The Last Tycoon

Plot synopsis:
The story begins in the 1910s in early Republican China. Cheng Daqi, a young fruit vendor from Chuansha, is arrested and imprisoned after being framed for murder. He is saved by Mao Zai, an agent working for the secret police. He travels to Shanghai in search of a new life. In Shanghai, he meets Hong Shouting, a mob boss, and becomes one of Hong's apprentices. He also falls in love with Bao, a singer whom he eventually marries. His true love, however, is actually Ye Zhiqiu, an opera actress from his hometown. At one point, Hong unknowingly offends the son of a general and is captured by the general's men. Cheng negotiates with the general and succeeds in making a deal with him to release Hong and invest in their bank. Hong feels so grateful to Cheng that he becomes sworn brothers with him.
Some 20 years later, a middle-aged Cheng has become an influential tycoon and mob boss in Shanghai. He maintains close ties with Hong and Hong's wife, Ling Husheng. At the same time, he has a shaky relationship with Mao Zai, who is now a high-ranking officer in the National Revolutionary Army. He meets his old flame, Ye Zhiqiu, when she visits Shanghai, but she is already married to Cheng Zhaimei, a member of an underground resistance movement. They are caught up in the events of the Second Sino-Japanese War, which breaks out in 1937. Mao arranges for Cheng, Ye and her husband to escape to Hong Kong in the midst of the Battle of Shanghai, but keeps Bao as a hostage with him. After the fall of Shanghai, Mao defects to the Japanese and becomes a provincial governor. The Japanese general Nishino intends to make Cheng the puppet mayor of Shanghai, so Mao suggests to him to keep Cheng's loved ones alive and use them to lure Cheng back to Shanghai.
Cheng returns to Shanghai and reluctantly cooperates with the Japanese. He makes secret plans with Ye Zhiqiu to save their loved ones and allies, and assassinate Nishino. One evening, while Nishino and Mao Zai are distracted by an opera performance in a theatre, Cheng and his men break into the prison to rescue Hong Shouting, Ling Husheng and the others. After returning to the theatre, Cheng and his comrades attack the Japanese and kill Nishino. Mao manages to flee to the backstage, where he holds Ye hostage at gunpoint and threatens to kill her if Cheng does not put down his pistol. Just then, Bao shows up and saves Ye from Mao, but dies in the process. The furious Cheng vents his anger on Mao by shooting him repeatedly. Cheng carries Bao's body and walks out of the theatre while fatso is outside waiting for him, only to find themselves surrounded by Japanese soldiers. They take shelter inside a car and die together when the soldiers unleash a volley of gunfire on them.

Tags: cruelty, melodrama

Review:
Kazan helped to create the "method" acting concept, so who better to direct such a crossroad of talent."Monroe Stahr" is a no nonsense "Studio Chief" who I'm sure Fitzgerald encountered while a hack writer in Hollywood during his final years.
Shortly put, "The Last Tycoon" deals with a top producer's (De Niro) everyday life and the conflict that arises when he sees a lost loved one - albeit in a different way.The movie boasts of several big names of the past as well as the present.
De Niro and Nicholson, two of the greatest actors American film has even seen, will most likely never work together again considering their stature today which makes their scenes together in "The Last Tycoon" that much more priceless.
Kazan and Pinter's THE LAST TYCOON is disjointed, uneven, and strangely memorable -- rather like an oddly unsettling, hazily recalled dream.Robert De Niro, in a quietly amazing performance, disappears into the title character of Monroe Stahr, a workaholic Hollywood producer who is, in Keats's phrase, "half in love with easeful death." (This understated movie is from the same year as De Niro's flashy bravura turn in Martin Scorsese's TAXI DRIVER.)Most of the supporting cast is excellent, including Robert Mitchum and Ray Milland as a couple of Shakespearean-knavish villains, Jack Nicholson, Donald Pleasence, Theresa Russell, and Dana Andrews.Ingrid Boulting is beautiful but somewhat less satisfactory as Stahr's love interest, Kathleen Moore.
a quiet life"Stahr's informal evening meeting with a labor-union organizer (Jack Nicholson), during which the privately despondent movie producer grows increasingly drunk and belligerent; and ...The closing ten minutes or so of the film, which take on an almost surreal quality: Disembodied lines of dialogue from earlier scenes recur; Stahr repeats his earlier speech to Boxley, only now as a soliloquy addressed directly to the camera; and then -- murmuring "I don't want to lose you" -- he seems to hallucinate a vision of Kathleen as she moves on to a new life without him.Only Jeanne Moreau and Tony Curtis struck me as jarringly miscast in their parts.
