YOUNGBLOOD HAWKE (1964)

We first see young Arthur Hawke in late December, working as a coal truck driver for his family's Kentucky business. He has just gotten word that Prince House, a Manhattan publishing company, wants his novel Alms for Oblivion, which he's worked on for years. Arthur arrives in New York on Christmas Eve to sign contracts. With his thick accent and boyish face, he is viewed as naive and innocent, but he holds out for more money than publisher Jason Prince first offers. Jeanne Green, the editor who first read the book and who has been assigned to work with him, takes him to her boarding house and gets him a small attic room where he can live and work on the book. That night, he goes to Prince's annual holiday party where he catches the eye of several people: Fannie, Prince's wife; Quentin Judd, a powerful book critic; Ferdie Lax, an agent; and rich socialite Frieda Winter. Though married with three kids, Frieda takes a liking to Arthur, whose nom de plume is Youngblood Hawke (she takes to calling him Bloody on occasion). Though we've seen Arthur and Jeanne strike some mild sparks, it's Frieda who winds up bedding him. His first book is a mild success, but when it stalls on the charts, Prince is reluctant to keep pushing it. With some help from Jeanne, rival publisher Ross Hodge buys out his contract and agrees to publish the second book, Chain of Command. Not only is it a big hit, but famous actress Irene Perry agrees to produce and star in a play version of Alms. Yes, we can see where this is going: eventually, success will take its toll at about the same time as his third book, which he is using to launch his own indie publishing company, is a bomb. Will the ambitious Arthur be able to pick up the pieces while still keeping the respect of his friends and associates?

Though shot in black & white, this fits right in with the many other glossy and colorful soap opera melodramas of the era, from A SUMMER PLACE to IMITATION OF LIFE to PARRISH to THE CARPETBAGGERS. The arc of rise, fall and redemption is predictable, though here the rise happens so quickly that we get little sense of his hard scrabble past. There's a subplot involving his mother's legal wrangle with relatives over land rights, but it's only there so she (Mildred Dunnock) can be present for a couple of emotional incidents midway through, including a laughable scene where she walks in on Arthur and Frieda, fully clothed, kissing—Frieda's reaction is so extreme, you'd think that Ma walked in on the two of them naked in the middle of a drug-fueled orgy. The production values are solid, and the acting, while not Oscar-caliber, is effective. James Franciscus (above) is charming enough and ridiculously handsome (if you like vanilla blonds, which I do) as Arthur, though one online critic notes rightfully that he lacks that undefinable thing called star power. Warren Beatty, who was originally sought for the role, might have made a bigger splash, but Franciscus is fine. As good and maybe better is Suzanne Pleshette (pictured at left with Franciscus) as Jeanne who is believable as the wholesomely sexy heroine. French actress Genevieve Page (Frieda) is not terribly charismatic, and her character never seems to be either having fun or suffering much, even when her adolescent son, who has a bit of a hero-worship crush on Arthur, dies tragically. Among the many familiar players to get some face time: Mary Astor as the actress, Lee Bowman as Prince, Edward Andrews as the critic, Eva Gabor as Prince's wife, Don Porter as the agent, and Kent Smith as Frieda's husband. There isn't a lot of humor, but I liked Pleshette's line when Franciscus scolds her for smoking too much: "I like to cough." Based on a novel by Herman Wouk which was based in part on the life of author Thomas Wolfe. I enjoyed this, but largely because I was enjoying so many close-ups of the shiny dirty blond hair and ultra white teeth of the leading man. [TCM]