian Kellow

 Superb book. I wondered if a look at a film critic's life could be interesting but Kael mattered, I guess - not massively but she helped people get reputations (she helped Altman, maybe not Lamont Johnson or Irving Kershner).

Kael has an interesting personal narrative. Really interesting. Younger daughter of large Jewish immigrant family who... raised chickens! Moved to San Francisco. Super smart. Never really found the right place in the world. Had a daughter out of wedlock to a bisexual man who was never in the picture. Had a short marriage. Found her place working in a cinema and writing about movies. Financially struggled until got the New Yorker gig. Even then it wasn't super well paid and only six months of the year (she shared with Penelope Gilliat) - she had to supplement with her books and lecture tours. (I'm surprised she didn't do more full length pieces like the one she did on Cary Grant). 

Kael comes across exactly as you'd expect. Demanding, mean, brilliant, kind at times, a mini tyrant, an overpowering mother, a devoted grandmother. Her daughter comes across a little vague - I'm sympathetic to Kellow.

He does heaps of research, does excellent analysis of the writing and reviews. The tales of the petty feuds with other critics (John Simon, the boozy Penelope Gilliat, Andrew Sarris, etc) are hilarious. Directors would send her mean letters and/or suck up. Actors did the same - even Streisand! No wonder they had egos.

Some touching moments too like her final days and also when she and George Roy Hill ran into each other both suffering Parkinsons and swapped notes.

Great book.

Movie review - "What's Up Doc?" (1972) ***1/2

 I don't meant to be a Debbie Downer but looking back this comedy has some serious consent issues. Madeleine Kahn is bossy it's true but she doesn't really deserve the shocking treatment from Barbra Streisand who charges at Ryan O'Neal with rich girl determination.

It does help that Streisand rarely looked more luminous or was more lovingly shot. She's in brilliant form. Ryan O'Neal is a lot of fun too - he was best playing against strong women.

The clever script involves government agents and thieves and the support cast is of high quality: Austin Pendleton, Kenneth Mars, etc. I don't think it's as good as the others in Bogdanovich's four film hot streak but it's a lot of fun.

Book review - "Roadshow! The Fall of Film Musicals in the 1960s" by Matthew Kennedy (2014)

Very good look at the explosions in big budget musicals that followed the success of Sound of Music. The big ones get their own chapter - there were genuine successes like Thoroughly Modern Millie, Oliver! Funny Girl, Fiddler on the Roof, Jesus Christ Superstar and Cabaret; half successes like Chitty Chitty Bang Bang and On a Clear Day You Can See Forever; films that were okay but lost huge amounts of money: Half a Sixpence,  Camelot, Dr Doolittle, Hello Dolly; films few people remember, like Song of Norway, The Happiest Millionaire, The Great Waltz or Goodbye Mr Chips; surprise flops like Sweet Charity; legendary money losers like Paint Your Wagon, Star!, Man of La Mancha and Darling Lili; surprisingly profitable enterprises like Finian's Rainbow and Son of Norway.

My take out from reading this book:

*Musicals have never stopped being popular. They've never stopped being popular on Broadway and came back in a big way in the animated world. Many of the notorious flops in the book were among the years biggest films eg Camelot. But...

*Musicals need to be made for a price. It's astonishing how needlessly expensive many of these films were. Camelot is basically three people in a castle. Darling Lili is two people, one of whom performs occasionally in a music hall. Goodbye Mr Chips is about a man who teaches at school. But they cost too much money to ever have a real chance of being profitable. Sometimes the film's over production made it less enjoyable eg Hello Dolly, Paint Your Wagon. Part of this is because musicians and technicians used to be under contract and now they aren't... but I think also these filmmakers got panicky and threw money at problems, hoping spectacle would save them.

*Musicals need to be cast well. I don't want to be wise after the event - but the leads of musicals should be able to sing, and suit the parts. Audiences don't mind if they're not film stars - look at the acceptance of Ted Neely, Topol, Mark Lester. Absolutely it won't always work - the public didn't go to see Robert Morse reprise his role in How to Succeed in Business without Really Trying, for instance. But if you can't get a movie star who suits the part, then cast the Broadway star. There were so many better suited Hollys than Barbra Streisand; the leads in Paint Your Wagon were ridiculous, ditto Redgrave and Franco Nero in Camelot and Man of La Mancha.

*What was really killed in the late 60s was the teen musical - the unpretentious programmer, like the Donald O'Connor musicals of the 40s for Universal, or Elvis' musicals, or the Beach Party films. These seemed to dry up despite the glorious music of the time - even in the early 1960s Hollywood studios would sign up teen idols but this seemed to stop. In particular I can't believe there weren't more blaxploitation musicals.

