George Cukor's People

"Joseph McBride is a natural resource, one whose unique approach to film analysis combines first-person witness, deep study into the context and history of the Hollywood production system, and an uncanny somatic recall for the details and essence of a director’s mise-en-scène, may be easy by now to take for granted: of course, one thinks, McBride has turned his embracing attention to Cukor, as he has in the past to Welles, Ford, Lubitsch, et al. But we shouldn’t take it for granted. Here, his keen and affectionate ""actors-first"" approach to his subject echoes Cukor's own elusive, sensitive style, forming a portrait made of portraits of others. As ever with McBride, you'll be driven to seek out films you’ve never even wondered about, and to reencounter others which you recall only as passing dreams. -- Jonathan Lethem, author of <i>Brooklyn Crime Novel</i> An enticing idea—examining the work of a pantheon director through the iconic performances that adorn his films—is dazzlingly manifested here by singular film historian Joseph McBride. McBride’s fresh take on George Cukor gifts us with lively looks at his work with actors both celebrated (Katharine Hepburn, Spencer Tracy, James Stewart, Cary Grant, Marilyn Monroe) and less so (Lew Ayres, Fredric March, Hattie McDaniel). And he reminds us that Cukor—too often dismissed as tasteful, amusing, but lightweight—was in fact an artist of extraordinary depth, virtuosity, and understanding. -- Julie Kirgo, essayist and film historian This is one of the best books in McBride's distinguished career, and a book that Cukor has long deserved. Critics have often described Cukor as an “actor’s director,” but nobody has done so much as McBride to analyze what the term means. He is a first-rate critic—sensitive, forthright, and eloquent. -- James Naremore, author of <i>Some Versions of Cary Grant</i> For too long, Cukor's reputation has been as a studio-bound “woman’s director."" Au contraire, as McBride shows us in his definitive study, which combines personal reminiscences of Cukor with a masterly analysis of his films, Cukor was an adventurous and modern filmmaker—plumbing depths in stories and performances, always visually resourceful and imaginative. -- Patrick McGilligan, author of <i>George Cukor: A Double Life</i>"