Top Ten Imitation James Deans

 1. Michael Parks - played broody enigmatic loner in Bus Riley's Back in Town

2.Paul Newman - took Dean's part in Somebody Up There Likes Me

3. Christopher Jones - very Dean style in films like Wild in the Streets

4. Tab Hunter - under contract to Warners... more a nice young man that Dean's moody people

5. Troy Donahue - soulful man in a series of 60s films at Warners

6. Warren Beatty - discovered by Elia Kazan in a Dean style role

7. Robert Wagner - don't laugh - played Dean role in True Story of Jess James

8. Elvis Presley - occasionally went into Dean territory eg King Creole

9. Nick Adams (not Dennis Hopper) - copied Dean

10. Dean Stockwell - Dean style actor in Compulsion

Movie review - "The James Dean Story" (1957) **1/2

 A curio. An early work from Robert Altman, a documentary about the recently deceased James Dean. Because it's Altman it is visually interesting. It benefits from lots of contemporary footage - chats with people who knew Dean, stills, clips from premieres of his films.

They didn't get the best talent to talk - people who vaguely knew him at his home down and college, some kind-of ex girlfriends.

You can tell it's made by people of talent. They got Sandy Stern to write it, so the narration (with Martin Gabel's bombastic tones) has a poetic quality.

Interesting. I mean, Dean comes across as a pretentious wanker, to me at any rate, but interesting movie.

Next James Deans

 1) Paul Newman in Somebody Up There Likes Me

Dean was going to play Rocky Graziano in Somebody Up There Likes Me for MGM. He died. Paul Newman stepped in instead. Newman became such an individual star that it's often forget he was very much in Dean's shadow for a long time, playing a lot of similarly moody young men. Like Dean, he was also under contract to Warners. Every role Newman played in the late 50s you could imagine being played by Dean.

2) John Kerr in The Corn is Green

 In 1955 just before Dean died it was announced Maurice Evans was negotiating with Dean to star in The Corn is Green for TV with Judith Anderson. He was about to start rehearsals when he died. Kerr took the part - Anderson's role ended up being played be Eva La Galliene.

3) Dewey Martin in The Battler

Martin took over a role meant to Dean in The Battler on TV. 

4) Paul Newman in The Left Handed Gun

Apparently Dean was going to be in this. Sounds like a perfect fit. Unlike the first three this may have more been in the "advanced talks" phase. Dean would have made a Western, inevitably. Even Brando did one.

5) Tony Perkins in Fear Strikes Out

This was in negotiation apparently not a done deal. The role would be perfect for Dean - moody young man, athlete, TV origins.

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.

Book review - "Robert Altman: The Oral Biography" by Mitchell Zuckoff (2009)

Patrick McGilligan wrote a wonderful biography of Altman but this is awesome too - an oral biography seems to suit the director because he was so keen to make his film sets and life one big party. Zuckoff has the benefit of working on this shortly after Altman's death, so people's memories are fresh but they can be honest because he's dead.

Altman had an incredible life - Kansas City upbringing, party boy youth, genuinely impressive war service as a bomber in the Pacific, early Hollywood dalliance ending unsatisfactorily, making corporates and industrials in Kansas City, becoming a genuinely great TV director (including Fabian's best performance, "A Lion Walks Among Us"), blowing many opportunities with his personality but always getting a second (then third, fourth and so on) chance due to his talent, breaking into features and becoming a legend with MASH.

Few directors' careers had more ebbs and flows than Altman's but he always managed to survive - if he would drop his budget, try new genres, move to Broadway and cable. Actors love for him meant he actually bounced back in the 1990s - he seemed to thrive in the world of independent cinema. A tiring man to fall in love with but he eventually found the perfect wife. Not a great father either - but what a legacy.

This is a terrific book.

