Overview

"The extraordinary life-the first-of the legendary, undercelebrated Hollywood director known in his day as ""Wild Bill"" (and he was!) Wellman, whose 82 movies-many of them iconic, many of them sharp, cold, brutal, others poetic, moving-all of them a lesson in close-up art-ranged from adventure and gangster pictures to comedies, aviation, romance, westerns, and searing social dramas- His pioneering, daring picture-making forever changed Hollywood and the way movies were made. The extraordinary life-the first-of the legendary, undercelebrated Hollywood director known in his day as ""Wild Bill"" (and he was!) Wellman, whose eighty-two movies (six of them uncredited), many of them iconic; many of them sharp, cold, brutal; others poetic, moving; all of them a lesson in close-up art, ranged from adventure and gangster pictures to comedies, aviation, romances, westerns, and searing social dramas. Among his iconic pictures- the pioneering World War I epic Wings (winner of the first Academy Award for best picture), Public Enemy (the toughest gangster picture of them all), Nothing Sacred, the original A Star Is Born, Beggars of Life, The Call of the Wild, The Ox-Bow Incident, Battleground, The High and the Mighty... David O. Selznick called him ""one of the motion pictures' greatest craftsmen."" Robert Redford described him as ""feisty, independent, self-taught, and self-made. He stood his ground and fought his battles for artistic integrity, never wavering, always clear in his film sense."" Wellman directed Hollywood's biggest stars for three decades, including Clark Gable, Gary Cooper, Barbara Stanwyck, John Wayne, Lauren Bacall, and Clint Eastwood. It was said he directed ""like a general trying to break out of a beachhead."" He made pictures with such noted producers as Darryl F. Zanuck, Nunnally Johnson, Jesse Lasky, and David O. Selznick. Here is a revealing, boisterous portrait of the handsome, tough-talking, hard-drinking, uncompromising maverick (he called himself a ""crazy bastard"")-juvenile delinquent; professional ice-hockey player as a kid; World War I flying ace at twenty-one in the Lafayette Flying Corps (the Lafayette Escadrille), crashing more than six planes (""We only had four instruments, none of which worked. And no parachutes . . . Greatest goddamn acrobatics you ever saw in your life"")-whose own life story was more adventurous and more unpredictable than anything in the movies. Wellman was a wing-walking stunt pilot in barnstorming air shows, recipient of the Croix de Guerre with two Gold Palm Leaves and five United States citations; a bad actor but good studio messenger at Goldwyn Pictures who worked his way up from assistant cutter; married to five women, among them Marjorie Crawford, aviatrix and polo player; silent picture star Helene Chadwick; and Dorothy Coonan, Busby Berkeley dancer, actress, and mother of his seven children. Irene Mayer Selznick, daughter of Louis B. Mayer, called Wellman ""a terror, a shoot-up-the-town fellow, trying to be a great big masculine I-don't-know-what. David had a real weakness for him. I didn't share it."" Yet she believed enough in Wellman's vision and cowritten script about Hollywood to persuade her husband to produce A Star Is Born, which Wellman directed. After he took over directing Tarzan Escapes at MGM, Wellman went to Louis B. Mayer and asked to make another Tarzan picture on his own. ""What are you talking about? It's beneath your dignity,"" said Mayer. ""To hell with that,"" said Wellman, ""I haven't got any dignity."" Now William Wellman, Jr., drawing on his father's unpublished letters, diaries, and unfinished memoir, gives us the first full portrait of the man-boy, flyer, husband, father, director, artist. Here is a portrait of a profoundly American spirit and visionary, a man's man who was able to put into cinematic storytelling the most subtle and fulsome of feeling, a man feared, respected, and loved."

Full Product Details

Author:   William Wellman, Jr.
Publisher:   Random House USA Inc
Imprint:   Pantheon
Dimensions:   Width: 16.70cm , Height: 4.10cm , Length: 24.30cm
Weight:   0.980kg
ISBN:  

9780307377708

ISBN 10:   0307377709
Pages:   656
Publication Date:   07 April 2015
Audience:   General/trade ,  General
Format:   Hardback
Publisher's Status:   Active
Availability:   To order  
Stock availability from the supplier is unknown. We will order it for you and ship this item to you once it is received by us.

Table of Contents

Introduction: Wild Bill Wellman ix 1. The Rebel 3 2. The Recruit 25 3. The Pilot 53 4. The War Hero 83 5. The Hollywood Ladder 111 6. The Directors' Board 145 7. The Road to a Classic 163 8. Battlefield Wings 185 9. Consequences and Achievements 209 10. Pranks and Misdemeanors 235 11. I Ain't So Tough 253 12. The Neon Violin 289 13. Looking for Trouble 307 14. Passions and Prizes 327 15. The Golden Year 345 16. The Road to Ox-Bow 363 17. Picture Patchwork 387 18. Battleground Sends a Message 421 19. Goodbye MGM, Hello John Wayne 451 20. The Final Straw 479 21. The Flame Is Flickering 501 Addendum 521 Afterword 523 Acknowledgments 527 Filmography 529 Academy Award Recognition 581 Notes 583 Selected Bibliography 617 Index 621

Reviews

Movies are meant to move, and William Wellman's work demonstrates this in an exemplary fashion. This welcome new biography, Wild Bill Wellman: Hollywood Rebel, briskly and objectively told by his son, does nothing to tame the reputation of the prodigious filmmaker who battled studio head Darryl Zanuck not only verbally in the front office but also with his fists in the field. A Boston Brahmin by birth but a brawler by practice, Wellman remains one of the few Golden Age Hollywood figures still richly deserving of the title (so overused these days but applicable here): Iconic. A terrific read. --Stephen M. Silverman, author of David Lean A star-studded homage to a prolific director . . . loving, abundantly detailed . . . Wellman worked with megastars and studio moguls, all portrayed here in lively detail . . . A rich, exuberant life, well-captured in this exuberant biography. -- Kirkus A thoroughgoing biography. -- Library Journal

Author Information

William Wellman, Jr., is the author of The Man and His Wings. His articles have appeared in Film Comment, Films in Review, and DGA News. He is an actor and screenwriter and was executive producer of Wild Bill- Hollywood Maverick. He lives in Sherman Oaks, California, with his wife.

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