Word: halliday
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Dates: during 1950-1959
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...Disenchanted (by Budd Schulberg and Harvey Breit) treats of Manley Halliday, who. if not wholly Scott Fitzgerald, is very much his blood brother. It treats of him, in a running narrative, in defeat; it shows him, by way of flashbacks, in decline. The razzle-dazzle days of the '20s, the champagne-bath marriage to an irresistible playmate and a hopelessly irresponsible wife, the dropping of bank notes like confetti, have left a writer as drained as his bank account. To get money enough to go on with a book, he agrees to work on a Hollywood film about college...
...sets to work-it is 1939-with a younger Depression-age writer who has admired Halliday's books but quarreled with his values. But beyond having no stomach for short-order hackwork, Halliday has no resources. Daystpass in California and New York as he fishes for ideas in water that has gone over the dam, as he tosses crumpled typewriter paper after crumpled memories, as he struggles against a deadline that is indeed an obituary...
With Jason Robards Jr. impressive as a collapsing standard bearer for his era and vocation, and with George Grizzard excellent as the younger writer, the main narrative has many moments, such as Halliday's proud roll call of Jazz Age names, that are vibrantly nostalgic, as it has others, such as Halliday's white-knuckled attempt to summarize a scenario that has never been written, that are tensely moving. Elsewhere, at times, the main story is wordy and under-dramatized. Despite Rosemary Harris' period appeal as the wife, the flashbacks seem inadequate, do more to catch...
...Disenchanted is mainly interesting for its biographical material, but this places a greater load on its performers. Jason Robards Jr., as Manley Halliday, turns in a striking performance, especially in the later acts, but it hardly seems plausible that he could ever have been the Golden Boy of the Twenties. Rosemary Harris, as Jere, does not quite demonstrate the qualities which would induce Manley's devotion...
...acting of George Grizzard, as Shep Stearns, the young writer who accompanies Halliday, is usually a hindrance, especially in the beginning. Gizzard continually overacts and, like many of the other performers, including Robards, mistakes volume for intensity. At many points, the grating quality of Stearns' performance, make audience participation impossible. Stearns' best moments are his comedy scenes with Robards, and these scenes form the most memorable part of the play. This is, in a sense, unfortunate, since The Disenchanted is not meant to be a comedy...