1970s P2   This is the second interview from the 1970s.   At his peak, Richard Donner, director of Superman The Movie and the Lethal Weapon series, was one of Hollywood’s most commercially successful directors.   His breakthrough film was The Omen and it was at the time of that film’s release that I interviewed him.  I had seen The Omen at an audience packed preview screening a few days earlier.  Frankly, I detested the movie (and still do). Not only did I think that it was shamefully manipulative but…

INTRODUCTION For the next few weeks I’m going to post some interviews I did in the 1970s. Today, the 70s are considered a revolutionary time for American Cinema during which time Hollywood films began to incorporate the style and substance of European films made the previous decade.  It was also the time of the auteur—directors who placed their personal stamp on the films they made.  This is how this time is seen in hindsight.  But, at the time—as these interviews will show—these years during these years were…

THE MOON WAS VERY BLUE PART TWO   In 1947 Preminger had taken over the direction of Forever Amber after Daryl Zanuck fired its director.  As a book Amber was con­sidered the most salacious novel of the period and Zanuck believ­ed any film with that title would make a for­tune.  Even through the book had been banned by the Legion Of Decency, Zanuck was so positive that the film would be a smash hit that he went ahead and filmed it anyway.  With the PCA…

THE MOON WAS VERY BLUE PART ONE   This was actually my first attempt at prose writing.  It was for a book proposal.  I re-read and although it tell a fascinating story it shows my academic roots.  I would soon move beyond this but the piece still remains quite interesting. ****** Released in in 1953, The Moon is Blue—a light, little comedy of manners –was met with the loud­est and most rabid censorship furor in the history of the Ameri­can film.  Today, it is hard to believe but churches,…

  ANTHONY HOPKINS: AN INTERVIEW     ANTHONY HOPKINS IN 1975   At the time of this interview Anthony Hopkins was on tour promoting a TV movie about the Lindberg kidnapping. He portrayed Bruno Hauptmann, the convicted kidnapper; a performance that would earn the actor an Emmy.  This  interview–one of my first–was conducted 15 years before Hannibal Lector mesmerized film audiences, won Hopkins an Oscar and made him a household name.  At the time Hopkins was an established stage actor who stared in films and TV but hadn’t as yet reached…

GIANT, RED BADGE OF COURAGE AND THE THING: An Interview with Robert Nichols.   Recently in response to one of my Facebook posts a woman who had played a small part in the legendary film Giant wrote me and briefly discussed the part she played in the film.  This immediately brought to mind an interview I had done with actor Robert Nichols who played Pinky in the film   I searched through my disks and luckily I had saved it and decided to post.  It is…

  THIRTYSOMETHING ANGST: A FORCE OF NATURE What is thirtysomething angst? I didn’t know it at the time but a number of years ago I found myself in the midst of it.   Recently, I was going through some trunked writing and I came across this piece. It’s from an auto biographical book dealing with my high school years in which I was trying to blend fiction and memory writing concerning the events and people that had inspired the fiction into a single book.  (The book’s Introduction was posted as “It’s A Mystery.”)  Therefore, it told…

THE MUSE   THE MUSE IN THE MOVIES: RITA HAYWORTH AND SHARON STONE   What is a Muse?  Someone asked me recently to explain what a muse was. As I was babbling on  it occurred to me that several years ago I had written about me and my muse in an introduction to a book.  So, I searched through my trunk of unpublished material and there it was.  But, before sending it to the friend , I read the short chapter and found it quite amusing.  I’m hoping you will as well.  …

  PORTRAIT OF EDWARD SOREL AT WORK BY STEPHAN ALCOVE Edward Sorel, the award winning caricaturist has also written a book about the 1936 Mary Astor Custody Battle—Mary Astor’s Purple Diary.  I am fortunate in having just read an advance review copy and can tell you that Mr. Sorel has illustrated and written  a hilarious look of  a mass media circus before television, 24-hour Cable news, the IPad, IPhone, Facebook and even Twitter.  It is a journey back in time that will seem utterly pre-historic…

  HIGH SCHOOL AND YEARBOOKS In recent conversation with a friend somehow we got on the topic of High School.  We had differing views – she enjoyed it.  I detested it and told her that I would nuke my high school if I could. ( Yes readers, me and my positive attitudes must just shine though.)  Anyway I mentioned that I had jotted down for use in a book, comments written in my yearbook but later decided to cut it from the book  (A book by the way…