Customer Reviews

O.K. You Mugs: Writers on Movie Actors

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Having read the posted reviews,I began to challenge my own previous judgment about this book.It's hard to disagree with the criticisms---maybe I'm just a soft touch for this sort of writing.The way I figure it--if there's one really outstanding essay among the bunch--my money spent will have been justified.So--did this book deliver? I say yes---no regrets on my part for having bought it.You're not likely to go for all 26 entries(I didn't),for it's all a matter of taste in the end.The Barbara Payton piece alone covered the cost for me.It's an up-close memoir of a kid growing up among the sleazy environs of a Sunset Blvd. dive where he encountered,and was befriended, by the notorious actress turned hooker-and-dipso---a priceless recollection of the Hollywood community and it's fading stars in free-fall.The Mitchum piece was fine by me---I've read other latter-day hep-cat appreciations of Mitch,and this one is as good as any---if the actor had not survived to enjoy(?) such a disreputable old age,he might have become a genuine cult immortal.John Updike on Doris Day is outstanding---even if you're only a casual viewer(or listener)of her work.I thought "Rogue's Gallery" was just great---Luc Sante should do an expanded version of this with profiles of more actors---his insights are flat on the money."Warner Bros.'Fat Men" gives us Sydney Greenstreet and Eugene Pallette---Hey,those two guys are worth my $18 anyday.Then there's Angelo Rossitto(excellent)and a neat piece of detective work wherein Stuart Klawans tracks down the "shoe-shine" man from the arcade number in "The Bandwagon"---the idea itself is inspired,and the execution lives up to it.Those are my favorites,but there is other good stuff---if you like offbeat essays on underappreciated film players,you'll be well rewarded here.

This is a highfalutin version of what is sometimes called a "bathroom book." Lots of brief, easily, uh, digestible essays on actors, from mainstream superstars to barely remembered character people and cult and camp figures. The book has the feel of something thrown together within a couple of weeks of securing the book contract. There are some nice pieces here, like Manny Farber on movie acting, Geoffrey O'Brien on Dana Andrews, Updike on Doris Day, Michael Weldon's heartfelt if dully written rundown on Angelo Rossitto. But then there's the unbearably precious or preening pieces like one where the author is pretending to be Timothy Carey, and worst of all a laughably self-absorbed "tribute to Robert Mitchum" by an art critic who thinks he probably would have become Robert Mitchum's cool best friendor something if only he had ever met him but he didn't meet him, see, because he was afraid Mitchum would disappoint him. One cringes at the un-coolness of it. Overall, editor Sante might have been better off looking for pieces by more learned film writers rather than using some of the wispy contributions in this medium-grade collection.

Arguably, a good book with a tantalizing premise. Great?
By definition, cannot rise above B-grade. But hey, maybe
we'll just cheat around this next curve.

Now there's this list, see, you keep it in your head, see?
For those times, and there's a lot more of them now, when
you're just sitting around...some randomly acquired extras
in your trailer, waiting for the next casting call and these
new pals start jaw-jacking, always it's the GREAT character
actors who come up after the third beer.

It's when Strother Martin's name comes up. Always.
Question: why there is no Strother Martin Lifetime
Achievement Award at the Oscars? It is v. much a mystery,
a la those giant figures hacked into the Peruvian stonescape,
visible only from the Great Wall.

Why put a foot on the brakes if I'm going all the way?
Here's who was left out:

Gabby Hayes....(inventor of Western gibberish)
Slim Pickens...(heads and shoulders in the oater department)
Whit Bissell...(in uniform or out...the non-noir fifties grey flannel man)
Trey Wilson....(before his time, went across the picket line in the sky)
Nicky Katt.....(don't get mad, Nick, it's about time someone said it)
Bill Duke .....(stole a whole movie away from Terence Stamp, Peter Fonda and
Soderburgh in "The Limey." If he'd run for governor somewhere,
he'd be the third guy from Predator's cast to become governor.)
Steve Hahn........(could've been the next Viggo Mortensen but funnier)
Viggo Mortensen...(Witness, American Yakuza, etc. Could've been the next
Steve Zahn but not as funny)
Michael Lonsdale..(my all-time favorite...Day of the Jackal, Ronin, Munich,
Enigma. I know, not an American, but hey, it's the movies.)

This product does not cause lung cancer in laboratory animals...yet.

Several writers wrote essays on famous (and not so famous) actors. They talk about what makes the actor special, what works what doesn't. The famed writer Luc Sante heads the gang. It's a wild read that's written well. I had never heard of it and a friend gave me one, "you have to read this." I did and love it. If you love Hollywood and the behind the scenes stuff pick this book up.

There are two standout essays in this collection. One, by Robert Polito, wherein he recalls meeting a very down-and-out Barbara Payton at the Coach And Horses bar on Sunset Blvd. in LA (the bar is still there, too, go visit it). The other is Geoffrey O'Brien's excellent meditation on Dana Andrews. I picked up this book when I read actor Nick Adams' name on the dust jacket and in Luc Sante's essay, and because the theme of the collection, appreciations of character and cult actors, seemed intriguing. Unfortunately, the final result is a huge blown opportunity. The essay on Timothy Carey is a perfect example of what went wrong. There are also too many essays about actors who are huge stars by any measure-Doris Day, Mitchum, Liz Taylor-who have been written about aplenty, and the essays about them are not good enough to merit their inclusion here. There are so many interesting actors who either were once stars and have become underappreciated or never became stars but remain interesting. Sadly, this book doesn't begin to do justice to them.

This collection of 26 essays, supposedly devoted to "character" actors and actresses, seems, at first, to be enjoyable enough reading for those of us who love the movies. Until, that is, one notices that there are essays concerning such "superstars" as Liz Taylor, Robert Mitchum, and Doris Day, which, although interesting and fun to read, really have no place in a book like this. There is a noticeable dearth of articles concerning supporting actresses, and ethnic actors of both sexes are essentially ignored. Including more pictures would have helped identify actors who are not immediately recognizable to those of us born in the second half of the twentieth century, as well. A little more effort on the part of the editors could have made this mediocre volume a much better book.