Book review - "Paul Newman" by Shawn Levy

Was there a luckier film star than Paul Newman? Born to a reasonably well off family in Cleveland (dad ran a successful sports store); he was genetically blessed with his looks and metabolism; he kept all his hair whereas other males in his family went bald; dad was a bit distant but taught him a good work ethic, joined the navy during the war but didn't really see hard service (he was on a crew to a pilot who got an earache one day meaning Newman missed a devastating kamikaze attack) and meant he could afford to attend college where he developed an interest in acting; he arrived in New York in 1952 just as live TV was booming and Broadway was peaking, so there was plenty of work around... and within two years was starring in a Hollywood blockbuster; he was a good looking masculine guy at a time when Hollywood was looking for such actors (the established Hollywood stars were aging and the studios weren't developing talent the same way); he inherited several roles meant for James Dean; he met and married his soulmate, who happened to be one of the most talented actresses of her generation; his passion for making tomato sauce led to a multi million dollar business; a passion for alcohol and partying (he's an alcoholic basically, which was news to me) was always managed to be kept under control.

There was tragedy and loss along the way - he had to leave his wife and kids to marry that soulmate, Joanne Woodward; a son died of a drug overdose; he cheated in the early 70s (I had no idea of this). But on the whole it was a remarkable run of luck. To his credit, Newman's always acknowledged this, working very hard, consistently seeking out the best material (support actors, writers, directors), always pushing himself into new areas (directing, producing, racing), returning to the stage as often as possible, being politically involved, having a sense of humour about himself, getting heavily involved in charity (he gives away a lot), trying to keep the size of his head under control, working at his craft.

As a result he enjoyed a remarkable career and remained one of the most highly regarded, loved and respected stars of all time. He took so many chances and risks - I'd forgotten just how many flops he'd made - but he always manged to come up with a hit in time to maintain his fame.

Levy has done an excellent job of research and writing, full of top notch analysis of Newman's performances and persona in particular. However as the book went on something kept nagging at me and eventually I figured out what it was: I found Newman, for all his fine qualities, irritating. The beer, the boorishness, the practical jokes and hamburgers and being a regular guy and into the Actors Studio. Sometimes his performances grate on me too with their 60s knowingness. Maybe I'm simply just not a fan. Not Levy's fault's he's done a great job, just how I feel.

Movie review - "Fixed Bayonets" (1951) ***

Typically tough, no-nonsense Sam Fuller movie which reminded me a lot of Battleground because it concerns a fight by an American platoon in a snowy region. This time the region is Korea, and the action is conveyed believably and with great skill, although it does get a little dull in places.

It's not a classic as a drama - there is a corporal (Richard Basehart) who doesn't want to fight and is worried about taking command, but he comes good in the end. There's not as many as the melodramatic flourishes you find in other Fuller films, which is perhaps this is not as beloved by cultists as others. James Dean has a very small role as a soldier; Gene Evans is good value as a tough sergeant.

There's lots of talk about sore feet, smoking, freezing and shoot out in caves. Basehart finding himself leading the platoon is a little predictable, but this has a fair amount of integrity.

Book review – “Nicholas Ray The Glorious Failure of an American Director” by Patrick McGilligan

I admit to being a little surprised to hear that McGilligan picked Ray as a topic – but when you think about it, why not? He still has a strong cult and his life was fascinating. At one stage the French new wave critics ranked him with Welles and Hawks – now I doubt he’d be as highly regarded, although Rebel Without a Cause remains a classic. He was Mr Cult film for a long time: They Live By Night, On Dangerous Ground, Johnny Guitar, In a Lonely Place, Bigger Than Life.

Ray’s great gift seems to have been getting along with powerful people – straight out of college he went to work at a sort of architectural commune with Frank Lloyd Wright, he had associations with Thorton Wilder and Woody Guthrie (doing folk music on radio, which was news to me), Joe Losey, Elia Kazan (his most crucial relationship – he brought Ray to Hollywood) and John Houseman. Later on he prolonged his career by impressing James Dean, Howard Hughes, Lew Wasserman and Sam Bronston. Bisexual, he chalked up an impressive list of conquests – Natalie Wood (when she was a very adult 16 – this is hot reading), Shelley Winters, Marilyn Monroe, Edie Wasserman, Gavin Lambert.

