Ava Maria! The One Guy She Didn't Screw...

Ava Gardner: John O'Hara's Pal at his feet

... But Surely He Wished He Had

 

'She described their life together. 'I was happy traveling with the band, hanging out with Artie [Shaw, her husband] and his literary pals. Guys like Sid Perelman, Bill Saroyan, John O'Hara. Artie said all I had to do was keep my mouth shut, sit at their feet, and absorb their wit and wisdom. I was happy to do that. I was comfortable with those guys.' -- Ava Gardner, in a profile by Peter Evans in the July 2013 edition of Vanity Fair.

AGM

New DVD?

Thanks, Richard. I wish I could have made the meeting. What is the new DVD?


I see in Internet Move Database (imd.com) that Robert Loggia will be starring a movie called "Over the River and Through the Wood(s)" but there is no other information. Could this be an O'Hara adaptation?


Richard Rabicoff
9356 Indian Trail Way
Perry Hall, MD 21128


Contact us at JohnOHaraSoc@yahoo.com. We're always looking for contributors. Join the conversation! © 2009 Writers Clearinghouse, Est. 1976 @ Fabyan, Connecticut.

25 October 1957

Oct2009 Filed under: MOVIE NEWS, NEWS OF THE DAY On this day in 1957, COLUMBIA PICTURES released PAL JOEY. Directed by GEORGE SIDNEY from the novel by JOHN O'HARA, this story of a charming cad and his hectic love life is a classic Hollywood musical. Included in the cast are FRANK SINATRA, KIM NOVAK, RITA HAYWORTH, BARBARA NICHOLS and BOBBY SHERWOOD. The terrific score includes such standards as THERE'S A SMALL HOTEL and BEWITCHED, BOTHERED AND

BUtterfield 8

BUtterfield 8 DVD Here's a glimpse into the DVD of BUtterfield 8 already distributed to members. The complete film, with Elizabeth Taylor, is being aired at You Tube in 11 parts.
JohnBullEsq has shared a video with you on YouTube: BUtterfield 8 (1960) pt.3/11 part three

Action Jackson

Natica Jackson DVD Video Here's a glimpse into the Natica Jackson DVD that will be distributed to members.
JohnBullEsq has shared a video with you on YouTube: MICHELLE PFEIFFER as Natica Jackson y never released this film in Italy, in my language her name would be... embarrassing! :-) And check out the guy... this is how Ray and Lorene Hallet first met ;-)

BUtterfield 8: The Movie

Mad O'Hara? Alessandra Stanley, New York Times television critic, in reviewing Mad Men, in today's paper, suggests that the period was O'Hara time: 'Bored housewives are titillated by the movie version of John O'Hara's 'Butterfield 8.' Is she right?

New O'Hara Film?

Don't Make an 'Appointment' -- Yet

From Richard Rabicoff, re McDonald comments:

Thanks so much for mentioning the upcoming film of Appointment. I had no idea this was in the offing and I am cautiously ecstatic. Caveat: they are pitching it as the "American Beauty of its day."

I have searched the net and found scraps of information. Here's a gem of a quote from a 2007 interview with the director, Bob Benton (http://www.boxofficemojo.com/features/?id=2398&pagenum=all&p=.htm)

Robert Benton: The script exists and we are now in the midst of beginning the casting process. I'm a huge John O'Hara fan. He is a greater short story writer than a novelist—his novels sometimes get big and overblown—but he's a beautiful writer. He writes behavior extraordinarily well. The prose is simple and clean. There's nothing there that's not necessary. There's not a lie. Imagine Kissing Pete, which is a novella more than a short story, is arguably one of the great works of the latter 20th century. There was a time when I wanted to do a movie of that. It's the most utterly depressing story in the world, except for the last two minutes but you couldn't get anyone to sit for two hours for the last two minutes. His work is not generous but there's an enormous amount of internal voice in Appointment at Samarra and how do you make a movie in which love, even great love, is not enough? But something happened and I found a door into it.

Box Office Mojo: What is the theme?

Robert Benton: Sometimes, love is not enough, no matter how much you love somebody. It's just not enough—love's not always going to save your life. It's just not. It is about the failure of love. I've never done that.

Box Office Mojo: What's the status of the movie?

