Peter Lorre in a real dramatic and interesting autobiographic performance as an alcoholic Movie Director nobody wants to hire anymore (Lorres only directorial Movie was the german masterpiece "THE LOST ONE") and Jack Palance in a real great performance as his producer to give him another chance. Great supporting cast and real ambitious directing by young John Frankenheimer. What great TV shows they did then!
3 Reviews
Just one of several versions of the F. Scott Fitzgerald novel.
planktonrules20 February 2024
The F. Scott Fitzgerald novel "The Last Tycoon" was published posthumously in 1941. It is about a Hollywood producer from the 1930s, Monroe Stahr, a man modeled closely after the real life producer, Irving Thalberg. In this teleplay, Stahr is played by Jack Palance...a man who looks very little like Thalberg. Thalberg was a skinny, sickly man and Palance was a big, powerfully built man. To make up for this, Palance gives a surprisingly 'soft' sort of performance...speaking softly and being less 'Jack Palancy' than usual! And, I think he's quite good in it.
The story is about the latter part of a widely respected producer's life. It seems that Monroe Stahr is suffering from some serious ailment and he only has a short time to live. But instead of slacking off at work and traveling the world, he continues doing what he loves best....working.
This is a very good version of the story. I've seen a couple others and this one compares favorably except for one problem. The story is set in the 1930s and is about Thalberg. Making it a contemporary story set about 1957 changes all this...and really is a story that is too late, as by 1957 most of the big-time Hollywood moguls are gone or on their way out with the disintegration of the studio system.
The story is about the latter part of a widely respected producer's life. It seems that Monroe Stahr is suffering from some serious ailment and he only has a short time to live. But instead of slacking off at work and traveling the world, he continues doing what he loves best....working.
This is a very good version of the story. I've seen a couple others and this one compares favorably except for one problem. The story is set in the 1930s and is about Thalberg. Making it a contemporary story set about 1957 changes all this...and really is a story that is too late, as by 1957 most of the big-time Hollywood moguls are gone or on their way out with the disintegration of the studio system.
A Superior Adaptation of Fitzgeralds Novel
johnaquino24 September 2023
I watched this 1957 television version of F. Scott's Fitzgerald's unfinished novel after seeing the 1976 film version starring Robert DeNiro, directed by Elia Kazan, and written by Harold Pinter. The Kazan version is more polished and begins well. But it hasn't dealt well with the ending, which, obviously, needs to be supplied since Fitzgerald's novel has no ending.
The kinescope quality of the 1957 version is a drawback. But it is amazing work for a live television show. It has amazingly inventive direction by John Frankenheimer before his films The Manchurian Candidate, Seven Days in May, The Train, and Ronin. Jack Palance may seem an odd choice to play Monroe Stahr, but he was also an odd choice to play the lead in the 1955 film version of Clifford Odets' The Big Knife. John Garfield had originated the part on Broadway, and I think Palance, who had a lot of Garfield's touch guy, boxer style of acting, was fine in the film. As Stahr, Palance's saturnine appearance lends authority and a bit of menace. Peter Lorre is effective as a washed up director that Stahr saves. The bid difference between the 1957 and 1976 versions is that the latter just has Starh battling the New York office while the former has him pitted against the New York office and his own mortality. The 1957 version was written by Don Mankiewicz, whose father was Herman Mankiewicz, the co-writer of Citizen Kane. Mankiewicz appears to have taken the Hollywood lore he picked up from his father and used it to fill in the gaps Fitzgerald left. I recognized Stahr's assertion that he knew the film was too long because his butt started hurting as something Fritz Land reported hearing Darryl Zanuck say after a screening.
The 1957 version is well worth seeing.
The kinescope quality of the 1957 version is a drawback. But it is amazing work for a live television show. It has amazingly inventive direction by John Frankenheimer before his films The Manchurian Candidate, Seven Days in May, The Train, and Ronin. Jack Palance may seem an odd choice to play Monroe Stahr, but he was also an odd choice to play the lead in the 1955 film version of Clifford Odets' The Big Knife. John Garfield had originated the part on Broadway, and I think Palance, who had a lot of Garfield's touch guy, boxer style of acting, was fine in the film. As Stahr, Palance's saturnine appearance lends authority and a bit of menace. Peter Lorre is effective as a washed up director that Stahr saves. The bid difference between the 1957 and 1976 versions is that the latter just has Starh battling the New York office while the former has him pitted against the New York office and his own mortality. The 1957 version was written by Don Mankiewicz, whose father was Herman Mankiewicz, the co-writer of Citizen Kane. Mankiewicz appears to have taken the Hollywood lore he picked up from his father and used it to fill in the gaps Fitzgerald left. I recognized Stahr's assertion that he knew the film was too long because his butt started hurting as something Fritz Land reported hearing Darryl Zanuck say after a screening.
The 1957 version is well worth seeing.
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