George Cukor's People: Acting for a Master Director

by Joseph McBride

The director of classic films such as Sylvia Scarlett, The Philadelphia Story, Gaslight, Adam’s Rib, A Star Is Born, and My Fair Lady, George Cukor is widely admired but often misunderstood. Reductively stereotyped in his time as a “woman’s director”—a thinly veiled, disparaging code for “gay”—he brilliantly directed a wide range of iconic actors and actresses, including Cary Grant, Greta Garbo, Spencer Tracy, Joan Crawford, Marilyn Monroe, and Maggie Smith. As Katharine Hepburn, the star of ten Cukor films, told the director, “All the people in your pictures are as goddamned good as they can possibly be, and that’s your stamp.”

In this groundbreaking, lavishly illustrated critical study, Joseph McBride provides insightful and revealing essayistic portraits of Cukor’s actors in their most memorable roles. The queer filmmaker gravitated to socially adventurous, subversively rule-breaking, audacious dreamers who are often sexually transgressive and gender fluid in ways that seem strikingly modern today. McBride shows that Cukor’s seemingly self-effacing body of work is characterized by a discreet way of channeling his feelings through his actors. He expertly cajoled actors, usually gently but sometimes with bracing harshness, to delve deeply into emotional areas they tended to keep safely hidden. Cukor’s wry wit, his keen sense of psychological and social observation, his charm and irony, and his toughness and resilience kept him active for more than five decades in Hollywood. George Cukor’s People gives him the in-depth, multifaceted examination his rich achievement deserves.

Genres: Nonfiction

536 pages, Hardcover

Published January 7, 2025

Reviews

[Jane · Rating 2 out of 5]

As a work of pure film criticism, this book is admirably thorough, and anyone studying the films of George Cukor will surely get something valuable out of it. As a title for public library consideration, this is only really suitable for very large collections with well-used film sections, and even there it may be too academic for popular appeal. This is quickly apparent from the introduction debating whether Cukor qualifies as an auteur or was more of a (very successful) company hack. Unfortunately, the film school party debates squeeze out new or humanizing revelations about Cukor or his people. What follows is a film-by-film analysis of Cukor's (mainly) on-screen choices, which illustrate how he created a working environment that helped actors produce great performances, even when working with limiting material.

Even granting that this is not a biography, there is remarkably little information given about Cukor's life (outside of the sketchiest basics) - surely even discreet and publicly closeted professionals had personalities and relationships that would provide colorful details. Very few of the people associated with each film get to speak to their experience with Cukor; relatively few are quoted directly, and even fewer (no?) private reflections come out through letters, diaries, or unpublished records. Colleagues who are still living do not seem to have been interviewed for this book, and the reliance on public record contributes to the woodenness of the writing. (Perhaps a sign of how eventually the book started to feel like a slog is my gradual fixation on stylistic tics; this is the first book I've read that found occasion to use "picaresque" eleven times! I also started a running debate in my head over the definition of "camp classic:" can Sylvia Scarlett really be considered one, as the author claims on multiple occasions, when I can't think of one person in my life who would recognize the title, much less anything about it?) George Cukor was the director of a huge number of critically and publicly beloved films; this book outlines many of them and identifies much of what makes them so. Unfortunately, it's such a long, dry read that I think it's only going to appeal to film studies-types, rather than enthusiastic TCM viewing-types (like myself).

Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for the arc!

[Simon S. · Rating 5 out of 5]

George Cukor’s People by Joseph McBride (UK released January 2025) is an entertaining and informative exploration of the director’s approach to working with actors throughout his career.

I love a good book about Hollywood in its Golden Age, this is one of the best I’ve read recently.

I have read McBride’s film books previously and have always been impressed with his ability to make them exhaustive, but not exhausting. The richness of his research is worn lightly in his books, but is clearly evident, illuminating and supporting his arguments.

