GEORGE CUKOR, MASTER OF ELEGANCE

Levy (Film and Sociology/Arizona State Univ.) wrote 1987's overserious And the Winner Is: The History and Politics of the Oscar Award. His energized, studious Cukor biography differs from Patrick McGilligan's zestful George Cukor: A Double Life (1991) in several striking ways. While McGilligan stresses Cukor's double life as the only gay director of major rank in Hollywood and says that he spent his entire career fearful of a scandal that might cost him his high professional standing, Levy says Cukor's homosexuality was known by all and that people ``went out of their way not to damage him.'' When the vibrant Cukor arrived in Hollywood in the '30s, gay was okay but not great; then, in the uptight '40s and '50s, it became Bad News. Levy agrees with McGilligan that Cukor's emotional life was barren and that all his buoyancy was lavished on his films, his home decor, and his social gatherings. Nor did he like any open show of affection between men. His Hollywood labors began as dialogue director for Lewis Milestone's All Quiet on the Western Front, but he quickly built up steam, directing Bill of Divorcement, Dinner at Eight, Little Women, David Copperfield, Romeo and Juliet, and—most famously—Garbo's Camille. Cukor, who directed Jean Harlow, Ingrid Bergman, Anna Magnani, Sophia Loren, Elizabeth Taylor, plus Katharine Hepburn in ten films, Judy Garland in A Star Is Born, Audrey Hepburn in My Fair Lady, and Marilyn Monroe in two of her later but lesser works, acquired a reputation as a women's director, a label he dismissed. Levy also trashes the tale that Clark Gable got Cukor fired from Gone with the Wind for being a ``fairy'' and assigns the firing to a clash of vision between Cukor and producer David O. Selznick. Strong on actors, acting, and directing. Real film food.