W.C. FIELDS: A BIOGRAPHY

W. C. FIELDS A biography. James Curtis. 2003; Alfred A. Knopf.

This is an excellent biography of the great comedian W. C. Fields, from his childhood to his early success as a juggler in vaudeville, to his early film performances, and on to his various successes (and failures) in motion pictures. Curtis describes how certain of Fields' life and career experiences later informed his film portrayals. The book also examines Fields' difficult relationships with his one wife and several mistresses, as well as with his two sons, one legitimate and one not. Curtis goes behind the scenes of such memorable films as The Bank Dick and The Old-Fashioned Way and relates the touchy working relationship between Fields and Mae West on My Little Chickadee. Curtis does a great job of getting across Fields' essentially lovable but often mercurial nature, which was exacerbated by his extreme alcoholism in later years. Sympathetic, incisive and well-researched, this is one superb biography.

Verdict: You'll want to rush out and see every one of Fields' movies! ****.

DANCING ON THE CEILING: STANLEY DONEN AND HIS MOVIES

DANCING ON THE CEILING: STANLEY DONEN AND HIS MOVIES. Stephen M. Silverman. Knopf; 1996.

From Broadway chorus boy to choreographer to director of several famous movies, Dancing on the Ceiling charts the course of Stanley Donen's Hollywood career with insight and admiration. Whether Silverman succeeds in making his case that Donen was one of the great directors, I'll leave to the individual viewer. Donen's romantic life follows an all-too-familiar course, with several failed marriages, including one to a woman nearly forty years his junior. Silverman briefly goes into these marriages but dispatches with them quickly, as he seems much more interested in Donen's career than his personal life, and as good as the book is, one might come away from the tome without ever really getting that much of a sense of Donen the person. However, the book certainly gives Donen his due as an important figure, detailing his triumphs and not skirting over his failures. Donen began co-directing with Gene Kelly on such films as On the Town, It's Always Fair Weather and Singin' in the Rain, then went strictly solo with such films as Royal Wedding, Funny Face and the excellent Damn Yankees. Later he became known as the "sophisticated" director of such films as Charade and Indiscreet. His misfires included the gay farce Staircase, Saturn 3, which he disavowed, and two movies with Yul Brynner, but he got some positive reaction to Two for the Road with Audrey Hepburn (with whom he worked several times) and Albert Finney. Written with Donen's cooperation, Dancing on the Ceiling is bolstered by many interviews with people who knew and worked with Donen, (although the device of quoting Betty Comden and Adolph Green as they affectionately discuss and disagree on several points eventually becomes tiresome).

Verdict: If this doesn't give you a new appreciation of Donen's work, nothing will. ***.

THE MEMORY OF ALL THAT Betsy Blair

THE MEMORY OF ALL THAT: Love and Politics in New York, Hollywood, and Paris. Betsy Blair. Knopf; 2003.

Betsy Blair [1923 - 2009], an actress and fourth-tier celebrity, had two claims to fame: her starring role with Ernest Borgnine in Marty, and her first marriage to Gene Kelly. Blair was a study in contrasts, someone who believed in communism while being married to (and essentially living off) a wealthy movie star. Blair met Kelly on Broadway when she was very young, and had no time to sow her wild oats, as it were. She made up for lost time with affairs while she was married to Kelly, then had a live-in relationship with a French actor (upon whom she also cheated), and wound up in a long second marriage with the director Karol Reisz until his death. Most of the book is taken up with the more eventful Kelly years. Blair's writing is good, the book is undeniably compelling (if full, as expected, of a little too much name-dropping), but one suspects the most interesting material is hidden between the lines. Completely devoid of Hollywood-type beauty -- Blair was not only plain but a bit homely -- some might nevertheless see her as one who could play the fame and success game as well as any Lana Turner. As in most show business memoirs, Blair does her best to establish herself as an important and notable figure, and the key to her personality seems to be found in an anecdote she tells of Kelly, who (understandably) rushed her out of a theater to avoid being mobbed by his fans but before she had a chance to take her own bow. A child bride, and still somewhat immature and a bit self-justifying as an adult, Blair claims no envy of Kelly's career but clearly wanted to come out from underneath his shadow. She was blacklisted in Hollywood, but managed to do some Hollywood films anyway because her husband was a big star at MGM. Along the way we're treated to mini-portraits of interesting political and cinema figures, as well as sad family stories, such as one about a perfectly happy gay uncle who was forcibly institutionalized due to his sexual orientation. Blair also appeared in such films as Another Part of the Forest and The Snake Pit, besides doing several films in Europe and taking a few television roles. Whatever her flaws as a human being, she was undeniably a talented actress. One distinct flaw in the book is that she offers few behind-the-scenes anecdotes about the films she made, and doesn't even mention such movies as A Delicate Balance with Katharine Hepburn!