So it's sort of a shame as well as a surprise that The Last Tycoon does not hit as many spots as I thought it might with it ending up as a slow burning but ultimately unrewarding experience.The film adopts an approach that makes it come across as more of a love story than anything else, but there is a sub-narrative involved that revolves around De Niro's character of Monroe Stahr gradually getting more and more confused with his life and things around him.
Along with this and like I said in the opening paragraph, the film does not poke fun at and nor does it reference enough the industry in which it's set so it doesn't feel particularly clever, something Singin' in the Rain and The Player were because they did it very well and to good comic effect.There is a definite study going on here with some substance in the sense it is about Stahr and his struggles with his current life and his love for newly acquired girlfriend Kathleen Moore (Boulting) but nothing much else.
The Last Tycoon can be approached in different ways depending purely on the viewer's taste and his level of understanding.First, at its most basic level, it is a film about films and people who make them: writers, directors, actors, producers and studio bosses, not in the increasing order of their creative importance but in terms of their actual influence as prevalent during the Golden Age of Hollywood.Second way to approach it is to look upon it as a tale of unrequited love.
Fifth and the most complex way to approach it would be as a surrealistic expression of an artist working at the height of his powers and desperate to make the most of the final few opportunities left with him.The Last Tycoon features quite a few memorable performances including cameos from Tony Curtis, Jeanne Moreau and Jack Nicholson.
He could ask for nothing better than to have English playwright Harold Pinter create this stark, human screenplay and then have Elia Kazan realize it.In addition to De Niro's definitive performance, we get a series of perfect cameos (usually an impossibility) from Tony Curtis, Jeanne Moreau, Robert Mitchum, and others.
Fitzgerald's unfinished novel about the romantic yearnings of an Irving Thalberg-like mogul (Robert DeNiro) is turned into the screenwriter Harold Pinter's stock in trade: a sphinxlike ballet of omitted information.
(It doesn't help that the director, Elia Kazan, seems unsure if he wants to communicate that DeNiro's love interest, Ingrid Boulting, is either a vapid lump or a pornographic doll.) Pinter designs most of the scenes to have anti-payoffs; in one--DeNiro's counsel to a panicky, impotent movie star (Tony Curtis)--he seems to have carefully tailored a joke with no punchline.
This movie is worth watching for Theresa Russell alone.Ok the rest of the cast are all very good but a heart rending role from Theresa Russell steals the film,you can see her mind working and her face is a picture in every sense.At the start of her career to be in a scene with De niro and Nicholson and walk away with it,is something worth watching.A very moving and affecting work by an actress in a worthwhile film..
Robert De Niro is handsome, slim, and elegant as "The Last Tycoon," a 1976 film with a screenplay by Harold Pinter and directed by Elia Kazan.
Thus is the case in "The Last Tycoon," where nothing happens for what seems like hours.The film sports a fabulous cast of old-timers: Robert Mitchum, Tony Curtis, Jeanne Moreau, Ray Milland, Dana Andrews, and John Carradine; and it introduces us to Theresa Russell, Angelica Huston, and Ingrid Boulting, who now teaches yoga in Ojai California and looks exactly the same as she does in this film.
However it took awhile for the code to be imposed, after the Legion of Decency threatened a boycott of picture shows if it didn't go into effect, and those that didn't get a seal of approval had to pay a $25,000 fine and could not make money in the theaters, as the MPAA owned every theater in the country through the Big Five.Enemies of organizing---in the case of The Last Tycoon the labor union of the Writers' Guild---largely in administration and big business, did and will frequently disseminate horror stories about plant closures and vindictive firings to hinder union action and uptake among the workers.This masterfully lateral succession of dramatic character-driven events in an intriguing time and place features a kind of hero, Monroe Stahr, a character thick with overtones of Irving Thalberg, MGM production chief between the late '20s and 30s.
Stahr, played with restrained enthusiasm by Robert De Niro, whose sinewy, swarthy looks look like an admiration of Thalberg's, has the same mysterious talent, but ultimately becomes a victim of the "new" Hollywood of shareholders that Fitzgerald could see forthcoming.
This, plus its slightly 'dry' style (i.e. very little musical score, limited camera movement, performances kept without much, if at all, improvisation), makes things seem almost too much in the realm of the naturalistic, of drama kept to a minimum of interaction.But as the film went along like this, I started to notice something: the sort of coldness, almost a loneliness, with the character of Monroe Stahr, is what actually makes a lot of the movie work for all its intents and purposes.
There was some critical flack for the actress Ingrid Boutling, playing the nearly obscure object of Monroe's desire-cum-demand, but she too is better than she was given credit for, at least within the range she's allowed to work in (which, granted, isn't as much as one might think, but she's seen not as a fully-fleshed person but as someone with hints of a reality she needs and a fantasy world of movies she doesn't).Then there's Nicholson, showing up in the final reels for a couple of amazing scenes sparring with De Niro, barely ever raising voices for a low-key one-on-one as a movie exec and communist writer organizer.
