The last picture of the great director Elia Kazan, The Last Tycoon, is also one of his weakest, an unsuccessful adaptation of F. Scott Fitzgerald’s unfinished final novel.
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Theatrical release poster by Richard Amsel
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Grade: C
The novel concerned Monroe Stahr, a brilliant studio executive, based upon Fitzgerald’s experiences with MGM wunderkind Irving Thalberg).
The sensibilities of director Kazan and his scribe (the noted playwright Harold Pinter) simply do not match, and unusually for a Kazan movie, the acting is not very good either.
Robert De Niro is miscast (or misguided by Kazan) as Monroe Starr, playing the man in a cool but too detached and uninvolving manner. Monroe is in conflict with the firm studio head, Brady (modeled on Louis B. Mayer), played with firm authority by vet Robert Mitchum.
Worse, Kazan shows no feeling for the Hollywood Dream Factory of the 1930s. The tale shows how Starr juggles several productions at the same time, deals with nervous actors and stubborn directors, tries to stay afloat in the Hollywood corporate, while secretly carrying on a love affair with an English girl named Kathleen Moore (Ingrid Boulting).
Cast
Robert De Niro as Monroe Stahr
Tony Curtis as Rodriguez
Robert Mitchum as Pat Brady
Jeanne Moreau as Didi
Jack Nicholson as Brimmer
Donald Pleasence as George Boxley
Ray Milland as Fleishacker
Dana Andrews as Red Ridingwood
Ingrid Boulting as Kathleen Moore
Peter Strauss as Wylie White
Theresa Russell as Cecilia Brady
Tige Andrews as Popolos
Morgan Farley as Marcus
John Carradine as Tour guide
Jeff Corey as Doctor
Diane Shalet as Stahr’s secretary
Seymour Cassel as Seal trainer
Anjelica Huston as Edna
Credits
Directed by Elia Kazan
Screenplay by Harold Pinter, based on The Last Tycoon (unfinished novel) by F. Scott Fitzgerald
Produced by Sam Spiegel
Cinematography Victor J. Kemper
Edited by Richard Marks
Music by Maurice Jarre
Production companies: Academy Pictures Corporation; Gelderse Maatschappij N.V.
Distributed by Paramount Pictures
Release date: November 17, 1976
Running time: 123 minutes
Budget $5.5 million
Box office $1.8 million
Oscar Nominations: 1
Art direction-Set decoration: Gene Callahan and Jack Collins; Jerry Wunderlich
Oscar Awards: None
Oscar Context:
The Art Direction winner was All the President’s Men
Credits
Released by Paramount
Sam Spiegel-Elia Kazan production
Running time: 123 minutes
Directed by Elia Kazan
Written by Harold Pinter
