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(More customer reviews)On the heels of Antony Beevor's perfervid THE MYSTERY OF OLGA CHEKHOVA: WAS HITLER'S FAVORITE ACTRESS A RUSSIAN SPY? comes this interesting portrait of Chekhova's former husband, Michael Chekhov of the Moscow Art Theater.
Charles Marowitz has written a splendid biography, which gives the layman an idea of the schisms behind the development of the Stanislavsky "Method" of acting and directing. In particular, we gasp at the perilous journey Chjekhov, the nephew of the playwright Anton, took when it became clear he had turned into an enemy of the Soviet state. It makes you wish there was a full-dress biography of Beatrice Straight and her parents, the chatelaines of Dartington Hall in England. The talent they assembled there, including Chekhov, Kurt Jooss, and Benjamin Britten, turned the estate into a splendid arts factory, training Hurd Hatfield and Yul Brynner and many more.
When Chekhov went to Hollywood, he appeared in nine films of varying quality, including SPELLBOUND and the SPECTER OF THE ROSE, both written by Ben Hecht who had an affection for the old rascal who came dripping "Russian sugar." The young actress Mala Powers, seen as Roxanne in the Jose Ferrer film of CYRANO, makes a prominent appearance here, as the keeper of the flame. She is the executrix of the Chekhov estate.
Chekhov somehow evaded the scrutiny of the House Un American Activities Committee but maybe it would have caught up to him had he not died--oddly enough on the very same day as James Dean did, so his death slipped out of the public's consciousness and many think he is still alive.
A marvelously written tome. I saw only one mistake, Marowitz--himself a famous director and theorist--apparently thinks that Orson Welles appeared in John Farrow's THE BIG CLOCK; it only seems that he did, for it was actually Charles Laughton.
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The Other Chekhov: A Biography of Michael Chekhov, the Legendary Actor, Director, and TheoristThe first 30 years of the 20th-century produced a theatrical explosion whose reverberations are still felt today. Stanislavsky, Meyerhold, Vakhtanghov, Michael Chekhov in Russia; Reinhardt, Piscator & Brecht in Germany; and Copeau, Barrault & Artaud in France collectively demolished the 19th-century aesthetic and, in their wake, created the modernity which is the hallmark of today's theatre. Most of these men have already been turned into modern icons; there is no shortage of bios on the pioneers of the Moscow Arts Theatre, and the achievements of the others are chronicled and archived for posterity. Only one of these artists remains murky and ill-defined. He is Michael Chekhov (1891-1955), nephew of the famous playwright Anton Chekhov, the man that Stanislavsky described as "the most brilliant actor in all of Russia." A charismatic actor, an inspiring director and a teacher that developed a dynamic antidote to Russian Naturalism, Chekhov remains the invisible man of the modern theatre. Was he, as Lee Strasberg alleged, a dangerous mystic who would subvert the vigor of Stanislavsky's teachings and undermine the integrity of The Group Theatre? Or was he, as his disciples - Yul Brynner, Gregory Peck, Ingrid Bergman, Anthony Quinn, Jack Palance, Leslie Caron, Jennifer Jones, Patricia Neal, Anthony Hopkins, Jack Nicholson & Marilyn Monroe - believed, a man who had discovered a unique approach to acting which transcended the precepts enshrined in Stanislavsky's "System." Charles Marowitz was granted special access to the Chekhov archives in Devon, England, and he interviewed actors and directors who worked closely with Chekhov both in Europe and America. The book chronicles Chekhov's influential period in Hollywood when he was nominated for an Oscar for his performance as the avuncular psychiatrist in Alfred Hitchcock's 1945 film Spellbound. It also describes his close association with Marilyn Monroe at the most delicate stage of her career.
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