DRAGON COUNTRY

William Redfield and Kim Stanley

DRAGON COUNTRY (1970 telefilm). Produced and directed by Glenn Jordan. Written by Tennessee Williams.

This taped presentation presents two plays written by Tennessee Williams and which were part of his "Dragon Country" collection. "Talk to Me Like the Rain and Let Me Listen" is an early minor piece, a character study of a hustler (Alan Mixon of The Edge of Night) and his girlfriend (Lois Smith), both of whom are clearly living on the edge. He has been abused while being drunk, having cashed his unemployment check, and she has fantasies of a life -- living in a hotel by herself until she becomes an old woman -- that pointedly do not include him. The acting is good, but while the two characters are intriguing enough, Williams doesn't tell us enough about them.

Lois Smith and Alan Mixon

The second, better play is "I Can't Imagine Tomorrow." Kim Stanley (of The Goddess) lives alone in a large house but she is clearly quite ill, possibly dying, unable to climb the stairs to her bedroom. She is the only friend of William Redfield (of One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest), a neurotic, shy and lonely schoolteacher who just stopped going to work one day and lives in a small room in a "mausoleum" of a hotel. Stanley seems to have as much contempt for Redfield as love, and she complains that if she didn't speak there would be silence. She also fears he will be utterly alone if he doesn't meet new people somewhere. Redfield is a sad figure, and Stanley taunts him about how much he would love to move in with her, a notion that she initially seems to reject. But ... Stanley and Redfield offer outstanding performances, making the most of another relatively minor play, but one that is nevertheless compelling and even touching at times, although, again, one wishes we knew even more about the principals. Both plays examine how people are so self-absorbed by their own painful realities that they have difficulty reaching out to another suffering soul. Glenn Jordan also directed One of My Wives is Missing, which is quite different from this.

Verdict: Some excellent performances make this a worthwhile watch. ***. 

SUDDENLY, LAST SUMMER (1959)

"And this you won't believe:" Albert Dekker and Liz Taylor 

SUDDENLY LAST SUMMER (1959). Director: Joseph L. Mankiewicz. Screenplay by Gore Vidal from the play by Tennessee Williams. NOTE: This review includes important plot details. 

Violet Venable (Katharine Hepburn) is utterly appalled at the tale being told about her son Sebastian's demise by her niece Catherine (Elizabeth Taylor) and "wants that hideous story cut out of her brain." To that end she has called in a neurosurgeon, Dr. Cukrowicz (Montgomery Clift of Lonelyhearts), and promises financial aid to a possible clinic named after her son if the doctor performs a lobotomy on Catherine. Dr. Cukrowicz meets with the distraught woman -- the two are attracted to each other -- and he can clearly see that she is not the kind of hopeless case who would need a lobotomy. Instead he brings Catherine to her aunt's house -- accompanied by her mother (Mercedes McCambridge of All the King's Men) and brother (Gary Raymond of Jason and the Argonauts), who hunger for Sebastian's money -- and administers a truth serum. Catherine then tells the horrifying truth about what happened to Sebastian in the village of Cabeza del Lobo in Spain.

Katharine Hepburn and Montgomery Clift

The problem with Suddenly Last Summer is the same as it is with all plays and films written and produced before Stonewall. The viciously negative stereotypes about homosexuals abound, and it makes no difference that Williams and Gore Vidal were contributors to the picture. Although we never meet or see Sebastian, he hits all the stereotype buttons: vein, superficial, pretentiously "artistic," a bitchy momma's boy, and worst of all, a sexual predator. (One senses that when Taylor refers to boys in relation to her cousin she doesn't mean boys as in "boys and girls," but underage boys.) The production code had a lot of problems with Suddenly Last Summer but ultimately the film was released because, after all, homosexual Sebastian does die, which just proves the "negativity" of the gay lifestyle. (Of course gay men have always had a problem with being cannibalized, LOL!) While a modern interpretation might suggest that Sebastian is gay-bashed, it is much worse than that.  

