Word: zanuck
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...hated Locustland. Hated the habit of hype ("You're gonna be the new Garbo"), the cult of cute (they tried to change her name to Gilda Christian) and the geniuses in silver ties. Her pages are blistered with portraits in epithet. Zanuck has his "beaver's teeth pronged into a cigar." Skouras is merely an "oxlike package, voice like a child's rattle." Louella Parsons is kissed off as "The Queen Mother at Toad Hall." Marilyn Monroe, "a child with short legs and a fat bottom," wonders innocently: "Who is Thomas Mann...
...sell biographies of Louis XIV and Stalin in the book section of the New York Times. As biographies become flabby compendia, so historical movies-with the notable exception of Rossellini's The Rise of Louis XIV -go up in factual pretension while they go down in quality. Darryl Zanuck in Tora! Tora! Tora! spent millions to reproduce historical fact, but sacrificed artistic coherence for lavish commercial packaging. Hughes' Cromwell also fails, though on a smaller scale. But even as a larger financial venture, Cromwell's soupy musical score would probably just have been soupier (kettle drums beating more often...
Last week, in a family drama, Richard Zanuck faced his white-haired and stern-faced father across a boardroom table at 20th Century-Fox's headquarters in Manhattan. A special committee appointed by the directors had recommended that top management be changed. Zanuck Sr., who is now 68 and chairman of the board, was saved the possible embarrassment of voting against his son. The meeting ended with Zanuck Jr.'s resignation. And Darryl Zanuck, who used to make and break stars, carve up bankers for breakfast, and once reputedly snapped at an assistant...
Storm Over Myra. What had gone wrong? Father and son had apparently had a falling out on a number of matters. Darryl Zanuck favored shutting down the company's costly Hollywood studios and producing movies more cheaply abroad; Richard Zanuck wanted to keep the studios going, at least until current productions were finished. Besides their business disagreements, Richard Zanuck had been impolite enough not to find film jobs for his father's friend, Starlet Genevieve Gilles...
...Besides, Zanuck Jr. had proved to be no more than competent on the job. At a time when the industry is beset by changing public tastes, mere competence is not enough. The young president had his share of successes (Butch Cassidy, M*A*S*H, Patton). But he had his share of bombs too (Star!, Ché!, Dr. Dolittle). Most recently-some say at his father's insistence-he sank $23 million into Tora! Tora! Tora!, which has an uncertain financial future. He also raised a storm of public indignation by backing pop porn flicks, notably Myra Breckinridge, which...