The New Biographical Dictionary of Film: Completely Updated and Expanded (118 page)

Donen began as a dancer in the New York productions of
Pal Joey
and
Best Foot Forward
and then joined MGM as a choreographer. He appeared in the film of
Best Foot Forward
(43, Edward Buzzell) and did the dance direction for
Hey, Rookie; Cover Girl
(44, Charles Vidor);
Anchors Aweigh
(45, George Sidney);
Holiday in Mexico
(46, Sidney);
Living in a Big Way
(47, Gregory La Cava);
A Date with Judy
(48, Richard Thorpe);
The Kissing Bandit
(48, Laslo Benedek);
Take Me Out to the Ball Game
(49, Busby Berkeley).

His friendship with Gene Kelly led Donen into directing
On the Town
, and to the problem in assessing his career: who did what in their collaborations? And what is Donen’s real standing as a director? Since 1960, perhaps because of the virtual disappearance of the modest-size musical, Donen has drifted into comedy, the attempt to transpose Peter Cook and Dudley Moore to movies and the hopelessly unsuitable
Staircase
. At best,
The Grass Is Greener
is a pleasant, unnecessary comedy;
Charade
is a modest bow to Hitchcock; and
Two for the Road
a sign of lasting affection for Audrey Hepburn. But the cinema would be not one jot the poorer without the lot of them. Whereas, no enthusiast in his right mind would give up a foot of
On the Town, Singin’ in the Rain, Seven Brides for Seven Brothers, It’s Always Fair Weather, Funny Face, The Pajama Game
, or
Damn Yankees
.

Donen is obviously a central figure in the story of the MGM musical and unarguably the author of two of the greatest musicals
—Singin’ in the Rain
and
Funny Face
. Nothing in his career suggests that Gene Kelly could have filmed himself singing in the rain with the exhilaration of Donen’s retreating crane shot, while no one has made gravure color so intrinsic a part of smart romance as in
Funny Face
. More than that, Donen led the musical in a triumphant and personal direction: out of doors. The garbage-can dances in
It’s Always Fair Weather
and the mock snowscapes of
Seven Brides
are preludes to “Bonjour Paris” and the enchanting lakeside dance in
Funny Face
, or the magnificent “Once-a-year Day” picnic in
The Pajama Game
. Not only did Donen dare to stage elaborate routines in real locations, but he threw his camera about with the freedom of the studio. Not even Minnelli can rival the fresh-air excitement of such sequences. And very few can equal his integration of song, dance, and story in
Funny Face
, which is a love story put to music. Add to that “Good Morning,” the satire on Hollywood faced with sound, and Cyd Charisse in the “Broadway Ballet” in
Singin’;
the randy ensembles of
Seven Brides;
Charisse in the boxing ring in
It’s Always Fair Weather;
the darkroom sequence in
Funny Face;
and Carol Haney doing “Steam Heat” in
Pajama Game
, and Donen has a secure place forever.

Vincent D’Onofrio
, b. Brooklyn, New York, 1959
It’s hard to think of another contemporary actor who has so fully taken on the challenge that was once Robert De Niro’s—to play extraordinary characters (because of nature or situation) on the fringes of our society, in ways that may leave the actor scarcely recognizable, let alone a fit subject for adulation or big money. D’Onofrio thrives on difficulty, the rare and the remote. As such, it is hardly surprising that he is not widely known or even established. But his prickly integrity shows through a dry survey of what he has attempted.

He had done some TV work before he first drew attention, bleached blond, in
Adventures in Babysitting
(87, Chris Columbus). He then put on a mass of flab to play the victimized Private Pyle in
Full Metal Jacket
(87, Stanley Kubrick). After that he was in
Mystic Pizza
(88, Donald Petrie); to Australia for
The Blood of Heroes
(90, David Peoples);
Signs of Life
(89, John David Coles); in the very strange
Naked Tango
(91, Leonard Schrader); with one speech as a spectator in Dealey Plaza in
JFK
(91, Oliver Stone); in
Fires Within
(91, Gillian Armstrong), with Greta Scacchi, to whom he was briefly married;
Dying Young
(91, Joel Schumacher);
Crooked Hearts
(91, Michael Bortman); as the wretched writer in
The Player
(92, Robert Altman).