a tormented Liz Taylor

The laughable notion of the play and movie is that Sebastian, who is supposedly shy, uses good-looking women like his mother (until her stroke) and then cousin to attract men and then presumably pounces on them be these men gay or straight (or offers them money -- or food). Most gay men really don't need this subterfuge to meet other men, even back in the thirties when this takes place -- and the idea of gay men using women to attract hopefully gay men is ludicrous -- although it's also stated that his mother has social connections so I guess Sebastian can meet the "best," well, meat. Of course, there have been self-hating homos who insist only on having sex with "straight" men -- you can see the problem there -- or who buy hustlers who may or may not be gay but are probably at least bi. 

McCambridge, Taylor and Raymond

In any case, playwright Williams was not necessarily being literal when Catherine tells of her snobbish cousin being chased by starving homeless boys who use their musical instruments, made mostly of tin cans, to cut away and eat pieces of their victim after they chase and surround him. The movie however, intimates that this is what actually happened. Could Williams, who had become quite a success by this time, have been thinking about the handsome young actors who wanted to use him so they could get cast in one of his plays? Were they figuratively "devouring" him? Or did he have some guilt over his own behavior? Williams at this time was not exactly what today we would call "out and proud." This was also true of Montgomery Clift, so one can only imagine what the hell he thought of the picture! 

Angry Liz 

Playing in "dragon lady" mode, Katharine Hepburn gives a strong, if imperfect, but very showy performance. Mankiewicz clearly worked with Taylor to help her give as strong a performance as she does. The role is basically beyond the actress' limited range, but she gives excellent line readings, and really delivers during her horrifying climactic speech, giving her readings a frightening urgency and intensity. Clift is basically fine in a not-terribly-interesting part, and McCambridge and Raymond are just about perfect. Albert Dekker, okay as an associate of the doctor's. plays a role that was not in the play. The romantic sub-plot, if that's what you can call it, is expanded, and there are added scenes showing Catherine in a nun's retreat and the state asylum. (A continuity flaw shows a crazy old lady in a rocker in both the nunnery and the asylum.) The film has zero period atmosphere and just comes off as if it takes place in the fifties when it was made. 

Verdict: Yes, this has fascinating aspects but it's terribly dated, quite homophobic, and emerges more as a sick and dirty joke than anything else. **1/2. 

SUDDENLY LAST SUMMER

Maggie Smith as Mrs. Venable

SUDDENLY LAST SUMMER (1993  telefilm). Aired on Performance in the UK and Great Performances in the U.S. Director: Richard Eyre. The original text of the one-act play by Tennessee Williams. 

Violet Venable (Maggie Smith), a very wealthy New Orleans widow, asks to see a well-known neurosurgeon named Dr. Cukrowicz (Rob Lowe) or Dr. Sugar (the translation) in regards to her niece by marriage, Catherine Holly (Natasha Richardson). In exchange for a large grant, Violet hopes that Dr. Sugar will perform a lobotomy on whom she feels is the thoroughly crazy Catherine, who has been telling equally crazy stories about the death of her dear son, Sebastian in the Spanish village of Cabeza del Lobo (wolf's head). These stories also sully the moral character of the dear departed. Meanwhile Catherine's mother (Moira Redmond of Doctor in Love) and brother, George (Richard E. Grant of Can You Ever Forgive Me?) fear that Catherine's story will prevent them from getting $50,000 each in Sebastian's will. 

Mrs. Venable confronts her relatives

With no credited screenwriter I believe this simply uses Tennessee Williams' original text, and has the same combination of grotesqueness and poetry in its story of a highly dysfunctional family, to say the least. As I've already discussed the homoerotic aspects in my review of the 1959 film version, I will concentrate on the acting in this telefilm. Maggie Smith, a better actress than Katharine Hepburn, manages to get across the pain of her son's death and other vulnerable aspects of her character underneath the harsh and desperate exterior, something Hepburn fails to do. Rob Loew offers a professional and sensitive portrait of the doctor. Natasha Richardson is clearly a more gifted actress than Elizabeth Taylor, although she plays the role quite differently, without Taylor's almost hysterical urgency but with a more shattered resignation. The other cast members all acquit themselves quite nicely, but one has to wonder if this production was worth the time and effort when one considers the play itself. Smith, however, is alone worth the price of admission. 

