Read Howard Hawks: The Grey Fox of Hollywood Online

Authors: Todd McCarthy

Tags: #Biography

Howard Hawks: The Grey Fox of Hollywood (126 page)

31 The Fox at Fox:
Monkey Business and Gentlemen Prefer Blondes

Sources for this chapter include the author’s interviews with Jane Russell, Gwen
Verdon, Paul Helmick, David Hawks, Barbara Hawks McCampbell, Robert Cornthwaite, Miles Kreuger; the lawsuit of Howard W. Hawks vs. E. Steinkamp Inc., E. J. Neville Co., Inc., Elwain Steinkamp, Donna Steinkamp, J. A. Thompson, doing business as J. A. Thompson & Son, Frank F. Montank, Neil F. Montank, Donald F. Buhler, D. D. Koonce, and Doe I to Doe 350, filed in Santa Monica Civil Court, May 14,
1952; the Hawks Collection at BYU; the Charles K. Feldman Collection at the AFI; the 20th Century–Fox story files at UCLA; the Motion Picture Association of America files at the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences; the Cary Grant books by Buehrer, Harris, Higham and Moseley, Nelson, Vermilye, and Wasnell; the Jack Cole interview in
People Will Talk
, by John Kobal;
Jane Russell: My Paths
and Detours—An Autobiography
, by Jane Russell; the Marilyn Monroe books by Janice Anderson, Richard Buskin, Fred Laurence Guiles, Donald Spoto, and Maurice Zolotow;
Variety
. The article on the shooting of
Gentlemen Prefer Blondes
appeared in the
Los Angeles Daily News
, December 12, 1952.

32 In the Land of the Pharaohs

Sources for this chapter include the author’s interviews with Noël Howard,
Alexandre Trauner, Harold Jack Bloom, Rudi Fehr, Paul Helmick, Lorrie Sherwood, David Hawks, Barbara Hawks McCampbell, John Huston; the Warner Bros. production, story, and legal files at USC; correspondence between Jack Warner and Hawks from Peter Knecht at Warner Bros.; the Charles K. Feldman Collection at the AFI; the Hawks Collection at BYU; “Genie de Howard Hawks,” by Jacques Rivette,
Cahiers
du Cinéma
, May 1953;
Variety; Hollywood sur Nile
, by Noël Howard, translated
by the author in unpublished form as “Pharaohs I Have Known”;
Anything for a Quiet Life
, by Jack Hawkins;
Past Imperfect
, by Joan Collins;
Inside Joan Collins
, by Jay David; the Faulkner books by Blotner, Kawin, and Oates;
Robert Capa
, by Richard Whelan;
Bogart
, by A. M. Sperber and Eric Lax;
Please Don’t Hate Me
, by
Dimitri Tiomkin and Prosper Buranelli; “Comment Peut-on Être Hitchcocko-Hawksien?” by André Bazin,
Cahiers du Cinéma
, February 1955.

33 Sojourn in Europe

Sources for this chapter include the author’s interviews with Chance de Widstedt, Carl Foreman, François Truffaut, John Huston, Lorrie Sherwood, Christian Nyby, David Hawks; Billy Wilder; the Hawks Collection at BYU; the Charles K. Feldman Collection
at the AFI;
Variety;
judgment in favor of the plaintiff, Athole Dane Hawks, against the defendant, Howard Hawks, in Los Angeles Civil Court, May 3, 1955; “Howard Hawks” (interview), by Jacques Becker, Jacques Rivette, and François Truffaut,
Cahiers du Cinéma
, February 1956, reprinted in English in
Interviews with Film Directors
, edited by Andrews Sarris;
Groucho
, by Hector Arce; lawsuit of Nancy
Gross Hayward vs. Howard W. Hawks & Doe I–X, Roe Corp. I–X, filed in Superior Court, Los Angeles, December 30, 1955;
Dangerous Friends: At Large with Hemingway and Huston in the Fifties
, by Peter Viertel; lawsuit of Howard Hawks doing business as Continental Company, Ltd., a Ltd. Partnership, and Howard Hawks, plaintiff, vs. Warner Bros., filed in Superior Court, Los Angeles, May 18, 1956.

34
Bravo

Sources for this chapter include the author’s interviews with Chance de Widstedt, Angie Dickinson, John Russell, Harry Carey Jr., Meta Carpenter Wilde, Budd Boetticher, Paul Helmick, Barbara Hawks McCampbell, David Hawks, Christian Nyby; the Warner Bros. production, story, and legal files at Warner Bros.; the Hawks Collection at BYU; the Charles K. Feldman Collection at the AFI; the Motion
Picture Association of America files at the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences;
John Wayne: American
, by Randy Roberts and James S. Olson;
Dino: Living High in the Dirty Business of Dreams
, by Nick Tosches;
Teenage Idol, Travelin’ Man: The Complete Biography of Rick Nelson
, by Philip Bashe;
Bogart
, by A. M. Sperber and Eric Lax;
The Making of the Great Westerns
, by William R. Meyer;
The BFI Companion to the Western
, edited by Edward Buscombe; the Leigh Brackett Collection at Eastern New Mexico University;
Please Don’t Hate Me
, by Dimitri Tiomkin and Prosper Buranelli;
Variety;
“Howard Hawks” by Jean-Pierre Coursodon in
American Directors
, vol. 1, edited by Coursodon with Pierre Sauvage; “Howard Hawks”
by Molly Haskell in
Cinema: A Critical Dictionary
, vol. 1, edited by Richard
Roud;
Howard Hawks
, by Robin Wood; divorce suit of Donna H. Hawks vs. Howard W. Hawks filed in Santa Monica District Court, October 1, 1959.

