Dudley Murphy, Hollywood Wild Card

By Susan B. Delson

Dudley Murphy (1897-1968) was one of early Hollywood's most intriguing figures. Active from the 1920s through the 1940s, Murphy was one of the industry's first independents and a guiding intelligence behind some of the key films in early twentieth-century cinema. In the first full-length biography of Murphy, author Susan Delson gives full rein to an American original whose life was as audacious as his films. As expertly chronicled here, Murphy caromed between film and the other arts, between Hollywood and other cultural capitals--Greenwich Village, Harlem, London, and Paris--hobnobbing with some of the era's leading cultural figures, including Ezra Pound, Man Ray, Duke Ellington, and Charlie Chaplin, and leaving many a scandal in his wake. With artist Fernand Léger, Murphy made Ballet mécanique, one of the seminal works of avant-garde film. He directed Bessie Smith in her only film appearance, St. Louis Blues, and Paul Robeson in The Emperor Jones. He had a hand in shaping Tod Browning's Dracula, gave Bing Crosby one of his first film appearances, and collaborated with William Faulkner in attempting to bring one of the author's most challenging novels to the screen. Murphy also turned out forgettable Hollywood fodder like Confessions of a Co-Ed and Stocks and Blondes, and ended his career making melodramas in Mexico. Delson pays close attention to Murphy's cinematic style, which favored visual play over narrative and character, and she offers provocative new insights into his two most important works, Ballet mécanique and The Emperor Jones. A lively portrait, Dudley Murphy, Hollywood Wild Card provides a fascinating perspective on the evolution of the classical Hollywood aesthetic, the development of the film industry, and the century's broader cultural currents.Susan Delson is based in New York and writes frequently about film, art, and history.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0816646546
• ISBN13: 9780816646548
• Release Date: September 2006
• Publisher: University of Minnesota Press
• Length: 272 Pages
• Weight: 1.25 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.9" x 6.2" x 9.2"

Customer Reviews

Conflicted

I'm conflicted about the biography of Dudley Murphy, having spent much of the past six months going through it carefully. Now that I've finished the book, I'm puzzled to report that I don't have much of a sense of what Murphy must have been like as a man (or an artist). It could be that the biographical materials were too disparate in character for author Delson to assimilate entirely, for the book is as choppy as Murphy's career, which is rather like a dizzying ride inside a pinball machine featuring the reader as the pinball. She must have despaired several times over in the course of researching her book, when some new bit of information came in over the transom about Murphy, on how was she ever going to make this new info fit together with the picture already laid out, for one sniffs this fatalism every now and then in what is otherwise a very competent, even stylish account of the facts. Trouble is, Dudley Murphy was like Zelig--everywhere, but sort of a phantom or even a nebbish. Where Delson excels and the book soars is in her accounts of the films themselves (those she has seen), and I count her versions of the making of SOUL OF THE CYPRESS, BALLET MECANIQUE, and THE EMPEROR JONES as among the most informed, witty, sophisticated and provoking film writing ever. One thing that comes across is Murphy's relative hedonism. Did he really film the porn inserts in CYPRESS? (Probably not.) Did he and Man Ray film each other having sex? (Apparently. Now that's pretty Bob Crane behavior!) What about THE SPORT PARADE, a pre-Code Hollywood film with gay extras and shot after shot of Joel McCrea's magnificent backside framed in wet, translucent, ivory colored boxing trunks? His film work was all about the sexy guys, from McCrea to Paul Robeson to Ramon Navarro, providing each with some of their iconic It Boy roles. And yet the man behind this riot of pansexuality and daring racial figuration is still one for the shadows.

Fascinating book, intriguing character

Before coming across this new book by Susan Delson I had never heard of Dudley Murphy or his fascinating, experimental films. I am so glad I picked it up! From the beginning I was pulled in to learn more about this great film director's life and how it affected his art. His story intertwines with the likes of Charlie Chaplin, Man Ray, Cecile B. DeMille and a lot of other notables, making it an even more interesting read.

Fabulous and thorough read

This is a lively and spirited look at a most eclectic and entertaining gentleman. Susan Delson knows how to tell as story and here she tells one quite expertly -- from Murhpy's groundbreaking cinematic contributions as well his colorful personal life -- you will just want to keep reading.