Verdict: Decent, very well-acted version of a dated and half-baked play with some fascinating aspects. **1/2. 

SUMMER AND SMOKE

Geraldine Page and Laurence Harvey

SUMMER AND SMOKE (1961). Directed by Peter Glenville.

"Ask for all -- and be prepared to get nothing." -- Alma.

In a small Southern town around the turn of the century, Alma Winemiller (Geraldine Page) has been in love with her next door neighbor, doctor's son John Buchanan Jr. (Laurence Harvey), since they were children. Alma would prefer a more spiritual romance with John, while the lusty and somewhat wild and free-wheeling John would prefer just the opposite. Alma's father (John McIntire) is the town preacher and her mother is mentally disturbed, having had a breakdown years before. John's father is incredibly stern, which perhaps leads his son to take up with the daughter (Rita Moreno) of the owner of the local gambling den. Alma eventually commits what John deems a betrayal, but the bond between them still exists, until both realize that the tables have turned ... This very odd "romance" is based on the 1948 play by Tennessee Williams (revised some years later as Eccentricities of a Nightingale); Page played the part in a 1950's revival. Page, who received an Oscar nomination, gives a very strong performance, although at times she seems overly theatrical. Harvey is good but not in her league.  Una Merkel [Destry Rides Again] also received an Oscar nomination for her notable performance as Alma's mother. Earl Holliman does some nice work as a traveling salesman that Alma encounters at the finale. Pamela Tiffin [The Fifth Cord] was "introduced" in this film as the daughter of a madame played zestfully by Lee Patrick [Caged]; Tiffin never developed into a major star.

Geraldine Page as Alma

I basically think Summer and Smoke is an absorbing and interesting picture with a good storyline, but it does have some problems. Page and Harvey were both in their thirties at the time, perhaps a little too old for their roles; Page was nearly forty, in fact. Younger actors -- assuming they were good actors -- might have added a certain degree of veracity. Considering the obsession that Alma has had for John over the years, I thought her reaction at a development at the end of the film is a bit too subdued. But the film has a good score by Elmer Bernstein (which even adds suspense to the proceedings). some lively and poignant sequences, moves quickly, and boasts an essentially fine performance by Page. Her scene when she finally declares her love for John is superb.

Verdict: Star-crossed, touching romance with some wonderful acting. ***. 

THE GLASS MENAGERIE

Amanda and Tom: Gertrude Lawrence and Arthur Kennedy

THE GLASS MENAGERIE (1950). Director: Irving Rapper.

Faded Southern belle Amanda Wingfield (Gertrude Lawrence) is afraid that her son, Tom (Arthur Kennedy) will turn out like his father, who left the family many years before and was never heard from again. Amanda is even more worried about her daughter, Laura (Jane Wyman), who is lame, painfully shy, and perhaps has emotional disabilities as well. Amanda importunes Tom to bring a friend and co-worker, a "gentleman caller," named Jim (Kirk Douglas) to supper so he can meet and romance Laura, but things don't quite work out the way Amanda intended. The Glass Menagerie, based on Tennessee Williams' first play, which he in turn based on events and characters from his own life, has been a bit watered-down from the play and has a Hollywood [supposedly] "happy" ending, but it's still a very strong picture. Lawrence leads the cast with her excellent portrayal of a woman who is kind and loving but also, unfortunately, quite overbearing at times. As the alternate film version of Laura, Wyman [All That Heaven Allows] is very good, as is Douglas [The Brotherhood] as the upbeat and likable Jim. Arthur Kennedy [Claudelle Inglish] plays the role in a more robust and less sensitive style than other actors, but he is also quite good as Tom. Rapper's direction helps to intelligently open up the play, and there's an interesting encounter between Tom and a woman trying to pick him up in a bar. Max Steiner turned in a lovely and more subtle score than usual, generally letting the play speak for itself.

