Twentieth Century Fox by Frederick Wasser

Author:Frederick Wasser [Wasser, Frederick]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Art, Film & Video, History, United States, General, Social Science, Media Studies
ISBN: 9781317415275
Google: WoXxDwAAQBAJ
Publisher: Routledge
Published: 2020-08-18T05:03:17+00:00

Figure 5.5 Paul Newman and Jackie Gleason in The Hustler (1961)

Courtesy of Photofest.

Darryl Zanuck’s box-office success diminished substantially after Island in the Sun. It was surprising that his adaptation of Ernest Hemingway’s novel, The Sun Also Rises (King) did not earn profits, when it was released in 1957. It was an expensive production starring Tyrone Power (now a freelance actor), Ava Gardner, and a surprisingly effective if already enfeebled Errol Flynn. The domestic box-office was a respectable $3.5 million but this fell short of the production costs (Solomon 1988: 227). While the movie eventually made money, Zanuck obviously felt financially disappointed and was further annoyed by Ernest Hemingway’s negative review. Hemingway had sold the movie rights for the novel in 1926 and received no further money from Zanuck. Zanuck went on to make several more ill-conceived money losing films.

Buddy Adler died suddenly in 1960 of lung cancer. Skouras nominally filled his position with Robert Goldstein but took on more responsibility for productions himself, while grooming Peter Levathes. The California operation suffered and Philip Dunne was desperate enough to write to Zanuck in Paris asking him to come back to resume his old job in 1961 (Solomon 1988: 130–1). Zanuck was reported to be drinking heavily and was not ready for responsibility and redemption. Interestingly, Dunne mentioned Darryl Zanuck’s son Richard as a possible source of new blood. This was after the young man had completed production of Compulsion (Fleischer, 1959) at the age of 25, and had handled such intimidating stars as Orson Welles.

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