Cukor was a hugely successful director in his time, and sustained a career right up until the year before his death aged 82, with films such as The Women, Adam’s Rib, Pat and Mike, The Philadelphia Story, A Star is Born, and the Oscar-winning My Fair Lady under his belt. He also had the dubious distinction of being one of the numerous directors who worked on The Wizard of Oz and Gone With the Wind.

Because he worked with existing properties, and didn’t generate or write his own projects, Cukor has been denied the artistic accolades that ‘auteurs’ like John Ford, Howard Hawks, and Billy Wilder have received in abundance.

McBride argues that Cukor, a closeted gay man with a strong empathy for women, was able to mould and shape the material that came his way to play with ideas of gender expectations and expression, and sexual non-conformism. He shows that Cukor achieved this using the same technical means - lighting, blocking, costume, framing etc - that more revered directors did, but made his biggest impact by coaxing daring and provocative performances from his cast, actors who quite often never showed such nuance again.

In this way, McBride concludes, Cukor’s body of work - though seemingly disparate and disconnected from a distance, accretes to a consistent and valuable legacy, as worthy of respect as any of his peers.

Convincing, fascinating, and reassuringly hefty, this was a great read and perfect fodder for a film buff like me.

My thanks to @netgalley and @columbiauniversitypress for this review copy which I asked for.

#bookstagram #books #georgecukor #josephmcbride #georgecukorspeople

[Ellen · Rating 5 out of 5]

If you love movies, actors (and/or film acting,) fjlm history (especially that of the 1930's and 1950's Hollywood), movie directing, and, specifically, the director George Cukor, then this is George Cukor's People by Joseph McBride is a must-read for you. In fact, unless you're a filmaphobe (okay--invented word) you will find this book a fascinating and enjoyable read.

The stated aim of the author is to provide a more complete analysis of the film director George Cukor than has yet been written, specifically looking at his work through the lens of how Cukor worked with actors. In particular, McBride examines what he calls the "climate" on the set created by Cukor and how that allowed actors to access deeply personal experiences and vulnerabilities.

However, I found that, in addition to that focus, the book explored Cukor's work in many other ways. I was fascinated by how he used shooting decisions, such as the long tracking shot (a favorite of his--at least in part because it gave actors a great opportunity to open up), close-up, as well as his skills in adapting plays and books into screenplays, his work with set and lighting designers--all of the many details a film director needs to not only be aware of but utilize--to create an impressive body of work (including many of my own favorite films).

I found the discussions of Cukor's brief time working on Gone With The Wind, particularly fascinating. But of equal interest to me was his work on Judy Garland's classic (although butchered) version of A Star is Born, Cukor's adaptation of Little Women (revealing a dark side to the story of which I was unaware) , Camille (starring Garbo), Katharine Hepburn's screen debut in A Bill of Divorcement (and Cukor's working relationship with her as well as with the star of the film, theater great John Barrymore), and Cukor's last "great" work, Hepburn and Olivier's Love in the Ruins. I'll stop--clearly I found so much in this book exciting.

McBride looks at Cukor's "outsider" status in Hollywood, as both Jewish and gay and how those influenced his work. This is particularly important in the film Sylvia Scarlett--a box office failure at the time of its release and a cult classic now: the way the film plays with gender roles and ambiguous and fluid sexuality was shocking at the time and still relevant today.

I was lucky: while I was reading this book, TCM ran several of the films discussed which allowed me to watch the films, all of which I'd seen before, from a new perspective with new information and awareness. My viewing experience was tremendously enriched by this (and also was more fun).

A wonderful book for which I'm grateful to NetGalley for providing me with an advance copy, the publisher Columbia University Press and, of course, the author, Joseph McBride.

[Jeannie MacDonald · Rating 5 out of 5]

How did George Cukor conjure cinemagic from legends like Katharine Hepburn, Spencer Tracy, Cary Grant, Garbo, Judy Garland, and James Stewart? Find out in George Cukor's People, a critical study of the Oscar-winning filmmaker by Joseph McBride, one of the finest chroniclers of Hollywood’s Golden Age.