Verdict: Quite nice indeed. ***1/2.

THE NIGHT OF THE IGUANA

Deborah Kerr and Richard Burton

THE NIGHT OF THE IGUANA (1964). Director: John Huston. Based on the play by Tennessee Williams.

"Don't make me take steps, Dr. Shannon ..." -- Judith Fellowes.

The former minister T. Lawrence Shannon (Richard Burton), who was locked out of his church, is now guiding ladies on a tour bus through Mexico. Young Charlotte Goodall (Sue Lyon) can't keep her hands off Shannon, inspiring the ire of her formidable guardian Judith Fellowes (Grayson Hall). Shannon takes the gals to a small hotel run by an old friend, Maxine Faulk (Ava Gardner), whose husband died a short while ago. While some of the tourist ladies put up a fuss, Maxine reluctantly admits the impoverished artist Hannah Jelkes (Deborah Kerr) and her aged poet father, Nonno (Cyril Delevanti) to her hostel. As these characters interact and Shannon faces dismissal from the tour business, will the man finally find himself  "at the end of his rope," like one of the iguanas tied to the stairs? Like many Williams' adaptations The Night of the Iguana is a mix of the poetic and the pretentious, but it does have some very tender moments. Burton, Lyon and Delevanti walk off with the acting honors. Grayson Hall [House of Dark Shadows] is a bit overwrought, almost ridiculous at times, as Judith, but the whole idea of the fire-breathing repressed lesbian is terribly dated. Deborah Kerr [Edward, My Son] is good, but she doesn't quite get across the weary defeatedness of someone who is a caregiver to a man in his nineties [walking him around Mexico in the heat with little money could almost be considered elder abuse], and is apparently homeless besides -- where is the sheer desperation she would be feeling? Gardner [Seven Days in May] is not bad at all and suitably earthy; Bette Davis played the role on the stage. The poem that Nonno completes, written by Williams, of course, is beautiful. Despite its flaws, the movie casts a certain exotic and haunting spell.

Verdict: Imperfect but entertaining and well-acted, with some interesting characters. ***.

GRAYSON HALL: A HARD ACT TO FOLLOW

GRAYSON HALL: A HARD ACT TO FOLLOW. R. J. Jamison. iUniverse [self-publishing company]; 2006.

This is an interesting biography of stage, screen and television actress Grayson Hall, who was nominated for a supporting Oscar for The Night of the Iguana, but who will always be best-known for playing Dr. Julia Hoffman on the afternoon Gothic soap opera Dark Shadows. The book looks into her early days before she reinvented herself as "Grayson Hall," her two marriages, her complicated relationship with her father, and the many people she knew and worked with in New York City. Jamison looks at the film that Hall denied she ever made, wherein she played a madame, Satan in High Heels, as well as the low-budget End of the Road, not to mention the two theatrical features based on Dark Shadows. Her stage work was eclectic and controversial: La Ronde, Genet's The Balcony, and even a couple of musicals. She was doing previews of The Madwoman of Chaillot when she was diagnosed with lung cancer. I remember watching Dark Shadows and wondering in how many different ways Hall could intone the phrase "I don't know" which she seemed required to say many times in every episode. Never conventionally attractive -- one might even say she possessed sublime ugliness --  Hall nevertheless proves quite glamorous in some youthful shots in the photo section. Jamison does a good job exploring the life and work of Hall, and suggests that back in the day she was almost some kind of gay icon.

Verdict: For Dark Shadows fans and theater enthusiasts. ***.

