ANJELICA HUSTON: The Lady and Her Legacy

by Martha Harris ‧ RELEASE DATE: Feb. 21, 1988

Fully half of this premature (not to mention skimpy) biography of recent Oscar-winner Huston is about Anjelica's ogre-ish father, famed director John Huston, and his father, Walter Huston--which might be forgivable if the half about Anjelica had a deeper glow. Or if Harris had got more into her subject's confidence and pitched more of the book in Anjelica's voice. But Harris' voice is simply not interesting, and she spins out her Anjelica pages with fuzzy lengths of Screenland analysis (and many repetitions). Much-married John Huston habitually married child-brides. His fourth wife was ballerina Enrica Soma, who was 19 and pregnant with Anjelica when John was 43. The Huston clan resided in Ireland at Huston's estate of St. Cleran's--he took Irish citizenship to avoid US taxes. Meanwhile, Anjelica and her siblings saw little of Dad, who was always off to Africa or somewhere to make a movie. When she was 16, he tried to break her into films by giving her the lead in his A Walk With Love and Death, a total disaster, and it was another 16 years before he tapped her for Prizzi's Honor. After a successful modeling career, she more or less retired and entered a semi-married state with older Jack Nicholson, who repeated her father's wide philandering career--although Anjelica seems to accept it even as she accepted her late father's. And she has apparently tamed Jack. She also starred in her father's last picture, The Dead, and Coppola's Gardens of Stone, as well as the upcoming CBS miniseries of Lonesome Dove. Some ideas, but its stylelessness leaves the reader whipped.

Pub Date: Feb. 21, 1988

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: St. Martin's

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 1988

Categories: NONFICTION