The Last Tycoon (1976)

F.Scott Fitzgerald's novel is brought to life in this story of a movie producer slowly working himself to death.

Director:

Elia Kazan

Writers:

F. Scott Fitzgerald (novel), Harold Pinter (screenplay)

Stars:

Robert De Niro, Tony Curtis, Robert Mitchum

Nominated for 1 Oscar. Another 4 wins.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Robert De Niro	...	Monroe Stahr
Tony Curtis	...	Rodriguez
Robert Mitchum	...	Pat Brady
Jeanne Moreau	...	Didi
Jack Nicholson	...	Brimmer
Donald Pleasence	...	Boxley
Ray Milland	...	Fleishacker
Dana Andrews	...	Red Ridingwood
Ingrid Boulting	...	Kathleen Moore
Peter Strauss	...	Wylie
Theresa Russell	...	Cecilia Brady
Tige Andrews	...	Popolos
Morgan Farley	...	Marcus
John Carradine	...	Tour Guide
Jeff Corey	...	Doctor

Storyline

F.Scott Fitzgerald's novel is brought to life in this story of a movie producer slowly working himself to death.

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Plot Keywords:

beach house | hollywood | telegram | melodrama | premarital sex | 

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Taglines:

He has the power to make anyone's dream come true... except his own.

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Genres:

Drama | Romance

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Certificate:

PG

Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

19 November 1976 (USA)

Also Known As:

El último magnate

Company Credits

Production Co:

Academy Pictures Corporation, Paramount Pictures

Technical Specs

Runtime:

123 min

Sound Mix:

Mono

Color:

Black and White Color (Technicolor)

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

Debut of Theresa Russell

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Goofs

When Robert De Nero as Stahr enters his residence for the first time, he refers to his Butler as "Kino", which is the actor's real last name.

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Quotes

Popolos: This is the greatest country in the world. Everybody stands a chance in this country. There's not going to be a revolution. The only people who want a revolution are the Communists.
Pat Brady: And the fairies.
Fleishacker: What kind of a revolution do the fairies want?
Popolos: A Communist one.
Pat Brady: What else?
Fleishacker: Do you think Stalin likes homosexuals?
Popolos: Homosexuals, eh? Let me tell you something. You know "homo" is a Greek word. I come from Europe, I'm Greek.
Pat Brady: That's why he knows so much about Stalin.
Fleishacker: But Stalin ain't Greek.
Popolos: You're damn ...
[...]

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Connections

References Casablanca (1942)

User Reviews

Disjointed, uneven, and strangely memorable

Kazan and Pinter's THE LAST TYCOON is disjointed, uneven, and strangely memorable -- rather like an oddly unsettling, hazily recalled dream.

Robert De Niro, in a quietly amazing performance, disappears into the title character of Monroe Stahr, a workaholic Hollywood producer who is, in Keats's phrase, "half in love with easeful death." (This understated movie is from the same year as De Niro's flashy bravura turn in Martin Scorsese's TAXI DRIVER.)

Most of the supporting cast is excellent, including Robert Mitchum and Ray Milland as a couple of Shakespearean-knavish villains, Jack Nicholson, Donald Pleasence, Theresa Russell, and Dana Andrews.

Ingrid Boulting is beautiful but somewhat less satisfactory as Stahr's love interest, Kathleen Moore. In fairness, however, her role is deliberately written as something of an enigma: Kathleen Moore is a blank movie screen onto which Stahr, a near-solipsist, projects fantasies and memories of his deceased wife.

The various elements of THE LAST TYCOON never quite cohere into a whole, but several scenes have stuck in my memory ever since I first saw it years ago. Among them:

• Stahr's mock-lecture to the misfit screenwriter Boxley (Donald

Pleasence), beginning: "You've been fighting duels all day..."

• Kathleen Moore telling Stahr, over the insistent crash of the surf at

his unfinished ocean-front mansion, "I want ... a quiet life"

• Stahr's informal evening meeting with a labor-union organizer (Jack

Nicholson), during which the privately despondent movie producer grows increasingly drunk and belligerent; and ...

• The closing ten minutes or so of the film, which take on an almost

surreal quality: Disembodied lines of dialogue from earlier scenes recur; Stahr repeats his earlier speech to Boxley, only now as a soliloquy addressed directly to the camera; and then -- murmuring "I don't want to lose you" -- he seems to hallucinate a vision of Kathleen as she moves on to a new life without him.

Only Jeanne Moreau and Tony Curtis struck me as jarringly miscast in their parts. They -- and their comic-pathetic scenes as insecure movie idols -- seemed to belong to another movie entirely.

THE LAST TYCOON is an uneven work but most assuredly has its merits.