The John Garfield Story (2003) (TV)

Director:

David Heeley

Writers:

Joan Kramer &
David Heeley

Release Date:

3 February 2003 (USA)

Genre:

Documentary | Biography

Plot:

This documentary, aired on the Turner Classic Movies (TCM) cable network, looks at the life and career of John Garfield...

Plot Keywords:

Blacklist | Theater | Narration | Actor | Character Name In Title

Cast

Julie Garfield	...	Narrator / Herself
Ellen Adler	...	Herself
Joseph Bernard	...	Himself (as Joe Bernard)
Phoebe Brand	...	Herself
Michael Coppola	...	Himself
James Cromwell	...	Himself
Hume Cronyn	...	Himself
Richard Dreyfuss	...	Himself
Danny Glover	...	Himself
Lee Grant	...	Herself
Harvey Keitel	...	Himself
Norman Lloyd	...	Himself
Patricia Neal	...	Herself
Martin Scorsese	...	Himself
Robert Sklar	...	Himself - Author / Film Historian
Joanne Woodward	...	Herself
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Harry Cohn	...	Himself (archive footage)
John Garfield	...	Himself (archive footage)
Priscilla Lane	...	Herself (archive footage)
Burgess Meredith	...	Himself (archive footage)
Richard Nixon	...	Himself (archive footage)
Isaac Stern	...	Himself (archive footage)
J. Parnell Thomas	...	Himself - Chairman, House Un-American Activities Committee (archive footage)
Jack L. Warner	...	Himself (archive footage)
Franz Waxman	...	Himself (archive footage)

Directed by
David Heeley

Writing credits
Joan Kramer		&
David Heeley

Produced by
Tom Brown	....	executive producer: Turner Classic Movies
George Feltenstein	....	executive producer: Turner Entertainment
David Heeley	....	producer
Joan Kramer	....	producer
Roger Mayer	....	executive producer: Turner Entertainment Company (as Roger L. Mayer)
Melissa Roller	....	supervising producer: Turner Classic Movies
Lynda Sheldon	....	coordinating producer

Original Music by
Michael A. Levine		(as Michael Levine)
Mark Suozzo

Cinematography by
Michael Barry		(director of photography)
Mark Zavad		(director of photography)

Film Editing by
Scott P. Doniger

Makeup Department
Kara Raynaud	....	hair stylist (as Kara Crean)
Kara Raynaud	....	makeup artist (as Kara Crean)

Sound Department
Michael Scott Goldbaum	....	sound
Jim Heffernan	....	sound mixer
Keith Winner	....	sound

Visual Effects by
Jai Dindial	....	stills animator
Hyok Kim	....	stills animator
Andreas Minas	....	stills animator

Editorial Department
Kobi Shely	....	assistant editor

Other crew
Ellen Adler	....	additional archive stills and graphics
Rick Amon	....	researcher
Robert Ansbro	....	production assistant
Andrew Baer	....	production assistant
Joseph Bernard	....	additional archive stills and graphics
Phoebe Brand	....	additional archive stills and graphics
Edward Burke	....	additional archive stills and graphics
J.C. Compton	....	additional archive stills and graphics
Michael Coppola	....	additional archive stills and graphics
Julie Garfield	....	additional archive stills and graphics
Suad Kutlug	....	production assistant
Erwann G. Marshall	....	production assistant (as Erwann Marshall)
Robert Nott	....	consultant
Walt Odets	....	additional archive stills and graphics
Scott Puryear	....	production assistant
Linda Reynolds	....	additional footage (as Mrs. Isaac Stern)
Ashley Ringling	....	production secretary
Carol Eve Rossen	....	additional archive stills and graphics
Robert A. Schanke	....	additional archive stills and graphics
Anita D. Shapiro	....	legal services
Marcelo Vita	....	title designer
John W. Waxman	....	additional footage
Beth Zimmerman	....	production coordinator: Turner Classic Movies

Thanks
Sidney Feinberg	....	special thanks (as Sidney Feinberg Esq.)
Roger Goodspeed	....	special thanks (as Roger Goodspeed Esq.)
Ann Harris	....	special thanks
Patrick Hemingway	....	acknowledgment: excerpts and stills from "The Breaking Point" courtesy of
Thurn Hoffman	....	special thanks
Jake Karlsmark	....	special thanks
Jane Klain	....	special thanks
Liz Kyler	....	special thanks
Jeremy Megraw	....	special thanks
Cynthia Mitchell	....	special thanks
Lynne Normandia	....	special thanks
Ellen Rossen	....	special thanks
Sandra Seacat	....	special thanks (as Sandra Hoffman)
Amy Sheldon	....	special thanks
Joseph Solanto	....	special thanks
Mark Swope	....	special thanks
Karen Thomas	....	special thanks

