A review by wahistorian
Picture by Lillian Ross

5.0

I found this book difficult to put down, thanks in part to Ross’s obsessively detailed observations, but also to the colorful cast of Director John Huston, producer Gottfried Reinhardt, studio execs, writers, actors, and all the myriad of other workers it takes to make a movie. ‘The Red Badge of Courage’ was a flop—“flop d’estime,” as Si Seadler, studio advertising exec called it—but the process of trying to draw it back from commercial failure is ultimately the fascinating part of the story. In Ross’s hands, ‘Red Badge’ becomes a fascinating case study of the tension between art and commerce in Hollywood. The happy part for me was how intensely everyone cares about their little role in trying to make a film a success. And John Huston was a mensch. This is a book I’ll think about whenever I watch a movie.