John Huston as Noah Cross in Chinatown, 1974, Paramount Pictures
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This series began with the story of a director who wrote his autobiography to secure his place in history after his career had gone down the drain. It ends with the story of a man who wrote his autobiography as a “dead man walking”...and then continued to make movies for another half a decade, until the literal last breath left his body. Hollywood’s original “nepo baby” director, John Huston was never a conventional studio system stalwart, and in some respects he was able to go with the flow of changing times a lot better than some of his contemporaries. In part one of our two-part season finale we’ll talk about his flight from Hollywood to Ireland, literally playing God, Huston’s long fallow period in the late 60s, Anjelica Huston’s misbegotten film debut, Huston’s reinvention in the New Hollywood era and the health crisis that almost ended it all.
Jeff Bridges and Stacy Keach in Fat City, 1972, Columbia Pictures
SHOW NOTES:
Sources:
The Hustons: The Life and Times of a Hollywood Dynasty by Lawrence Grobel
Watch Me: A Memoir (A Hollywood Memoir) by Anjelica Huston
John Huston: Interviews by Robert Emmet Long
John Huston: Courage and Art by Jeffrey Meyers
A Story Lately Told: Coming of Age in Ireland, London, and New York by Anjelica Huston
The American Cinema by Andrew Sarris
Miss Aluminum: A Memoir by Susanna Moore
The Big Goodbye: Chinatown and the Last Years of Hollywood by Sam Wasson
“Parlor Games with Gats,” Manny Farber, The Nation, June 4, 1949
“‘The Bible’ Powerful and Faithful,” Philip K. Scheuer, Los Angeles Times, October 2, 1966
“Movie Epics,” Pauline Kael, New Republic, October 22, 1966
“John Huston Wants Hepburn For Film” Sheilah Graham, Hollywood Citizen-News, September 5, 1967
“Riots Stop Huston Walk” UPI, September 29, 1968
“Films in Focus,” Andrew Sarris, Village Voice, October 16, 1969
“Off with the Statues’ Heads!,” Pauline Kael, New Yorker, October 11, 1969
“The Kremlin Letter,” Gerald Astor, Look
“Fat City,” Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times, 1972
“Huston Takes a New Look at Life in ‘Fat City’,” Vincent Canby, New York Times, July 27, 1972
“John Huston fights his way back to Fat City.” Thomas Moore, Life, August 4, 1972
“John Huston Talking to Rosemary Lord,” Rosemary Lord,Transatlantic Review, August/Winter 1974
“John Huston Finds That The Slow Generation Of King Has Made it a Richer Film,” Joseph McBride, Variety, December 16, 1975
“John Huston in Retrospect” University of Washington Office of Lectures and Concerts, April 5, 1977
“Conversation with John Huston,” Claudia Dreifus, LA Herald Examiner, December 17, 1980
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Elizabeth Taylor in Reflections in a Golden Eye, 1967, Warner Bros.-Seven Arts
Music:
The music used in this episode, with the exception of the intro, was sourced from royalty-free music libraries and licensed music collections. The intro includes a clip from the film Casablanca.
Excerpts from the following songs were used throughout the episode:
Reflections - Frank and Poet
Magenta - Coquelicot
Origami - Cocoon Transit
Makropulos - Two Fleet
Dorica - Marble Transit
Fretwork - Tiltram
Dorica - Column and Law
K2 - One Quiet Conversation
K2 - Base Camp
TinyTiny Trio - Laser Focus
Castle Danger - Szaree
Bitters - Our Only Lark
Architect - Kirkus
Limoncello - Song at the End of Times
This episode was written, narrated, edited and produced by Karina Longworth.
Our editor this season is Evan Viola.
Research, production, and social media assistant: Brendan Whalen.
Logo design: Teddy Blanks.
John Huston directing Anjelica Huston in A Walk with Love and Death, 1969, 20th Century Fox