Non Fiction Book Reviews #30

ODD MAN OUT:

A MEMOIR OF HOLLYWOOD TEN

by Edward Dmytryk

In 1947, the House Un-American Activities interrupted the successful career and life of Edward Dmytrk, citing him with contempt of Congress. As a result he was fired from RKO and spent three years in England before returning to the United States to serve a six-month jail sentence and undergo a second round of hearings, during which he recanted and provided evidence against several of his former colleagues. In this memoir Edward Dmytryk chronicles the history of this troubled era in American political life while looking at this own life before and after the events known as the witch hunts. He writes about his brief membership in the Communist Party in America, explaining his initial commitment to what he perceived as communist ideals of civil liberties, economic justice, and antifacism, followed by his disillusionment with the party as it betrayed those ideas. Dmytryk then writes about what then happened and how that changed his life. He describes the activities, prejudices, and personal behaviors of all those enmeshed in the congressional hearings and his relationship with the other Hollywood ten and with the American Communists party. Dmytryk looks at how the hearings affected his personal life, the attitude of Hollywood executives, how he put his life back together after he was exonerated, and who was there to help him and the others who never forgave him or forgot his actions. An informative look at the inflexibility of both the American Communist Party and the government of the United States and how neither was able to accept individual freedoms. Edward Dmytryk was the driving force behind some of Hollywood's greatest films, and had two films nominated for Academy Awards for Best picture.

HENRY KING, DIRECTOR:

FROM SILENTS TO 'SCOPE

by Henry King, David Shepard, & Ted Perry

Henry King was born in 1886 and started in a repertory company in 1906. He continued in a variety of repertory companies and soon turned to directing along with acting. Then in 1913 he started acting in silent films, he also started writing screenplays, and in 1914 got a chance to direct. Soon he was directing, writing, acting, and some editing and for all this he was making $100 a week. Not bad for that time. He left Balba/Pathe' and went to American Film Company where he started directing and producing movies. Silent films were an art form in themselves and the public was watching films in droves. And Henry King was directing films based on plays and novels. In 1925 Henry went to work for Sam Goldwyn and in 1925 made the classic Stella Dallas. Sound changed the way movies were made and for many directors it ended their careers. Motion pictures became static and talking had none of the energy that silents had His first talkie, She Goes to War (1929) was only a part-talkie, but Hell Harbor (1930) was all sound. And with it he clashed with the sound men, but eventually got his way. In 1930 he went to Twentieth Century - Fox where he directed Will Rogers and introduced Don Ameche to films. He also directed Spencer Tracy in Stanley and Livingston, and Henry Fonda in Jesse James and spent time in Missouri talking to Frank James' son who was a retired attorney from Kansas City. In the forties he started doing films in color. King continued making movies in the 1940s at Fox including Zanuck's dream film Wilson (1944) which was a moderate success. In 1949 he mad Prince of Foxes with Tyrone Power and Orson Welles who he found was easy to work with. He went from short silents, to full length silents, to sound, to color, and then to Cinema-Scope, each brought a new challenge and King was up to it. Spectacular films as King of the Khyber Rifles (1953) and Carousel (1956). At 94, he passed a pilot's physical, making him the oldest licensed pilot in the United States.

A MAD, MAD, MAD, MAD WORLD:

