The Last Tycoon (1976)

(On TV, December 2022) You have to be a pathological fan of classic Hollywood to get any enjoyment out of The Last Tycoon—even if the sight of Robert de Niro as a 1930s studio executive may be good enough for some. Not that he’s the only known name in the credits: The cast lists about half a dozen other familiar actors, from Tony Curtis to Robert Mitchum, Jack Nicholson, Jeanne Moreau and others (plus a very young Anjelica Huston). What’s more, the film comes with an impressive origin story: based on a Harold Pinter screenplay adapted from F. Scott Fitzgerald’s last unfinished novel, directed by the legendary Elia Kazan (for whom this would be his last film), and produced by the equally legendary Sam Spiegel. But the great cast, crew and pedigree create expectations that the film can’t match. While The Last Tycoon offers a few pleasures in re-creating the working conditions of a classic Hollywood studio in a way that should make film fans happy, there’s something staid and overly mannered in result. By focusing on a studio executive, the film perpetuates a very privileged vision of the movie industry’s early years—something made worse by the central romantic pursuit of a younger actress by an older studio executive. (Even if De Niro was only five years older than Ingrid Boulting.)  But the film itself is noticeably inert—what should have been dramatic sequences are perfunctory, and the dull dark-brown colour scheme of boardroom scenes makes everything look dimmer and duller than it should. Despite a few promising elements, a top-notch cast and some incredible filmmakers at the helm, The Last Tycoon ends up an unmitigated disappointment. Sure, you get de Niro acting opposite Nicholson for the only time in their careers, but at the cost of a film that scarcely manages to justify its own existence. Bits and pieces of it are interesting, but hardly essential.