Reviews

As producer and director, Howard Hawks mastered such diverse genres as screwball comedy, Western, science fiction, musical, and hard-boiled gangster film. He possessed a natural gift for storytelling and a keen eye for talent. He constantly bucked the studios and censorship boards, yet he made no "personal" films and considered any film a failure if it did not reach an audience. Despite the success of his films, Hawks was always scrambling for work thanks to gambling habits, free spending, and IRS claims for back taxes. On the centenary of the complex man's birth, the chief film critic at Variety has produced the first comprehensive biography of Hawks, detailing his privileged early life and his numerous relationships with "dames." McCarthy also discusses Hawks's aloof behavior both on the set and at home, as well as his working methods with such varied figures as Howard Hughes, John Wayne, Cary Grant, Ernest Hemingway, and William Faulkner. This exhaustively researched warts-and-all biography is a major contribution to film literature and should lead to a renewed appreciation of Hawks. Highly recommended. [Previewed in Prepub Alert, LJ 1/97.]‘Stephen Rees, Levittown Regional Lib., Pa.

Howard Hawks (1896-1977) was one of the few film directors to make masterpieces in more than one genre: Westerns (Red River; Rio Bravo), crime stories (Scarface; The Big Sleep), comedies (Bringing Up Baby; His Girl Friday), even science fiction (The Thing). Yet he poses a dual problem for a biographer: he left few letters and no autobiographical writings, and, though charming, he was an unreliable raconteur, a shameless self-mythologizer. Despite these handicaps, McCarthy, Variety's chief film critic, provides Hawks with the major biography he deserves, exhaustively researched, judiciously written and full of wonderful stories. McCarthy manages to separate the truth from Hawks's versions of events, and provides an evenhanded account of the director's tumultuous private life, including three wives, numerous affairs and an alienated daughter. But the bulk of this volume is McCarthy's knowledgeable and insightful account of Hawks as filmmaker, as the production histories of each film are related in thorough yet compelling detail. A vivid portrait of the man emerges in his work and in his working methods: no-nonsense, remote (more than one person recalls his icy blue eyes) but surprisingly supportive of his performers, and much more serious about his art than he ever let on. Informed by an encyclopedic knowledge of film history, by respect for the films and by compassion for a difficult man, McCarthy has created a biography that will be essential for anyone interested in the history of movies. Includes a comprehensive filmography and 16 pages of photographs. Rights: Harvey Klinger. (June)