![]() ![]() Furthermore, no comparisons were made to Asian and other ethnic constituencies. Sadly we will have to take the author's word for it as there are very few people, if any, living in the first part of the 21st century that are in a position to either confirm or contradict his judgment. Instead it is a character study concerning the rise and demise of the person, John Barrymore, who the author calls the greatest actor of his time. While this book offers some insights into acting for Shakespeare and/or role preparation, it is not a treatise on acting. As I recall, John Barrymore was sometimes referred to as "the great profile" and you can visit, as I did, what used to be Grauman's Chinese Theatre in Hollywood and find John Barrymore's profile memorialized in concrete. They were Hollywood's royal family during their pre-1940's heyday. The Barrymore name always had a luster associated with it when I was a youthful movie enthusiast. In the event that the names of siblings John, Ethel or Lionel Barrymore mean nothing to you, then this biography is probably not for you. This tale, first published in 1944, was written by a close friend of John Barrymore and his use of similes takes some getting used to. He as read the actor's journal, and he publishes here for the first time long passages from this private autobiography. ![]() In addition to his own knowledge of Barrymore, Fowler has had access to his papers. There are moments of intense excitement in these pages - the opening night of Hamlet being perhaps the greatest dramatic climax there are happy and idyllic passages, and there are the others when happiness was destroyed forever as Barrymore brought the roof of his fame crashing down on his head. There is a satisfying amount of the theatre in it, for it spans the period from the great figures of John Drew and Maurice Barrymore to the golden streets of Hollywood in its most spectacular era. There is a great deal of humor in Good Night, Sweet Prince, for Barrymore was a wit and he consorted with his peers. ![]() His subject was a great man, and while that does not necessarily mean that he was a sensible one, it does mean that in the hands of a writer as Fowler he becomes the hero of a moving and engrossing human history. Fowler does not employ sensation for its own sake or dwell on disaster for its morbid interest but neither does he insult Barrymore by making him respectable. The author respects Barrymore too much, however to apologize for him he admires Barrymore's talents too much to pretend that those talents were not often thrown away. Barrymore was his friend, and his book is warm with the affection that flowed between them. Barrymore's life was neither comedy or tragedy it was a grand opera.īut as perfectly as words can do it, Gene Fowler has told the story. Such flights of wild and reckless passion, such scenes of heroic debauchery, such moments of matchless artistic triumph should be played behind the lights, in rich costume, and to the accompaniment of the full orchestra. Words alone can scarcely reproduce the unparalleled range between Barrymore's achievement and acclaim and his humiliation and self-torture. (From dust jacket material, hardcover, Viking Press, 1944)
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