The book is the latest addition to McBride’s essential takes on classic directors (Ford, Wilder, Welles, Capra). Drawing from his expertise as a film historian, screenwriter, and university professor, McBride’s storytelling is detailed and engaging. Best of all, McBride’s interviews with Cukor make readers feel as if they’re eavesdroppers on a movie set.

George Cukor’s People illuminates the director’s genius by revealing how Cukor coaxed great performances from iconic actors. Too often tagged as a “woman’s director,” Cukor in fact led more men (Stewart, Ronald Colman, Rex Harrison) to Oscar wins (in The Philadelphia Story, A Double Life, and My Fair Lady), than women (Ingrid Bergman in Gaslight and Judy Holliday in Born Yesterday).

(P.S. Had Cukor not been fired from Gone With the Wind two weeks into the shoot, he would’ve added that epic to his stellar resume. Still, Cukor deserves partial credit – not to mention a heapin’ helpin’ of schadenfreude – for secretly coaching Vivien Leigh and Olivia de Havilland following his dismissal.)

McBride builds a strong case for Cukor’s singular virtuosity. More than just a portrait of a director at work, the book feels like a master class in acting as Cukor molds stars, scene by scene, and moment by moment: “Serving as both a confidant and cajoler of his actors,” McBride writes, “He prodded them, usually gently, but sometimes with bracing harshness, to delve deeply into emotional areas they tended to keep safely hidden.”

We’re privy to Cukor’s deft handling of actors like Jack Lemmon (“Less, less, do less,” he implored the eager newbie in his film debut), and Jean Harlow (Cukor noted that the 1930s sexpot “played comedy as naturally as a hen lays an egg”). McBride also shares his own keen insights: For instance, that Cukor’s acclaimed comedy, The Philadelphia Story, actually contains several “taming-of-a-pants-wearing-shrew” clapbacks to Katharine Hepburn’s independent screen persona.

There are candid glimpses of Cukor himself, who is at turns witty, demanding, menschy, shrewd, yet blessed with uncanny instincts and splendid taste – plus a healthy dose of self-deprecation.

During one interview, McBride recalls asking Cukor “about one of his most trying experiences, the disastrous Russian-American coproduction of The Blue Bird. I brought up other mishaps in his career and asked how it felt to be fired from a film; I was thinking of the 1947 MGM film Desire Me, from which Cukor said he had been ‘removed’...Cukor reacted by touching my forearm lightly with his right hand, leaning over toward his publicist, and saying, ‘Notice with what finesse he avoids mentioning the title Gone With the Wind.’”

McBride covers nearly 40 Cukor pictures in what he calls “essayistic portraits of varying lengths.” This ideal approach spotlights well-known hits (Dinner at Eight, Camille, Adam’s Rib, A Star is Born), yet inspires film fans to seek out lesser-known gems (The Royal Family of Hollywood, The Model and the Marriage Broker, and What Price Hollywood?).

Whether you savor Cukor’s brilliance one chapter at a time, or peruse this definitive study from start to finish, George Cukor’s People is a “must-read” for movie lovers – as well as aspiring actors and directors – of all ages.

[Marie · Rating 3 out of 5]

A vehement advocacy for the legitimacy of George Cukor as an "auteur", this work is copiously researched frameworked by a very personal attachment to the director. Joseph McBride details intricately elements of Cukor's filmmaking and personal life through the closeted gay lens which, to McBride and certainly most 21st century analysts and observers, overwhelmed Cukor's body of work.

McBride focuses primarily on the interactions between Cukor, the director, and the actors who fulfilled his vision. It is valuable in its focus on the alchemy between the two. Cukor had a natural affinity with Katharine Hepburn, who is a major part of McBride's narrative; but the author is skilful in dissecting how Cukor and his actors responded to each other, and brought out the best - or worst - in the final product.

The book is readable and, for the most part, I enjoyed it - with a "disinterested appreciation" of Cukor's work. McBride was a personal friend of Cukor. He inserts himself into the supposedly subjective narrative with catty and sometimes very mean personal opinions about actors and other personalities for whom he had little regard. Anouk Aimee and Aldo Ray in particular suffer at the hands of McBride's perspective, but his asides and value judgements throughout distract the reader.

