“WHAT HAPPENS NEXT?”

By Raymond Benson

The celebrated filmmaker Elia Kazan’s last picture, The Last Tycoon, was adapted from celebrated writer F. Scott Fitzgerald’s last novel (published unfinished in 1941). Released in 1976, the film features a stellar cast, Oscar-nominated Art Direction, and a respectful, intelligent screenplay by playwright Harold Pinter.

And yet, The Last Tycoon is a noble and interesting failure. That is not to say it’s not worth seeing. There is a lot to admire in the movie, especially for audiences interested in Hollywood history.

Robert De Niro plays Monroe Stahr, the production chief and creative head of one of the biggest studios in 1930s Hollywood. Anyone who knows anything about this era of Tinsel Town will realize instantly that the character of Monroe is inspired by Irving Thalberg, the genius producer who held the same jobs at MGM during its golden age. He’s young, handsome, smart, and has some health problems… but he has a way dealing with talent and executives.

Robert Mitchum is the head of the studio, Pat Brady, perhaps something of the Louis B. Mayer of the story. His daughter, Cecilia (the radiant Theresa Russell in her first film) would like nothing more than to be with Monroe, but the moody and melancholic Monroe, a widower, has his eyes and heart set on the enigmatic Kathleen (Ingrid Boulting in her first film), a woman of beauty and mystery who is not part of the Hollywood scene.

Throw in a supporting cast—the likes of Tony Curtis, Jack Nicholson, Jeanne Moreau, Ray Milland, Donald Pleasence, Dana Andrews, Peter Strauss, Jeff Corey, John Carradine, and even a young Anjelica Huston in a small role—and you’ve got classic Hollywood on the screen.

So what’s the problem? Pinter’s script does a splendid job of emphasizing the themes of the novel and Kazan manages to present a gorgeous-looking canvas of star power and fine acting… but the movie ends up being, well, flat. There’s something missing.

Guess what… the missing element is the source material. Fitzgerald’s unfinished novel is about dreams and ambitions left “unfinished.” Monroe’s “lonely at the top” persona is because his life and work is unfulfilled, just like the house he’s building on the beach—it’s unfinished. It’s not even clear that he wants to finish it.

The main love story thrust of the movie—that of Monroe pursuing Kathleen—is ultimately unsatisfying, even if what does occur is what naturally should. Once again, the issue is that we are left with threads that are vague, uncertain, and unsettled.

In a wonderful bit in which a famous novelist played by Donald Pleasence is having difficulty adapting his style of excessive dialogue to the movies, Monroe improvises a scene without characters speaking by describing what a character “sees,” and in turn, what the audience sees. When Monroe stops without completing the scene, Pleasence asks, “What happens next?” And Monroe has made his point that the pictures are a visual medium.

What happens next? Exactly.

Unfinished.

There is an intriguing subplot tease involving the possible formation of a writers union (in which one of those “commie” organizers from New York, played by Nicholson, attempts to come to terms with Monroe), but this, too, is never resolved. The sequence is doubly ironic in that Kazan himself was embroiled in the HUAC Red Scare witch hunts in Hollywood in the 1950s, and there was a large faction in that town who had knives out for the director in later years for his cooperation with the government.

It was an honorable attempt to bring Fitzgerald’s The Last Tycoon to the screen, though. Revisiting the picture after nearly fifty years, seeing these actors again when they were young and vibrant, and delving into the myths and ambiguities of the Golden Age of Hollywood is still very much worth the time.

Kino Classics’ Blu-ray release features a handsome 1920x1080 restoration that shows off Victor J. Kemper’s cinematography and the lush production design by Gene Callahan, Jack T. Collis, and Jerry Wunderlich. There is an audio commentary by film historian Joseph McBride, who shines light on the darkness of this strange piece of cinema. Trailers of other Kino Lorber titles round out the supplements.

The Last Tycoon is for fans of classic Hollywood, Robert De Niro, Elia Kazan, Harold Pinter, and any of the other actors featured in this unusual presentation.

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