Production Companies

• Top Hat Productions

Distributors

• Turner Classic Movies (TCM) (2003) (USA) (TV) (original airing)
• Warner Home Video (2004) (USA) (DVD)

Other Companies

• Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS)  additional archive stills and graphics
• Billy Rose Theatre Collection, New York Public Library for the Performing Arts  additional archive stills and graphics
• British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC)  excerpts and stills from "Body and Soul" and "Force of Evil" courtesy of
• Columbia Pictures  excerpts and stills from "We Were Strangers" courtesy of
• Estate of Gregory Hemingway  excerpts and stills from "The Breaking Point" courtesy of
• Estate of John Hemingway  excerpts and stills from "The Breaking Point" courtesy of
• John Swope Trust  additional archive stills and graphics
• Kensington Publishing Corp.  additional archive stills and graphics
• Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM)  excerpts from "He Ran All the Way" courtesy of
• National Archives  additional footage
• New York University Cinema Studies Department  additional footage
• Paramount Pictures  excerpts and stills from "Body and Soul" and "Force of Evil" courtesy of
• TV Matters  excerpts and stills from "Body and Soul" and "Force of Evil" courtesy of
• Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation  excerpts from "Gentleman's Agreement" courtesy of
• UCLA Film and Television Archive  additional footage
• UCLA Film and Television Archive  excerpts from "Golden Boy" courtesy of
• University of Southern California Warner Bros. Archives  additional archive stills and graphics
• WNYW  excerpts from "Golden Boy" courtesy of
• WPIX  additional footage
• Warner Bros  excerpts and stills from "The Breaking Point" courtesy of
• Wisconsin Center for Film and Theater Research  additional archive stills and graphics

Runtime:

58 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Black and White | Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.33 : 1

Sound Mix:

Stereo

Certification:

UK:PG (video release) (2004)

Company:

Top Hat Productions

Trivia:

Included in Warner Home Video's 2004 DVD release of The Postman Always Rings Twice (1946).

Goofs:

Factual errors: In her opening narration of this documentary, Julie Garfield refers to "Senator Joseph McCarthy and his House Un-American Activities Committee". As a senator (and someone who had never been a member of the House of Representatives), McCarthy did not serve and could never have served on HUAC. Indeed, Ms. Garfield's very words make no sense, as senators cannot be members of House committees (or vice versa). Moreover, McCarthy had nothing whatsoever to do with the investigations into alleged Communist influence in Hollywood or the subsequent blacklist. McCarthy, in the Senate, concerned himself almost entirely with alleged subversives in government and related institutions, but he never got involved with Hollywood or the entertainment industry, which was the exclusive preserve of HUAC - 'though McCarthy certainly approved of what that committee was doing.

Movie Connections:

References Melody Time (1948)

An Adoring Mythological Biography of John Garfield

This is an adoring, mythological biography of John Garfield that offers little insight into the real man, his psychological complexities or his turbulent personal and political relationships that led to his downfall and his death. For example, one of its standard boilerplate story lines is that Warner's misused Garfield. This same tired story-line is used over and over in biographies of Bogart, Cagney, Davis, Robinson, Muni, Flynn, and dozen of other actors who worked for Warners. There is nothing original or insightful into these old half-truths.

The fact is that actors are not necessarily the best judge of the materials they should be in. The fact is that the Warners did necessarily misuse its actors. Proof that Warners was not out of touch is that it managed to make a wealth of memorable classic films in the 1930's and 1940's, starring these so-called misused actors. If one accepts the story line, then one must presume that the studio made these films by accident.

Often the point of using this trite story line in a biography is to make the actor a proletarian victim of the more powerful capitalistic forces in the studio and therefore, someone who does not have control over his destiny, or his fate, or who is not responsible for the decisions that he or she makes. That would seem to be the case in this simplified love poem to Julie Garfield.

In this documentary, one does not get the real story of why Garfield lost his prize role in Golden Boy to Luther Alder, but instead a sugar coated one. The real story is much more interesting and pivotal in the career of Garfield, and had it been told would have made an much more interesting and meaningful biography. It would, however, have exposed much of what was covered-up in this documentary, and have undermined the final verdict of it, namely, John Garfield was a victim.

The outright deceits of this documentary are too numerous to comment upon here, especially those of James Cromwell, who appears as a snotty self-appointed expert on a subject that is obviously miles over his head, nor does it bring up the fact that John Garfield perjured himself when he testified before the House Committee, and that is why he found himself in the deep muddy. His egregious perjuries had little to do with his alleged refusal to name names. Of course, these factoids would undermine the mythologizing that this documentary sets out to achieve.