THE LAST OF THE MOBILE HOT SHOTS

Robert Hooks and Lynn Redgrave

THE LAST OF THE MOBILE HOT SHOTS (1970). Director: Sidney Lumet.

"Go home with you? -- but I don't even know you." -- Myrtle

Myrtle Kane (Lynn Redgrave), who once belonged to a group called the "Mobile Hot Shots," gets a stranger, Jeb Thornton (James Coburn), to pretend he's engaged to her so they can win some prizes on a local game show. Unfortunately, the host also wants to marry them on the program. Jeb takes Myrtle back to his dilapidated plantation, Waverly, where he lives with his black half-brother, "Chicken" (Robert Hooks). The dying Jeb agreed that Chicken would have the plantation after his death if he helped him work it, and signed a paper to that effect, but now he sends Myrtle out to get back the paper by any means possible. But Chicken knows something that may make all of Jeb's manipulations unnecessary. Loosely based on Tennessee Williams' play "The Seven Descents of Myrtle," it's a wonder why anyone thought Mobile Hot Shots would make a good movie. Everyone is miscast, and Lumet is certainly the wrong director. The movie can't seem to make up its mind if it's a comedy or not -- there are a couple of chuckles, but that's it, and the final revelation is a pip  -- but its biggest failing is that with all that's going on it's still a bore [even a climactic flood doesn't help much]. Redgrave seems to be channeling Geraldine Page in Sweet Bird of Youth (although her character is completely different), but she makes one of the the least convincing Williams' heroines ever. Coburn makes some effort but gets nowhere, and Hooks comes off best, but in this movie that's not saying much. Still it's hard to play Williams just right, and mediocre Williams is even harder. Gore Vidal's screenplay at one point seems to hint at homosexual incest, but as it comes out of nowhere and is unconvincing anyway, it was probably just to set up a quick, dumb gag late in the movie. The premise of the picture is intriguing but the development is just dismal. With Hooks playing a character who denies his being black, one would have to say Hot Shots is horribly dated as well. [If one wonders why anyone would want to own a property like Waverly in the first place, all I can say is real estate!]

Verdict: This should just be washed away with the flood. *1/2.

SWEET BIRD OF YOUTH

SWEET BIRD OF YOUTH (1962). Written and directed by Richard Brooks, from Tennessee Williams' play.

"The right doors wouldn't open so he opened the wrong ones."

A struggling actor named Chance Wayne (Paul Newman) comes back to the southern town of his birth with a fading star Alexandra Del Lago (Geraldine Page) in tow. He hopes to see the woman he loves, Heavenly (Shirley Knight) whom he, unbeknownst, left with child on his last dash into town. Heavenly's father, Boss Finley (Ed Begley) and his nasty son Tom (Rip Torn) are not keen on having Chance around, but Heavenly's Aunt Nonnie (Mildred Dunnock) has always been fond of him, and warns him to get out before it's too late. Not a good situation for a fellow to be in. Paul Newman isn't bad as Wayne, but he's not really the right actor for the role; Chance is essentially a male hooker and Newman was always too white bread for that kind of part. [It would have been very interesting to see Elvis Presley, who was first offered the part, in the role. He might have been more on the mark.] Geraldine Page gives a showy performance that occasionally lets us see the human being behind the essential monster that is Alexandra Del Lago. Although this is a sanitized, Hollywoodized version of Williams' play to be sure, some of Williams' genuis comes through, and his depiction of redneck Republicans seems ahead of its time. Madeleine Sherwood has fun as Miss Lucy, Boss Finley's paramour. Doesn't quite work up the sense of dread and terror that the play does, but it comes close.

Verdict: Williams Lite, but not bad for what it is. ***.

THE ROMAN SPRING OF MRS. STONE Novel by Tennessee Williams

THE ROMAN SPRING OF MRS. STONE (1950). Novella by Tennessee Williams.

