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September Song
September Song.
by John Weld
Scarecrow, 283 pps.,
cloth, $39.50
ISBN 0–8108–3408–1
[ Buy this book through www.amazon.com ]
Through the years, there has been a welter of movie–folk biographies — some excellent, some awful. Too often, the authors worship their subjects to the point of press agentry; conversely, some are so intent upon sensationalism that they engage in desperate searches for scandalous rumors (especially if the subject has passed on and can't sue).
Neither of these faults afflict John Weld's well–balanced biography of Walter Huston, a superb actor, the father of writer/director John, and grandfather to fine actress Angelica.
For many years, Weld, a novelist and screenwriter, was also a close friend to Huston and his third (and final) wife. "While [I was] living with the Hustons," the author notes in his introduction, "Walter told me his story and I wrote it all down. This is it." In fact, much of the telling is in Huston's own words, which is one reason why September Song ranks among the better bios.
The title is taken from the song Kurt Weill and Maxwell Anderson wrote for Huston in the play Knickerbocker Holiday (1938). Huston croaked out the tune and, much to his own amazement, his recording of it became a big hit. In addition to his life in vaudeville, legit theater and on the silver screen, Huston's private affairs are explored in considerable depth, including his family history, boyhood, three marriages, and a few of what seem to have been many romantic liaisons. The reader can almost feel Huston's triumph when he describes the elation of winning an Academy Award for his role in The Treasure of the Sierra Madre (1948), directed by his son.
In Huston's last picture, The Furies (1950), he played T.C. Jeffords, a tough-as-saddle-leather cattle baron. Some cowboys in the picture made up a trail song which began, There never was a man like old T.C. when he was in his prime. Jeffords's death scene ended with a line that could have described Huston himself: "There'll never be another like me."
Hollywood on Lake Michigan
Hollywood on Lake Michigan.
by Arnie Bernstein
Lake Clairmont Press, 364 pps.,
paper, $15
ISBN 0–9642–4262–1
[ Buy this book through www.amazon.com ]
Chicago is a city seldom explored in cinematic literature, but it gets a solid sendoff in this nicely researched history, which is aptly subtitled "100 Years of Chicago and the Movies." One might be surprised to learn that in the early years of the business, one out of every five American movies was produced in the Windy City. The first appears to have been The Tramp and the Dog, filmed in 1896 by Col. William Selig, founder of the Selig Polyscope Company. The city was also home to such pioneer studios as Essanay (pronounced "S and A," representing founders George K. Spoor and Max Aronson), which still stands on West Argyle Street with its name emblazoned above the doorway, as well as the Peerless Film Manufacturing Co., the American Film Manufacturing Co. and several others.
Chicago was also the stomping ground of the first Western star: Essanay co–owner Max Aronson, who produced, directed and starred in many Broncho Billy oaters under the screen name "G.W. Anderson."
An impressive number of West Coast movie companies capitalized on Chicago as a practical location — little wonder, given that the midwestern metropolis is one of the world's most distinctive and photogenic cities. Notable examples include The Color of Money, Backdraft, Home Alone, Wayne's World, A Raisin in the Sun, The Sting, Looking for Mr. Goodbar, The Untouchables and Hoffa. For The Blues Brothers, Universal bought a foundered suburban mall and stocked its stores just so co–stars John Belushi and Dan Aykroyd could wreck the joint in a massive car–chase sequence. The state prisons at Joliet appear in Roger Touhy, Gangster; Call Northside 777; and Natural Born Killers. Ironically, the three greatest films about Chicago gangsters — Little Caesar, Public Enemy and Scarface — were shot entirely in Burbank and Hollywood, California.
The author takes us on a guided tour with pictures of some of the old studio sites and of locations used by companies from California and New York. This impressive tome also features numerous interviews with filmmakers, a list of Chicago natives who became movie stars, and other bits of relevant information.
The Making of Citizen Kane
The Making of Citizen Kane.
by Robert L. Carringer
University of California Press, 85 pps.,
paper, $15.95
0–5202–0567–7
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This is a revised and expanded version of a book originally published as a hardcover edition in 1985. Though bigger and more sensational books on the subject have come to pass, Carringer's opus is the best of the lot for those who prefer information to gossip, facts to opinion and details to speculation. He offers up sharp scrutiny of the production from creative and technical points of view, along with solid information about the influences that helped shape it, the film's reception by both common and industry folk, its impact upon pictures that followed in its wake, and the great Orson Welles himself. Carringer backs up his information with plenty of studio archival material and interviews with Welles and other people who were there.
Welles is given the recognition he deserves as the prime creative force behind his magnum opus, but he's also perceived as the head of a highly skilled team. For once, ASC members Gregg Toland and Linwood Dunn, as well as Perry Ferguson, Mario Larrinaga, Bernard Herrmann, Robert Wise and many others, are all given due credit as collaborators rather than mere hired hands. Almost everyone gets a kind word save for the storyboard artists, whose work, according to Carringer, "usually lacks individuality."
Proper attention is accorded to Kane's aborted predecessor, Heart of Darkness (some fine production drawings are included) and the subsequent Magnificent Ambersons. The writer has done an admirable job of putting it all into a reasonable perspective. Except for his dislike of critic Pauline Kael's Citizen Kane book, Carrington seems to have no axes to grind or agendas to serve.
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