"Newman, Kim - The Pierce-Arrow Stalled, And..." - читать интересную книгу автора (Newman Kim) Curtiz on it, with Muni as the pastor shot by Pancho Villa. If we go to
war, movies will take us there.' Welles wondered if that was a good idea, but the thought of a medium with such power was intoxicating. 'Writers fight to work here, ever since we let Fitzgerald make Tender is Night the way he wanted. All them books they said couldn't be done, we did: Sun Also Rises, Lady Chatterley, Postman Always Dings Twice. And we didn't clean 'em up neither. We got the full set: Bill Faulkner, Ben Hecht, Cliff Odets. We let Fonda make that picture about hoboes on motor-cycles with all the crazy music and the weird ending the kids went wild for. Let the rest of the town serve up tits and ass, we're the studio with balls.' Welles was intrigued. Broadway was sewed up by old farts who thought Arthur Wing Pinero a dangerous radical, and even radio was too small for what he wanted to do. Hollywood hadn't really changed; the studios still stumbled in the dark for something that would sell. Even the greats weren't immune: von Stroheim couldn't get a job since Cimarron, the epic Western that lost more money than any other movie since Intolerance. But the potential was there. Hawks showed that, and Jack Ford and a couple of others. And it was a hell of a train set. 'So, Boy Wonder, what do you want to make? Name any book, and I'll buy it. Name a star, I'll get him. Name anything.' He was tempted to suggest Dr Faustus, using split-screen to play both Faustus and Mephistopheles. Then, he pondered Heart of Darkness. No, there was only one choice. Like everyone else, he'd read it that year. 'Gone With the Wind, Jack.' Warner stuck out his hand and flexed his fingers for the shake. 'Deal.' The institution in 1937, at the insistence of President Charles Coughlin, of a Ratings Board was intended to curb an industry even advocates insisted had got wildly out of hand. Actually the Board served to sanction even more excess: pictures awarded an 'A' certificate, which barred children under sixteen, were effectively allowed, under the constitutional right to freedom of speech, to represent anything short of real-life murder and bestiality. Those who had gone as far as they thought possible went further; in Technicolor and on giant screens, Hollywood productions were able to show what had hitherto only been seen in 8 mm at firehouse smokers. The most celebrated scene of the late '30s came in Michael Curtiz and William Keighley's The Adventures of Casanova when Mae West demonstrated her throat capacity by swallowing to the root Errol Flynn's justly legendary attribute. Catriona Kaye, Libido in America: A Social History of Hollywood (1953) 'Are you really Dillinger?' the kid asked. Johnny nodded, 'the same.' 'And you've been hiding out here for ... how long?' 'Since before everybody got the same idea, son.' The kid beamed and shook his head. He was a handsome pug, this long-legged |
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