Scott Fitzgerald's romantic portrayal of boy wonder Irving Thalberg (renamed Monroe Stahr), head of MGM production by age 25, but in a power struggle with Louie B. Mayer, studio head, is essentially a romance set against a fierce struggle for business supremacy. Fitzgerald wrote that Thalberg's "race" (Jewishness) was nothing and that the Stahr/Kathleen romance was front and center. In this production lurid and ridiculous Nazis stop a major production because the leading lady (Stahr's dead wife)had been Jewish. The clumsy politicizing of the novel continues with a homeless camp right outside the gates of the glamorous studio, and story threads connecting them.
In short, Fitzgerald's work is being murdered. Handsome Matt Bomer is perfect as Stahr, but they have him looking like a waxworks, with slicked down '20s hair (this is mid-thirties). Kathleen, who steals Stahr's heart because of her resemblance to his late wife, should have been brought in early in the demo, as in novel.Dump the Nazis and political stuff not in the novel and have a good business/conflict story like Cameron Hawleys "Executive Suite," but with a stylish romance added.Plenty of time to make these changes.
In short, Fitzgerald's work is being murdered. Handsome Matt Bomer is perfect as Stahr, but they have him looking like a waxworks, with slicked down '20s hair (this is mid-thirties). Kathleen, who steals Stahr's heart because of her resemblance to his late wife, should have been brought in early in the demo, as in novel.Dump the Nazis and political stuff not in the novel and have a good business/conflict story like Cameron Hawleys "Executive Suite," but with a stylish romance added.Plenty of time to make these changes.