John Huston

Years after his death, American filmmaker John Huston (1906–1987) remains an enigmatic and compelling figure. This wide-ranging collection of new essays encompasses a variety of topics relating to Huston’s lifestyle, political activities and cinematic legacy.
Fresh analyses of such films as Key Largo, The Asphalt Jungle, The African Queen, The Misfits and Prizzi’s Honor are included along with insightful studies of Huston’s oft-overlooked literary adaptations In This Our Life, Moby Dick and A Walk With Love and Death. Also evaluated are Huston’s controversial World War II documentary Let There Be Light, and two a clef portraits of the “real” Huston in the films The Way We Were and White Hunter, Black Heart. Bookending these essays are revealing interviews with John’s actress daughter Angelica Huston and film producer Wieland Schultz-Keil.

Tony Tracy is associate director of the Huston School of Film and Digital Media at National University of Ireland, Galway, where he teaches course in Irish, American and European cinema. He is on the board of the Fresh Film Festival and the Boston Irish Film Festival.
Roddy Flynn lives in Dublin, Ireland.

Edited by Tony Tracy and Roddy Flynn
Format: softcover (6 x 9)
Pages: 232
Bibliographic Info: bibliography, index
Copyright Date: 2010
pISBN: 978-0-7864-5853-0
eISBN: 978-0-7864-5993-3
Imprint: McFarland

Introduction

TONY TRACY and RODDY FLYNN      1

“Let’s Just See If It Matters”: An Interview with Anjelica Huston

TONY TRACY      9

Strange but Close Partners: Huston, Romantic Comedy and The African Queen

PABLO ECHART      22

The Ideological Adventure of The Man Who Would Be King

JULIE F. CODELL      33

The Way We Were and White Hunter, Black Heart: Huston in Fiction and Reel Life

PATRICK MCGILLIGAN      47

Huston’s Mexico

RICHARD VELA      56

The Discreet Charm of Huston and Buñuel: Notes on a Cinematic Odd Couple

NEIL SINYARD      73

Huston and the American South: The Night of the Iguana and Wise Blood

GARY D. RHODES      83

Re- Visioning the Western: Landscape and Gender in The Misfits

GEORGIANA BANITA      94

Ethical Commitment and Political Dissidence: Huston, HUAC, Hollywood and Key Largo

REYNOLD HUMPHRIES      111

King Adapter: Huston’s Famous and Infamous Adaptations of Literary Classics

PAGE LAWS      123

The Melodramatic Conscience of In This Our Life

VICTORIA AMADOR      136

The Irish Accent of The Dead

MICHAEL PATRICK GILLESPIE      147

A Walk with Love and Death: From the Jacquerie of 1358 to the Turbulence of 1968

PETER G. CHRISTENSEN      160

The Western, The Westerner, The Westernest: William Wyler, Menippean Satire and John Huston’s The Life and Times of Judge Roy Bean

LESLEY BRILL      173

John Huston and an Irish Film Industry

RODDY FLYNN and DIOG O’CONNELL      185

Recollections of Huston: A Conversation with Wieland Schulz- Keil

TONY TRACY      199

Bibliography      207

About the Contributors      215

Index      219