The Last Tycoon
Brief Synopsis
Cast & Crew
Elia Kazan
Jeff Corey
Betsy Jones-moreland
Robert Mitchum
John Carradine
Seymour Cassel
Film Details
Technical Specs
Synopsis
1930s studio executive Monroe Starr makes high money deals, calms nervous stars and carries on an affair. F. Scott Fitzgerald is said to have based the character on MGM legend Irving Thalberg.
Director
Elia Kazan
Cast
Jeff Corey
Betsy Jones-moreland
Robert Mitchum
John Carradine
Seymour Cassel
Robert De Niro
Peggy Feury
Tige Andrews
Dana Andrews
Lloyd Kino
Bonnie Bartlett
Anjelica Huston
Theresa Russell
Morgan Farley
Ingrid Boulting
Jack Nicholson
Diane Shalet
Sharon Masters
Patricia Singer
Eric Christmas
Donald Pleasence
Jeanne Moreau
Leslie Curtis
Peter Strauss
Ray Milland
Carrie Miller
Tony Curtis
Brendan Burns
Crew
Lloyd Anderson
Richard Bruno
Gene Callahan
Jack T. Collis
Lamas Criss
Gary Daigler
Ray De La Motte
Jane Feinberg
Mike Fenton
F. Scott Fitzgerald
Lewis E. Gensler
Earl Gilbert
Johnny Green
Edward Heyman
Joe Hubbard
Maurice Jarre
Maurice Jarre
Anna Hill Johnstone
Larry Jost
Victor J Kemper
Gary Liddiard
Barbara Marks
Richard Marks
Daniel J. Mccauley
Henry Millar
Thalia Phillips
Harold Pinter
Robert Raff
Marcia Reed
Jean Burt Reilly
Bob Reitano
Leo Robin
Ronald Roose
Bob Rose
Winston Ryder
William Craig Smith
Sam Spiegel
Dana Suesse
Anthea Sylbert
Bob Thomas
Ron Vargas
Richard Vorisek
Hanna Wajshonig
Karen Wookey
Ron L Wright
Jerry Wunderlich
Film Details
Technical Specs
Award Nominations
Best Art Direction
Articles
ELIA KAZAN, 1909-2003
Kazan was born Elias Kazanjoglou in Constantinople (now Istanbul, Turkey) on September 7, 1909. In 1913, he immigrated with his parents to New York City, where his father sold rugs for a living. At age 17, Kazan enrolled in Williams College in Williamstown, Massachusetts. After graduation, he went to Yale University's School of Drama, where he studied musical theater and began acting and directing plays.
In 1932, Kazan joined New York's socialist minded Group Theatre as an actor and assistant manager. At the time, the Group Theatre was the epicenter for radical thought and activity in the arts. Kazan befriended such notable theater personalities as Lee Strasberg, Harold Clurman, Stella Adler and Clifford Odets. Kazan even joined the Communist party for two years (1934-36), before resigning because of his disillusionment with its leadership.
After his stint in New York, Kazan went to Hollywood, where he found work as an actor in two Warner Brothers films: City for Conquest (1940) and Blues in the Night (1941). He made his Broadway debut in 1942, directing Thornton Wilder's The Skin of Our Teeth with Tallulah Bankhead; Fredric March and Montgomery Clift. It was a huge hit. After that success, it was back to Hollywood, this time as a director for Darryl F. Zanuck at 20th Century Fox. Kazan's directorial film debut was the poignant A Tree Grows in Brooklyn (1945), based on Betty Smith's bestseller about tenement life. From the beginning, Kazan proved his talent for enticing natural performances from his actors; James Dunn and Peggy Ann Garner both won deserved Oscars for their work in this film.
1947 would prove to be a breakthrough year for Kazan. He notched two huge hits on Broadway: Tennessee Williams' A Streetcar Named Desire and Arthur Miller's All My Sons; co-founded the Actors Studio with Lee Strasburg, a leading proponent of "Method" acting that is still widely practiced today; and two potent treatise on anti-Semitism Boomerang and Gentleman's Agreement, the latter earning Kazan his first Oscar. Kazan's next few films were not among his best, but they were well crafted and interesting: Pinky (1949), the story of a light-skinned black woman who passes for white (hampered by Jeanne Crain in the lead); and Panic in the Streets (1950), a taut thriller about efforts to contain a burgeoning epidemic which was shot entirely on the streets of New Orleans.
