The Last Tycoon (1976 film)
From The Art and Popular Culture Encyclopedia
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The Last Tycoon is a 1976 American drama film directed by Elia Kazan and produced by Sam Spiegel, based upon Harold Pinter's screenplay adaptation of F. Scott Fitzgerald's The Last Tycoon. It stars Robert De Niro, Tony Curtis, Robert Mitchum, Jack Nicholson, Donald Pleasence, Jeanne Moreau, Theresa Russell and Ingrid Boulting.
The film was the second collaboration between Kazan and Spiegel, who worked closely together to make On the Waterfront. Fitzgerald based the novel's protagonist, Monroe Stahr, on film producer Irving Thalberg. Spiegel was once awarded the Irving G. Thalberg Memorial Award.
The Last Tycoon did not receive the critical acclaim that much of Kazan's earlier work received, but it was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Art Direction (Gene Callahan, Jack T. Collis, and Jerry Wunderlich).
Coincidentally, the story itself was Fitzgerald's last, unfinished novel, as well as the last film Kazan directed, even though he lived until 2003.
Plot synopsis
Monroe Stahr is the young production chief and the most creative executive of one of the biggest studios of the Golden Age of Hollywood. He is a tireless worker in a time of turmoil in the industry due to the creation of the Writers Guild of America; Monroe being accustomed to make his underlings, including screenwriters, do whatever he says.
Monroe's life flows between film shootings, industry bosses' machinations, discussions with writers and actors and a battle with a union organizer named Brimmer, whose intrusion he resents. In the meantime, Monroe becomes obsessed with a young woman with a troubled past, Kathleen Moore, who is engaged to be married to another man, while Cecilia Brady, the young daughter of a studio board member, tries in vain to make Monroe see how she truly feels about him.
Pat Brady and other studio executives resent Monroe's neglect and disrespect for their wishes. Seeing his treatment of the union organizer as the last straw, they insist that Monroe go away for a long rest. As his difficulties grow bigger and his health declines, Monroe's life runs to an uncertain but inevitable twilight that echoes a long gone era.
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
