Published: 1941 (Charles Scribner’s Sons)
F. Scott Fitzgerald’s unfinished novel, The Last Tycoon, transports you back to 1930’s Hollywood where an iconic producer, Monroe Stahr, holds onto his last shred of power and intrigue. The novel starts by introducing our Great Gatsbyian narrator Cecilia Brady, the daughter of Stahr’s co-producer and rival Pat Brady, as she takes the summer off from college. Cecilia, acting as a pseudo-intern and fly on the wall of her father’s studio, is desperately infatuated with Monroe. The main base of the novel, from her perspective, tells a day in the life of Monroe. Monroe, a roman a clef for legendary producer Irving Thalberg, commands the respect and attention of his actors, fellow producers, writers, and crew throughout the studio. The reader peers into his dealings with lecherous writers, fragile actors, egotistical fellow producers, and the ecosystem that relies on his taste and influence. Monroe solves problems, entertains Danish royalty, views the rushes, and rewrites scripts with tenacity and grace. Within his stoic exterior, he is suffering from a seemingly terminal illness and lamenting over the death of his wife, the actress Minna Davis. That is, until he meets the plain but mysterious Kathleen Moore, a relative nobody from England who strikes a resemblance from the face up to Minna. Through an acquaintance, Monroe pursues Kathleen who is stereotypically withholding, and then gives in to his advances. Again, in a Great Gatsbyian fashion, they have a short and bright affair like an exploding star, leaving the remnants of their love scattered all over Tinseltown. Kathleen is set to be married, Monroe is conflicted over her likeness to Minna, and so they ultimately break up. Monroe handles this break up by picking a fight with a communist over his agitation of the motion picture labor unions, and ends up sleeping with Cecilia. This is where the manuscript ended before Fitzgerald’s untimely death, and where conjecture begins. Fitzgerald’s notes indicate that Monroe breaks it off with Cecilia and continues his affair with Kathleen, before hiring the murder of Pat Brady after he hears Brady is plotting to take the studio leadership from him. Monroe kills Brady and Cecilia being betrayed by Monroe and with the death of her father enters a sanitarium, ala F. Scott Fitzgerald’s wife Zelda.
This novel gives the fast-paced Golden Age of Hollywood an attractive quality, while painting most of its inhabitants as highly flawed successful people, or moral nobodies. Monroe is supposed to bridge the gap between the two with his relationship to Kathleen, but without the finished novel his main character lacks closure or direction. This fact, along with the lack of definition of side characters who, at times, are hard to follow or remember, makes this novel uneven to me. The Last Tycoon accurately paints Monroe as a tycoon, building and conducting the rollercoaster of a Hollywood Studio, but you are stuck on the coaster as the ride malfunctions and leaves you suspended in air. I would have loved to read the finished manuscript, especially if it gave more depth to Cecilia, who seems to be written to enhance the narration and details of Monroe, rather than add richness and complexity to the role of women, or at the very least the nepo-baby hanger ons, in Hollywood. I recommend this book, and I am looking forward to reading and reviewing more Fitzgerald. In its finished form it pales in comparison to the depth of Gatsby, only matching his masterpiece in the world-building aspect of West and East Egg.
Some final thoughts:
- Robert De Niro starred in an adaptation of this novel in 1976.. I need to watch this movie ASAP. Speaking of 1970s Fitzgerald adaptations, Robert Redford’s starring role in the 1974 adaptation of Gatsby makes me think of Bruce Dern’s sweat glands in that movie. Tom is, and always will be, an absolute prick.
- I am a sucker for any book or movie that takes you inside Hollywood, and I think no other piece of media does as good a job of this as Curb Your Enthusiasm, a national treasure. Crazy Eyez Killa!
Rating: 3.7/5
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