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Act One

  • 1963
  • Not Rated
  • 1h 50m
IMDb RATING
6.0/10
296
YOUR RATING
George Hamilton, Jack Klugman, Jason Robards, Sam Levene, and Eli Wallach in Act One (1963)
BiographyDrama

Story of the life of writer/playwright Moss Hart.Story of the life of writer/playwright Moss Hart.Story of the life of writer/playwright Moss Hart.

  • Director
    • Dore Schary
  • Writers
    • Moss Hart
    • Dore Schary
  • Stars
    • George Hamilton
    • Jason Robards
    • George Segal
  • See production info at IMDbPro
  • IMDb RATING
    6.0/10
    296
    YOUR RATING
    • Director
      • Dore Schary
    • Writers
      • Moss Hart
      • Dore Schary
    • Stars
      • George Hamilton
      • Jason Robards
      • George Segal
    • 13User reviews
    • 4Critic reviews
  • See production info at IMDbPro
  • See production info at IMDbPro
  • Photos5

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    Top cast29

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    George Hamilton
    George Hamilton
    • Moss Hart
    Jason Robards
    Jason Robards
    • George S. Kaufman
    George Segal
    George Segal
    • Lester Sweyd
    Jack Klugman
    Jack Klugman
    • Joe Hyman
    Sam Levene
    Sam Levene
    • Richard Maxwell
    Ruth Ford
    Ruth Ford
    • Beatrice Kaufman
    Eli Wallach
    Eli Wallach
    • Warren Stone
    Joseph Leon
    • Max Seigel
    Martin Wolfson
    Martin Wolfson
    • Mr. Hart
    Sam Groom
    Sam Groom
    • David Starr
    Sammy Smith
    • Sam H. Harris
    Louise Larabee
    Louise Larabee
    • Clara Baum
    David Doyle
    David Doyle
    • Oliver Fisher
    Jonathan Goldsmith
    Jonathan Goldsmith
    • Teddy Manson
    • (as Jonathan Lippe)
    Bert Convy
    Bert Convy
    • Archie Leach
    Arno Selco
    • Bernie Hart
    Sylvia Straus
    • Mrs. Hart
    Allen Leaf
    • Harry the waiter
    • Director
      • Dore Schary
    • Writers
      • Moss Hart
      • Dore Schary
    • All cast & crew
    • Production, box office & more at IMDbPro

    User reviews13

    6.0296
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    Featured reviews

    4SnoopyStyle

    dull

    It's 1929. Moss Hart (George Hamilton) is a young struggling playwright in Brooklyn. He writes five serious plays but there is no taker. Joe Hyman (Jack Klugman) is his best friend and tireless supporter. He teaches a class where he befriends student Lester Sweyd (George Segal). Eventually, he comes up with a comedy about the transition into movie talkies. It attracts director George S. Kaufman (Jason Robards).

    George Hamilton has a deliberate speaking style which gives the performance lesser intensity. He should be a desperate man but I only sense that in a couple of scenes. He's the opposite of the emotional acting of James Dean. There is a sense of staleness to the movie. The guys are doing some kind of Algonquin Round Table without the witty banter and sharp takedowns. It's an autobiography of Moss Hart but it could take some liberties if only to inject some drama into this dull production.
    gerdeen-1

    Good intentions, limited appeal

    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.
    7AlsExGal

    Maybe I liked this better than most...

    ... 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.
    5mollytinkers

    Less than stellar offering from Dore Schary

    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.
    6blanche-2

    interesting story not very well done

    Moss Hart wrote one of the great books on theater, Act One, and here it's turned into a film starring George Hamilton as Hart. The film also features Jason Robards as George S. Kaufman, Eli Wallach as a producer, George Segal as Hart's friend Lester, Sam Groom as a student, Ruth Ford as Mrs. Kaufman, Jack Klugman as a good friend to Moss, and Bert Convy as "Archie Leach," another friend, whom film fans know became Cary Grant.

    The story goes from Hart's days as a young, serious playwright to the Broadway opening of Hart's first play, "Once in a Lifetime," co-written with George S. Kaufman. They became one of the finest Broadway writing teamsin theater history.

    George Hamilton is a handsome man who has become a wonderful parody of himself and his tan in later years. He was never really much of an actor though he does an okay job here. Someone certainly thought a lot of his looks here - he is photographed in closeup with a special light in his eyes, the kind designed for Dirk Bogarde in the '50s.

    I don't know if Dore Schary, the director, had a limited budget or what, but casting Bert Convy as Cary Grant was such an insult to probably the biggest male film star of all time. Convy was nice looking, but he made no attempt at an accent. The problem is, it was too small a part to cast someone like John Gavin. The rest of the performances were fine, but Jason Robards as Kaufman was a true standout. Wallach didn't have much to do.

    The film has been criticized for being too sentimental. I didn't find it sentimental, I found it unexciting, when there's probably nothing more exciting than preparing a show for Broadway. It's possible that the book wasn't really adaptable as a movie. It's hard to make writing exciting on screen. Hart was a huge talent who wrote some fabulous plays. I just don't think that somehow, his story made for an impressive film.

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    Related interests

    Ben Kingsley, Rohini Hattangadi, and Geraldine James in Gandhi (1982)
    Biography
    Mahershala Ali and Alex R. Hibbert in Moonlight (2016)
    Drama

    Storyline

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    Did you know

    Edit
    • Trivia
      First film role of Jonathan Goldsmith (as Jonathan Lippe), who portrayed Teddy Manson, and who is now much better known as "The Most Interesting Man in the World" from Dos Equis beer TV commercials.
    • Goofs
      In an early scene, Moss Hart (George Hamilton) hears a radio news broadcast reporting that Colonel Theodore Roosevelt has just returned from an Asian excursion and that the "former president was in excellent spirits". This refers to an actual news event reported on September 10, 1929, but it was President Roosevelt's son, also named Theodore, who made the trip. The former president had died in 1919.

      The radio also reports that the New York Yankees defeated the Detroit Tigers 9-3 the previous day, but the game occurred two days earlier and the previous day's game had been postponed because of rain. The news report is read nearly verbatim from the New York Times' account of the game.
    • Crazy credits
      "Curtain" (instead of "The End")
    • Connections
      Referenced in I've Got a Secret: George Hamilton (1963)

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    Details

    Edit
    • Release date
      • December 26, 1963 (United States)
    • Country of origin
      • United States
    • Language
      • English
    • Also known as
      • Primeiro acto
    • Filming locations
      • Manhattan, New York City, New York, USA
    • Production company
      • Dore Schary Productions
    • See more company credits at IMDbPro

    Tech specs

    Edit
    • Runtime
      • 1h 50m(110 min)
    • Color
      • Black and White
    • Aspect ratio
      • 1.66 : 1

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