Robert Benton: It's a Lakeshore project and I've met with several actresses for [playing] Caroline. We're talking to one actor for [the male lead].

http://www.dealmemo.com/Content/April2002/News0416.htm#_Toc6705818

http://movies.nytimes.com/movie/360231/Appointment-in-Samarra/overview

http://www.allbusiness.com/services/motion-pictures/4875568-1.html

http://www.screenwritersutopia.com/modules.php?name=News&file=print&sid=1068

Richard Rabicoff, 9356 Indian Trail Way, Perry Hall, MD 21128 USA

Member Comments

The Short Guy

James MacDonald writes:
Thank you for the updates, especially for the photos. I especially like the one of you [Richard] next to the JO'H statue. Where is the statue? I read somewhere (it may have been in Bruccoli) that John O'Hara Street is in a run-down part of town. And those are never Peal Shoes in the statue, are they?

A couple of bloggers mentioned Pal Joey, and British television screened the Sinatra film the other week. I wouldn't want to be thought sexist, but Dorothy Kingsley's screenplay is about as far from the libretto as San Francisco is from Chicago, in every sense. O'Hara uses special vernacular that workaday screenwriters never knew (and that's why he was so contemptuous of Guys and Dolls). O'Hara's Joey casually refers to a particular nightclub as a crib, where the chorus girls double as prostitutes, making people in Joey's position quasi-pimps. This is in perfect keeping with Hart's raunchy lyrics, which in turn make Guys and Dolls as daring as a revivalist meeting. And the watered down version by which most people know Pal Joey is little more than a 1957 prototype pop video.

Incidentally, have you seen anything about Robert Benton's Appointment in Samarra? The American Beauty of its day, indeed! But if it's any good at all, it might just be the best adaptation of O'Hara yet, though I liked a number of the Gibbsville episodes.

O'Hara at War

JOH Keeps 'Intellectual' Out of Trouble

David Denby, in a review of Redacted, a new film by Brian De Palma that looks at a US Army platoon in Iraq, writes in the 19 November 2007 issue of The New Yorker:

'Readacted' is a low-budget experimental film without stars, although there are remnants of the traditional Second World movie. The rough vessels of democracy here include a house intellectual, who reads John O'Hara [emphasis added] and stays out of trouble; the diarist, who thinks his video will get him into film school; two racist buffoons; and a straight arrow named Lawyer McCoy, who tries to argue them out of what they want to do.'

Cheers! and...

Saluations!

Hello and Happy New Year. (Almost):

Would it not be fun to be at the Lantenengo Country Club tonight in Gibbsville?

Ah, yes. O'Hara -- a fellow who will never get his full due, so to speak, because he did not play literary politics with all the political correctness demanded by those dealing the prize cards!

Gerard, with you being in film, I wonder whether you've seen the movies BUtterfield 8 with a very young Liz Taylor, or Ten North Frederick or Appointment in Samarra?

A toast to O'Hara!

Christine Goldbeck

An Actor, Too

The General Died at Dawn (1936)

Overview

Director: Lewis Milestone

Writers: Charles G. Booth (story)
Clifford Odets

Release Date: 30 October 1936 (Denmark)

Genre: Adventure / Crime / Thriller

Plot Outline: Amid the anarchy of China, an American mercenary tangles with a ruthless warlord. more

Plot Synopsis: This plot synopsis is empty. Add a synopsis

Awards: Nominated for 3 Oscars. more

User Comments: Interesting Characters & Film more

Cast

(Complete credited cast)

	Gary Cooper	...	O'Hara
	Madeleine Carroll	...	Judy Perrie
	Akim Tamiroff	...	Gen. Yang
	Dudley Digges	...	Mr. Wu
	Porter Hall	...	Peter Perrie / Peter Martin
	William Frawley	...	Brighton
	J.M. Kerrigan	...	Leach
	Philip Ahn	...	Oxford
	Lee Tung Foo	...	Mr. Chen (as Lee Tung-Foo)
	Leonid Kinskey	...	Stewart (shipping line clerk)
	Val Durand	...	Wong (as Val Duran)
	Willie Fung	...	Bartender at Mansion House Hotel
	Hans Fuerberg	...	Yang's military advisor (as Hans Furberg)
	John O'Hara	...	Reporter

Additional Details

Parents Guide: Add content advisory for parents

Runtime: 98 min

Country: USA

Language: English

Color: Black and White

Aspect Ratio: 1.37 : 1

Sound Mix: Mono (Western Electric Noiseless Recording)

Company: Paramount Pictures