A LIFE IN HOLLYWOOD

by Stanley Kramer & Thomas H. Coffey

Stanley Kramer has been in Hollywood for more than sixty years. He has made thirty-five movies as a producer and director. His pictures have won eighty-five Academy Award nominations, but Stanley has never received an Oscar. He has however, won the Irving F. Thalberg Memorial Award for excellence in production throughout his career And he proudly calls himself "the most frequently picketed producer in movie industry." Stanley Kramer was born on September 29, 1913 in Hell's Kitchen, a notoriously rough slum on the west side of mid-Manhattan. His father left several months after he was born and he and his mother, who was a secretary at the New York office of Paramount Pictures, went to live with her parents. After graduating from New York University in 1933 he went to California to work at the movie studios. He started off at Twentieth Century-Fox and then went to MGM working in various capacities. In 1943 he went into the Army to make movies. After his discharge Stanley went back to Hollywood to produce independent movies. His first movie was So This Is New York (1948) that was a box office failure. His second film was Champion (1948) about boxing that was a hit. the only problem was that the star, Kirk Douglas, had a nose job before production started and in the fight scenes had to be done very carefully! After that came Home of the Brave (1949) that dealt with bigotry and discrimination. Along with breaking new ground the movie was a critically and commercial success. Stanley went on to make two movie with Marlon Brando: The Men (1949) and The Wild Ones (1953), neither were a commercial success. Despite his box office failures, Stanley Kramer continued producing and directing movies. He became well know for a willingness to tell any story, treat any subject, and overturn any sacred cow in pursuit of a film of substance. Which is why his films are considered timeless classics today. But probably this most famous movie is: It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World (1963) that he produced and directed and has the most impressive group of comedians ever assembled for one picture. Filled with anecdote, legendary, and fascinating details, Stanley Kramer provides a unique portrait of Hollywood and what a film should do.

LEGENDS:

REMEMBERING AMERICA'S GREATEST STARS

by Tom Shales

Legends does not eulogize or mourn, it celebrates the way stars become part of our lives, brighten our own experience, join our most intimate memories. In another century they might be forgotten, but in the modern age of media, their images remain to delight and inspire. Legends is a celebration of remembering of those who helped define their time and ours. William Powell: He was uncomfortably daper, could stride through a whole movie and never unbutton his coat and that seemed natural. Jimmy Durante: He was probably the best song-and-dance mane who couldn't really sing and didn't quite dance. Elvis: He gave young Americans something intimately scandalous and something that wasn't their parents music. Rita Hayworth: She was the Mona Lisa of pinups. Not just a seductive image, but the very image of seduction. Gilda Radner: She never thought she was beautiful, but had a glow that brightened SNL and had a comedy genius that was sadly cut short. Burr Tullstrom: He gave life to the Kuklopolitans that delighted children of the fifties and never once talked down to the children. Alfred Hitchcock: A master of fright who delighted in scaring the public on the big and small screen and the public came back for more, who never could look at the shower the same again. Ray Bolger: He was the last surviving star of The Wizard of Oz who never expressed anything but gratitude about being known best for this one part, despite the many other roles the played on stage and screen. Desi Arnaz: He was most famous for the woman he loved. But the work he did in the fifties helped determine the course of television for years and years to come.

BIRTH OF THE MOTION PICTURE

by Emmanulle Taulet

One evening in December 1895, a crowd of Parisians gathered to see the world change. It was the first public showing of a device called the Cinematographe. Although the audience was unimpressed by the image of a street that was projected on a screen, they were stunned when a horse suddenly came into view, pulling a cart. The motion picture had been born. It was the Lumiere brothers of France who brought motion pictures to the world. They toured the capitals of Europe and sent operators abroad to shoot films to be shown and rent halls and organize screenings. On June 29, 1896 in a New York City music hall the first Cinematographe was show. Between 1895 and 1907 the catalogue of Lumiere films totaled 1,424 "views." In the United States William Kennedy Dickson, working for Edison, developed the Kinetoscope, and in the Black Maria (a film studio) started producing films for Kinetoscope Parlors, located in major cities. In his time Georges Melies, a magician by trade, discovered special effects and in 1896 presented the first movie with special effects. George Melies became popular fro his effects filled films including Trip to the Moon (1902). four years later his career was over and by the time of his death was all but forgotten. Kennedy left Edison to start his own company American Biograph to compete with Edison. But it was Thomas Armatm and Charles Francis Jenkins who developed the projection system that would be the foundation of the American film industry. Thomas Edison acquired the patents and on April 23, 1896 it was presented under the name of Vitascope. Because of Edison's monopoly, gypsy film makers went to California to make movies. In 1903 came The Great Train Robbery which was a landmark movie. And in that short time movies had become a part of everybody lives.

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