Act One

... because I've actually seen "Once In a Lifetime" filmed by Universal in 1932 and thought it hilarious. Plus I just have an affinity for the early talkies. Since this film focuses on playwright Moss Hart's efforts to birth his first hit, the play by the same name about the birth of the talkies, I was quite interested in it.

I've also read the book "Act One", and it is going to be impossible to incorporate all of Hart's comic and insightful remarks about the creative process into one less than 120 minute film, so I managed my expectations.

George Hamilton works as the fresh faced Hart, still living in his cramped apartment with his impoverished family at age 25, with high expectations of writing a drama who has to pivot to comedy, thus "Once in a Lifetime". And watching somebody have to sit for days in an office to see an important producer when they actually have an appointment, only to have that meeting finally take place in the producer's bathroom was quite funny.

The second half is focused on his partnership with George S. Kaufmann, with a great performance by Jason Robards in that role. He got that less was more in this part. It really is a strange marriage, but the film avoids sentimentality by not trying to say that the two ever really bond in any kind of way. Instead, Kaufmann slowly grows to accept and respect Hart, even introducing him to his Algonquin roundtable friends.

Hart has his own kind of Algonquin roundtable, always meeting in restaurants. The most recognizable name will probably be Archie Leach, played by Bert Convy. You might also recognize Mr. Leach under his stage name - Cary Grant.

The struggling artist as a young man trope is well-trod ground, but some low-key performances make this a jovial enough time, so I'd recommend it.

Playwright Moss Hart delighted readers with his bestselling memoir of his early career. But when producer Dore Schary turned the book into a script after Hart's death, something got lost. This is a bland movie. While people interested in the literary scene of the 1920s will surely enjoy watching it, there's not much to enthrall the average viewer.

George Hamilton plays the young Hart, a talented guy with big dreams and little money. His close-knit Jewish family inspires him to push on with his writing career, but his equally penniless friends can sometimes be more discouraging than supportive.

After many disappointments trying to market his plays, Hart gets a foot in the door when the famed George S. Kaufman agrees to collaborate with him. But Hart soon finds that writing as part of a team can be harder than working alone. Jason Robards Jr., as the maddeningly eccentric Kaufman, is the best part of this movie.

"Act One" is about a man's struggle to come up with a good story to tell, but the story it tells is disappointingly weak. Especially in the early portion, it seems more like a series of anecdotes than a narrative. That may be because the film was adapted from a memoir, but a better writer than Schary might have been able to make it flow better.

Besides Kaufman, there are lots of real historical personages portrayed in the film, such as writers Dorothy Parker and Alexander Woollcott and actor Archie Leach, who would later become film star Cary Grant. But they come and go so fast that the effect is often more like name dropping than characterization. Some of them don't even have any lines. (Bert Convy does have a few lines as Leach, but he speaks them without a trace of a British accent.)

Despite its flaws, this picture will appeal to viewers who are really interested in the people and events depicted. Otherwise it's hard to recommend as entertainment. Though it gets considerably better, more intense, toward the end, I suspect that many people won't stay with it that long.

Four years before his death in 1961 Moss Hart wrote his incredibly successful autobiography Act One where he detailed the story of his life as the son of a cigar maker until the opening night of his first Broadway success, Once In A Lifetime. The film skips all of his childhood and early adulthood and concentrates on the creation of that first success and the process that went into it.

With Dore Schary producing and directing the film for Warner Brothers it certainly could be said that this was someone who knew the creative process and could empathize with Moss struggling to write that first success, accepting the help of George S. Kaufman who had already achieved success on Broadway as a collaborator with such folks as Morrie Ryskind and Edna Ferber and Marc Connelly. Two heads are often better than one when it's right two heads.

As this was written way before Stonewall, the gay side of Moss Hart was certainly not explored. Moss Hart married Kitty Carlisle and they did have two children, but Moss was forever a man on the prowl as any number of Broadway folks could have attested to back in the day. Young George Hamilton may not have looked Jewish, but he certainly gave off some attractive vibes.

With his hair styled as a straight up flat top and a pair of glasses, Jason Robards, Jr. was the spitting image of George S. Kaufman who probably put more wit into the mouths of actors than anyone else in the last century, not to mention some of the offhanded cracks he was credited with. Ruth Ford played a sympathetic first wife who was soon to be an injured innocent party when Kaufman got dragged into Mary Astor's divorce case via her diary. According to her Kaufman had more than wit available in his arsenal.

Eli Wallach puts in an appearance as a producer who was supposed to be based on Jed Harris who was one of the most disliked men on Broadway, the spiritual father of David Merrick later on. He doesn't get much to work with so it's not one of his better portrayals.

You also had to love that delicatessen round-table that included such folks as Jack Klugman, George Segal, and Bert Convy playing a young actor named Archie Leach. As Cary Grant said in His Girl Friday, no one ever heard from him again. Sort of a warm up for Hart of the famous Algonquin round-table where he and Kaufman were charter members.

Moss Hart probably came along at one of the peak times for creativity in the American theater and he became a very big part of it. He also got over his distaste for musicals being associated with quite a few good ones in his time, the last being Camelot. Maybe had he lived we might have seen an Act Two. But his whole life was one big creative process.

Although I recognized the name Moss Hart, I had to do some quick research to learn exactly why it rang a bell. I've never read the source material, so I can't comment on any correlation between the film and book. This review is based solely on my take on the movie in and of itself.

It pains me to write that this film is like drinking a glass of tepid water. It will keep you hydrated, but the impact on the taste buds is negligible. Just when I wanted to rate it a 5.1, something would bump it back to a 4.9. But then this is typical of a Schary project that never seems to rise above.

Hamilton does his best with what he has to work with. Robards isn't given much of a meaty role, but he delivers. I enjoyed Klugman's performance the most. Sylvia Straus, as Hamilton's mother, does a fine job, too.

What I like best about the film is that it does give a glimpse into just how hard it is to achieve major success in the entertainment industry, as told from the point of view of someone already making a semi-living in the business. The tales about an artist being plucked from obscurity and becoming an overnight, wildly successful sensation are fun but don't truly represent reality. Many, many people work for years and years and never witness the accolades due them, regardless of occupation.

This movie shows what happens if you don't give up. Unfortunately, it does so in an unforgettable, bland, and slightly boring fashion. Don't expect too much from it.

She was more famous as a TV game show panelist than Moss Hart ever was.