Customer Reviews

Dangerous Company

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I have to qualify this review up front by saying that I am not, by any stretch, a fan of Peter Bart. I've found his books on the film industry to be sorely lacking in a good editor, fact-checker, and general humility. I picked up a copy of Dangerous Company because I saw Mr. Bart on the talk show circuit promoting it and it intrigued me, as do most things related to Hollywood and the film industry.

For starters, the book focuses on the "dark side" of Tinseltown. Okay, fair enough. All is well and good. It's a collection of stories that have, as their common theme, a Hollywood enclave where various characters who fill various niches in the industry live and come and go. Like any collection, there are some that are quite good, some that aren't, and some that are somewhere in-between. The main criticism I would have with the collection over all is that when Mr. Bart has something good going, he often doesn't see it all the way through. I admire some of the situations he devises and the characters he sets up, but then they sort of just resolve their issues (or not) in a rather pedestrian manner.

One other thing, and this is another quality of Mr. Bart's that I have found irritating over the years, is that this is a work of fiction but a lot of trouble seems to have been taken to avoid disclosing that. Mr. Bart was notorious in his book The Gross for dropping names left and right, yet criticizing people who drop names. He seems guilty of some hypocrisy here as well. I saw him give an interview on a conservative-leaning program that was there to discuss the seediness, corruption, and non-mainstream values of Hollywood and the host used Dangerous Company as an illustration of that, never once mentioning that it was fiction. Mr. Bart made no effort to point that out either, which to me leaves a somewhat dubious mark on the book. However, looking at it objectively, it's pretty good for those who have an interest in the subject.

I didn't like this book. Its written in fiction/novel form and I prefer Hollywood tell-alls that name names - real names. I honestly got bored not too many pages into this book. I couldn't finish it. This book may be more interesting to Hollywood insiders because so many of them can figure out who this author is talking about. I'm not from Hollywood, so I didn't know who he was talking about, if anyone.

I would recommend other books over this one - "Mr. S" by George Jacobs (a book about Frank Sinatra and friends), and I plan to read the Eszterhas book "Hollywood Animal," that just hit the book stores.

As Bart writes, "the movie business does not attract reasonable people." This makes for tasty stories. The tales are smarmy, entertaining and enlightening, but definitely not dangerous. I would have titled this Mildly Menacing Deceitful Egos; in these stories one can witness why Hollywood is called tinseltown, since each character shimmers briefly and believes they are really platinum rather than cheap reflective plasticized aluminum. Bart's characters could easily have become stock cliches, but happily, in his hands, they aren't. Most of the petulant characters are connected not by their Atkins diets, but by their ownership of homes on Starlight Terrace, a street that had its name changed from Rattery Lane, like an actress with a foreign sounding surname. There are stories about actors, agents, writers, lawyers, producers, directors, studio execs, more lawyers, an MPAA rater, and husbands, wives, adopted kids, and lovers. Most memorable are the stories of the aging actress who uses so much Botox, her director says she can no longer show facial expressions; her 60 year old agent who celebrated his birthday with a chemical peel that might melt his face in the LA sun; a rabbi who is more concerned that his MPAA-rater wife discusses curse words than the fact she is Catholic; the young agent and her younger boy-toy whom she uses for `recreation'; and her retiring mentor who reinforces the adage that successes have many fathers, and failures are orphans. While these may be cautionary tales to some, to many others they will serve as appetizing enticements.

I am not usually a fan of short stories, but Dangerous Company kept me intrigued all the way through. Of course, the tales in this book are connected, with later stories completing developments begun in earlier ones, so it might be considered a quasi-novel. I can imagine this book being made into one of those movies where various lives intersect.

Since all of the stories take place in Hollywood (well, technically one takes place in Europe, but it's still about Hollywood) and all of the characters are in the movie business, this is obviously not a book for anyone thoroughly turned off by Hollywood --unless they want their cynical view of that town reinforced. Peter Bart is the editor of Variety, the major movie trade publication, so he is almost overqualified to write a book about the movie business. From the book jacket, I gather that there have been speculations that many of the characters and scenarios are not so fictional after all. Frankly, this doesn't even interest me. I am as fascinated with movies as almost anyone, but I don't have much interest in the personal lives of the players. At least not in the gossip column sense; the way Bart introduces these eccentric and very flawed characters, I was fascinated.

If the author wasn't a Hollywood insider, he could be accused of doing a grossly exaggerated and unfair portrayal of stars, directors, screenwriters and agents. The people who populate Dangerous Company are materialistic, neurotic, insecure and power hungry. They are not, however, mere caricatures. They also show vulnerability and sometimes even compassion. The stories revolve around a newly developed neighborhood called Starlight Terrace, "invented" by a realtor who is introduced in the first chapter. It is fitting in stories about movie makers that the very place they live is a creation based on a whim.

The crises faced by the characters are in some ways universally human, but in other ways unique to Hollywood. An aging actress finds that her excessive cosmetic surgeries may jeopardize an upcoming role; the neighborhood association plans action against a hated new resident who makes movies all night long right in front of their homes; a couple who meet at a party discover they share an awkward connection...

This is a fairly short book, and it would be easy to dismiss it as light reading on a trivial subject. Yet the flow of the stories, the vividness and realism of the characters and the way these often absurd situations are made to seem perfectly believable make this an exceptionally enjoyable read. It even manages to shed some light on the human condition, which is one of the best things you can say about fiction.

I like Peter Bart. His writing style is great. The character development is strong and interesting. But overall, the book is too short. Just as we get to know the characters and the storyline, the book ends. This novel is closer to a fiction magazine article than to a book.
Bart should have kept writing... and given us our money's worth!