The director of films including Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea and Doctor Doolittle discusses his forty-five years in Hollywood and shares stories about some of Tinseltown's legends. 30,000 first printing. $25,000 ad/promo.
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Book Description
Editorial Reviews
From Publishers Weekly
Fleischer has directed 47 feature films, including Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea , Doctor Dolittle , Tora! Tora! Tora! and Conan the Destroyer , but his delightful memoir is concerned less with his own accomplishments than with his encounters with "the moguls, monsters, superstars, greats, near-greats and ingrates of Hollywood." While admiring their individual talent, Fleischer is appalled by their sometimes infantile behavior. In a series of often hilarious anecdotes, he describes John Wayne's petty side, Kirk Douglas's ludicrous demands for attention, Robert Mitchum's methodical trashing of a set during a tantrum and Darryl Zanuck's very public infatuation with the French singer Juliette Greco. Other celebrated figures whose portraits are decidedly unflattering: Howard Hughes, Laurence Olivier, Orson Welles, Charles Bronson. Among those who escape unscathed: Irish playwright Brendan Behan, with whom the director spent a teetotaling but nontheless wild day in Dublin, and Edward G. Robinson, one movie star Fleischer admired as a human being. Photos. 35,000 first printing; $30,000 ad/promo .
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc.
From Kirkus Reviews
Merry Memoirs by Hollywood director Fleischer, helmsman of Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea, The Boston Strangler, Fantastic Voyage, Doctor Doolittle, Mandingo, Compulsion, and 43 other films. Lighthearted takes on tough moments fill the standout pages of Fleischer's 77 years in the flicks. He was born (in 1916) to the movies, his father being the celebrated animator Max Fleischer, who gave film life to Betty Boop, Popeye, and many other memorable screen characters. Dad's great black beast in the industry was Walt Disney, who later offered the author the job of directing Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea--which Fleischer could accept only with his father's blessing. Among the many wonderful moments rendered here are the wrestling with the mechanical problems of Jules Verne's giant squid--as well as with Orson Welles in the full tide of his ego (he later apologized to Fleischer for his blowups). Quite moving is the death of Edward G. Robinson, who, at 80, filmed the last frames of his career--his marvelous death scene in Soylent Green--under the author's direction. Fleischer limns the immense ego of 20th Century-Fox studio head Darryl F. Zanuck, for whom he worked many times, who's shown with slimy cigar and brown-stained teeth, marching about giving orders. Kirk Douglas, star of the Verne vehicle, as well as of one of Fleischer's best films, The Vikings, also gets rapped (and forgiven) for rampant egoism, while Howard Hughes--then head of RKO--remains an idiotic perfectionist and yet has an adventurer's winning glow. John Wayne, Robert Mitchum, Rex Harrison, and Charlton Heston all have their moments center stage as well. Women--never great power-wielders in Fleischer's heyday--get little play here. Top-flight tales from a director modest about his works and days. -- Copyright ©1993, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Top-Notch,
By
This review is from: Just Tell Me When to Cry: A Memoir (Hardcover)
Fleischer's career as a director and his reputation as a solid journeyman has been overshadowed by some wretched films during his last decade. Nevertheless, Fleischer's firsthand account of his years in and out of Hollywood--Fleischer is a classic-case "survivor story"--fleshes out the personality behind 4 decades of solid entertainment. His tangles with the likes of Howard Hughes and Kirk Douglas are just the tip of the iceberg. This should be standard reading for anyone who gives two shakes about classic Hollywood and for anyone who wants to understand the industry during its more "lost period" in the '60s. Fleischer has hit big on several projects, but it is his humility and depth of understanding of human behavior that characterizes this memoir more than any laundry list of his accomplishments. Of course, keep in mind, for every Amityville 3D, there is a Compulsion, or Boston Strangler, or Barabbas, or 20k Leagues. If anyone brings up Mandingo, hit back with The Narrow Margin. If anyone brings up the more canonized film books, keep this brilliant memoir on hand as a trump card.
2 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Thanks for the memories Dick.,
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This review is from: Just Tell Me When to Cry: A Memoir (Hardcover)
Richard Fleischer was probably a director who rarely made a good film. Now I am not saying that he was a bad director but he either made a great film or a mediocre one, almost never anything in-between. However, in my opinion, one of his rare "good" films was the Robert Mitchum/Jane Russell vehicle His Kind of Woman. A middling fair overall but enjoyable but not nearly as enjoyable as reading the frustration Fleischer had to endure from Howard Hughes from this wonderful memoir "Just Tell Me When to Cry". What was simply suppose to be punching-up of the finale ended up being re-shoot of the film which took a year. These were just one of the many trials Fleischer had to go through during his long career and there are a long range of names here from the golden age of cinema; John Wayne, Kirk Douglas, Eddie G. Robinson, Orson Welles, and even legendary director Akira Kurosawa. Fleischer retells his conflicts he had with the actors he worked with a great deal of respect, he simply tells it like it is but usually ended the recollections on a good note; I think the only one he had nothing good to say about was Charles Bronson. Not everything is dirt though, the most touching chapter by far was the recollection of directing a frail and dying Edward G. Robinson in his final film, Soylent Green. If you don't get a little choked up after reading that story, you must be a robot. Overall, this quite a read for anyone who either has seen Fleischer's films or a major film buffs.
2 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Wonderful and interesting hollywood memoir,
By Wendy "Librarylover" (europe) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Just Tell Me When to Cry: A Memoir (Hardcover)
This is an entertaining and interesting book for anyone interested in the older hollywood. Great stories about working with stars such as comments on working with Kirk Douglas are quite funny and working for Howard Hughes is also riveting with the crazy excess.
If you like this book, I'd highly recommend another director's memoir, Vincent Sherman's book 'Studio Affairs: My Life as a Film Director' - another excellent memoir from that era.
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