The Last Tycoon

Another episode in Hollywood's belated love affair with Scott Fitzgerald, this takes his unfinished novel about the movie colony in the '30s and goes for quality at the risk of squeezing the life out of the picture. It's often pretty ponderous despite a Pinter script, especially the protracted central relationship between quizzically intense, hot-shot producer De Niro and a wispy unknown (Boulting). But De Niro proves again how well he can carry a part, and is particularly good in scenes dealing with the day-to-day business of movie-making. For once a starry cast pulls its weight; when all else fails they at least remain interesting, mainly because Kazan's direction favours the actors at the expense of anything else. Although uneven, the result is still a lot better than Hollywood's last look at itself (Day of the Locust) and its last slice of Fitzgerald (The Great Gatsby).