Tennessee Williams' 1950 novella is a fascinating character study of an aging, self-absorbed, wealthy actress who has lost her husband and given up her career and settled in Rome, where the only thing that will fill her days, and end her feeling of “drifting,” is a handsome young Italian marchetta (or gigolo) named Paolo. The book is beautifully crafted, and Williams does a superb job of taking us into the mind and character of a not entirely admirable but all too human woman named Karen Stone. Williams is not without compassion for his main character, who has come to realize how much she, her career, and so much else depended on her now-faded beauty, but he doesn't sentimentalize her, either. The scene when her husband dies of a heart attack in the middle of a plane flight is powerful and moving. Paolo is not as well-delineated, but then it is the story of Stone, not of the young Italian. It is also probably true that Paolo doesn't have much character to delineate. Williams makes some attempts to present his point of view, but he seems to be someone who – even more than Karen Stone – has no redeeming virtues aside from his beauty. The Contessa who “introduces” Paolo to Karen and expects him to share the bounty he gets from Karen with her, is also an interesting, if less developed, character. The fourth character, although less important, is the most tiresome: Meg Bishop, an old and blunt school chum of Karen's who apparently once made a fumbling pass at her. She comes dangerously close to being an out-dated lesbian stereotype, almost an “evil dyke.” [It is an oddity that there are some gay men who can be friends with straight women but not with lesbians. Perhaps because they can relate more to a woman who also admires male beauty?] It also must be said that the novella, while a good one with many wonderful insights into human nature and elegant but accessible prose, has a certain dated quality if only because nowadays relationships between older women and younger men – while they may raise a few eyebrows – are not as scandalous as they were in 1950. The novel was filmed in 1961 and remade for cable in 2003.

Verdict: Imperfect but interesting. ***.

THE ROMAN SPRING OF MRS. STONE (1961)

THE ROMAN SPRING OF MRS. STONE (1961). Director: Jose Quintero.

This first film version of Tennessee Williams' novel, with a screenplay by Gavin Lambert, stars Vivien Leigh and Warren Beatty as Karen and Paolo. Both of them give good performances – it is actually one of Beatty's best -- but the picture is stolen by a superb Lotte Lenya in the expanded role of the lizard-like if oddly likable Contessa. [It is explained that she is originally from Budapest, unlike the Contessa in the novel, to account for her accent.] Coral Browne also scores as a somewhat more sympathetic Meg, who seems to genuinely love and care for Karen [who almost goes off to New York with her at the end]. The dopey screen persona that Jill St. John affected at that time works perfectly for the small role of the film actress who attracts Paolo. Jean Marsh appears as a young woman smitten with Paolo; she seems terrified of Beatty in an early party scene, but is all over him in sexy fashion in a later scene in a restaurant. Bessie (The Lost World) Love and Ernest (Bride of Frankenstein) Thesiger have small roles in a party scene at the end. It is a half an hour into the running time before Beatty is given a close up, which is not a problem so much as the fact that he is not given enough scenes to show off the charm that wins over the cautious and dignified Karen Stone.

Unlike the novel, the movie isn't that sympathetic to Karen, perhaps reflecting the mores of the time. Instead of "Romeo and Juliet," Karen's final performance was changed to "As You Like It," and her husband is made twenty-five years older, perhaps to explain why she requires and is amenable to a lover so much younger. Ironically, the film still has some daring elements, such as the [generally unnecessary] narration at the opening that talks of how the Spanish steps are a place of "assignation" and just on that word shows a middle-aged man talking to a man in his twenties. However, the Baron, who was briefly referred to in the novel as one of Paolo's earlier keepers (although it is suggested that Paolo kept the man sexually at bay), while also seen briefly in the movie, is not linked to Paolo in the film version. Finally, at the end of the film, as in the novel, when Karen throws her keys down to the dark, handsome Angel of Death who has been following her all around Rome, Vivien Leigh simply seems too cool and strong to want to commit suicide by inviting Death into her home. Excellent score by Richard Addinsell. Remade for cable in 2003.

Verdict: Still a fascinating movie with some fine performances. Lenya rules! ***1/2.