McBride's greatest success is in his sympathetic coverage of Hollywood supporting actors - his chapter on Thelma Ritter I especially appreciate. And he provides an apologia for Marilyn Monroe in his chapters on her last two films. If a performer or director resonates personally with him, McBride goes out of his way with documentation to justify their legitimacy.

Overall, though, the book is slightly histrionic in the defense of Cukor and Katharine Hepburn; through the dual lenses of gay signalling and alcoholism (the disease with which McBride admittedly lives, and is an another example of the author blanketing his own personal experience over the film criticism). It does perform a role in the analysis of 20th century post-code "signalling" by filmmakers and actors in a constricted and hypocritical studio environment.

[David Sterritt]

“George Cukor’s People: Acting for a Master Director,” the new book from Joseph McBride, is an admirably balanced and impressively wide-ranging study of the great Hollywood director by a writer well-equipped with cinematic erudition and clear-minded prose. I don’t agree with all of its judgments and conclusions, but I recommend it for anyone interested in this intriguingly versatile filmmaker’s achievements in the heyday of the studio system and the years after its demise. McBride’s personal asides add to the interest of the hefty and thoroughgoing volume.

[Robin · Rating 5 out of 5]

Joseph McBride, George Cukor's People Acting for a Master Director, Columbia University Press, January 2025.

Thank you, NetGalley, for providing me with this uncorrected proof for review.

Joseph McBride’s detailed account of George Cukor and his directorial excellence is such a good read. McBride makes the point that Cukor has been derided as a ‘woman’s director’ and establishes him as a director admired by the women he directed – but equally feted with accolades from the male actors who appeared in his films. Cukor’s collaborative spirit stands high amongst the praise he garners and is celebrated by McBride with examples that draw the reader into a director’s world that is rather different from that usually portrayed. In emphasising Cukor’s collaborative directorial nature, McBride has brought so much to this absorbing story. It is a story that not only demonstrates Cukor’s mastery of his craft but draws attention to a style that has great rewards – for the actors, script and eventually, audiences. This biography becomes something more than the narrative of one person under McBride’s own direction. Although it then becomes a complex as well as a detailed story, George Cukor’s People remains engaging.

As McBride explains, the book is arranged around the most successful of Cukor’s films; analysing the relevant theatrical and literary texts; and dedicating time to understanding the way creativity between actor and director brought Cukor’s genius to the audience. These early explanations about how McBride will approach his material are not only informative about this particular work, and its subject, but provide a blueprint for approaching similar biographies. It is McBride’s thoughtful approach, to the topic and his readers, that I found particularly appealing.

Informative headings make the revelations about Cukor, directors’ approaches, actors and films easy to find. Skip to the last film he covers, in ‘Katherine Hepburn and Laurence Olivier in Love Among the Ruins’ for the full flavour of this approach. But then, ‘Jaqueline Bisset and Candice Bergen in Rich and Famous’ is an absolute pleasure, with its mixture of stark honesty about Cukor’s feeling about the actors, the background of the script and the topic. The truth is that each is a gem with its own nuances, comic and serious moments and overall, a plethora of detail that engages. The acknowledgements add further information – they too are revealing, of the director, the actors and the environment in which they worked. There are useful notes, and a bibliography that makes noteworthy and informative reading along with this text. The illustrations are numerous and a joy. This is a book I shall have pleasure in rereading even though I no longer have the pleasure of studying film and culture.

[Ted Slater · Rating 4 out of 5]

Joseph McBride’s entertaining and informative book seeks to advance the directors reputation beyond the reductive designation of ‘Womens director’ and elevate him to a singular place among so-called non-auteur American filmmakers. And the book accomplishes that. Cukor’s skill in bringing the best out of some of Hollywood’s greatest stars is told convincingly and with a storytellers skill.