*These roadshows I feel definitely scared off big screen adaptations that should have happened by now. I get why no one's tried to film Oh Calcutta! But it's a shame there hasn't been films of Wicked, 42nd Street (the newer version), The Book of Mormon, Avenue Q, La Cage Aux Folles, Spamalot, Matilda, Promises Promises, They're Playing Our Song, Into the Heights.

An entertaining book, full of fun anecdotes and interesting analysis.

Random Thoughts on Ryan O'Neal

Ryan O'Neal is a fascinating Hollywood actor - a pretty boy, the darling of the gossip columns in his hey day, and something of a joke now, a hard-drinking, hard-partying womaniser who looks like the boy next door, the head of a truly messed up family, an old lech, a long-time has been.

He became nationally famous with Peyton Place and technically a film star with Love Story. He reached the top of the A list with two Peter Bogdanovich hits, What's Up Doc? and Paper Moon; the latter also made a star of his daughter, Tatum.

O'Neal's luck ran out with a series of films that should have been successful/artistically fulfilling but which failed to make the grade:

* Barry Lyndon (1975) - playing the title role for Kubrick
* Nickelodeon (1976) - working for Bogdanovich on a comedy about silent movies
* The Driver (1978) - an exciting action film
* Oliver's Story (1978) - a sequel to Love Story.

All were surprising commercial disappointments.

He had a hit again with The Main Event but then found himself mostly in comedies, of decreasing appeal, including So Fine and the entertaining Irreconcilable Differences. He hasn't been a film star since the late 80s but his personal life gets him attention.

What happened to Ryan O'Neal? He was pretty, not that good an actor, really more of a girl's guy than a guy's guy... they don't tend to have long careers as stars. (The longest stars are liked by men and women.)

It's a shame he didn't try again with Bogdanovich and Streisand; I'm glad Barry Lyndon's reputation has risen in recent years. He was going to make The Bodyguard with Diana Ross... maybe that could have turned around. Or The Champ, which he turned down to do Oliver's Story. He seems to have been smart and charming and willing to take a punt on a newer director - Bogdanovich, Andrew Bergman, Walter Hill - or an artier film - Kubrick. But the sand ran out for him.

I think he shouldn't have walked off The Champ - he was ideal casting. He should've fought harder to get in The Thorn Birds - he would've been good in that role. Both were melodramas, in his wheelhouse. He may have clanked in The Bodyguard. I think he should've tried to make another film with Bogdanovich.

But who knows?

Book review - "Father of the Blob" by Jack H Harris (2015)

Harris gives some of his best stuff up the front, talking about making The Blob then goes into his life story. Much of it at first feels familiar to regular readers of movie bios - Russian Jewish immigrant ancestors, moving to the US, becoming interested in the film industry on the exhibition side. Harris had a spell as a child actor and served in the war, then going to work for his dad. The two men clashed, Harris went out on his own and made a success of it (for instance, distributing old Laurel and Hardy films). Harris decided to go into actual production at had a home run hit with The Blob.

After that the book becomes less predictable and more interesting. He makes/finances a series of films, of wildly varying quality - The 4D Man, Dinosaurus, The Unkissed Bride with Tommy Kirk, Dark Star with John Carpenter, Schlock with John Landis, Equinox with a bunch of unknowns, Prison Ship with Fred Olen Ray.

He earns a lot of money with his movies including a Danish sex film, his marriage breaks up, he lives in Malibu where his neighbours include Larry Hagman (who makes a Blob sequel) and Jon Peters (who he becomes friends with, and Barbra Streisand, leading to Eyes of Laura Mars), doesn't like The Blob remake.

It's a jaunty tale. A lot of the time you do wonder if he's telling the truth but it's an entertaining read.

Book review - "Can I Go Now? The Life of Sue Mengers, Hollywood's First Superagent," by Brian Kellow (2015)

A really excellent book about Mengers, one of Hollywood's most legendary agents: opinionated, loud, cunning, hilarious. She was at her peak in the early 70s when the cream of New Hollywood seemed to be represented by her: Hackman, Streisand, Bogdanovich, O'Neal, Ali McGraw. Things got harder as the decade went on and really went south after Streisand appeared in All Night Long directed by her husband. She retired, attempted a comeback, could never quite make it, then retired again. Her husband pre-deceased her, to the surprise of everyone especially him, but his investment advice meant she had plenty of money, and her entertainment value meant she was in demand as a hostess until her death.