THE ROMAN SPRING OF MRS. STONE (2003)

The Roman Spring of Mrs. Stone (Cable; 2003). Director: Robert Allan Ackerman.

The cable remake of 2003, with a teleplay by Martin (Bent) Sherman, stars Helen Mirren and Olivier Martinez as Karen and Paolo, both of whom are superior to Leigh and Beatty in the 1961 version. Mirren is simply superb and Martinez, a fine actor, doesn't just play Paolo like Beatty does (however well); he is Paolo. Brian Dennehy is excellent as Karen's husband, as is Anne Bancroft as the Contessa, although she is nowhere near as good as Lotte Lenya in the original. The Meg character has been replaced with a male gay playwright who seems based on Tennessee Williams and is given some of Meg's lines with less caustic delivery. Roger Allan is very good in the part but the real Tennessee Williams wasn't as epicene as Allan plays him. This version is, of course, more sexed-up than the original, with the two leads sexily pounding away in a Cadillac out in the country at one point. There is also more of a political subtext to the movie, with Karen Stone representing the wealthy American invaders of Rome, American prosperity in general, during the difficult post-War period when so many Italians were living in poverty, which, of course, gives more impact to, and a strong basis for, Paolo's contempt for her. The handsome tramp or Angel of Death who follows Karen around (played by Rodrigo Santoro) is introduced snatching a discarded piece of pizza from the street and stuffing it hungrily into his mouth. [Unfortunately, this emphasis on his starvation and misery creates the impression that at the end of the movie he will be less interested in raping or killing Karen than he will be in raiding her refrigerator for a sandwich!] In this version, as in the original, the ending just doesn't convince. Mirren, like Leigh, seems much too strong and collected to throw her life away the way she throws her keys down to the man who's been stalking her. And neither film version today can quite escape the dated quality of the novel when it comes to older woman/younger man relationships. Still, both films are very good and worthwhile seeing. The cable remake has the slight edge due to the superior acting of the leads, as well as more scenes delineating Paolo's character, but the original does have the wonderful Lenya – an absolute force of nature! -- as well as an evocative Richard Addinsell score.

Verdict: See it! ***1/2.

THE SEXIEST MAN ALIVE:A BIOGRAPHY OF WARREN BEATTY

THE SEXIEST MAN ALIVE: A Biography of Warren Beatty. Ellis Amburn. HarperEntertainment; 2002.

An absorbing look at the life of the often contradictory actor and cocksman Warren Beatty, from his New York theater origins to his breakthrough in Splendor in the Grass, to his influential, controversial production of Bonnie and Clyde and the massive undertaking of Reds. Amburn analyzes the often bad choices (especially in film assignments) that Beatty made, as well as the actor's psychological underpinnings and his stabs at the political arena. Taking his cue from Lawrence J., Quirk's The Films of Warren Beatty, he comments on how Beatty used connections with older gay men who admired him to get his start in show business. One problem with this manuscript is that Amburn's detours into the lives and subsequent fates of some of the people who crossed paths or beds with Beatty should have been relegated to footnotes instead of stopping the manuscript dead at several points. Occasionally he offers a puzzling opinion, such as when he offers the staggeringly simplistic statement that Williams' Cat on a Hot Tin Roof and Streetcar Named Desire and Inges' Picnic are “rather transparent homoerotic fantasies about wayward, usually misogynistic hunks.”[And there are a couple more jaw-dropping moments. At the same time Amburn is right to point out that Bonnie and Clyde, whatever its cinematic merits, is a thoughtless glorification of criminality.] But Amburn does a good job of exposing the sleazy understructure of Hollywood, showing that Beatty would dump one woman only to go after another who had a higher profile or had just won an Oscar. He doesn't neglect the actor's good points, however. His dissection of the Beatty-Annette Bening marriage is also quite good.

Verdict: A lively, fast read with lots of info on the bed-hopping Beatty. ***.