The Good, the Bad and the Dolce Vita: The Adventures of an Actor in Hollywood, Paris and Rome (Nation Books) [Paperback]

Mickey Knox (Author), Norman Mailer (Preface)

Book Description

Series: Nation Books | Publication Date: March 25, 2004

Born and raised in Brooklyn with a street fighter's instinct and sharp Jewish wit, Mickey Knox leaves the army for the bright lights of Hollywood. But when the rise of McCarthyism puts an abrupt end to his hopes of working in American films, Knox debarks to France and Italy to work in European cinema. It turns out to be the best move of his life. This book—where every major film actor and writer of the last century appears—is a wonderful, gossipy history of European cinema as seen through the observant eye of Knox. From arguing with John Wayne, teaching Anna Magnani to articulate English, to fending off Zsa Zsa Gabor's advances and getting lost in Italy with a hungry Orson Welles, Knox was in the midst of it all, watching with a dry smile and a witty comeback. Of the colorful cast of characters who have passed through his life—Burt Lancaster, Kirk Douglas, Ava Gardner, Anthony Quinn, Henry Fonda, Burt Reynolds, Sam Fuller, Elvis Presley, Gore Vidal—one lasting friendship runs throughout the text. That friend—Norman Mailer—writes a preface to "a rare warrior of that rarely heroic world of stage and screen." Black-and-white photographs are included.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Having worked in the movie business for so long, Knox may have met everyone. Norman Mailer, Gore Vidal, Tennessee Williams, Ava Gardner, Marilyn Monroe, Bo Derek, Sophia Loren, Laurence Olivier, James Dean, Al Pacino... the list goes on and on. Regrettably, that list is the basis for the book's structure, with almost every one of the more than 60 mini-chapters devoted to an anecdote about a particular celebrity. Born in Brooklyn in 1922, Knox began his career on the New York stage and, after serving in WWII, made a promising start as a contract actor in Hollywoodâ€"part of the stable containing Burt Lancaster and Kirk Douglas. But after several fairly successful B-movie roles, Knox was blacklisted, and his acting career was, with a few exceptions, over. But Knox is plucky, not given to bitterness or defeat. He started a second career as a dialogue coach and screenplay translator of European movies. The influence of so many years working with screenplays is obvious and unfortunate: the book is choppy; the scenes are too short, most often beginning with the entrance of the star ("Clark Gable! The King!"; "The Italian icon: Marcello Mastroianni!"); and several chapters end with italicized epilogues ("fast forwards"). Only on the rare occasionâ€"usually involving Mailer, who wrote the introduction for the bookâ€"do his celebrity anecdotes rise above name-dropping to achieve real meaning. It's a book of moments rather than stories. Knox clearly had a remarkable life; it's too bad it doesn't translate to the page.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From Booklist

*Starred Review* Knox might have had an unremarkable career as a minor character actor in Hollywood, but the 1950s Hollywood blacklist of supposed Communist sympathizers snuffed out his American career. Lucky us, though, because that ill wind forced Knox to live a much more interesting life than he had planned as he moved to Italy, chased acting jobs in Europe, and branched out into other areas of the industry, such as translating scripts for spaghetti-western director Sergio Leone and crafting English dialogue to be dubbed into non-English-language films. Better still, he lived to make of his complicated life story a fascinating, highly readable, gossip-besotted memoir. When he isn't reporting on the eccentricities of various prominent and not-so-prominent actors, directors, and other artists, including Tennessee Williams, Anna Magnani, and John Derek, he is settling old scores or recounting his many amorous adventures. Especially hilarious is his account of John Wayne's pal, actor Ward Bond, who had the clout to get an actor off the blacklist, sitting on the toilet while questioning Anthony Quinn about whether Quinn was a "commie." Of course, Knox is a terrible name-dropper--but of the best kind: an interesting one. Jack Helbig
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Product Details

• Paperback: 352 pages
• Publisher: Nation Books (March 25, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1560255757
• ISBN-13: 978-1560255758
• Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 6.1 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,449,082 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Delightful and "insidery", January 3, 2005

By 

kooky Kid "Bookfiend1818" (east coast) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Good, the Bad and the Dolce Vita: The Adventures of an Actor in Hollywood, Paris and Rome (Nation Books) (Paperback)

I don't usually write reviews unless I am "blown away", or if I feel that the book is being unfairly ignored. In this case the latter is true...I found the book delightful, yes, a bit gossipy, but in a good way, there is no slander here.The anecdotes are charming ;this is a series of tales , of snapshots of an off-beat Hollywood life well lived.Unlike many other high profile memoirists of late, the narrator, although not lacking in self-esteem by any means- seems to have a realistic view of his own importance in the scheme of things.I appreciate that.I also found some of the glimpses of interactions with well known celebrities very insightful and telling -more sincere than I expected, sometimes it's better when the tales are told my someone in a less intimate position, the stories are told with less varnish.
Simply, I enjoyed the book ; anyone with an interest in movie making , Italy filmaking or 20th century Hollywood should
find something to appreciate in Mickey Knox's stories.

1 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars fun read of roaring sixties italy, August 4, 2005

By 

arzewski (pittsburgh, pa United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Good, the Bad and the Dolce Vita: The Adventures of an Actor in Hollywood, Paris and Rome (Nation Books) (Paperback)

I got this book from my local library while looking for material on spaghetti westerns, after listening to NPR's interview with Christopher Frayling, and accidentally stumbled on this title. Having lived in italy for 17 years, in the same city where the author lived, and having shared time and space with other expats, I was particularly interested in his stories that occurred in Rome, Italy (I didn't go to the Cassia area often or the Overseas School of Rome, so I probably never played with the author's daughters, but did some dubbing at FonoRoma, so who knows, we might have crossed paths).

I enjoyed the terse pace ("she moved out with the children. Divorce number three"). This memoir could have been three times bigger, but maybe it is better this way. It got straight to the point. Typical Brooklyn jewish style. That's good.

As for the spaghetti westerns, I really enjoyed the description of the back-and-forth, push-and-pull, not-this-but-this events of daily life in the production of a film.

His description of his forays into film production italian-style reminds me of american musicians getting gigs in italy in the 70's, maybe getting paid or maybe not. In some ways, this book is the cinema version of what was going on in the music world.

A nice style in his writing is the back-flashbacks or the references to the future (30 years forward), all seeded in a thick webbing of the story.

A page turner, stayed awake into the night to finish it, and done with the last page, all I had in mind is: a good life, packed enough to talk about.