Although McBride had the pleasure of interviewing Cukor as a young writer/performer and clearly had affection for both the work and the man, this is not a hagiography. The Cukor on the page here is vivid and human. The dangers of navigating both the Hollywood system and his life as a gay man in an unforgiving time are told with respect and candor (Gable, a homophobe and an anti-Semite, had Cukor fired from GWTW).

George Cukor’s ability to work in to his 80’s is deftly explained through detailed passages describing the directors skill at finishing pictures started by other directors as well as lobbying for meaningful films he knew he could translate and cast with the right actors. The careers of Katherine Hepburn, Judy Holliday and Cary Grant were positively affected by the opportunity to work with a director who could connect to them as people and artists and not see them as just vehicles for success. Chapters on The Women (1939) and My Fair Lady (1964) are particularly excellent. A touching story about Cukor working privately with Joan Fontaine to overcome her well known anxiety is a high point.

As a guide for watching (or re-watching) Cukor’s films, this book is invaluable. Films like Sylvia Scarlett (1935) or The Chapman Report (1962) can be seen more easily as the radical achievements they are after knowing the trials and tribulations the director and his stable of writers and performers went through to get them to the screen.

Thank you to NetGalley for advanced copy.

[Margo Laurie · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a paean to the film director George Cukor, director of, among other classics, 'The Philadelphia Story', 'The Women' and 'My Fair Lady'. The author, film historian Joseph McBride, has been writing about Cukor for half a century, and observed him at work on the set of his last film (although the fact that he heard Cukor repeatedly say "Come on, let's get on with it" perhaps undermines the book's central argument that he was a wonderful director of actors...).

In this book, McBride seeks to pinpoint "precisely what it is that makes him a great director" through the lens of a series of actors' performances in his films. This approach is engaging, as it brings into focus for analysis not only the work of George Cukor, but a roster of Old Hollywood screen idols, including Greta Garbo, Ingrid Bergman and Katharine Hepburn. In this way, the book reminded me a little of Peter Bogdanovich's "Who the Hell's in It".

Much of the pleasure of the book is being reminded of some wonderful films, such as 'Holiday' with Cary Grant, and I finished reading with a wishlist of ones to watch again. (This comes with the caveat that readers who are unfamiliar with these golden-age films/actors might find the book quite hard-going - but such are perhaps unlikely to pick it up in the first place.) The book appears to end without a concluding chapter and could perhaps have benefitted from one to bring the threads together. Nevertheless, it is an enjoyable read: illustrated with beautiful photographs, and anchored by a deep knowledge of film history, the book feels like a labour of love.

Many thanks to Columbia University Press and NetGalley or the advance copy.

[Chris L. · Rating 4 out of 5]

In "George Cukor's People," Joseph McBride make a case for the brilliance and talent of the director, George Cukor. In his lengthy introduction to this book, McBride writes, "Cukor’s way of seeing the world surrounds and provides context for his actors’ behaviour and movements through space and time remains inadequately explored." McBride wants to explore the way George Cukor brought out the best in his actors. As such, he divides the books into the performances that McBride believes will highlight Cukor's talent as a director.

In aiming his attention towards the performances, McBride dispels the idea that Cukor was only a woman's director. Cary Grant, James Stewart, John Barrymore, and Laurence Olivier are just some of the actors whose performances are praised and detailed in the book. He also shows the reader that Cukor was a director of all genres and that he could adapt to all different types of stories. McBride is such a keen observer and empathic critic that he displays immense care in how he approaches the evaluation of Cukor's work. He wants to give Cukor his due, but he also acknowledges some of the missteps.

I came away from the book with a renewed appreciation for George Cukor. McBridge is a knowledgeable writer and critic who makes you feel comfortable in his hands. Even when you don't always agree with him (I find Sylvia Scarlett tedious after a solid beginning), you understand why he appreciates a film or performance. That's what good criticism is all about. This is another winner from Columbia University Press.

