The Men Who Made the Movies: George Cukor

"The Men Who Made the Movies" is a fascinating series. This episode is about George Cukor, the so-called "women's director" who worked a great deal with Katharine Hepburn and directed My Fair Lady. Most of the hour contains an interview with Cukor that is certainly interesting but not fascinating. He explains his attitude toward the media of film and working with actors as well as his search for the truth in every story. There was also a mention, by the narrator, of the dark themes below some of his frothier films.

I'm not sure why this episode isn't as compelling as, for instance, the one on Raoul Walsh. Cukor didn't have Walsh's flamboyant personality and also wasn't full of anecdotes. I suppose that's it. The clips shown were familiar to film lovers: from The Philadelphia Story, Camille, Sylvia Scarlet, Holiday, Bill of Divorcement. No My Fair Lady, which was a difficult filming. It would have been good to hear about some of the problems.

On Gone with the Wind, it's my belief the information presented is incorrect, at least in part. I realize the film is knee-deep in folklore. However, despite the narration, most of Cukor's work is NOT in the film. One of the only scenes that survived from Cukor is the birth of Melanie's baby.

The big faux pas was repeating the urban legend that Clark Gable had Cukor fired. This is not only untrue but makes NO SENSE. Selznick's memos are full of how unhappy he was with the fact that Cukor was moving too slowly. A letter to Margaret Mitchell indicates that Cukor was also unhappy, stating that he thought the script was bad (it was eventually rewritten), he wasn't clicking with the material, and that, as an artist, he had to take his time. He was replaced.

There are two urban legends - and that's what they are - concerning Clark Gable wanting Cukor fired, and it gives me great pleasure to debunk garbage like this. This first was that Gable didn't like the fact that Cukor was good at directing women, that it was his speciality. The second legend is that Cukor knew that Clark Gable had been a hustler when he started in Hollywood and Gable was uncomfortable.

Clark Gable was the only actor whom the public demanded for Rhett Butler. Selznick was SO DESPERATE to get him that he gave away part of his film to MGM. Does anyone REALLY BELIEVE that a) Clark Gable didn't know Cukor's expertise in directing women before he started filming; or b) George Cukor knew some secret about him before he started filming? Does anyone believe that Cukor walked up to Gable during filming and said, I know something embarrassing about you, Clark," just to antagonize him when they were making a movie together? Does anyone REALLY BELIEVE that if Clark Gable didn't want to work with Cukor, he wouldn't have said UP FRONT, "I can't work with him?" Does anyone REALLY BELIEVE that Selznick wouldn't have said, "Goodbye George, and don't let the door hit you on the way out?" rather than lose Gable? Not to mention, Gable and Cukor had already worked together on "Manhattan Melodrama," and as far as I know, Cukor got to finish the movie. If people would just think through these things, they wouldn't jump on them so quickly.

So given the fact that this episode put forth false info and wasn't very excited, it gets a 6 from me. If you get a chance to see the Raoul Walsh one, don't miss it.

This biographic documentary about Hollywood director George Cukor is anything but a biography. That's too bad, because one expects such a film to give considerable background on the subject. Instead, this mostly is a collection of vignettes of Cukor's working with various big name stars on his most successful films. There is absolutely nothing about the man himself – his parents, birth, boyhood, family, personal life or other background. After all, aren't those some of the things – if not the crucial things, that shape a person?

After some film clips, this documentary opens with Cukor walking toward the camera in a garden. The sparsely used narrator, Sydney Pollack says, over this scene, "Cukor arrived in Hollywood the same time as the talkies." Period! That's it! We learn nothing of the background of the man, or how it would shape the character of George Cukor, who would go on to direct some of Hollywood's best actors and movies.

The setting with the director sitting and discussing actors and films resembles movie reviewers and similar programs when critics show such clips. Very little new is learned and the viewer gains no insights into the director's character and vision. Even in his description of the director's job, Cukor seems abstract or elusive. See how he describes the job of the director: "It's a very fine point about how to handle actors," he says. "By and large, you give the tone of the whole thing. You give the vitality. If a director sits down, everybody else sits down. That is among his other duties – to keep it going." These make nice little sound bites, but is there anyone who doesn't know this? By instinct, one knows that the director is the boss, in charge of the goings-on.

The one bit of information I found interesting was something Cukor said of Katherine Hepburn and her mother. "She is a great believer in women's rights. Her mother was. Her mother was a birth control friend of Margaret Sanger, and she was brought up in this absolutely liberal tradition." As far as I know, this 1973 documentary is the first mention of that background.

The narrator says that Cukor was fired early as director of "Gone With the Wind," and that the studio made many changes in his finished film of "A Star is Born." But, Cukor didn't make a row about these instances. The narrator sounds a note of sympathy for Cukor, that he just took these things in stride and went on with his life of film directing. But, considering the rumors and different versions of stories that still circulate about that time, one can imagine why Cukor wouldn't make a big fuss. He had a reputation for a sharp tongue, and was known to hold some of the best parties in Hollywood. Who knows what scandals and skeletons might come out of the closet if one were to protest too much?

It would have been nice to learn more about the man behind the name – halos, warts and all. Without that, this documentary is just a so- so look at one man's experiences with some movies and their stars. This 1973 documentary was made for TV. It now comes as a bonus on some DVDs.