May 23, 2011
Film biographer McGilligan (Oscar Micheaux) traces the rise of eccentric director Nicholas Ray in this slow-paced biography. Born Raymond Nicholas Kienzle Jr. in 1911, the charismatic Ray grew up in La Crosse, Wis., and became drawn to theater. He later organized agitprop theater in New Yorkâthough he'd give secret testimony to HUACâbefore leaving for Hollywood with his friend and quasi-mentor, Elia Kazan. Ray's first film, They Live By Night, completed in 1947, wasn't released in America until 1949, after winning raves in Europe, where he'd been popular, especially with the French. Knock on Any Door (1949) and In a Lonely Place (1950)âboth starring Humphrey Bogartâput him on the map, even as his shaky personal life threatened to destroy him. Yet even Ray's penchant for alcohol, coupled with a growing number of ex-wives, couldn't dampen the success of 1955's Rebel Without a Cause, his only Oscar-nominated film. But Rebel was the beginning of the end, and while Ray had later limited success, bizarre on-set behavior made him a virtual Hollywood pariah until his death in 1979. McGilligan, meticulous in the details, too often plods through the material without imbuing it with any of the director's signature flair.
Starred review from June 1, 2011
A veteran biographer of film legends records the sad career arc of Nicholas Ray (1911-1979), the director of one of Hollywood's most iconic films, Rebel Without a Cause (1955).
McGilligan (Oscar Micheaux: The Great and Only, 2007, etc.), who has also written biographies of directors Altman, Cukor, Hitchcock and Eastwood, plunges into Ray's majestic and messy story with his customary assiduousness, creating a clear and balanced portrait of a most complex man. Born Raymond Nicholas Kienzle in Wisconsin, Ray soon drifted toward community theater, then radio, then the leftist, experimental theater that flourished in his youth. One of his teachers in Chicago was Thornton Wilder, and Ray, who soon moved to Hollywood, seemed to have met and befriended (and often betrayed) just about every showbiz notable in the third quarter of the 20th century, including Elia Kazan, John Houseman, Gloria Grahame, Howard Hughes, James Dean, Joan Crawford, Natalie Wood, John Wayne, Richard Burton, Gore Vidal, Charlton Heston and myriad others. He was, temporarily, an acolyte of Frank Lloyd Wright and worked with Alan Lomax, Pete Seeger and others in the folk-music scene. Although he never had total control of a film, he still directed about 20, including some that appear on critics' lists of notables--including They Live By Night, In a Lonely Place, On Dangerous Ground, Johnny Guitar, King of Kings and others. His serial womanizing and several marriages (well chronicled here), his struggles with alcohol and drugs, his gambling addiction and his incessant tinkering with scripts all soon made him persona non grata among producers.
The sad story, well and respectfully told, of an American original struggling with procrustean politics, timorous producers and personal demons.
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