Budd's Passing

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Budd Schulberg, the morally-enraged writer who died Wednesday, knew fame and fortune and serious respect during his 95 years on the planet. But the praise that came his way tonight in numerous obituaries was primarily a tribute to three movies and one televised drama that were seen and praised during a five-year streak in the mid to late 1950s.

All four works were basically about social inequity and the unfairness of things in the rough and tumble of big-city commerce. They were each about powerful and ruthless people screwing over less powerful, more decent-minded colleagues or employees, and about the necessity of these lesser types taking a stand against evil and exploitation.

First was On The Waterfront ('54), the Oscar-winning feature that we all know about. Then came The Harder They Fall ('56), a Humphrey Bogart-Rod Steiger drama about the corruption of boxing that was allegedly based on the rise and fall of Primo Carnera. And then A Face in the Crowd ('57), about the rise and fall of a part folksy, part malicious and power-mad Will Rogers figure named Lonesome Rhodes (Andy Griffith). And finally the 1959 NBC Sunday Showcase presentation of What Makes Sammy Run?, which Schulberg had originally written in 1941 or thereabouts. The '59 telecast starred Larry Blyden, John Forsythe and Barbara Rush.

Schulberg did a lot and wrote a lot but these four works were the core. They were all toughly and believably written, and focused on desperate, morally vague, sometimes conniving people up against the wall and facing hard ethical situations and decisions.

I'll always have a soft spot for Waterfront, but that's primarily about Marlon Brando's legendary performance as Terry Malloy. I'm not sure if my second favorite is A Face in a Crowd or What Makes Sammy Run? Come to think of it, who gives a shit what my second favorite Schulberg work is? Even I don't care. I do know I've watched them all on DVD (I recently bought a DVD of an old Sammy kinescope), and that none to this day sound or feel rickety.

Here's to a tough guy who had a brief but great run, and who -- let's face it -- basically coasted on the reputation of those four works for the rest of his life.

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Posted by Jeffrey Wells on August 5, 2009 at 8:57 PM

comment #1

Ponderer says ...

It would have great to see the Joe Louis film he was writing with Spike Lee. I wonder if that'll ever happen now.

Posted by Ponderer at August 5, 2009 9:51 PM

comment #2

moviemaniac2002 says ...

If you look at pop culture and the cult of celebrity today, ..Schulberg is practically a Nostradamus with "A Face In The Crowd" Watch the scene where Lonesome instructs a political candidate on how to package and sell himself like a brand-name product....a chilling teaser of things to come.
But it's interesting how the current day real life spawn of Lonesome Rhodes have split into two separate paths...like the Morlocks and Eloi of "Time Machine"....the Eloi being the famous-for-being-famous celebu-numbskulls....the Morlocks being the looney-tune, verbal diarreah cable-news/talk radio pontificators.

Posted by moviemaniac2002 at August 5, 2009 10:25 PM

comment #3

Scott says ...

A solid performance by Andy Griffith aside, I found A Face in the Crowd massively underwhelming. Props for either identifying or predicting the trend of celebrity culture and (especially) politics, but they made for better essay than drama/comedy. The only film like that I could ever dig was Network, but that had the benefit of fully-fleshed characters and much, much better dialogue.

Posted by Scott at August 5, 2009 11:14 PM

comment #4

lazarus says ...

I love A Face in the Crowd, and agree with MovieManiac that it's totally ahead of its time. J. Hoberman wrote a retrospective review of it a year and a half ago, well worth a read:

http://www.villagevoice.com/2008-02-26/film/famous-for-being-famous/

Posted by lazarus at August 6, 2009 2:53 AM

comment #5

Alexander says ...

As much as I love Network, it wasn't nearly as prescient as A Face in the Crowd, which saw into both the future (both immediate and distant) with startling, frightening clarity.

Good remembrance and summary, Jeff.

Posted by Alexander at August 6, 2009 3:57 AM

comment #6

twicks says ...

I watched A Face in the Crowd after reading that it was Paul Westerberg's favorite movie...for someone raised on "Andy Griffith Show" reruns, watching Sheriff Taylor run around wild, drinking, leering at, and bedding women was a real shocker.

Posted by twicks at August 6, 2009 7:22 AM

comment #7

mccool says ...

They were each about powerful and ruthless people screwing over less powerful, more decent-minded colleagues or employees, and about the necessity of these lesser types taking a stand against evil and exploitation.

Except it's not that particular individuals with power are rotten, it's that power corrupts and leads people to behave rottenly. The same down-and-outers who get screwed by the powerful would, in the same position of power, behave just as poorly. That's the double truth, Ruth.

And is your last line really necessary? The guy coasted on those FOUR works. ONLY four??? Christ, what a waste!

Posted by mccool at August 6, 2009 7:47 AM

comment #8

Glenn Kenny says ...

Schulberg didn't coast, Jeff; he was working on some project or another pretty much until the end. This is more like the case of Billy Wilder or David Lean; Hollywood only wanted to give him tributes, not actually fund his work. How you're not aware of this actually puzzles me.

Posted by Glenn Kenny at August 6, 2009 9:06 AM

comment #9

lipranzer says ...

One of those projects he was working on was a biopic of Joe Louis for Spike Lee. As I remember, Lee dedicated BAMBOOZLED to Schulberg because A FACE IN THE CROWD was a big influence on that movie. Whatever you want to say about Lee, that shows class and taste.

I've never read What Makes Sammy Run, and I've never seen a good enough print of THE HARDER THEY FALL to make a firm impression of it - all I retain is an interesting clash of styles between Humphrey Bogart and Rod Steiger. Love the other two films, though.

Posted by lipranzer at August 6, 2009 9:45 AM

comment #10

Ponderer says ...

I adore A Face in the Crowd. What a tough little film with wheelbarrows of clarity.

Here's more about the Lee/Schulberg project, Save Me Joe Louis - I still hope it happens.

http://www.thesweetscience.com/boxing-article/4685/save-spike-lee-budd-schulberg-joe-louis/

Posted by Ponderer at August 6, 2009 10:01 AM

comment #11

dixiedugan says ...

Here's a good recent article on Budd...

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/people/profiles/marlon-and-me-budd-schulberg-tells-his-amazing-life-story-1607032.html

His 'four' works lasted a lifetime, and are now beyond, something I'm sure many artists today only dream of.

Posted by dixiedugan at August 6, 2009 10:36 AM

comment #12

Gaydos says ...

Jeff: You can't rip young auds for lazily skpping HURT LOCKER and then turn around skip over all of the good (and bad) achievements of Budd's life, ie work on John Ford's documentary unit in WWII, liberation of the death camps, involvement in Nuremberg, all the way through his sports writing, his bad Blacklist days, his leadership with the the Watts Writers Workshops.

IE, what Glenn Kenny said....

Posted by Gaydos at August 6, 2009 11:16 AM

comment #13