Wednesday, December 14, 2011

No second acts in American lives and this is a dress rehearsal at best.

Act One (1963, Dore Schary) *

Cardboard depiction of Moss Hart’s legendary Broadway backstage autobiography,

told didactically without heart (pun intended). As a biopic goes this stands with Night and Day as wooden, lacking insight into character, and being overly sentimental in its attempt at myth making. George Hamilton as Moss Hart is as good as he has ever been. Jason Robards is the bright spot as George S. Kaufman – not subtle but the one character you want to see more of in this half-baked “play”. Biggest curiosity factors: Bert Convy as Archie Leach. Dore Schary (who replaced Louis B. Mayer at his eponymous studio) made many great movies as producer. In his single outing as a director, not so good.