New Book on S. Sylvan Simon in 2020

It's official. My ninth book for McFarland & Co., coming in 2020, covers the life and films of producer/director S. Sylvan Simon (1910-1951). If you love Lucille Ball, Abbott and Costello, or Red Skelton, this is for you. 

Lucy (pictured with Simon) credited him with recognizing and honing her slapstick skills (prior to I Love Lucy), when he directed Her Husband’s Affairs (1947) and produced The Fuller Brush Girl (1950). Skelton called Simon his favorite director. From 1949 to 1951, Simon was Vice-President in charge of production at Columbia, second-in-command to the famously demanding Harry Cohn. In that capacity, he produced Born Yesterday (1950), which won its star Judy Holliday an Oscar. Just before Simon's untimely death, he was assigned to produce From Here to Eternity (1953), and had author James Jones as a house guest while they conferred.

Research for the book is enhanced by access to Mr. Simon’s own bound copies of his film scripts, annotated by hand, as well as rare photographs showing him and his stars at work. It is being written with the support and assistance of Simon’s children. Actresses Margaret O'Brien and Jane Powell are among the interviewees who share their memories of this talented man.

A page from Simon's script for I Love Trouble (1948).

Earlier this year, film historian and blogger David Cairns remarked, "The auteurists have been quiet too long about S. Sylvan Simon." Next year, let's see if we can make a little noise on Simon's behalf.

Book Review: Directed by Frank Wisbar

As even the author acknowledges, the audience for a book about writer-director Frank Wisbar is apt to be limited. His is not a household name, even among film buffs. Yet those who love classic horror often have a soft spot for his two best-known American films: Strangler of the Swamp and Devil Bat's Daughter, both released in 1946.

Despite what those titles might suggest, Wisbar was never just a schlockmeister merrily scraping the bottom of the barrel on Poverty Row. As Henry Nicolella shows in Frank Wisbar: The Director of 'Ferryman Maria,' from Germany to America and Back (McFarland), Wisbar traveled a long and circuitous route from his native Germany to Hollywood. Often thwarted in making films as he wished to do amid the political turmoil of Nazi Germany, Wisbar faced completely different challenges when he emigrated to America during World War II. After adapting his far more artistically ambitious German film Ferryman Maria into a PRC potboiler (albeit one that continues to have a cult following), Wisbar went on to a successful career in early television drama. Nicolella's coverage of Wisbar's work on the anthology series Fireside Theatre offers an engaging look into television's formative years.

I can readily imagine that this was an extremely difficult book to research, and I'm afraid it's unlikely to make the author wealthy. But discerning readers will appreciate the elusive bits of history he uncovers, as well as a writing style that hits the sweet spot of intelligent and informed commentary that's never dry or pretentious. Nicolella has given us a significant slice of film history that merits the attention of scholars and film lovers.

Bringing Home the Bacon

Happy birthday to the late Lloyd Bacon (1889-1955), busy Hollywood director who helmed more than 100 films in the course of his long career. Film historians usually count 42nd Street and Marked Woman among his best and most important pictures, but I'm fond of a few Bacon features that aren't so acclaimed. While researching my book on Eve Arden, I saw his briskly paced melodrama A Child is Born (1940), which nicely illustrates the director's oft-quoted comment, "Some others may use motion pictures as a vehicle for a psychological study. I haven't that patience." That slightly self-deprecating quote, though it may sell some of his pictures short, expresses an important point that almost always stands out in this "impatient" director's films: the story moves. That quality is readily apparent in the two Lucille Ball comedies he directed, Miss Grant Takes Richmond (1949) and The Fuller Brush Girl (1950), which came closer than almost any others in her movie career to showing the madcap, hilarious Lucy who would emerge on TV.

Want to learn more about Bacon's career? Here's a terrific overview of Bacon's busy career and distinctive directorial style.