Customer Reviews

TROUBLES IN A GOLDEN EYE: Starring Taylor and Brando with John Huston

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

This book contains considerable information concerning the script development, casting, filming, and reception of John Huston's movie version of Carson McCuller's Reflections in a Golden Eye. Not being filled with a sufficient number of Hollywood stories and shenanigans, it is not quite a coffee table book, but it is not exactly an academic book, either, in large part because it neglects attribution, in all but the most general way as a list of sources at the end, of the sentiments and thoughts expressed by various characters who are quoted within the text itself. So we learn, for example, that one actor who worked with director John Huston (not necessarily on this film, however) found him self-involved and sadistic, but we never learn who this actor was or what the occasion for her or his comments might have been. Such comments, by the way, seem to have been included whether or not they pertain to this film chiefly because the authors, one of whom purports to be a Professor of Literature and Film at Curry College in Massachusetts and the other an actor, seem to dislike Huston from the get go and don't want to miss any opportunity to slur his reputation. Thus his legitimate artistic concerns about the technicolor effects he wished to achieve in this movie are dismissed as mere nattering (page 102), while what is supposed to pass as critical commentary on Huston's work overall amounts to little more than snide asides about what the authors regard as Huston's disingenuous, self-serving manner of speaking masquerading as special insights into the film.

I said that one of the authors of this work "purports" to be a professor of English because, if he really is, how is one to account for the almost innumerable errors in agreement, dangling modifiers, incoherent sentences, comma splices, and other mistakes the likes of which one is used to finding in undergraduate writing? Thus we read, for instance, the following sentence: "Determined to get the visual result he wanted, the film prints took on the nature of an obsession for Huston" (102). Does this sound like nattering, by the way? And even if it is, the sentence should be written, "Determined to get the visual result he wanted, Huston became obsessed with the film prints." There are countless similarly ungrammatical sentences scattered liberally throughout the book. At the very least, these issues, and others such a doubled phrases and stuttering or stammering starts in which the original form of the sentence is maintained in company with the form the sentence finally came to have, indicate that no one has done a very careful job of proof reading (another undergraduate problem). Taken together, these errors and oversights call into question the competence of the authors, a doubt that extends to the unsourced quotations to which I referred above. Is this really what the person in question said or wrote, or has an unattended error slipped through here as well? Why, in the same vein, use the same quotation over and over, or parts of it, as these authors do, sometimes, moreover, in an attempt to establish wholly different and even contrasting attitudes about the subject of the quotation? The book, in short, is appallingly written, at times incoherent, and though it may and undoubtedly does have some value in aiding our understanding of this under rated movie by a largely under rated director, its facts and especially its critical judgments need to be regarded with suspicion until confirmed by one's own independent research.

A book based on the making of John Huston's marvelously loopy 1967 film adaptation of Carson McCullers' "Reflections in a Golden Eye" should be a lot more fun than this. Over the years I have really come to appreciate the mix of talent and foolhardiness that converged to create this film which I regard as a mini- masterpiece of failed intentions, so I was thrilled to learn that a book existed that delved into the behind the scenes details of its production.

Authors Russo and Merlin have crammed the book with a lot of research details, quotes, interviews and little-known facts, but somewhere along the line a sense of fun was left out. Fascinating it is, engaging, I'm not so sure.

It really can't be easy to make a book about the oversized personalities of Elizabeth Taylor, Marlon Brando and John Huston joining forces to make a film about adultery, repressed homosexuality and a nutcase who cuts off her nipples with gardening shears, into a sober (sometimes dry) recounting of the ups and downs of the filmmaking process, but "Troubles in a Golden Eye" does just that. I really wish it were a more entertaining read, for there is no faulting the authors in the amount of information they have amassed about the film. Unfortunately, that may be the problem, as the book reads more like an unfurling of facts and less like a book that has a point of view. At the end one has no sense of what one is to make of it all. Does it reveal Hollywood's uncomfortable melding of art and commerce? Is it a treatise on artistic waste or ego-based folly? It's hard to come away with anything meaningful other than a vague sense of gratitude that at least

someone found the film interesting enough to write about.

After writing this movie book with Jan Merlin, I realized it was not your typical PR story or one of those fan-styled books. As writers, we know intimately the details of some of the stars and have inside information on the actual filming of this dog of a movie. This does not always sit well with friends of the people involved, which is why this is unauthorized book angered the hangers-on and toadies of the principals. Some people involved with this film wanted to spill the dirt, and let me tell you the dirt is here by the shovels-full. The usual jealous types can't say much except try to stop you from learning about egomaniacs like Brando, Taylor, Huston, and the cult writer McCullers. If it makes you want to see the movie again to understand what went wrong in the production, we have done our jobs. As for me, I love the movie and enjoy sharing how it must have felt to be on the set while it was made on Long Island and Rome in 1966. This was a goal with which we succeeded. Apologies to any whose feelings were hurt during the making of this book.

Enjoy!