The Last Tycoon [dir. Elia Kazan]

123 minutes, 1976
w/ Robert De Niro, Theresa Russell, Robert Mitchum
[The only film legendary director Elia Kazan admitted to make soley for the money, The Last Tycoon is a nearly pointless adaptation of F. Scott Fitzgerald's unfinished novel. Film suffers from uninspired direction and Harold Pinter's script that rushes into the love story and eliminates the key first person narrative of Theresa Russell's character. Robert De Niro acts as an innocent bystander in the mess, making the most of his performance with what he's given. Whoever cast Ingrid Boulting as Kathleen Moore most likely lost their job as she gives a terribly self-conscious, wooden performance that takes away everything mysterious and insteresting about her character. A star cast of underused actors, especially Jeanne Moreau and Tony Curtis, who star in a movie inside the movie [which was considerably more intriguing than the "actual film...]. The last twenty minutes are the best thanks to a much needed spark from Jack Nicholson as a Communist who brings out the worst in De Niro's Martin Stahr. Russell and Mitchum also deserve props for solid perfs despite absense of a quality script or direction.]

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