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- Reviews: Currents (2026)
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- “Only the bad directors tell you how to read a line, how to define your character. The good ones let you do your job.” — Carroll Baker
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- An Acting Lesson: John Wayne and the “Reality of the Doing”
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Tag Archives: Clifford Odets
The Books: The Fervent Years: The Group Theatre And The Thirties, by Harold Clurman
Daily Book Excerpt: Theatre Next book on the acting/theatre shelf is The Fervent Years: The Group Theatre And The Thirties, by Harold Clurman The Group Theatre, summer of 1931, summer workshop Harold Clurman was one of the founders of The … Continue reading
Posted in Books
Tagged Clifford Odets, Group Theatre, Harold Clurman, Lee Strasberg, Morris Carnovsky, politics, Stella Adler
2 Comments
The Books: On Directing, by Harold Clurman
It is time to say goodbye to the Biography shelf. I still have many self-described genres to get through. I decided to move on to my messy well-thumbed shelf of Acting/Theatre books. Books on the history of acting, history of … Continue reading
Posted in Books, Directors
Tagged Clifford Odets, Golden Boy, Group Theatre, Harold Clurman, Macbeth
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Elvis Dispatch #2: Wild In the Country (1961)
A sometimes-overheated melodrama, drenched in Freudian analysis, so in vogue at the time, Wild in the Country actually gives Elvis Presley a chance to do some real acting. It has some Tennessee Williams elements, some Rebel Without a Cause elements, … Continue reading
Posted in Movies
Tagged Clifford Odets, Elvis Presley, Tuesday Weld, Wild in the Country
10 Comments
Clifford Odets and John Garfield, 1940
Excerpts from The Time Is Ripe, the journal that Clifford Odets kept during the year 1940. That was the last year of the Group Theatre, which closed after the production of Odets’ Night Music (starring Elia Kazan), and Odets was … Continue reading
Posted in Books
Tagged Clifford Odets, Group Theatre, John Garfield, Morris Carnovsky, The Time is Ripe
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receiving
Clifford Odets, journal entry, January 17, 1940 Much of love for me is in giving. Unfortunately, I am not one of the receivers in life. I receive badly, restlessly, shamefully.
Deadline at Dawn Film Noir: Harold Clurman and Clifford Odets
Clurman and Odets, old colleagues from the Group Theatre, were reunited in 1946 (at least professionally – they were good friends in real life) to do the film Deadline at Dawn. I was asked to write a review of Deadline … Continue reading
The Books: “The Time Is Ripe: The 1940 Journals of Clifford Odets”
Daily Book Excerpt: Entertainment Biography/Memoir: The Time Is Ripe: The 1940 Journal of Clifford Odets : With an Introduction by William Gibson Clifford Odets (playwright in the 30s and 40s – inspiration to Arthur Miller, Tennessee Williams, a generation of … Continue reading
The Books: “Elia Kazan: A Life” (Elia Kazan)
Daily Book Excerpt: Entertainment Biography/Memoir: Elia Kazan: A Life, by Elia Kazan I met Elia Kazan once. It was in 1999 and I was working on a show at the Actors Studio. It was a production of Awake and Sing, … Continue reading
The Books: “Cary Grant: The Lonely Heart” (Charles Higham & Roy Moseley)
Daily Book Excerpt: Entertainment Biography/Memoir: Cary Grant: The Lonely Heart, by Charles Higham & Roy Moseley This is what happens when you try to “explain” your subject, as opposed to just describing his actions – and letting the actions speak … Continue reading