In
Malcolm X
(92, Spike Lee), he again played the man in Dealey Plaza. He was Judith Malina’s son in
Household Saints
(93, Nancy Savoca);
Mr. Wonderful
(93, Anthony Minghella);
Being Human
(94, Bill Forsyth); astonishingly good as Orson Welles in
Ed Wood
(94, Tim Burton);
Imaginary Crimes
(94, Anthony Drazan);
Stuart Saves His Family
(95, Harold Ramis);
Strange Days
(95, Kathryn Bigelow).

Then came
The Whole Wide World
(96, Dan Ireland), coproduced by D’Onofrio, in which he played the pulp novelist, Robert E. Howard, and achieved a remarkable love story with Renée Zellweger. That was followed by the Las Vegas story
The Winner
(97, Alex Cox);
Feeling Minnesota
(96, Steven Baigelman). Then he played the victim of a bizarre subway accident on maybe the most arresting episode of
Homicide
(97). He was a paraplegic in
Good Luck
(97, Richard LaBrie); a bug in
Men in Black
(97, Barry Sonnenfeld);
The Newton Boys
(98, Richard Linklater);
Claire Dolan
(98, Lodge Kerrigan);
The Thirteenth Floor
(99, Josef Rusnak); as Abbie Hoffman in
Steal This Movie
(00, Robert Greenwald), which he also helped produce;
The Cell
(00, Tarsem Singh), playing the serial killer;
Last Word on Paradise
(aka
Chelsea Walls
) (01, Ethan Hawke);
The Dangerous Lives of Altar Boys
(01, Peter Care);
Happy Accidents
(01, Brad Anderson);
Impostor
(02, Gary Fleder);
The Salton Sea
(02, D. J. Caruso).

Since 2001 he’s had a lead role in
Law & Order
. He has also acted in
Bark
(02, Kasia Adamik);
The Red Sneakers
(02, Gregory Hines); as Moriarty in
Case of Evil
(02, Graham Theakston);
Thumbsucker
(04, Mike Mills);
The BreakUp
(06, Peyton Reed);
Cadillac Records
(08, Darnell Martin);
The Narrows
(09, François Vallé);
Brooklyn’s Finest
(09, Antoine Fuqua);
Staten Island
(09, James DeMonaco).

Plus, do not miss the thirty-minute,
Five Minutes, Mr. Welles
(05, D’Onofrio) on YouTube, and pray that plans for him to play Harvey Weinstein survive.

Brian Donlevy
(1899–1972), b. Portadown, Ireland
Donlevy was invariably cast as a villain, against every hunch that he was an amiable rough diamond. When he tried to be menacing—narrowing his eyes and bristling his mustache—he only managed to look like a grumpy toy lion. But as an innocent, well-intentioned roughneck he had a unique and appealing vitality. Despite King Vidor’s regret that Spencer Tracy did not play the part, Donlevy is excellent as the Polish immigrant who becomes a tycoon in
An American Romance
(44)—with all the vigorous simplicity of Dos Passos’s chronicles. It was this naïve honesty that Preston Sturges used for the hobo who becomes governor in
The Great McGinty
(40), which also shows up well in
Hangmen Also Die!
(43, Fritz Lang) and
The Glass Key
(42, Stuart Heisler). But much more often, Donlevy merely glowered. After a debut in 1928, he had a string of parts, including:
Barbary Coast
(35, Howard Hawks);
Human Cargo
(36, Allan Dwan);
High Tension
(36, Dwan);
This Is My Affair
(37, William A. Seiter);
In Old Chicago
(38, Henry King);
Jesse James
(39, King);
Beau Geste
(39, William Wellman);
Destry Rides Again
(39, George Marshall);
Brigham Young
(40, Henry Hathaway);
Birth of the Blues
(41, Victor Schertzinger);
Billy the Kid
(41, David Miller);
The Great Man’s Lady
(42, Wellman);
Wake Island
(42, John Farrow);
Nightmare
(42, Tim Whelan);
The Remarkable Andrew
(42, Heisler);
Two Years Before the Mast
(46, Farrow);
Song of Scheherazade
(46, Walter Reisch); and
Kiss of Death
(47, Hathaway). He slipped into B pictures, and sometimes worked abroad, but there was still a gruff distinction:
Kansas Raiders
(51, Ray Enright);
Slaughter Trail
(51, Irving Allen);
The Woman They Almost Lynched
(53, Dwan);
The Big Combo
(55, Joseph H. Lewis);
The Quarter-mass Experiment
(55, Val Guest);
A Cry in the Night
(56, Frank Tuttle);
Cowboy
(58, Delmer Daves);
Never So Few
(59, John Sturges);
The Errand Boy
(61, Jerry Lewis);
Curse of the Fly
(65, Don Sharp);
Waco
(66, R. G. Springsteen);
Hostile Guns
(67, Springsteen); and
Rogue’s Gallery
(67, Leonard Horn).

