John Ford, Alfred Hitchcock, Steven Spielberg and … Ulu Grosbard. Most movie buffs will certainly recognize the first three names on our list as Hollywood movie directors, but Ulu Grosbard?
All four directors each made several outstanding (in some cases, legendary) films. But let’s explore the relatively unknown Grosbard and his cinematic output.
Grosbard was a Belgian-born American film director, who fled Europe as a teenager with his Jewish parents during WWII, arriving in America in 1942. He died in 2012 at the age of 83. He was a University of Chicago graduate who served many years as an assistant director, and was probably best known as a Broadway producer. He directed only seven films in a four-decade career. But several of the films are worth exploring.
Take One
Grosbard’s best-known directorial effort, and rightfully so, is his 1978 thriller “Straight Time,” featuring Dustin Hoffman as a recently-released life-long con who is desperately trying not to screw up. Maybe that sounds easy to you, but you don’t live in drug-addled Los Angeles during the 1970s. Hoffman’s performance is extraordinary and he’s matched by Theresa Russell, Harry Dean Stanton, M. Emmet Walsh, and a very young Kathy Bates. (Gary Busey, who also has a lead role, chews the scenery, as usual). The film builds remarkable tension in its observational detail in the first half, but succumbs to a trite mix of plotlines in the second half, although it is always compulsively watchable. The film’s future influence speaks volumes, and is evident in the heist sequences in Michael Mann’s “Heat”(1995), the Coen Brothers’ “Raising Arizona”(1987) and in the Safdie Brothers’ “Good Time”(2017). Available on YouTube.
Potentially one fault of this, and most, movie columns is that we rarely discuss people who are “below the line” in Hollywood credits. “The line” refers to the metaphorical division between those key people in the production who are acknowledged prominently in every film (producer, director, actors, etc), and the majority of the production crew: grips, gaffers, production assistants, managers, etc. There are usually hundreds of below-the-line crew members for each film, and Ulu Grosbard was a particularly prolific production manager and assistant director, both of which are below-the-line credits. His work in those roles helped to shape the vision of now-landmark films like “The Miracle Worker”(1962), “The Hustler”(1961), “Splendor in the Grass”(1961) and perhaps, most radically, director Sidney Lumet’s “The Pawnbroker”(1964). Although Grosbard helped to execute the vision of the director in all of these films, the craft that he learned and instilled in his collaborators was invaluable, both to the films themselves and also to his future directorial work.
Take Two
I have to admit “Who is Harry Kellerman and Why Is He Saying Those Terrible Things About Me?” (1971) is not a personal favorite. The film stars Dustin Hoffman as George Soloway, a highly successful rock music composer living in NYC. The movie is a stream-of-consciousness examination of Soloway’s difficulties with handling fame, wealth and insecurity. The film takes place in a single day, told from Soloway’s point of view. Jack Warden is Soloway’s beleaguered therapist, attempting to assist his client in his battle with suicidal thoughts. The wonderful Broadway actress Barbara Harris appears in the last half-hour of the film and proceeds to dominate every scene. (Harris was nominated for a Best Supporting Actress Oscar). The movie may leave you frustrated, but it’s worth a look. Available on YouTube.
If you want to see two thespian heavyweights at their best, then “True Confessions” (1981) is the film for you. Robert DeNiro and Robert Duvall are brothers navigating the corrupt milieu of post-World War II Los Angeles. DeNiro is Monsignor Des Spellacy, an unscrupulous superstar in the Catholic hierarchy who’s admired by the political and wealthy decision-makers who run all of Southern California. His brother, Tom, is an LAPD homicide detective who will not look the other way, even when it concerns his brother. The story is based on the infamous 1947 Black Dahlia murder case of a young starlet whose body was found in a vacant lot severed at the waist and drained of all blood. The case remains California’s longest unsolved homicide even today. The screenplay was adapted from the best-selling 1977 novel “True Confessions” by John Gregory Dunne. When both DeNiro and Duvall appear together on screen it’s a true masterclass in acting. Available on Prime Video and YouTube.
(This column is written jointly by a baby boomer, Denny Parish, and a millennial, Carson Parish, who also happen to be father and son.)
