Edmund Goulding's Dark Victory: Hollywood's Genius Bad Boy [Hardcover]

Matthew Kennedy (Author), Kevin Brownlow (Foreword)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 15, 2004

Edmund Goulding’s Dark Victory: Hollywood’s Genius Bad Boy is the first biography ever written about this eccentric genius of early-twentieth-century filmmaking. Goulding (1891–1959) was by turns a writer, producer, composer, and actor, but it is as a director that he made an indelible impression. He is most remembered today as the director of Grand Hotel, the great Event Movie of the Depression. At the dawn of sound, he wrote the story for the Academy Award–winning musical The Broadway Melody and collaborated memorably with Gloria Swanson and Joseph Kennedy for The Trespasser. He excelled at anti-war drama (White Banners, The Dawn Patrol, We Are Not Alone), fantastic Bette Davis weepies (Dark Victory, The Old Maid, The Great Lie), lilting romantic dramas (The Constant Nymph, Claudia), big-budget literary adaptations (The Razor’s Edge), and even film noir (Nightmare Alley). The London-born Goulding was a complicated and contradictory man whose notorious orgies, bisexuality, drinking, and drug addictions were whispered about in Hollywood for years. Yet his well-crafted plots and compelling characters set a new standard in American cinema and had a profound influence on the future of filmmaking.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"In a world where film buffs can choose from among 15 biographies and critical studies of John Ford and an equal number devoted to George Cukor, a book about the life and work of Edmund Goulding, the underrated and multitalented director of, among others, Grand Hotel, The Dawn Patrol, and the Bette Davis weepies The Old Maid, The Great Lie, and Dark Victory, is long overdue....Matthew Kennedy, who teaches anthropology at City College of San Francisco and film history at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music, has balanced scholarship with spice, unveiling the dark (alcoholism, drug-taking, and orgies) as well as the victories in the bisexual filmmaker's life. Goulding's brief marriage to tubercular dancer Marjorie Moss (Louise Brooks said he 'filled the last three years of her life with beauty') is intriguing, in a De-Lovely way. His sordid side helps to explain his anomalous noir masterpiece Nightmare Alley, starring Tyrone Power, whose sleek beauty was just beginning to crumple around the edges: Now we know just how a guy could sink so low."—San Francisco Weekly

“Edmund Goulding’s Dark Victory provides a welcome look at a man whose career deserves reexamination.”—Silent Era Film Books

From the Publisher

Terrace Books

Foreword by Kevin Brownlow

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 344 pages
• Publisher: University of Wisconsin Press; 1 edition (April 15, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0299197700
• ISBN-13: 978-0299197704
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 6.2 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 15.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (10 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,398,134 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Matthew Kennedy fell in love with the oldies on television while growing up in Redding, California in the 1960s and '70s. The inspiration for writing his first book, a biography of the singular actress Marie Dressler, came with her matchless performance in Dinner at Eight. Edmund Goulding, a thoroughly intriguing director-screenwriter-composer, became a biographical subject thanks to the suggestion of a friend. And Joan Blondell, well, who doesn't love Joan Blondell? For more information on Matthew Kennedy, please visit his website at matthewkennedybooks.com/

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

14 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Film writing at its best, July 17, 2004

By 

Kevin Killian (San Francisco, CA United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Edmund Goulding's Dark Victory: Hollywood's Genius Bad Boy (Hardcover)

I must add my chorus of praise for Matthew Kennedy, who has given us not only the life of a director with amazing talent, but also a new way of looking at both silent and sound films. Maybe you've heard of Goulding, and certainly you've seen a number of his films, but never before has anyone been abel to put together all the facts, do all the right research, and conduct an amazing number of pertinent interviews to produce such a stunning result.

If Goulding had only directed "Dark Victory" and "Grand Hotel" his place in film history would be assured--and even higher. It's his lesser efforts and indeed misses that have complicated his stature.

Goulding's work in music could be a book all of its own. I had no idea he wrote the music for so many films, including such notable songs as "Love Your Magic Spell is Everywhere" (from The Trespasser), "Mam'selle" (from The Razor's Edge) and "Dodie" (from "Teenage Rebel"). Given all that you'd think he'd be a natural filming a musical, but Kennedy's account of "Friendly Island" a/k/a "Down Among the Sheltering Palms" gives one pause.

Now I'm dying to see "We are Not Alone" and "The Constant Nymph." I've read both novels but are these films on DVD? Sounds like not. Oh well, something to look forward to. Thanks, Matthew Kennedy. You do San Francisco proud!

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Film Biography to Cherish, September 3, 2004

By 

Allan Taylor (Los Angeles, CA United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Edmund Goulding's Dark Victory: Hollywood's Genius Bad Boy (Hardcover)

Matthew Kennedy has done a tremedous service in detailing so thoroughly and captivatingly the life of one of Hollywood's most fascinating directors. Goulding was not only a director (and a favorite one of such stars as Bette Davis, Joan Fontaine, and Gloria Swanson), but also a writer, composer, set designer, and cinematographer.

Kennedy details Goulding's scandalous lifestyle well, but is even more interested in Goulding's accomplishments as film director, screenwriter, composer, etc. The author effectively captures the complex and paradoxical nature of the English-born Goulding whose excellent scripts and extraordinary directorial talent set standards in American cinema that are still influencing filmmaking today.

This well-researched, illuminating, and highly entertaining biography is a must for anyone interested in the golden age of Hollywood and, for that matter, anyone else who just wants to read a fascinating biography.

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Goulding of Hollywood's Golden Age, July 23, 2004

By 

Writeras (California) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Edmund Goulding's Dark Victory: Hollywood's Genius Bad Boy (Hardcover)

Author Matthew Kennedy does director Edmund Goulding (and films fans everywhere) a great service by bringing Goulding's story to life in his straightforward, well-researched, and highly readable biography. Although there's enough talk about Goulding's notorious orgies to satisfy gossip aficionados, Kennedy is more interested in the man's feats as a film director, screenwriter, composer, and all-around talent. The author emphasizes Goulding's creation of "Grand Hotel," one of the first Best Picture Oscar winners, his handling of numerous female stars (including Bette Davis in three films, Joan Fontaine, Gloria Swanson, and Ginger Rogers), and his deals (and troubles) with the powers-that-be at MGM, Twentieth-Century Fox, and Warner Bros. Highly recommended for those interested in the behind-the-scenes history of Hollywood's Golden Age.