MOVIOLA

by Garson Kanin ‧ RELEASE DATE: Nov. 1, 1979

Five rehashed chunks of semi-fictionalized old-Hollywood gossip, loosely tossed into a creaky flashback frame. The frame: an Arab conglomerate sends 34-year-old Guy Barrere to negotiate the purchase of Farber Films from 92-year-old B.J. Farber (""My God, he's the history of Hollywood,"" Guy gushes); and so naturally old Farber starts reminiscing, allowing the corniest flashback lead-ins since the Forties (""As he spoke . . . I could see it all . . ."") to usher in familiar dirt from Hollywood past. True, Farber's own fictional career gets some haphazard attention: immigrant and New Jersey beginnings (he visits Edison), assistant work with D.W. Griffith and Mack Sennett, MGM vice-presidency, a studio of his own, three marriages, surly kids, etc. But this life story doesn't even half hang together, because faceless Farber is really on the premises to bear witness to Kanin's drawn-out versions of: the rocky romance of Sennett and Mabel Normand; the Fatty Arbuckle scandal (""I'm still convinced that the worst thing Roscoe did that day was get drunk""); the arrival of Greta Garbo and the fall of squeaky-sounding John Gilbert (was he sabotaged by L.B. Mayer?); the search for Scarlett O'Hara -- which here has Joan Crawford (""I feel! And want. And hunger"") seducing David O. Selznick (""he could contain himself no longer and began to feast on her indescribably inviting breasts"") while trying to land the role. And could such a merchant of the obvious as Kanin resist one more autopsy on Marilyn Monroe? Not on your life. So here she is -- in an affair with an aging agent, having plastic surgery, reaching stardom, ""beginning to use sleeping pills indiscriminantly,"" Arthur Miller and Yves Montand (""Oh Marilyn . . . I'm so disappointed in you,"" says pal B.J. Farber), and the well-known decline. Without a consistent point of view (Farber's often just slips into Kanin narration) or a character worth caring about, this is merely cheap/vulgar/sentimental gossip sloppily tricked out as fiction for cosmetic (or legal) purposes. But despite stars galore, some caught with their pants down, even the fan-mag audience will probably find it unsatisfying -- because Kanin's specious mixture of real people, roman … clef figures, and fictional characters lacks the sine qua non of successful dirt: the grimy ring of truth.

Pub Date: Nov. 1, 1979

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: Simon & Schuster

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 1979

Categories: FICTION