I liked also what Tony Curtis and Jeanne Moreau did as a pair of neurotic married stars.Best in the film however is Jack Nicholson who is the agent from New York organizing the Writer's Guild.
Anyway Nicholson who only comes in for the last 10 minutes of the film, makes his brief scenes with DeNiro really count.The Last Tycoon did get an Academy Award nomination for Best Costume Design and the film certainly did look like the Thirties in Hollywood.
Scott Fitzgerald's last (and unfinished) novel about a workaholic movie mogul (named Monroe Stahr, who bears a literary resemblance to Irving Thalberg) under pressure in 1930s Hollywood.
Great supporting players (including Jack Nicholson, Tony Curtis, Robert Mitchum, Jeanne Moreau, Dana Andrews and Anjelica Huston) end up just standing around, while the film's period-flavor disappoints and the golden-toned cinematography never envelopes us (nothing in the film is visually lyrical, which may be why Kazan resorted to some 'classy' nude shots to spike the action).
Director Elia Kazan was very aware of how vague the love story was scripted but couldn't do much about it.The only memorable is Jack Nicholson's five minutes as a union organizer but his and others talents are wasted in this overlong and overrated drama.
But you also get a very ambitious film that is about as interesting as any you will find, with a cutting edge story that is no less powerful for its extremely small target audience; all nicely matched by the ambitious, paternalistically cast, and expensive film-within-a-film that the title character is pushing though despite it being an obvious money-loser for the studio.The adaptation's trouble lies almost solely with the film's love interest, Kathleen Moore, played by Ingrid Boulting.
The point from a "language of film" perspective is that a filmmaker presents a character in this manner to immediately clue viewers into that character representing an all-consuming motivational force that will drive the hero throughout the story - often to doom.Kathleen makes her entrance in one of the best scenes in cinema history; with the post-earthquake chaos of the flooding studio lot looking like 'thirty acres of fairyland' at night, a radiant mystery woman climbs down from a gigantic floating head (fabricated to be used by the studio as a prop the following week) and smiles at Monroe Stahr, the last of the great Hollywood princes.To its credit, the screenplay is true to Fitzgerald's vision and Boulting and DeNiro effectively bring their relationship dynamic to the big screen.
Harold Pinter's difficulties with the screenplay stemmed from the same issue Fitzgerald had been unable to resolve, just where to strike the balance between the two stories.The emphasis on Stahr means that the excellent supporting cast, from Tony Curtis as a troubled movie star to Robert Mitchum as a cynical studio head to Donald Pleasence as a perplexed English writer, do not get any substantial screen time; but are relegated to insubstantial supporting parts in the service of giving DeNiro the room to showcase his character's roller coaster of elation and sadness.
(But what book ever is?) I hired the movie on rental many years later and thought it was stilted and too impressed by its original source material and couldn't understand why I might have recalled something so (un)memorable.Anyway, the story concerns the rise and fall of Monroe Stahr, a movie mogul whom Fitzgerald based upon the legendary Hollywood figure of Irving G Thalberg.
Robert Mitchum, and Ray Milland also have supporting parts but like Andrews and Curtis, it seems a waste of time - dare I say it, a gimmick of casting, to have them in the film at all.Theresa Russell appears as Robert Mitchum's daughter, and she is the Nick Carraway of this story, observing the tragic predicaments of those around her and vowing that she has learned something about life's pitfalls, from carefully observing the mistakes Monroe Stahr and others in the story have made.
How can a film starring Robert De Niro, Robert Mitchum, Tony Curtis, Jean Moreau, Donald Pleasance, Ray Milland, Dana Andrews, and Jack Nicholson.
While "The Last Tycoon" has a strong start, as the film progresses you get a sense that there isn't going to be a payoff for watching all the down time in the love scenes, and as Fitzgerald didn't finish his story, the movie likewise dissipates without resolution.
Ingrid Boulting makes one of her two filmed performances in this film, and though she looks great, she depends far too much on direction and interaction with other actors, particularly De Niro, to carry her through her scenes.
Old timers like Tony Curtis, Robert Mitchum, Ray Milland, John Carradine, and Dana Andrews have fun with reliving the "good old days", and modern stars like Jack Nicholson, Donald Pleasence, Jeanne Moreau, Theresa Russell, Peter Strauss, and Anjelica Huston get to dress up and pretend they're in the 1940s.
Also the only movie to star Robert De Niro and Jack Nicholson.Is also interesting as a behind-the-scenes look at Hollywood, but doesn't really go far enough in its expose..
