Post by kijii on Sept 26, 2017 1:28:12 GMT
New watch:
Youngblood Hawke (1964), starring James Franciscus, Suzanne Pleshette, and Geneviève Page. A hopeless bucket of soapy melodrama, which I watched only because I love Suzanne Pleshette. She was good, as was Page, but I thought Franciscus was woefully miscast. Director Delmar Daves usually handled this kind of material much better. Unless you enjoy the cast, I suggest skipping it.
I didn't know what to make of this movie either.
I saw it for a different reason than you though. I saw it as the only novel-based movie by the 102-year-old Herman Wouk that I had not already seen. We mainly know Wouk for his Pulitzer-Prize winning novel, The Caine Mutiny (which was the basis for the 1954 movie that received 6 Oscar nominations). Wouk's other novel-to-screen based works include, Marjorie Morningstar (1958), and the great TV series, War and Remembrance (1988-1989).
Wouk also wrote the story and screenplay for Slattery's Hurricane (1949) which I haven't seen yet. However, it might would quality for our list of screenplays written from-start-to finish by the same writer (but Richard Murphy was also involved in the final screenplay).
Youngblood Hawke, seemed like it might have been written from a potboiler of a novel (which didn't generally fit my image of Wouk and his works).
It is basically about a young Kentucky truck driver, Youngblood Hawke (James Franciscus), who publishes a novel; goes to New York; gets caught up in the glitter of the publishing world; spreads his talent and now-found fame and fortune too thinly; and is quickly brought down in the rarefied book-publishing world.
There is also a love triangle, here, with James Franciscus being caught between his young book editor (Suzanne Pleshette) and an older married-with-children woman (Geneviève Page) who just happens to be married to a publishing entrepreneur (Kent Smith). Mildred Dunnock plays Hawke's mother. Mary Astor makes one of her final movie appearances, here, as an aging--but extremely rich--stage actress who aspires to make part of one of Hawke's novels into a stage play.
The cast for this movie is something like a A- to B+ cast in that it includes: James Franciscus (not be be confused with Anthony Franciosa), Geneviève Page, Suzanne Pleshette, Don Porter, Eva Gabor, and Kent Smith. Kent might be recognized for his role in TVs Peyton Place or his earlier movie roles such as Cat People (1942), The Fountainhead (1949) or The Spiral Staircase (1946).
Yes, this movie was a potboiler, but it held my interest--perhaps for that reason.
I believe I could see it again, knowing the trajectory it will eventually take.