This will be a good opportunity for me to see if Michael got my posting problem fixed.
On 10/10/03 at 6:27 AM Alan D Glick wrote: >It's "THE WHOLE WIDE WORLD" based on Novalyne Price's memoir of her >relationship with Howard. It's great to see a good actor portray Howard >wrestling with his demons and the creative process, but I wonder if the >movie went a bit over the top in its portrayal of Howard. Hopefully the >experts here will comment on whether the portrayal of Howard was exaggerated >or dead-on. In my opinion, it was a bit exaggerated, but as I told Jesse in an offlist reply, it is important for us to remember that this is REH *as Novalyne saw him*, not as he was, necessarily. As a young woman with her antennae out for a young man, she was jealous of the attention he seemed to lavish on his mother. She told me that, many years later when her own son was the object of young ladies' attention, she understood Mrs. Howard a good deal better. Novalyne also was privy only to what Robert and his father revealed to her about the family dynamics, and not only was that not a whole lot, but both men had a pronounced tendency toward dramatization. (And she, as a drama coach and would-be writer, had a bit of that tendency herself.) The only scene in the movie that really *bugs* me -- and I have discussed it with the screenwriter, who is a good friend -- is the scene in which Bob wades out into the corn with a sword, then breaks down into anguished sobbing, and is consoled by mama. This is nowhere to be found in the book, and nothing like it is mentioned by anyone who knew REH. Michael felt that he needed to somehow get across Howard's rage and frustration so he made up this scene. To be honest, it wouldn't bug me so much if it weren't for the business about going to mama for consolation. In my opinion, after years of studying Howard, the pain and rage and frustration came from being *alone* -- I don't think mama was any more consolation to him than anyone else. There are minor inaccuracies which I could have helped prevent, perhaps, if I had been able at the time to accept Michael's invitation to come out for the shooting. He has Mrs. Howard referring to Farnsworth Wright as "your publisher" instead of "your editor," saying that he wants to know if Bob is going to make his deadline (Weird Tales and other pulps didn't have deadlines, writers submitted work whenever and after acceptance it would be scheduled), and asking if it's okay to give Bob's address to H.P. Lovecraft -- some four years after they had begun corresponding. But these are merely inaccuracies and they serve to at least introduce the information to the audience. I strongly urge anyone with an interest in Howard to see the movie, and to read Mrs. Ellis's book. Of course, one needs to read a lot of other material by and about Howard to come to any real understanding of him, but Mrs. Ellis's memoir is a cornerstone. Rusty