There was a lot of sex, success and laughter in Mengers lift (photos show her to be quite pretty when young); there was also a lot of tragedy, including a father who killed himself when Sue was 11, a pushy mother who never got over the resentment of having to leave Germany, troubles with clients who Sue never felt were grateful enough (she was clearly a frustrated actress)/

It's very well put together by Kellow who has done a swag of interviews (famous names such as Billy Friedkin) and writes about his subject with skill and affection.

Play review - "I'll Eat You Last: A Chat with Sue Mengers" by John Logan (performance 1 Nov 2014)

A fun night at the theatre - not a masterpiece, but swift, funny, and poignant, and especially interesting to movie buffs. Sue Mengers was such a larger than life character that it's a wonder she hadn't been dramatised before; of course, the fact she only died in 2011 would have had something to do with it.

The story is set in 1981, before a Mengers dinner party. Mengers was famously exercise-adverse, so Logan has most of this with her on the couch - a person is invited out of the audience twice to pour her drinks, which is a great trick to keep things lively. She's just been sacked by Barbra Streisand and is waiting for a call. It helps if you know that in real life Mengers soon wrapped up her agency work (although she did make a late 80s comeback.)

I thought more would have been made of Mengers relationship with husband Jean Claude Tramont, particularly with all the references to "knowing the spouse".  But we do get plenty of Steve McQueen and Ali Magraw, Faye Dunaway, Gene Hackman, Peter Bogdanovich and Cybil Shepherd, and Barbra.

Production wise I saw this with Miriam Margoyles in the role. Her acting was fine - accent, look, feel.... but she lacked the energy and pizzaz that Bette Midler would have brought. Maybe Judy Davis would have been more ideal.

Movie review - "The Guilt Trip" (2012) **

A great title and seemingly can't-miss idea - Barbra Streisand and Seth Rogen as mother and son taking a trip together - becomes dull and uninteresting. You know you're in trouble by the first ten minutes - the characters aren't set up beyond broad stereotypes (pushy Jewish mother! nervous Jewish schleb!) and the set up to the simple story is agonisizing amateurish. Dull and obvious.

Book review – “The Eternal Male” by Omar Sharif

Sharif is an interesting movie star, still the only Arab to make it big in Hollywood. He only really had three hits but since they were three of the biggest films in the 60s (and remain classics today) he made a lot of money out of it. These are his memoirs and even though I admit I rarely give much thought to Omar Sharif, this reads exactly like you’d imagine – suave, prone to waffling when justifying his womanising, egotistical but self aware, a nice line in humour and charm, old fashioned values (not a big fan of democracy in the Arab world, a woman’s place is in the home, etc) but aware they’re old fashioned.

You need movie stars like Omar Sharif, who are citizens of the world, represent Egypt in bridge at the Olympics, appear in silly projects for the money, devote their spare time to money-wasting hobbies like horse breeding and gambling, who sleep with heaps of women.

Sharif says he doesn’t want a kiss and tell memoir but then goes to write at length about his flings with Barbra Streisand and Anouk Aimee, as well as the Egyptian star who became his wife. Sharif had a blessed run in many ways – son of a rich timber merchant he developed an enthusiasm for acting, became a star in his first film due to his looks and marrying his co-star (a big name at the time), spotted by an agent for David Lean, having Lawrence of Arabia as his first Hollywood film. (How bad do you feel for poor Maurice Ronet, cast in the role but substituted, partly because his eyes were the same colour as Peter O’Toole's?).

The book is light on anecdotes. It starts with a great one, which has him, Peter O’Toole and Lenny Bruce in gaol the night he arrived in Hollywood for the Lawrence premiere (they went to see Bruce in concert then later on Bruce shot up). It’s a shame there aren’t more like this – he talks of roistering with O’Toole on “leave” in Beirut during filming, but the details are sketchy.

I would also have liked to hear a bit more about the films, because we get tantalising glimpses: Zanuck and Fleischer pursued him ferociously to play Che Guevera, he loved being in The Horsemen, his casting in Funny Girl partly came about because of a joke (they’d ask “Why not Omar Sharif” as a joke until eventually deciding to give it a go). 

It’s also interesting to read about a man who was Christian in Egypt, then converted to Islam, and got in trouble for kissing known Israel supporter Streisand in Funny Girl. It goes up to 1977 but he skims over his 70s movies.

Still, I enjoyed the book; it is light brisk reading and Sharif is entertaining company on the page.