Crazy Sundays: F. Scott Fitzgerald in Hollywood

by Aaron Latham

The story of Scott and Zelda Fitzgerald is as fascinating and as tragic as the most flamboyant fiction. Now, in Crazy Sundays, Aaron Latham has written the first detailed account of Fitzgerald in Hollywood--a close-up portrait of the author of the Great Gatsby and The Last Tycoon in his legendary last years.

Genres: Biography, Nonfiction

306 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1971

Reviews

[Gracie · Rating 5 out of 5]

many thanks to the met security guard who complimented my choice of reading material while searching my bag. huge ego boost tbh

[Tom · Rating 3 out of 5]

The years F. Scott Fitzgerald spent in Hollywood were sad, depressing and, yet in a way, noble. Fitzgerald, despite his alcoholism and illness, the knowledge that his beloved Zelda would never be whole again, and failure to get the credits he felt he deserved from directors and producers, soldiered on. Eventually, as Latham shows in this well-researched book, he produced fine film scripts (that were not, for one reason or another, produced) and an unfinished novel ("The Last Tycoon") that promised to be as good as anything he had written.

[Joseph Hamilton · Rating 5 out of 5]

The author seems to have been the first author to gain access to the screenplay drafts that Fitzgerald wrote or co-wrote. He complains that MGM didn’t grant him full access nor permit him to quote freely from the manuscripts.

He does a nice job of tying together details from Fitzgerald’s movie reviews, novels, screenplays, and biographies and memoirs into themes and commonalities.

If he has a thesis it is that Fitzgerald idealized a different type of hero in his Hollywood period than he did earlier, that is instead of focusing on Jazz Age flappers, he swung (my attempt at a pun) around to more mature types like Madam Curie. I suspect most of us have that attitudinal shift when we reach a certain age.

Latham describes in detail a scene early in “Madam Curie” that shows Fitzgerald’s writing to good effect. Greer Garson and Walter Pidgeon, Dr. and Mrs. Curie, borrow back and forth the only scale in their private laboratory. Despite the sparse and perfunctory dialog, Fitzgerald gets across the metaphorical idea that this sharing is similar to the balancing of the scale, a melding of the romantic and the scientific. That scene did not survive into the movie and its future commercial potential may explain why the studios were leary about sharing it with Latham and his publishers.

[carl theaker · Rating 3 out of 5]

A look at FScott during his Hollywood heyday. A glimpse
at the earlier years, and then focuses on the 1937-40 attempts
at remaking himself.

Lots of humor and failure involved. The chapters on trying
to sneak items past the movie censors are fun and revealing of
the nuances of making a film, shows how restrictions inspire
creativity.

[Josh Drimmer · Rating 4 out of 5]

Hard to find, and for Fitzgerald fanatics only, but it is a fascinating if obviously depressing look at Fitzgerald's efforts in Hollywood and his last days, drinking 20 Coca-Colas a day instead of booze and trying his damndest just to get a screenwriting credit.

[Patricia · Rating 3 out of 5]

Will review later!

[Aidan Duffy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Rare find for me at Molasses in Bushwick. Interesting train read. Shared with the subreddit

[Dan Bergstein · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting and well-researched. Only complaint is the descriptions of the all the movie plots and novel plots got a little tiresome.

[Miles · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interesting look both into the later, broken years of Fitzgerald and the early days of the movie business.

Two key takeaways: he and Zelda were gigantic assholes during their drunken years, and the man sure loved his Coca Colas when he was trying to stay sober.

[Nancy Loe · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interesting look at Scott Fitzgerald's attempt to crash Hollywood and get off the sauce. He failed at both.

[Ainhoa Rebolledo · Rating 5 out of 5]

Vida (amor + alcohol) y obra de Scott Fiztgerald

[Karen · Rating 5 out of 5]

This focuses on Fitzgerald ' s time in Hollywood at the end of his life. This shows great insight into the inner workings of movie making while giving us a picture of Fitzgerald ' s frame of mind. Latham did his homework, referencing movie scripts, personal letters, and working in appropriate quotes from The Last Tycoon.