Victor Fleming: An American Movie Master by Michael Sragow
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Book Reviews of Victor Fleming: An American Movie Master
Book Review: The Man Behind the Curtain
Summary: 5 Stars
For far too long Victor Fleming never got the respect he deserved from film historians. But enjoying any of his now-classic films reveals him to be a no-nonsense craftsman who understood that telling a good story was job #1 for a director. Fleming may not have bothered to traffic in directorial flourishes that imprinted his body of work with a particular style, however, all of his films reflected his pre-Hollywood experiences as a master mechanic. And, like the cars he was so skilled at repairing, his films were well-built and took you exactly where you wanted to go when you went to the movies. Author Michael Sragow provides a colorful, sprawling overview of Fleming's personal life & work.Book Review: Long Overdue!
Summary: 5 Stars
This book was long overdue - and worth waiting for. I'm a big fan of old movies and always considered Victor Fleming one of the best directors in early Hollywood. The fact that he was mostly forgotten was never fair since his name should have always been up there with Hawkes, Wyler, Capra, etc. This book starts slowly with his family background and days during World War I, but it becomes a real page-turner once he starts directing silent movies. He led an amazing life - and this is an amazing book.Book Review: Excellent Biograghy of one of the movie's great directors
Summary: 5 Stars
Finally, a biograpghy of one of the great directors & innovators of early films right through Gone With The Wind & The Wizard of OZ! This is wonderfully written and gave me plenty of details of the life of Victor Fleming. I highly recommend it!Book Review: Victor Flemming
Summary: 5 Stars
A terrific read-----great insights to the man who directed THE WIZARD OF OZ and GONE WITH THE WIND----Book Review: The man who salvaged many a wreck...and triumphed...
Summary: 4 Stars
Let's face it, this is not light summer reading. The extensive details on every facet of Fleming's family background are what the reader must wade through before getting anywhere near his career as a Hollywood filmmaker. He has also chosen to describe in detail the plot of every film Fleming made early on, even those which no longer exist. If it's a complete history of the man you want, it's here--and then some--but the superfluous details become tedious until he makes his mark in Hollywood.
However, it does come across as an extremely well-written and researched account of a man who is basically known as having come to the rescue of films that began under another director and would have floundered into obscurity without his golden touch. The two most famous films on which a large part of his reputation is based were both completed with the help of other directors, for a variety of reasons.
Victor Fleming was a rugged individualist who was once described by Howard Hughes as having as much talent as the more sensitive George Cukor, but "with Victor it's strained through a coarser sieve." That's about as good an explanation as any for the man who was able to reach men, women and children on a level that gave them the confidence to do the job he demanded of them.
As a film buff, the chapters on "The Wizard of Oz," "Gone with the Wind," and "Joan of Arc" held the most fascination for me--even though, in the case of GWTW, I knew most of the behind-the-scenes facts in almost as much detail as Sragow reveals. I like that he gives due praise to de Havilland's Melanie. "She repaid Fleming with a performance that has a preternatural calm, a quiet alertness and an unexpected emotional flexibility that binds her to Scarlett."
One of the funniest segments is his description of the mayhem on the set of "The Wizard of Oz" caused by the little people, the Munchkins. And most touching is the chapter on Fleming's affair with Ingrid Bergman against the background of making "Joan of Arc," of which Fleming later said, "It's a disaster, that picture."
Interesting too are chapters on the film he never made--"The Yearling" originally to star Spencer Tracy--and "Salvaging 'The Great Waltz'" and many other details of filmmaking that should please any film buff.
Using a scholarly approach, Michael Sragow has written a hefty tome that some will find difficult to wade through, its 625 pages crammed with background material on Fleming, not to mention a voluminous section devoted to "Notes" on all the chapters. One has to respect the enormous amount of work that went into producing this biography. A must for film scholars but the average movie fan may be overwhelmed with the wealth of material.