35 Fun in the Bush:
Hatari!

Sources for this chapter include the author’s interviews with Chance de Widstedt, Red Buttons, Gerard Blain, Valentin de Vargas, Bud Brill, Edward Lasker, Paul Helmick, Peter Bogdanovich, David Hawks; Paramount Pictures files;
the Hawks Collection at BYU; the Charles K. Feldman Collection at the AFI;
John Wayne: American
, by Randy Roberts and James S. Olson;
Sono come Sono: Dalla Dolce Vita e Ritorno
, by Elsa Martinelli; “High Adventure on Location” by Howard Hawks,
Hollywood Reporter
, November 14, 1961; the Leigh Brackett Collection at Eastern New Mexico University; the unpublished interview with Leigh Brackett by
Steve Swires; interview with Leigh Brackett in
Speaking of Science Fiction
, by Paul Walker, Oradell, N.J., Lava, 1978;
Did They Mention the Music?
, by Henry Mancini with Gene Lees;
Variety; Just Resting
, by Leo McKern, London, Methuen, 1983; interview with John Wayne by Charles Higham, Hollywood Film Industry Oral History Project, July 6, 1971, at Columbia University;
The Cinema of Howard Hawks
, by Peter Bogdanovich;
Movie
, no. 5, December 1962; “The World of Howard Hawks,” by Andrew Sarris in
Films and Filming
8, nos. 10 and 11, July and August 1962, adapted from a 1961 article in the
New York Film Bulletin; Auteurism
, Hawks,
Hatari!
and Me,” by Stuart Byron in
Favorite Movies
, edited by Philip Nobile.

36 A Fishy Story:
Man’s Favorite Sport?

Sources for this chapter include the author’s
interviews with Paul Helmick, David Hawks, Angie Dickinson, Norman Alden, Bruce Kessler; Universal files at USC; the Charles K. Feldman Collection at the AFI; the Leigh Brackett Collection at Eastern New Mexico University;
Variety; Rock Hudson: A Bio-Bibliography
, by Brenda Scott Royce; “
Man’s Favorite Sport?
(Revisited)” by Molly Haskell,
Village Voice
, January 21, 1971, reprinted in
Focus on
Howard Hawks
, edited by Joseph McBride.

37 Fast Cars and Young Women

Sources for this chapter include the author’s interviews with George Kirgo, Paul Helmick, Howard W. Koch, A. C. Lyles, Christian Nyby, Pierre Rissient, Chance de Widstedt, Robert Mitchum, John Woodcock, Bruce Kessler, Cissy Wellman, Norman Alden,
Robert Donner, Johnny Crawford; Kevin Macdonald’s interview with James Caan; Paramount
Pictures files; the Charles K. Feldman Collection at the AFI; the Motion Picture Association of America files at the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences; the Leigh Brackett Collection at Eastern New Mexico University; the incompetency case of Athole Dane Hawks filed in Superior Court, Los Angeles, September 5, 1963; James Caan interviews in
Game
, April 1975, and with Times Newspapers
Ltd., May 5, 1991; the Harold Rosson interview in
Behind the Camera: The Cinematographer’s Art
, by Leonard Maltin, New York, Signet, 1971;
John Wayne: American
, by Randy Roberts and James S. Olson;
Variety;
“The Name-dropper Drops Howard Hawks, John Wayne, Robert Mitchum and James Caan,
El Dorado
, Part II,” by John M. Woodcock in
Cinemeditor
, July 24, 1995; “The Namedropper Drops Arthur Hunnicut,
Ed Asner, Chris George, Robert Donner, R. G. Armstrong,
El Dorado
, Part III” by John M. Woodcock, unpublished.

38 The Last Roundup

Sources for this chapter include the author’s interviews with George Kirgo, Sherry Lansing, Sondra Currie, John Woodcock, Pierre Schoendorffer, Chance de Widstedt, Paul Helmick, Pierre Rissient, Bertrand Tavernier, Peter Bogdanovich, William Clothier, Peter Jason,
Robert Donner; Paramount Pictures files; “Entretien avec Howard Hawks,” by Jean-Louis Comolli, Jean Narboni, and Bertrand Tavernier,
Cahiers du Cinéma
, July-August 1967; “Journey into Light” (interview with Bertrand Tavernier), by Patrick McGilligan,
Film Comment
, March-April 1992; the Leigh Brackett Collection at Eastern New Mexico University;
Variety;
“The Gray Fox Is Back at It,” by Wayne Warga,
Los Angeles Times
, May 24, 1970;
Surviving Myself
, by Jennifer O’Neill;
Plimpton! Shoot-out at Rio Lobo
, ABC-TV special broadcast December 9, 1970.

