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 2 wins & 3 nominations.

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:

arrogance | ruthlessness | labor union | union organizer | nudity | 

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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

Filming Locations:

Paradise Cove - 28128 Pacific Coast Highway, Malibu, California, USA

Box Office

Budget:

$5,500,000 (estimated)

Company Credits

Production Co:

Academy Pictures Corporation, Paramount Pictures, Gelderse Maatschappij N.V.

Technical Specs

Runtime:

123 min

Sound Mix:

Mono

Color:

Black and White Color (Technicolor)

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

In one of his final notes for The Last Tycoon, F. Scott Fitzgerald wrote in capital letters: "Action Is Character." This is an objective Elia Kazan, Harold Pinter and Robert De Niro addressed in the attempt to transfer the character of Monroe Stahr to the film.

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Goofs

Ingrid Boulting's hairstyle changes between the scene with the performing seal and the scene at Monroe's uncompleted beach house.

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Quotes

Pat Brady: I was just saying, they'll never get the writers unionized. You know why? Because they hate each other's guts. They'd sell each other out for a nickel.
Monroe Stahr: This man from New York seems pretty set on doing it, the one who's coming out to see me. What's his name?
Fleishacker: Brimmer.
Monroe Stahr: Brimmer.
Pat Brady: Communist, yeah?
Popolos: You mean a *real* communist?
Pat Brady: Yeah, sure, a real one.
Popolos: I mean, some of these guys are just jokers who call themselves communists. And mostly they are fairies, too.

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Connections

References San Francisco (1936)

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Soundtracks

Mi par d'udire ancora
(uncredited)
from "I pescatori di perle"
Music by Georges Bizet
Performed by Beniamino Gigli
[heard during pre-credits sequence]

User Reviews

Fitzgerald's romance turned arctic

Fitzgerald's unfinished novel about the romantic yearnings of an Irving Thalberg-like mogul (Robert DeNiro) is turned into the screenwriter Harold Pinter's stock in trade: a sphinxlike ballet of omitted information. The mixture of Pinter's ellipsis-strewn dialogue rhythms and the coarseness of the Old Hollywood setting gives the picture a strange, detached mood--cryptic, teasing, vaguely dislikable. DeNiro would nail this sewed-up-kingpin character two decades later in Scorsese's CASINO; here, whether through youthful inexperience or Pinter's deletions, he's remote and untantalizing. The punch of Fitzgerald's story--the hyperefficient chief's destruction through a search for the love he never found--never lands, because Pinter has drawn the character as a pinched, uncommunicative stick who seems to have no inner life. (It doesn't help that the director, Elia Kazan, seems unsure if he wants to communicate that DeNiro's love interest, Ingrid Boulting, is either a vapid lump or a pornographic doll.) Pinter designs most of the scenes to have anti-payoffs; in one--DeNiro's counsel to a panicky, impotent movie star (Tony Curtis)--he seems to have carefully tailored a joke with no punchline. With Theresa Russell, who gives the best performance as the Big Boss' daughter, and Jack Nicholson, in one of his finest tiny-role performances as a strangely fastidious union organizer. Also with Robert Mitchum, Ray Milland, Donald Pleasence, Seymour Cassel, Jeff Corey, and an extremely young, haunted-looking Anjelica Huston.