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John Huston [VHS]

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In 1989, Turner Home Entertainment released this two-hour documentary on the life of legendary Hollywood director John Huston. A biting, honest report, it contains rare, behind-the-scenes footage exposing an artist's talents and the demons that drove him. In one 16mm sequence, John is seen at a Hollywood party, arms draped around an unknown friend, as he liberally swigs from a bottle of whiskey. John Huston's life was almost as colorful as any one of his 40 films. Huston was born in Missouri, in 1906, and spent a generally wayward youth, after his parents divorced when he was seven years old. He was then raised by his mother. His famous father was Broadway/film actor Walter Huston, whom John directed in two movies. John Huston was restless; his early years saw him as a Broadway actor, an amateur boxer, a cavalry officer in Mexico, and a damn good painter. But John wanted to write, and he landed in Hollywood, in 1932, writing dialogue for, among others, Universal's "Murders in the Rue Morgue". John bounced around. By 1940, he was writing screenplays at Warner Bros., and somehow, he was trusted to direct Warners' 1941 b-picture, "The Maltese Falcon", a huge hit; making a star of Humphrey Bogart, and a director of John Huston. The documentary includes several scenes from his World War II documentary, the excellent "Let There Be Light"; an expose of injured American soldiers(some mentally), which was banned by the State Department until 1980. In later years, John continued directing, and also acted in films. He appeared in Orson Welles "The Other Side of the Wind", playing a movie director. This film was never finished, or released, but clips from it are available. Photos, home-movies, and film clips reveal John's gambling, drinking, carousing, and other events that resulted in five marriages and four children. Details come from interviews with Paul Newman, Robert Mitchum, and Evelyn Keyes, an ex-wife. Behind the director of the classics "The Asphalt Jungle" and "Moulin Rouge" was a great artist, and indeed, a complex, troubled soul. "John Huston The Man" is only available on VHS tape, but it can be found as an extra on the 2003 DVD of "Treasure of the Sierra Madre". The documentary is also available on the 2010 Blue-ray release of the same title.