Picture (New York Review Books Classics)

This is one of filmdom's best "Making Of" books. An unabashed fan of works like THE MAKING OF THE WIZARD OF OZ, I really don't know how I missed Lillian Ross's PICTURE for so long. In this moderate-sized book -- which began as five long articles for the NEW YORKER magazine -- Ms. Ross follows famed director John Huston in 1950 as he writes, readies and films an adaptation of Stephen Crane's Civil War novel, THE RED BADGE OF COURAGE. Huston already had a reputation as a perceptive director with a flair for seeing the drama within the ordinary, but this film posed challenges both in its making and in the clash of studio politics nearing its peak back at MGM headquarters. Outdoor temperatures when climactic battle scenes were filmed topped 105 degrees and in Culver City, Huston and others had to struggle with the mixed messages the company was sending about the film; Louis B. Mayer, still officially head of the studio, would not green-light the movie, but the rising Dore Schary as "head of production" did.Film buffs can glean insights into how such a movie was filmed, but the real insight comes from the power struggle between Dore Schary and Louis B. Mayer, and the curiously self-justifying logic that set in when people were confronted with -- yet refused to fully face -- that this MGM movie was not going to be a classic. Even when director Huston's responsibilities were done and he headed to Africa to start on a new movie (an independent, far from MGM's control), the argle-bargle continued. Late in the book Mayer let his contract lapse and Schary took full control of the studio, now in the hands of MGM executives who, terrified by negative remarks at several previews, started tinkering with Huston's movie. Ms. Ross's investigative technique was simple but brilliant: she took meticulous notes and quotes the principal players at length, essentially letting them impeach themselves. Since PICTURE reads like a novel, I consider it in the same vein as Truman Capote's "nonfiction novel" IN COLD BLOOD (1966) or its less well-known predecessor, THE MUSES ARE HEARD (1956), which profiled an American troupe's groundbreaking trip to the U.S.S.R. to present George Gershwin's opera PORGY AND BESS.Although Ms. Ross does not inject overt humor into PICTURE, the post-production and publicity people at MGM do it for her, spouting off defensive optimism whose tenor changes from day to day depending on whose philosophy they were emulating. At book's end Ross visited the annual MGM stockholder's meeting in New York and met MGM corporation head Nick Schenck, to whom Mayer and Schary were both subordinate, who was totally unconcerned about the size of his office suite or even that his salary was less than L.B. Mayer's. In PICTURE, Lillian Ross has given us a fascinating document that still rests among the best of books on film and will provide some uncomfortable clues about why so many pictures from the Hollywood system seem to be ham-handedly edited, perhaps with the goal of appealing more to critics than the mass audience. Oh, and that picture John Huston "escaped" to Africa to film? It became  The African Queen , a top-ranked movie without the ministrations of MGM or any other major studio here or abroad.Other recommendations: The Making of The Wizard of Oz ; Portraits and Observations (Modern Library) , which includes THE MUSES ARE HEARD.

"Picture" chronicles the trials and tribulations of making the film The Red Badge of Courage. Lillian Ross, a staff writer for The New Yorker for many years, is a brilliant prose stylist and was given exceptional access. A must-read for anyone interested in the movie biz.

Excellent book that takes the reader through the making of the red badge of courage, the declining movie system and snapshots of the cast and crew. This book tells you what you've missed in the movie. Sadly there will never be a rerelease of red badge of courage due to the fire at the studio.

Remains fresh and insightful -- charting the start of a John Huston film project with the highest artistic intentions through to the release of a movie that pleased hardly anyone.

I read PICTURE when it was first published as a young man very interested in filmmaking. Returning to it more then fifty years later it still remains the best behind the scenes story of making a film. It follows director John Huston as he attempts to bring to film THE RED BADGE OF COURAGE to the screen in a masterful way. No other book has captured the process of making a major film at a Hollywood studio in the detail that this book does. The cover of the 50th Anniversary Edition has the critical quote from Newsweek: "The Best Book On Hollywood Ever Published". That it is! Lillian Ross has authored an insiders look that is both entertaining and amazingly informative. If I were teaching a class on filmmaking this would be required reading along with a viewing the Huston film on DVD. If you a love for great films then you own it to yourself to get a hold of this book.

Written by the famed journalist, Lillian Ross, it relates the delights and ordeals of Huston and his friend, Gottfried Reinhardt, as they try to turn out a good, profitable film. All the while dealing with the strong political winds blowing their way by the opposing forces of MGM's Louis B. Mayer and Dore Schary. I didn't know what to expect from this book, but it is well worth it.

Super cool stuffs. Just the kind of fun one needs in a real book about Hollywood.

Of the excess of books written about movie making, this is one of the very best. Lillian Ross' privileged proximity to the making of an off beat movie in the days when studios ruled all and were only interested in conventional entertainment is fascinating as a view of its time and tol hold up against the vastly different way films are made now.