[Bargain Sleuth Book Reviews · Rating 4 out of 5]

For this review and many others, visit www.bargain-sleuth.com

Thanks to NetGalley and Columbia University Press for the digital copy of this book; I am leaving this review voluntarily.

Back in the day, being labeled as a “woman’s director” was poison for one’s reputation. Yet the fact remains that George Cukor helmed some of the best known and greatest films of his time. To name a few: Gaslight, The Philadelphia Story, My Fair Lady, Judy Garland’s A Star is Born, Adam’s Rib (a movie so far ahead of it’s time!), Little Women, Greta Garbo’s Camille, and many more.

I did not realize until I read this book that Cukor and Katharine Hepburn worked together TEN times! He truly brought out her best work. The same can be said for other great actors like Judy Garland, Cary Grant, Spencer Tracy, Ingrid Bergman, Jimmy Stewart, Sir Laurence Olivier, and countless others.

While this book dissects most of Cukor’s films with a fine-toothed comb, exploring how a film was shot and the director’s decisions on presenting a movie, there’s not a lot of personal reflection from those who worked with him. And that is the one major flaw with this book. That’s not to say this book is without merit. I myself found it fascinating to learn more about some truly groundbreaking films. Cukor was famously fired from Gone with the Wind, but his influence in the film can’t be denied. The fact that he chose films that portrayed strong women is one of the reasons his films endure today. I would recommend this book to any fan of the golden age of movies.

[Philip · Rating 5 out of 5]

George Cukor has directed some of the most famous Hollywood movies from the 1930s through to the 1980s yet he is still not always thought of as one of the "great" directors. I loved reading this book. It's lively, insightful, and will change how people think about Cukor and how directors work. More specifically, Joseph McBride focuses on how Cukor worked with his actors which included, Katharine Hepburn, Greta Garbo, Jane Fonda, Cary Grant, Ingrid Bergman, Marilyn Monroe, Judy Garland, Spencer Tracy, and others. This approach provides a new way of understanding what made Cukor's movies so distinctive and how to appreciate a director's work that goes beyond the conventional "auteur" approach: movie-making as collaboration as opposed to the work of a "genius director." McBride also thoughfully examines Cukor's status as a "woman's director" and working in Hollywood as a closeted and semi-closeted queer.

The book is also a lot of fun to read and look at. Filled with insights into the actors and movies Cukor worked on, it is a great history of Hollywood. The book is also beautifully designed with lots of images from Cukor's movies. One of the best film books of the year.

[Michael Samerdyke · Rating 3 out of 5]

I love McBride's books on Orson Welles, John Ford, and Billy Wilder. This book disappointed.

I figured out, as I read the book, that McBride and I simply value Cukor's films differently. We agree that "A Star is Born" is a masterpiece, and we like "Sylvia Scarlett" a lot, but beyond that McBride and I part ways. He likes most of Cukor's work for MGM and his films of the Thirties and Forties. I find most of the early work stiff and instead prefer movies like "A Double Life," "Pat and Mike," "The Marrying Kind," "It Should Happen to You," "Les Girls," and "Heller in Pink Tights." Cukor's post-1960 films just don't speak to me.

So McBride gives my favorite Cukor films short shrift, and he also seems very interested in matters of sexuality, to a degree that became off-putting.

Ultimately, I just didn't enjoy this as much as McBride's other books.

[James · Rating 3 out of 5]

I don't think McBride accomplishes what he sets out to do (which he describes in redundant wordy length in his introduction) in analyzing and dissecting how director George Cukor melded with and worked with his actors in creating his motion pictures. However, I do appreciate this book in going through most of his directorial accomplishments. It's hard to find a book about Cukor and his style ... a style that was hard to decipher or pin down.

[John Bleasdale · Rating 5 out of 5]

Joseph McBride is a wonderful writer who has a huge body of work written from the heart of Hollywood. His take on Cukor - seen through his work with actors - promotes the director via one of his great strengths and argues against his being dismissed so frequently and homophobically as a “Woman’s director”. A brilliant reassessment.