The 50 Greatest Movies Never Made [Paperback]

Every film fanatic has a few cherished projects that they learned about while they lingered in Hollywood's development limbo. These were the movies that you looked forward to saying, that you found yourself checking up on whenever you got a spare moment, and these are the movies that either vanished all together or died right when they were on the verge of actually being made. These are the movies that we regret we'll never get a chance to see. Chris Gore's book details fifty of these film projects that, for various reasons, never actually made it to postproduction. In Gore's opinion (and if Chris Gore has anything, its opinions), these fifty films would have all been classics of the cinema and, film-by-film, he details not only why the films were never made but why he believes we should mourn their loss.

Obviously, this is a highly subjective enterprise and Gore is often found defending a film's lost greatness on the basis of little more than his gut instinct. As a result, I doubt there's a reader out there who will agree with all of Gore's choices. Personally, its hard for me to share Gore's disappointment that we were never allowed a chance to see a Stephen Sondheim musical directed by Rob Reiner and co-written by William Goldman. (In fact, I found myself rather relieved that the whole thing fell apart.) Try as I might, I can't summon up any enthusiasm for Swirlie, a serious crime film featuring a crime boss whose head is a giant ice cream cone. Even Gore himself seems to be trying a bit too hard to convince himself that the failure of Jerry Lewis' That's Life is something to be regretted. However, for every project that left me scratching my head, Gore came through with chapters on lost film projects that actually did seem to have the potential to be something special. After completing this book, I did find myself wishing that I could run out and rent a copy Harrow Alley (costarring George C. Scott and Mel Gibson). I did wish for a chance to catch the macabre comedy Won't Fade Out on late night TV. Even the campy, stoner thrills of Biker's Heaven, the Easy Rider sequel, sounded like a potentially fun film to watch with a couple of properly medicated friends. Its films like these that are the saving grace of Gore's frustratingly brief overview.

As a critic, Gore has never been one to emulate the psuedo-literary approaches made famous by Andrew Sarris and Pauline Kael. And indeed, one wishes that he had gone into a lot more detail on most of the films he writes about in this book. However, while his style leaves some of his less compelling unmade film favorites at a disadvantage, it also works wonders for the occasional film that actually has the spark of something special. After reading his terse, to-the-point descriptions of Harrow Alley, I felt as if I had actually watched that film in all of its potential genius. Whatever its flaws, this is a book to be commended. Now hopefully, Gore or some other critic will work out the kinks in time for a second edition and give us a book that leaves us with no doubt that its unrealized films deserve to be known as the greatest.

At the end Gore opines (one of his favorite words) the other movies he wished he could have mentioned. He could have discussed them if he had confined himself to only one Orson Welles project, one National Lampoon/Saturday Night Live alumni project, etc. Assuming that every potential film from a director's body of work is a lost masterpiece only pushes the book into fanboydom (after all, besides "Schindler's List" and "Saving Private Ryan," Spielberg also made "1941" and "Hook").

A book of this length would have been better served by being about only 25 movies. And should have been written by another writer.

The book lovingly details 50 films which never got beyond the planning stages for various reasons. Many of them involved heavy Hollywood hitters, from Steven Spielberg (who helped to get the first ROGER RABBIT off the ground), to DOUBLE INDEMNITY director Billy Wilder (who brainstormed the aborted Marx Brothers film as well as a Laurel & Hardy comedy), to Alfred Hitchcock (who proposed a movie about a blind pianist whose sight is restored).

While the book is a fast-paced, popcornish read, the book's not-so-subtle point is to make film purists gnash their teeth at the thought of these potential film classics never getting made. For me, the book's only surprise was that they left out many of my favorites, including Buster Keaton's proposed take-off of Grand Hotel, Charlie Chaplin's The Freak (about a girl who sprouts wings), and an aborted Western starring The Beatles.

It's easy to cry about potential film masterpieces that never got beyond the planning stage. The trouble is that, like many real lost films that come to light after being re-discovered, they often turn out to be classics only if they remain lost. And considering some of the awful ideas which do make it to the light of a movie theater--as witness the recent bomb AT FIRST SIGHT, starring Val Kilmer as (shades of Hitchcock) a blind artist who regains his sight--maybe these movies have rotted in Development Limbo for some very good reasons.

That said, the book will be an eye-opener to novices who have never heard the term "turn-around," and brain candy for those who have seen awful ideas that *did* get made into movies.