Hollywood reminiscences, and more, from the quintessential studio
system director. When Sherman began his directing career in the
1930s, directors were almost as low on the Hollywood totem pole as
writers, just one more component of a vast hierarchy where real
power and creative vision tended to belong to executive producers
and studio moguls. At the heart of the system was its audacious
application of the mass production techniques of the Industrial
Revolution to movies. Good or bad, films had to be cranked out on a
regular schedule to help cover the studios' huge overheads. Jack
Wamer's appeal to Sherman was typical: "I know it's not a great
story, but I've got six actors sitting around doing nothing but
picking up their checks . . . do me a favor: Make the picture and
do the best you can." Much of Sherman's career consisted of doing
precisely this, reluctantly taking on films he didn't like and then
trying to improve them as much as tight schedules and budgets
allowed. Over the course of 30 features, he sometimes succeeded -
Mr. Skeffington, The Hard Way - and sometimes failed. Along the way
he worked with some of the greatest of the greats: Clark Gable,
Humphrey Bogart, Paul Newman. He also enjoyed a reputation as a
"woman's director," working with Joan Crawford, Rita Hayworth, and
the notoriously difficult Bette Davis (he had extramarital affairs
with all three). Despite his current semi-obscurity, his films are
certainly worth a second look. Those seeking a portrait of
Hollywood's seedy underbelly won't find it here. What Sherman has
written is far more unusual: a frank, detailed, eminently clear
record of the exhausting, exhilarating business of making films.
The life, times, and techniques of a director from Hollywood's
so-called "Golden Age" have rarely been so illuminatingly and
insightfully detailed. (Kirkus Reviews)
" As a young Jewish boy growing up in Vienna, Georgia, Abe
Orovitz could never have predicted the twists and turns his life
would take. Many years later, as retired film director with more
than thirty movies to his credit, Vincent Sherman is no less
surprised when he looks back on that life. In Studio A ffairs he
retraces his life with candor and enthusiasm. Sherman discusses the
details of his three-year relationship with Joan Crawford, his
inadvertent connection with the death of Bette Davis's second
husband, and his poignant romantic involvement with Rita Hayworth.
Providing counterpoint to these liaisons is the love and devotion
of Sherman's wife, Hedda, who accepted her husband's occasional
infidelities as part and parcel of his career. Studio Affairs
provides an inside look at the motion picture industry during the
heyday of the studio system by one who worked his way from nearly
starving actor and playwright to respected director. In effect, the
book serves as a primer on the art of film directing. Sherman
quickly developed a reputation of being a consummate rewrite
artist, able to take whatever assignment given him and turn it into
a first rate motion picture. His skill at reworked scripts led him
to bigger and bigger projects, even as the salary set by his
long-term contract with Warner Brothers remained below that of most
of his colleagues. Though not originally signed to direct, when
asked to do so he drew on his experience putting together
productions at summer camps across the "borscht circuit" in upstate
New York. Like so many talented individuals in Hollywood during the
1950s, Sherman was targeted by the House Un-American Activities
Committee, owing in part to his active support of the WPA Theatre
project in New York two decades previous. Time spent on the lesser
known gray list kept him out of work for several years. Eventually,
he again enjoyed some critical success, but after the demise of the
studio system life was never quite the same. The quintessential
"studio director" ended his career directing for television.
Vincent Sherman's path from Georgia to southern California is
compelling, and his legendary talent for good storytelling makes
the book impossible to put down.
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