Act One (film)
Act One is a 1963 American film written and directed by Dore Schary, and starring George Hamilton.[2] It is the film version of the 1959 autobiographical book Act One by playwright Moss Hart. A play based on the book premiered on Broadway in 2014.
Act One
Dore Schary
Dore Schary
Mort Fallick
- December 26, 1963 (US)
110 minutes
United States
English
$1 million[1]
George Hamilton later complained that "Schary de-ethnicized the entire production and took out the brilliance for good measure".[3]
Plot[edit]
In 1929, 25-year-old Brooklynite Moss Hart lives with his parents and works hard in the summer so he has time to write plays in the winter. Hart is also encouraged by his friend, Joe Hyman, who occasionally lends him money as well as moral support.
Eventually, after four years and five attempts at serious drama, he takes the advice of agent Richard Maxwell and "discards the mantle of O'Neill and Ibsen and Shaw" to write a comedy, Once in a Lifetime. Inspired by the newspaper headline "Talkies sweep Hollywood", the play satirizes the Hollywood film industry's painful transition to sound. Hart's knowledge of the subject comes from immersing himself for months in "the pages of Variety, the fan magazines and Louella Parsons' column."
Producer Warren Stone (a fictional version of Jed Harris) keeps him waiting all day, then tells him to leave the manuscript and return. Eventually they meet, and Stone mesmerizes Hart with his talk of what it means to be a playwright. When months pass without any word, Hart's friends sneak a copy of the play to Sam Harris, who agrees to produce it if George Kaufman will collaborate and direct. Kaufman agrees, and so begins a partnership that will last until 1941.
The Atlantic City opening is a failure. Hart is distraught and Kaufman tells Hart that he has gone dry. Hart spends the day at the beach and comes to Kaufman with his new ideas for the second and third acts. Hart moves into Kaufman's house and they spend the summer reworking the play. It finally opens to rave reviews in New York City in September 1930. On opening night, Kaufman steps forward at the curtain call and says "80% of this play is Moss Hart."
Production background[edit]
Film rights were bought by Warner Bros, who assigned George Axelrod to write the script.[4] Eventually the project went to Dore Schary, who had known Hart for a number of years.
"I've tried to deal with Moss as I knew him", said Schary. "The film is more about character than the theatrical world. But I think his story represents more than just a guy trying to success in a tough, creative field, It's about his frustrations in trying to reach a dream, and then it isn't what he expected when he gets there. You might call it a typical American theme."[1]
Dore Schary was the basis for the character David Starr (played by Sam Groom).[5]
Anthony Perkins and Dean Jones were early contenders for role of Moss Hart.
George Hamilton was socially friendly with the family of Moss Hart,[3] and Hart reportedly wanted Hamilton for the role.[6]
Release[edit]
To promote the upcoming release of Act One, George Hamilton appeared on a September 1963 episode of I've Got a Secret, a prime-time game show in which a panel of celebrities attempted to discover the guest's "secret". Hamilton's secret? The actor identified as Hamilton and grilled by the panel (who failed to guess his secret) was that he was not actually Hamilton at all but instead a dark-haired handsome sort-of-look-alike pretending to be Hamilton. The real Hamilton showed up at the end of the spot and earned the admiration of panelist Henry Morgan who expressed astonishment that any performer of Hamilton's stature was secure enough to take part in a stunt which, in essence, pointed up the fact that he was unrecognizable to a quartet of supposedly in-the-know celebrities.