Arthur Penn: American Director (Screen Classics)

342 Pages·2011·2.17 MB·English

by  Nat Segaloff

Arthur Penn
Screen Classics
Screen Classics is a series of critical biographies, fi lm histories, and
analytical studies focusing on neglected fi lmmakers and important
screen artists and subjects, from the era of silent cinema to the golden
age of Hollywood to the international generation of today. Books in
the Screen Classics series are intended for scholars and general readers
alike. The contributing authors are established fi gures in their respec-
tive fi elds. This series also serves the purpose of advancing scholarship
on fi lm personalities and themes with ties to Kentucky.
Series Editor
Patrick McGilligan
Books in the Series
Hedy Lamarr: The Most Beautiful Woman in Film
Ruth Barton
Von Sternberg
John Baxter
The Marxist and the Movies: A Biography of Paul Jarrico
Larry Ceplair
Warren Oates: A Wild Life
Susan Compo
Being Hal Ashby: Life of a Hollywood Rebel
Nick Dawson
Raoul Walsh: The True Adventures of Hollywood’s Legendary
Director
Marilyn Ann Moss
Some Like It Wilder: The Life and Controversial Films of Billy Wilder
Gene D. Phillips
Claude Rains: An Actor’s Voice
David J. Skal with Jessica Rains
Buzz: The Life and Art of Busby Berkeley
Jeffrey Spivak
Arthur Penn
American Director
Nat Segaloff
Foreword by
Jonathan Demme
T U P K
HE NIVERSITY RESS OF ENTUCKY
Copyright © 2011 by Nat Segaloff
Foreword © 2011 by Jonathan Demme
Published by The University Press of Kentucky
scholarly publisher for the Commonwealth,
serving Bellarmine University, Berea College, Centre College of Kentucky,
Eastern Kentucky University, The Filson Historical Society, Georgetown
College, Kentucky Historical Society, Kentucky State University, Morehead
State University, Murray State University, Northern Kentucky University,
Transylvania University, University of Kentucky, University of Louisville,
and Western Kentucky University.
All rights reserved.
Editorial and Sales Offi ces: The University Press of Kentucky
663 South Limestone Street, Lexington, Kentucky 40508-4008
www.kentuckypress.com
15 14 13 12 11 5 4 3 2 1
All photographs not otherwise credited are courtesy of the Penn family.
Because this page cannot legibly accommodate all the copyright notices, the
notices appear at the back of the book in a section titled “Credits,” which
constitutes an extension of the copyright page.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Segaloff, Nat.
Arthur Penn : American director / Nat Segaloff ; foreword by Jonathan
Demme.
p. cm. — (Screen classics)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
Includes fi lmography and television credits for directing.
ISBN 978-0-8131-2976-1 (alk. paper)
ISBN 978-0-8131-2981-5 (ebook)
1. Penn, Arthur, 1922–2010. 2. Motion picture producers and directors—
United States—Biography. I. Title.
PN1998.3.P4525S46 2011
791.4302’33092—dc22 2010047399
This book is printed on acid-free recycled paper meeting
the requirements of the American National Standard
for Permanence in Paper for Printed Library Materials.
Manufactured in the United States of America.
Member of the Association of
American University Presses
For Arthur, of course

Contents
Foreword ix
Preface xv
Acknowledgments xvii
Prologue: The Micturating Mogul 1
1 A Boy of Two Cities 5
2 The Theater of War 16
3 The Teachable Moment 24
4 Up at Eight, Off at Nine 30
5 The Edge of Chaos 38
6 Built for Television 49
7 Kid’s Play 60
8 Four for the Seesaw 72
9 Three Miracles 84
10 The King of Broadway 99
11 The Little Play That Could 108
12 Train Wrecks 116
13 Brandeux 128
14 Foggy Mountain Breakthrough 141
15 Golden Boys 162
16 Curtains 173
17 Hippie Sunset 181
18 Little Big Mensch 190
19 A State of Great Disorder 198
20 Sly Foxes 210
21 The Studio 219
22 A Sea of Mud 229
23 Back to Basics 240
Wrap 254
Appendix: Arthur Penn Credits 259
Notes 265
Selected Bibliography 285
Credits 289
Inde x 291
Illustrations follow page 142
Foreword
In the middle of Arthur Penn’s magnifi co Four Friends there
arrives the now justly immortalized, cosmically American mo-
ment where we fi nd ourselves with an American family playing
outside with their adopted Vietnamese child, while inside the
house the television broadcasts news of the fi rst landing on the
moon by U.S. astronauts. It’s fair to call this a quintessentially
American moment, brilliantly conceived and crafted by my dear
friend and not infrequent mentor, the quintessentially American
fi lmmaker, artist, and all-around great guy, Mr. Arthur Penn. (It’s
not lost on me that I have already used one particular word—
American—way too many times, but when it comes to Penn, this
word will just pop up again and again and again because that’s
who and what this man is.)
The book you are holding is rich in all the vital details and
insights pertinent to the fi lmmaker in question, and I have the high
honor of providing a few words of introduction here. Because
my relationship with Arthur is so deep and long running, I’m
introducing him through the prism of my experience of meeting
the man fi rst onscreen through his fi lms, and eventually in person
as a fellow New Yorker and as a brother in the Directors Guild
of America.
I fi rst met Arthur in the early 1960s at the Dixie Drive-In
Theatre on the outskirts of Miami, Florida, where the usual crew
of my movie-obsessed buddies and I, beers in hand and under
the stars, watched this western called The Left Handed Gun at
our favorite venue. We were all bowled over by this western, way
more intimately scaled than we ordinarily cared for; in black and
white, which we were not at all partial to; and, what’s more,
ix