Verdict: Absorbing read of the life of a Hollywood wife and what came later. ***.

CAGNEY

CAGNEY. John McCabe. Knopf; 1997.

John McCabe was actually the ghost writer for Cagney's memoirs, Cagney by Cagney, and herein fills in some of the gaps based on his knowledge of and conversations with the star and icon. There's Cagney's early days growing up in a tough neighborhood, his early stage career and his dissatisfaction with movie assignments and the money he was making, his hiring his actor-brother William to be his manager, his long-term marriage to wife "Willie," and so on. Apparently his relationship with his two adopted children was far from perfect, perhaps stemming from the fact that they were put in a separate house and didn't receive that much nurturing from their parents. There's just a little gossip -- Merle Oberon allegedly coming on to Cagney and being rebuffed -- and lots of information about Cagney's career. McCabe doesn't love every Cagney performance, and dissects his mannerisms and acting approach to certain roles, right or wrong, but considers him one of the three greatest American actors. While this is a solid and substantial book, one senses that a lot of has been left on the "cutting room floor," so to speak; sometimes being friends with your subject is not the best idea. With lots of illustrations and a filmography.

Verdict: Good, but something's missing ... ***.

SOMEBODY: THE RECKLESS LIFE AND REMARKABLE CAREER OF MARLON BRANDO

SOMEBODY: The Reckless Life and Remarkable Career of MARLON BRANDO. Stefan Kanfer. Knopf; 2008.

After many previous bios of Brando, Kanfer's book sort of serves as an overview of the actor's life and career, as there are few if any fresh interviews in the tome with really major figures in Brando's life. That being said, Somebody is still well-written and engaging. Brando had a difficult childhood, discovered he had a talent for acting, was throughout his life torn between the need to make films for money and his contempt for Hollywood and many of the films he appeared in. He was embarrassed to be a "movie star," took up social causes, but was not immune to wanting the perks he felt he was due as a celebrity. Brando's reputation rests on a surprisingly short list of classic films -- On the Waterfront, The Godfather -- and he made some truly terrible films such as The Island of Dr. Moreau, wherein his "eating disorder" had turned him into an unsightly blimp. Ever on the edge of becoming a has- been, Brando tried to revive his career with the remake of Mutiny on the Bounty, a not-bad picture that was a mega-bomb, but had more luck with the controversial Last Tango in Paris, which some critics at the time chose to take very seriously.  On one hand he could choose edgy projects like Reflections in a Golden Eye, playing a married Army major who's lusting for a handsome private, and on the other appear in big budget FX films like Superman for a hefty paycheck, phoning in a performance. Somebody takes the tone that Brando often wasted his talent, and compares him to Marcello Mastroianni, who made important films in Europe while Brando was doing a lot of Hollywood junk. Somebody may not convince you that Brando's life was that tragic, nor will it persuade you that he's the World's Greatest Actor if you feel otherwise, but it is an interesting read. Kanfer mentions gossip that he has gleaned from other books that he names in the text, but as those books have dubious sources, why mention them at all? For balance, he also has lengthy quotes from critics who did not think much of Brando nor his performances along with the raves.

Verdict: Entertaining bio. ***.