It wasn't until he brought Williams' A Streetcar Named Desire to the big screen that Kazan had a major impact on American cinema. Featuring an explosive Marlon Brando in the role of Stanley Kowalski, the films' raw sensuality brought a stark and galvanizing realism to cinema that simply hadn't happened before. A Streetcar Named Desire (1951) not only earned Kazan another Oscar nod for Best Director, but it made a star out of Brando and earned best acting honors for the rest of the cast: Vivien Leigh, Karl Malden and Kim Hunter.
It was around this time that Kazan testified before the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC). On April 10, 1952, he informed on former associates from the Group Theater, including Clifford Odets, Lillian Hellman, John Garfield, and Lee and Paula Strasberg. Despite formal protests from many acquaintances from his past, including Odets and Arthur Miller, Kazan remained unapologetic to the end for his actions, and he would remain questioned by social critics for the remainder of his life.
Kazan continued his association with Brando in Viva Zapata! (1952), and then in the powerful On the Waterfront (1954), which took eight Academy Awards, including Best Picture, and a second Best Director Oscar for Kazan. Budd Schulberg's incisive drama about the corruption of longshoremen's unions was the perfect subject matter for Kazan's ever trenchant approach to social consciousness and cinematic naturalism.
Kazan's next effort, based on John Steinbeck's East of Eden (1955) featured James Dean in his first major role. Kazan's continued ability to draw such raw, vulnerable performances out of his actors (as exemplified by Dean) drew critical praise from all quarters, and the film still stands today as one of the most searing looks of a family in conflict.
After East of Eden, Kazan would never quite scale the artistic heights of his previous movies, yet he still came up with some first-rate cinema: the steamy, boldly suggestive Baby Doll (1956), with a thumb sucking Carol Baker as a provocative child bride; an early, superior look at populist demagoguery A Face in the Crowd (1957) with Andy Griffith giving the performance of his career as a corrupt media darling; the moving coming-of-age drama Splendor in the Grass (1961) starring Natalie Wood and Warren Beatty; the evocative America, America (1963), based on the experiences of Kazan's own uncle's immigration experience; and his final film The Last Tycoon (1976) an adaptation of F. Scott Fitzgerald's unfinished final novel, which starred Robert De Niro.
Kazan was in retirement for several years, but he made a notorious return to the limelight when in 1999, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences' decided to give Kazan an honorary Oscar® for lifetime achievement. It was a decision met with vocal protests from aging blacklisted artists as well as younger activists. At the time of the presentation, several audience members would not stand up as a form of protest. Still, Kazan attended the ceremonies, thanked friends and family, avoided political discussion, and went home, a most dignified handling of a very controversial moment. Besides his widow, Frances Rudge, Kazan is survived by his sons, Leo, Marco, and Nicholas, a screenwriter who was nominated for an Oscar for Reversal of Fortune (1990); daughters Judy and Katharine; and several grandchildren.
by Michael T. Toole
ELIA KAZAN, 1909-2003
Quotes
How old are you?- Kathleen
I've lost track, about thrity five I think- Monroe
I don't think I have more brains than a writer, I just think that his brains belong to me- Monroe
All writers are children. 50 percent of them are drunks. And until very recently, writers in Hollywood were gag-men. Most of them are still gag-men, but we call them writers. This sounds like a try for power. I'll give them money, but I won't give them power.- Monroe Stahr
Trivia
Sam Spiegel had wanted Jack Nicholson for the part of Monroe Stahr, but Elia Kazan had opted for Robert De Niro.
The Movie based on the life of MGM studio head Irving Thalberg.
Miscellaneous Notes
Released in United States 1976
Released in United States 1996
Re-released in United States on Video April 18, 1995
Feature film debut for actress Ingrid Boulting.
Elia Kazan's last film to date.
Released in United States 1976
Released in United States 1996 (Shown in New York City (Film Forum) as part of program "Kazan" November 22 - December 26, 1996.)
Re-released in United States on Video April 18, 1995