Did any directors throw away their life and career as much as Ray? He got chance after chance, constantly setting up in new countries and studios but burning bridges. After wrecking his reputation in Hollywood studios he found refuge with independents, then with Sam Bronston, then other places in Europe – but kept stuffing it each time with drinking, drug taking, gambling.

The standard of the book is very high, like all McGilligan works - extremely well researched, empathetic, very strong in particular in leftist politics and the critical reputation of its subject.

Movie review – M&L#5 - “Sailor Beware” (1952) ***1/2

Hal Wallis took no risks introducing Martin and Lewis to the cinema-going public – he introduced them in support roles in an adaptation of a popular radio show, then ushered them into service comedies and/or remakes of popular hits. This one is both – set in the Navy, a redo of a story previously done as The Fleet’s In (a nerd has a bet to kiss a popular singer).
I use the word “story” lightly – they kind of shove it in occasionally during comic set pieces. Indeed the big conflict (i.e. Corinne Calvet falls for Dean Martin then finds out about the bet) doesn't start up until ten minutes towards the end. But it's compensated by this being among the brightest and best of the duo's films.

The film is very reminiscent of Abbott and Costello movies – their regular writer, John Grant, worked on the script for this and you can tell. Some sequences are pure Abbott and Costello, such as the build up to the boxing game (“I fought with Gene Tierney” “Don’t you mean Gene Tunney?” “You fight who you like I’ll fight who I like”). Like Buck Privates, it was made during war time but there’s no mention of Korea – it makes the navy seem like summer camp, with some strict rules but plenty of time off to go to nightclubs, boxing matches and hang out in Hawaiian beaches.

But the comedy is very funny, Martin and Lewis are in strong form, the tunes are pleasant, it has lots of energy, and there are some great routines (eg Jerry hanging off a periscope). Another appealing thing about this film is the support cast: the love interests are played by Marion Marshall (who later married Stanley Donen and Robert Wagner), and Corinne Calvet (as herself, but only in a small role – too small considering she’s the stakes of the story); Robert Strauss, the big dopey guy from Stalag 17, plays a big dopey guy here; James Dean appears as an assistant in the final boxing scene; Betty Hutton (who starred in The Fleet's In) has a hilarious cameo.

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).

Book review - "The Hollywood book of death : the bizarre, often sordid,passings of more than 125 American movie and TV idols" by James Robert Parish

An inherently ghoulish topic is quite well done, with some decent research and sympathetic looks. It covers the well known victims - James Dean, Marilyn, etc - as well as some people who simply became obscure, eg Mary Pickford (which I wasn't aware of), as well as the "newer" dead, eg Chris Farley. Useful as a biographical resource at the very least.

Book review – “Elia Kazan” by Richard Shickel

Richard Schickel’s day job is a film critic for Time magazine and his biography of Kazan his highly opinionated. He doesn’t stuff around – from the beginning he opens with a spirited defence of Kazan’s naming names. Not that this is a hagiography of Kazan, he criticizes the director a fair bit – he doesn’t like East of Eden or his novels – but he is on Kazan’s side about the naming names thing. I agree too much has been made of this in recent years, but it is an issue that flames passions – I remember getting in an argument with a friend at a picnic in 1999. 

This is a pretty good biography, which isn’t so much interested in facts and events as in analyising films and political background to the time. Schickel is a little easy on McCarthyism – yes, it was a lot less nasty than Stalinism but it still wasn’t very nice.

At times I wondered if this book and some of its attitudes was partly a dig at Patrick McGilligan, who has written extensively on the blacklist and got stuck into Shickel over the latter’s Clint Eastwood bio (McGilligan had a similar Eastwood bio and he thought Shickel went way too easy on Eastwood.) I enjoyed the book a lot, and it made an ideal companion to Kazan’s brilliant memoirs. Kazan was a feisty character – sadly he went a bit ga ga in his final few years.