Tough as Nails: The Life and Films of Richard Brooks

by Douglass K. Daniel

Overview

Called “God’s angry man” for his unyielding demands in pursuit of personal and artistic freedom, Oscar-winning filmmaker Richard Brooks brought us some of the mid-twentieth century’s most iconic films, including Blackboard Jungle, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, Elmer Gantry, In Cold Blood, and Looking for Mr. Goodbar. “The important thing,” he once remarked, “is to write your story, to make it believable, to make it live.” His own life story has never been fully chronicled, until now.             Tough as Nails: The Life and Films of Richard Brooks restores to importance the career of a prickly iconoclast who sought realism and truth in his films. Douglass K. Daniel explores how the writer-director made it from the slums of Philadelphia to the heights of the Hollywood elite, working with the top stars of the day, among them Humphrey Bogart, Cary Grant, Elizabeth Taylor, Jean Simmons, Sidney Poitier, Sean Connery, Gene Hackman, and Diane Keaton. Brooks dramatized social issues and depicted characters in conflict with their own values, winning an Academy Award for his Elmer Gantry screenplay and earning nominations for another seven Oscars for directing and screenwriting.             Tough as Nails offers illuminating insights into Brooks’s life, drawing on unpublished studio memos and documents and interviews from stars and colleagues, including Poitier, director Paul Mazursky, and Simmons, who was married to Brooks for twenty years. Daniel takes readers behind the scenes of Brooks’s major films and sheds light on their making, their compromises, and their common threads. Tough as Nails celebrates Brooks’s vision while adding to the critical understanding of his works, their flaws as well as their merits, and depicting the tumults and trends in the life of a man who always kept his own compass.     Best Books for General Audiences, selected by the American Association of School Librarians   Outstanding Book, selected by the Public Library Reviewers

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780299251239
Publisher:	University of Wisconsin Press
Publication date:	04/08/2011
Series:	Wisconsin Film Studies
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	249
File size:	4 MB

About the Author

Douglass K. Daniel is a writer and editor with the Associated Press. He is author of Harry Reasoner: A Life in the News and Lou Grant: The Making of TV’s Top Newspaper Drama.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments        

Introduction       

1. Hollywood by Way of Philadelphia        

2. Writing Movies at Home and at War        

3. Swell Guys, Brutes, and the Blacklist        

4. In the Director's Chair at MGM        

    Crisis / The Light Touch / Deadline—U.S.A. / Battle Circus / Take the High Ground! / Flame and the Flesh / The Last Time I Saw Paris    

5. Writing and Rocking around the Clock        

    Blackboard Jungle / The Last Hunt / The Catered Affair

6. Taking Literature from Page to Screen        

    Something of Value / The Brothers Karamazov / Cat on a Hot Tin Roof

7. Independence and That Old-Time Religion        

    Elmer Gantry

8. Two Hits and One Major Miss        

    Sweet Bird of Youth / Lord Jim / The Professionals

9. A Journey into Capote Country        

    In Cold Blood

10. On Marriage, Larceny, and America's Beauty        

    The Happy Ending / $ / Bite the Bullet

11. New Directions and Two Wrong Turns        

    Looking for Mr. Goodbar / Wrong Is Right / Fever Pitch

Conclusion        

Filmography        

Notes on Sources        

Bibliography        

Index

Editorial Reviews

Reads like a wonderful movie. Richard Brooks’s story is feisty, opinionated, emotional, heartfelt, bitter, angry, warmhearted, and even funny. I loved Richard Brooks and I love this wonderful book.”—Paul Mazursky, Academy Award-nominated filmmaker

 

“Mr. Daniel has captured the essence of the artist known as Richard Brooks. The struggle of the Outsider who became an Insider in Hollywood in spite of being a ruffian cannot be put down. I admired Mr. Brooks when I worked with him and through this wonderful book I grew to love him.”—Shirley Knight, actress

 

“Douglass Daniel has nailed Richard Brooks. It is high time for this engrossing and revelatory account of his life, his work and his creative drive. This places Brooks where he rightfully belongs, among the greats of cinema history.”—Scott Wilson, actor who portrayed Dick Hickock in In Cold Blood

“In recent years writer-director Richard Brooks has been making frequent, noisy walk-on appearances in other people’s biographies, picking fights, yelling, being fantastically rude and abrasive, and prompting this reader many times to think, ‘Wow, I want to read his biography.’ Well, here it is, and it delivers. Not only do we get the very best/worst of Brooks’ incredibly irascible on-set personality, we get to see beyond the barking autocrat and observe what several friends and co-workers call ‘the mischievous twinkle in his eye,’ which suggested that the other stuff was maybe all a nervous put-on. More important, author Douglass K. Daniel is cleareyed in his assessment of the enduring value and power of Brooks’ best work.”—The DGA Quarterly

From the Publisher

Writer, producer, and director Richard Brooks's best films, notably Blackboard Jungle, Elmer Gantry, and In Cold Blood, are penetrating portraits of the dark, seamy side of American life. Portraying his fierce work ethic, a determination to protect his vision, and his often harsh treatment of coworkers, this book is an honest but appreciative biography of the man and his uneven but significant body of work. Daniel (Harry Reasoner: A Life in the News) notes that while Brooks mastered multiple film genres, his persistent desire to make strong statements too often descended into preachiness. Like other directors of the post-World War II generation, Brooks had trouble adjusting to the realities of the new Hollywood, and his 1970s take on sexual liberation, Looking for Mr. Goodbar, provoked protests and death threats. VERDICT This first major biography of Brooks is a well-written and insightful study of an unfairly neglected filmmaker. Aided by access to Brooks's friends, family (particularly ex-wife and actress Jean Simmons), and colleagues, Daniel offers an enjoyable read for film buffs and historians. Recommended.—Stephen Rees, formerly with Levittown Lib., PA

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