Robert Mitchum plays a non-typecast role as a studio executive, Jack Nicholson's short butsweet performance is stunning, and all the female roles hit you with grace.While this film looks GREAT production and cinematography-wise, it's thesubdued acting that gets me here.
The Last Tycoon revolves around a 1930s movie mogul Monroe Stahr (Robert De Niro) and gives an insight into the studio system of the time.
Harold Pinter, with his legendary plays and respectable screenplay resume may have seemed an interesting choice as screenplay writer, but he seems to have not really connected with the spirit of Fitzgerald in the way he succeeded with the British novelists whose works he adapted for the screen, (John Fowles, L.P. Hartley, Penelope Mortimer).On paper it looks tremendously promising with a wealth of reputable talent in the form of Kazan, Pinter, De Niro, Nicholson, Moreau, Curtis, and Mitchum.
Robert Mitchum turns in a terrific performance in a small role while Nicholson as always delivers the goods, but Jeanne Moreau in particular, seems greatly out of place and her scenes with Tony Curtis, (an odd coupling indeed) are wasted.
It's the one redeeming feature of "The Last Tycoon" and possibly the only justifiable reasons for making a effort to see the movie.Ultimately a great disappointment in yet another failed effort in a Scott Fitzgerald screen adaptation, but fans of De Niro will get their satisfaction..
A kind of re-telling story from the thirties where great film studio were managed by some genius pick up among them,the master Elia Kazan were a remarkable director and made a fine work here,the first half hour is very interesting around studio's matters,but when the Tycoon meet a young girl who suppose to be your late woman alike,since then the whole thing collapse and lose the magic,a fine performance from De Niro disappear in the dust of lack imagination,in fact they missed a good oportunity to make a great movie....for Kazan and De Niro and just for them 7/10.Resume:First watch: 1985 / How many: 3 / Source: TV/DVD / Rating: 7.
Scott Fitzgerald's unfinished novel from 1941, adapted for the screen with help of screenwriter Harold Pinter (1930-2008), puts his signature on slow-burning intense character struggles in the Golden Era of Hollywood of the 1930s scenarios, where film studio executive Monroe Stahr, performed by beats underlining, matured-in-isolation actor Robert De Niro, who runs through the film like a train, taking on every obstacles as well as presented opportunities by encountering several women, choosing arguably the false kind to lose balance entirely, over his calmly received incomplete beach house of bliss; masterfully visualized in straight, uncompromising shots in scenes as Monroe's meeting with Mid-Western Writer Brimmer, portrayed by ultra-relaxed actor Jack Nicholson; in an evening of drinking, dining and ping-pong gaming, before a high-pitched hit strikes into this action-denying, quiet and classic drama-indulging two-hour-film about a life of executive producers, following furthermore actor Robert Mitchum (1917-1997) as wise-looking, yet office-women-intercoursing character of Pat Brady, his daughter Cecilia Brady, given face by 18-year-old actress Theresa Russell, who would have been the choice for a future wife in Monroe Stahr's position in order to come to terms of peacemaking.
Although "The last tycoon" is not one of Kazan's best movies, it is well worth seeing, if nothing else, for the all around great performances of a great cast, including a young Robert de Niro, and a nicely aging Jeanne Moreau.The story, as the title suggests, deals with a Holywood movie producer of the 30ths with a huge ego, the kind of people who knows everything best.
Elia Kazan directs De Niro, Mitchum, Curtis, Moreau, Nicholson, Theresa Russell, Donald Pleasance, Ray Milland, Jeff Corey, Dana Andrews, Angelica Huston, and other familiar presences in a screenplay by Harold Pinter from a novel by F.
It stars Robert De Niro together with Tony Curtis, Robert Mitchum, Jack Nicholson, Donald Pleasence, Jeanne Moreau, Theresa Russell and Ingrid Boulting.This was the last film of Elia Kazan,a popular film director during the 50's after more than a 42-year career.The movie revolves around the story of Monroe Stahr,a young production chief of one of the biggest studios during the Golden Age Of Hollywood during the 1930's.As he grows ambitious and lusts for more power,he works harder than ever.In addition to that,he also becomes obsessed with a young woman who is engaged to be married in Kathleen Moore and another woman,Cecilia Brady, the young daughter of a studio board member, tries in vain to make Monroe see how she truly feels.Things even become more complicated when Monroe's health goes on a decline due to hard work and the limited rest that he is getting.This film was based on the late MGM Chairman Irving Thalberg,who is known as the Golden Boy of movie production during the 1930's.
I mean, De Niro, Nicholson and Mitchum in the same film - it is one of the great star casts of the 70s.