Youngblood Hawke *** (1964, James Franciscus, Suzanne Pleshette, Geneviève Page, Eva Gabor, Mary Astor) – Classic Movie Review 6822

James Franciscus stars as American Southern coal truck driver turned writer Arthur ‘Youngblood’ Hawke, who lets fame and the ladies go to his head in New York City, in writer-producer-director Delmer Daves’s 1964 jet set drama Youngblood Hawke. The formidable women in Arthur‘s life include book editor Jeanne Green (Suzanne Pleshette) and patron Frieda Winter (Genevieve Page).

Daves’s movie is an amusingly superficial, sleek and shiny soap opera, taking surprisingly little advantage of, or care with, the publishing setting and set-up, which would have given it a needed boost in terms of atmosphere and flavour, as well as a reality check. You expect it to be in colour, but it is black and white, forced by Warner Bros budget cuts.

Youngblood Hawke is rather indigestible and probably quite a lot too long at 137 minutes. However, the three stars give strong performances and there is a lot of interest generated by the stalwart acting of the superb support cast. Daves’s screenplay is taken from the novel by Herman (Slattery’s Hurricane, The Caine Mutiny, The Winds of War) Wouk, based on a fictionalised version of the life story of author Thomas Wolfe.

Also in the cast are Eva Gabor, Mary Astor, Lee Bowman, Don Porter, Edward Andrews, Hayden Rorke, Mark Miller, Rusty Lane, Berry Kroeger, Werner Klemperer, John Emery (who died shortly after its US release), Mildred Dunnock (as Hawke’s mother), John Dehner, Martin Balsam (in a cameo briefly at party sequence) and Robert Aiken.

Youngblood Hawke is directed by Delmer Daves, runs 137 minutes, is made by Warner Bros, is written by Delmer Daves, is shot in black and white by Charles Lawton Jr, is produced by Delmer Daves, is scored by Max Steiner, and is designed by Leo K Kuter.

Warren Beatty originally agreed to star but dropped out before signing the contract, and Stuart Whitman, George Peppard and Terence Stamp were considered before Franciscus was cast.

Though Dunnock is 33 years older than Franciscus, they died within three days of each other in July 1991.

The Parisienne actress Geneviève Page wanted an English diction coach, but that did not happen, and instead her character had to be explained as a native French speaker.

Hush… Hush, Sweet Charlotte (1964) was the last film Mary Astor made but Youngblood Hawke was released after it.

© Derek Winnert 2018 Classic Movie Review 6822

Check out more reviews on http://derekwinnert.com

Suzanne Pleshette plays book editor Jeanne Green.