Clive Donner
, b. London, 1926
1956:
The Secret Place
. 1958:
Heart of a Child
. 1959:
Marriage of Convenience
. 1960:
The Sinister Man
. 1962:
Some People
. 1963:
The Caretaker
. 1964:
Nothing But the Best
. 1965:
What’s New, Pussycat?
. 1967:
Luv
. 1968:
Here We Go Round the Mulberry Bush
. 1969:
Alfred the Great
. 1974:
Vampira
. 1978:
The Thief of Baghdad
. 1980:
The Nude Bomb
. 1981:
Charlie Chan and the Curse of the Dragon Queen
. 1982:
Oliver Twist
(TV);
The Scarlet Pimpernel
(TV). 1983:
Arthur the King
(TV). 1984:
A Christmas Carol
(TV);
To Catch a King
(TV). 1986:
Agatha Christie’s Dead Man’s Folly
(TV);
Babes in Toyland
(TV). 1989:
Stealing Heaven
. 1990:
Not a Penny More, Not a Penny Less
(TV);
Arrivederci Roma
. 1992:
Terror Stalks the Class Reunion
(TV). 1994:
Charlemagne, le Prince à Cheval
(TV).

Donner looks a sad instance of a modest talent out of work in an increasingly nervous industry.
Alfred the Great
was not only his worst film, but an expensive flop. No matter that he may have been compelled to take it on, and then hampered, its lack of success could be enough to damn him. It seems to show that only artistic personalities capable of transcending the industry can stay in work. Donner’s inventiveness is essentially sensible and effacing, so that
The Caretaker
was made with a self-advertised, experimental low budget. It proved a faithful reading of a play already well established. His best films—
Some People
and
Nothing But the Best
—are skillful efforts to expand British conventions. The first was a refreshingly authentic picture of young people, diffident about true improvisation and restrained if compared with TV, but a modest success. The second, from a good Frederic Raphael script, is a much more finely wrought and sardonic comment on British hypocrisy, a film in the vein of
Kind Hearts and Coronets. What’s New, Pussycat?
now looks dated and unfunny; it has always seemed a waste of Paula Prentiss, Capucine, and Romy Schneider on Sellers and O’Toole.
Here We Go Round the Mulberry Bush
was lively, but somehow desperate that it could be no more.

In fact, Donner flowered rather late after a dutiful preparation as an editor:
The Way Ahead
(44, Carol Reed);
On Approval
(45, Clive Brook);
The Passionate Friends
(48, David Lean);
Madeleine
(49, Lean);
Pandora and the Flying Dutchman
(51, Albert Lewin);
Scrooge
(51, Brian Desmond Hurst);
The Card
(52, Ronald Neame);
Genevieve
(54, Henry Cornelius);
The Million Pound Note
(53, Neame);
The Purple Plain
(54, Robert Parrish); and
I Am a Camera
(55, Cornelius).

Donner has now become essentially a TV director: he has had the chance to work with George C. Scott as Fagin and Scrooge, Ian McKellan as Chauvelin, Malcolm McDowell and Candice Bergen in
Arthur the King
, and Drew Barrymore in
Babes in Toyland
.

Richard Donner
(Richard Donald Schwartzberg), b. New York, 1939
1961:
X-15
. 1968:
Salt and Pepper
. 1969:
Twinky
. 1976:
The Omen
. 1978:
Superman
. 1980:
Inside Moves
. 1982:
The Toy
. 1985:
The Goonies; Ladyhawke
. 1987:
Lethal Weapon
. 1988:
Scrooged
. 1989:
Lethal Weapon 2
. 1992:
Radio Flyer; Lethal Weapon 3
. 1994:
Maverick
. 1995:
Assassins
. 1997:
Conspiracy Theory
. 1998:
Lethal Weapon 4
. 2003:
Timeline
. 2006:
16 Blocks
.