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 |
Young film producer, Monroe Stahr, is a rising star in 1930's Hollywood due to his ability to get anything he envisions done even if it means breaking a few rules. The latest film he's working on stars two popular actors, Rodriguez and Didi, and everyone is sure it'll be a smashing hit when it's done. The times are changing however, since the first guilds and unions are being formed in Hollywood, but Stahr is still sticking to his old ways of doing things in spite of that. His main opponent becomes a union organizer, Brimmer, but Stahr finds ways to deal with him as well. However, in his hubris, Stahr crosses one red line too many when he falls for a young troubled engaged woman called Kathleen Moore and neglects Cecilia Brady, the young daughter of studio executive and Stahr's boss, Pat Brady. Pat becomes furious over this as well as Stahr's other misbehavings and makes it his mission to take Stahr down. Due to all the pressure, Stahr's health starts failing as well. The film is ...
De Niro was an unexpected surprise as Monroe Starr in this brilliant adaptation of F. Scott Fitzgerald's unfinished last novel. He gives a thoughtful, sensitive, and intelligent performance as this character, who was modeled on MGM producer, Irving Thalberg. Fitzgerald wrote about Hollywood from the inside, and from the perspective of someone who was destroying himself by being inside. He could ask for nothing better than to have English playwright Harold Pinter create this stark, human screenplay and then have Elia Kazan realize it.
In addition to De Niro's definitive performance, we get a series of perfect cameos (usually an impossibility) from Tony Curtis, Jeanne Moreau, Robert Mitchum, and others. We also get two screen debuts of merit -- Angelica Huston (in a small, but memorable scene) and an excellent Teresa Russell as Starr's would-be sweetheart. The critics hated the movie, and it did poorly in box offices, but it was truly, like Fitzgerald himself, an American masterpiece.