Howard Hawks: The Grey Fox of HollywoodThe first major biography of one of Old Hollywood's greatest directors. Sometime partner of the eccentric Howard Hughes, drinking buddy of William Faulkner and Ernest Hemingway, an inveterate gambler and a notorious liar, Howard Hawks was the most modern of the great masters and one of the first directors to declare his independence from the major studios. He played Svengali to Lauren Bacall, Montgomery Clift, and others, but Hawks's greatest creation may have been himself. As The Atlantic Monthly noted, "Todd McCarthy. . . . has gone further than anyone else in sorting out the truths and lies of the life, the skills and the insight and the self-deceptions of the work." "A fluent biography of the great director, a frequently rotten guy but one whose artistic independence and standards of film morality never failed." --The New York Times Book Review "Hawks's life, until now rather an enigma, has been put into focus and made one with his art in Todd McCarthy's wise and funny Howard Hawks." --The Wall Street Journal "Excellent. . . . A respectful, exhaustive, and appropriately smartass look at Hollywood's most versatile director." --Newsweek |
Contents
Origins | 18 |
Boy of Privilege | 34 |
Rich Kid in Hollywood | 48 |
Showtime | 64 |
The Sound Barrier | 97 |
A New Dawn | 102 |
The Criminal Code | 118 |
Tough Guys Hughes Hecht Hays and Scarface | 122 |
Air Force | 326 |
The BelAir Front | 340 |
Not in the Script To Have and Have Not and The Big Sleep | 353 |
The Urge to Independence Red River | 392 |
Slim Walks Money Talks | 424 |
Skirting Trouble I Was a Male War Bride | 442 |
An Old Boss A New Mate | 461 |
The Fox at Fox Monkey Business and Gentlemen Prefer Blondes | 487 |
Back to Warners The Crowd Roars | 156 |
Tiger Shark | 163 |
Sidetracked at MGM Faulkner Thalberg and Today We Live | 173 |
Viva Villa | 188 |
Screwball Twentieth Century | 197 |
Barbary Coast | 206 |
Flying High Ceiling Zero | 214 |
The Road to Glory | 224 |
Include Me Out Come and Get It | 231 |
Big Spender RKO Gimga Din and Bringing Up Baby | 243 |
Only Angels | 260 |
His Girl Friday | 279 |
Slim Hemingway and An Outlaw | 289 |
Sergeant York | 301 |
Catching Fire | 314 |
In the Land of the Pharaohs | 504 |
Sojourn in Europe | 532 |
Bravo | 540 |
Fun in the Bush Hatari | 563 |
A Fishy Story Mans Favorite Sport? | 588 |
Fast Cars and Young Women | 590 |
The Last Roundup | 605 |
From Sand to Dust | 620 |
Posterity | 638 |
Filmography | 646 |
Acknowledgments | 669 |
Notes | 672 |
Bibliography | 688 |
Index | 698 |