Eleonora Duse, the turn-of-the-century Italian actress who inspired Stanislavsky’s Method, told her company that to play Ibsen’s characters they had to know unhappiness, and, if necessary, they should go looking for it. In Eleonora Duse: A Biography, Helen Sheehy makes it clear that Duse followed her own advice. Duse was a genius at creating misery for herself; her disastrous affair with the poet Gabriele d’Annunzio must have fed her onstage characterizations of Hedda and Marguerite, just as it gave d’Annunzio material for his novel “Il Fuoco.”
As the premier husband-and-wife acting team of the middle of the twentieth century, Alfred Lunt and Lynn Fontanne—the subject of Margot Peters’s Design For Living—projected sizzling chemistry onstage. Offstage, their marriage was probably sexless—Alfred was rumored to have been gay—and their domestic arrangements gravitated toward chaste ménages à trois, often with their friend Noël Coward. Did their sexuality, repressed at home, emerge more conspicuously in their performance? One critic wrote that “The Guardsman,” a comedy about a couple who lead each other in sex games, was the true story of the Lunts’ marriage: “They lived to act for each other.”
Bela Lugosi was a sensation as Dracula on Broadway, and the film version made him Hollywood’s leading horror star. But, as Arthur Lennig tells us in The Immortal Count, Lugosi wanted romantic roles and was frustrated that his accent and European mannerisms limited him to playing the heavy. Only in life could he play Don Juan: he married five times and died in 1956 beneath a large nude portrait of Clara Bow, a souvenir of their affair.
(Kate Taylor)
Lennig's lifelong worship of his subject adds an intensely personal flavor to this biography of the complex horror king, which shines in its ability to respect Lugosi's talent, regardless of personality flaws. A ladies' man and opportunist, Lugosi married his first wife for money, later rewriting her as a great love. After triumphing in Broadway's Dracula, Lugosi (1882-1956) solidified his image with the 1931 film version: as he told the New York Times, "every producer in Hollywood had definitely set me down as a `type.'... I was both amused and bitterly disappointed." Lennig details the key creative tragedy of Lugosi's life: turning down the part of Frankenstein, which enabled Boris Karloff to win it. Lugosi sank permanently to second position in the horror hall of fame. Lennig knowledgeably analyzes every important Lugosi film, and those who don't adore the genre may skim some of the voluminous commentary. But the character details are always engrossing, and Lugosi's declaration that "[e]very actor is somewhat mad, or else he'd be a plumber or a bookkeeper or a salesman" is in keeping with his tormented psyche. Lennig describes the star's last years without maudlin excess, as Lugosi struggles with unemployment, financial problems, depression, drinking and drugs. Like many underappreciated geniuses, Lugosi had to cope with vitriolic reviews; it's heartening that he surmounted them and attained classic status after death. Lennig lucidly illustrates through Lugosi's words why his reputation has continued to grow: "You can't make people believe in you if you play a horror part with your tongue in your cheek... you must believe in it while you are playing it." 75 b&w photos. (July) Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information.
Though many actors portrayed Dracula, none compared with Bela Lugosi's hypnotic vampire. While that role won him praise, it haunted his professional career, turning him into a cult legend among horror fans and a ghoul of late-night B movies. In this intelligent biography, Lennig (cinema, emeritus, Univ. of Albany; Stroheim) details the talented Hungarian-born actor's five marriages, drug addictions, feuds with Boris Karloff, and appearances in Ed Wood's humiliating movies, drawing on firsthand information, archives, interviews, and years of research. Although astute, his lengthy dissertations of each film, with scene-by-scene descriptions, slow the pace of an otherwise interesting study. Short synopses would have been sufficient, as evidenced by Larry Edward's Bela Lugosi: Master of the Macabre, which in contrast to Lennig's straightforward approach is told in story form. Still, this is a good choice for libraries with strong horror collections.-Rosalind Dayen, South Regional Lib., Pembroke Pines, FL Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information.
Will stand for a long time as the definitive book about the man who incarnated Dracula, to the great detriment of his career.
The definitive account of Lugosi's tragic life and times.
Remains passionately personal in its outlook, but thanks to new research and greater availability of films it also offers a more comprehensive and richly detailed study of Bela Lugosi's complex personality.
One comes away from Lennig's book with a deep respect for both Lugosi and the author himself.
This book is long overdue and is highly recommended as biography, film history and pop culture. It is the last word on Lugosi.
"A moving, lively, witty, sad book that revives once more the long dead Count Dracula." -- Kirkus
"In this intelligent biography, Lennig details the talented Hungarian-born actor's five marriages, drug addictions, feuds with Boris Karloff, and appearances in Ed Wood's humiliating movies, drawing on firsthand information, archives, interviews, and years of research." -- Library Journal
"Lennig's lifelong worship of his subject adds an intensely personal flavor to this biography of the complex horror king, which shines in its ability to respect Lugosi's talent, regardless of personality flaws." -- Publisher's Weekly
"One comes away from Lennig's book with a deep respect for both Lugosi and the author himself." -- Scary Monsters Magazine
"Remains passionately personal in its outlook, but thanks to new research and greater availability of films it also offers a more comprehensive and richly detailed study of Bela Lugosi's complex personality." -- Paul M. Jensen
"The definitive account of Lugosi's tragic life and times." -- Turner Classic Movies
"This book is long overdue and is highly recommended as biography, film history and pop culture. It is the last word on Lugosi." -- National Board of Review
"Will stand for a long time as the definitive book about the man who incarnated Dracula, to the great detriment of his career." -- Lexington Herald-Leader