39 From Sand to Dust

Sources for this chapter include the author’s interviews with Peter Bogdanovich, Chance de Widstedt, William Friedkin, George Kirgo, Lauren Bacall, Clint Eastwood, Pierre Schoendorffer, Sondra Currie, Tom Luddy, Robin Mencken,
Angie Dickinson, Paul Helmick, Charles Flynn, Jonathan Rosenbaum, Pierre Rissient, Bertrand Tavernier, Barbara Hawks McCampbell, Cissy Wellman.
The American Cinema: Directors and Directions, 1929–1968
, by Andrew Sarris; unpublished Hawks interview by Glenn Lovell, December 6, 1975; “Journey into Light” (interview with Bertrand Tavernier), by Patrick McGilligan, Film Comment;
The Men Who Made the
Movies
, by Richard Schickel; “Hawks on Film, Politics, and Childrearing,” interview with Hawks by Constance Penley, Saunie Salyer, and Michael Shedlin,
Jump Cut
, January-February 1975; “Hawks Isn’t Good Enough,” by Raymond Durgnat,
Film Comment
, March-April 1978; “Hawks vs. Durgnat,” by William Paul,
Film Comment
, January-February 1978; “Durgnat vs. Paul: Last Round in the Great Hawks Debate”
by Durgnat,
Film Comment
, July-August 1978; “Hawks,” by Joseph McBride,
Film Comment
, March-April 1978; “Director’s Life Saved by His Dog,” by Lynn Burns,
Desert Sun
, December 14, 1977; “Hollywood Doesn’t Live Here Anymore,” by Robert Parrish; obituaries in world newspapers, December 26 and 27.

40 Posterity

Sources for this chapter include the author’s interviews with Barbara Hawks McCampbell,
David Hawks, Michael Powell, Max Bercutt, Clint Eastwood, James D’Arc;
The New Hollywood: What the Movies Did with the New Freedoms of the Seventies
, by James Bernardoni; John Carpenter interview,
DGA Magazine
, July-August 1966; “‘There’s Something Deeply Moving About Ordinary Life,’” interview with Robert Benton by Christian Keathley,
Film Comment
, January–February 1995. Quentin Tarantino comments
are from an interview by Lynn Hirschberg,
Vanity Fair
, July 1995, an interview in the
Village Voice
by Lisa Kennedy, October 25, 1994, and
Quentin Tarantino: The Cinema of Cool
, by Jeff Dawson, New York, Applause Books, 1995.

Bibliography

Adair, Gilbert. “Bringing Up Baby.”
Flickers: An Illustrated Celebration of 100 Years of Cinema
. London: Faber & Faber, 1995.

Anderson, Janice.
Marilyn Monroe
. New York: Crescent Books, 1983.

Apra, Adriano, and Patrizia Pistagnesi, eds.
Il Cinema di Howard Hawks
. Venice: La Biennale di Venezia, 1981.

Arce, Hector.
Groucho
. New York: G. P. Putnam’s Sons, 1974.

Arnold, William.
Frances Farmer: Shadowland
. New York: McGraw-Hill, 1978.

Astor, Mary.
My Story
. New York: Doubleday, 1959.

Bacall, Lauren.
By Myself
. New York: Knopf, 1979.

Baker, Carlos.
Ernest Hemingway: A Life Story
. New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1969.

———, ed.
Ernest Hemingway: Selected Letters, 1917–1961
. New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1981.

Barllett, Donald L., and James B. Steele.
Empire:
The Life, Legend and Madness of Howard Hughes
. New York: W. W. Norton, 1979.

Bashe, Philip.
Teenage Idol, Travelin’ Man: The Complete Biography of Rick Nelson
. New York: Hyperion, 1992.

Basinger, Jeanine.
The World War II Combat Film: Anatomy of a Genre
. New York: Columbia University Press, 1986.

Bazin, Andre. “Comment Peut-on Être Hitchcocko-Hawksien?”
Cahiers du Cinéma
February 1955.

Becker,
Jacques, Jacques Rivette, and François Truffaut. “Howard Hawks.” Interview.
Cahiers du Cinéma
February 1956. Rpt. in English trans. in
Interviews with Film Directors
. Ed. Andrew Sarris. New York: Avon Books, 1967.

Behlmer, Rudy, ed.
Inside Warner Bros
. (
1935–1951
). New York: Viking, 1985.

Bellinger, Martial, ed.
Est Cine Club: Howard Hawks
Metz. 22 (Spring 1963).

Belton, John. “Hawks and Co.”
Cinema
(U.K.) 9 (1971). Rpt. in
Focus on Howard Hawks
. Ed. Joseph McBride. Englewood Cliffs, N.J.: Prentice-Hall, 1972.

———.
The Hollywood Professionals
. Vol. 3 of
Howard Hawks, Frank Borzage, and Edgar G. Ulmer
. New York: A. S. Barnes, 1974.

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