Sam Spiegel

by Natasha Fraser-Cavassoni

Sam Spiegel (1904-85), the Austrian-born Hollywood film producer, won Oscar after Oscar, particularly through his famous association with British director David Lean on THE BRIDGE ON THE RIVER KWAI and LAWRENCE OF ARABIA. There was also THE AFRICAN QUEEN with Bogart and Hepburn, ON THE WATERFRONT with Brando and THE LAST TYCOON with De Niro. From the University of Vienna, Spiegel went to America selling Palestinian cotton. While there, he lectured on drama and was briefly hired by MGM to advise on foreign-language versions. He was fired and went to Universal. In 1929, they sent him to Berlin to work on German productions for them, before reappearing in America calling himself S P Eagle! This dazzling biography - and literary debut - does justice to an emigre who went to America selling cotton and ended up filming a F Scott Fitzgerald novel. It depicts the good and the bad of an extraordinary an illuminating account of both the golden age of Hollywood and one of its most infuriatingly brilliant individuals.

Genres: Biography, Nonfiction, Film

528 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2003

Reviews

[Ian · Rating 4 out of 5]

Sam Spiegel, producer of On The Waterfront, Lawrence of Arabia and Bridge on the River Kwai, was a Hollywood legend and a monster of a man, capable of feigning heart attacks to get his way, lying, cheating and running from the law. This is a fine biography, particularly strong in unravelling the tissue of myths he promulgated about his own European Jewish origins. Fraser-Cavassoni is even-handed, neither shirking nor sensationalising his predilections for adultery, prostitutes and young girls. What shines through though is a wistful longing for the golden age of cinema, when making a movie was more about creative energy than commercial projections. And spectacle took more than CGI. As Spiegel says when looking for locations to film Lawrence of Arabia: "Dunes, Baby. I want dunes."

[Aaron · Rating 2 out of 5]

It seems author Cavassoni is so smitten with her grotesque yet successful subject, she often assumes the producer's identity throughout the book, cheerfully dismissing or laughing away at his many atrocities. She describes Spiegel as "completely above all feelings that he was not superior to everyone else". And thus follows as much promiscuity, gluttony, robbery, cowardice and ripping off blacklisted, soon-to-be-suicide victim writers while simultaneously supporting the Red Scare. At one point Spiegel even bemoans how narrowly he avoided "becoming a bar of soap" at the hands of the Nazis. He does this almost as many times as he fakes heart attacks.

Honor the man all you want for his illustrious credits, but it's uncomfortable admiring a man who would "slit your throat and convince you it was necessary". Meanwhile, the chapters devoted to Spiegel's womanizing are so prominently featured (and redundant), Cavassoni obviously sides with the man and celebrates his appetites--no matter how foul. Furthermore, more than one Hollywood figure admires Spiegel's "guts" and "raw animal courage"--be it John Huston, Elia Kazan, or David Geffen--yet this image is endlessly contradicted by the man's behavior. He hides from everybody--especially creditors--runs out on paying actors, writers, directors, not to mention restaurant and hotel bills. He constantly interferes with productions without offering constructive advice, causes dissension and disruption at every turn, not to mention treats all technicians and crew members like garbage. At one point he subtracts budget from a movie production in a jungle to have steaks flown from NYC to his posh London hotel because he can't "eat English food".

Cavassoni shows little regard or sympathy for Spiegel's "steady women companions" except in one weird section where one Spiegel wife drives drunk and sends a 9-year-old kid head-first into the pavement, killing him. In the next paragraph, a companion states, "It was the saddest thing. Lyne was the loneliest lady and couldn't drive because she had that accident". That accident. Say what? While Spiegel steals payment from his film crews but Xmas gifts his pretty secretaries expensive perfumes, his warring with the creatives knows no end. Even after cleaning up at an Oscars ceremony, Spiegel steals the other victorious department heads' statues, then holds them hostage! More author applause follows.

Luckily, the second half of the book focuses on the films themselves, especially Spiegel's relationships with Kazan and David Lean. A sordid story pops up now and again, like wife-surrogate-companion Betty Spiegel speculating about catching genital herpes from Spiegel, joking that "Spiegel 'invited' everybody to his bed. He didn't mind the rejection at all. No meant nothing to him" Ah, the good old days of Hollywood. If all of this doesn't alienate the reader, a yacht party of super-rich Eurotrash on Spiegel's craft in the Mediterranean hears the news of the 1969 Manson murders. According to Cavassoni, "there was such a relief that it wasn't our children, that the world was still intact, that everybody giggled." Spiegel holding a dinner in honor of Herbert von Karajan, a member of the Nazi party, merits hardly a comment, either.

Overall, about half the book presents actual movie information, but the man's actual brilliance as a producer is reported in a muddled, disruptive and downright transparent fashion. More than anything, it feels the best movies of his career got made by themselves. Or by the tormented writers and directors and technicians he seldom respected.

[Mediaman · Rating 2 out of 5]

Sam Spiegel might be "legendary" but that isn't necessarily a good thing. It's difficult to separate the disgusting Hollywood producer from the writing style of this book, which seemed unusually gentle in exposing the man's many flaws. Then in the final author's note we discover why--the writer had been friends with Spiegel and after his death was given access to all sorts of private papers, so the whole thing is biased.

That doesn't mean she leaves out a lot of the infamously horrible things Spiegel is known for. It just means that there's not the edge to it that there should be in showing what a terrible man this was. As a movie producer Spiegel financially cheats and lies to almost everyone he works with and marries, is thrown in jail, runs from the U.S. government, has no problem spending money on yachts and wild parties while telling his employees they can't be paid, and sleeps around on his wives with young models.

Instead, she points her fangs at a few others, even in the final author's note saying great director David "Lean told many, many lies" about Spiegel. Huh? Isn't this book about one of the biggest show business liars of all time? She also makes the absurd claim that Spiegel's son's delinquent behavior "had not influenced his father's will" keeping the boy from inheriting millions. How could she possible have known what went on in Sam Spiegel's head when writing a will? She couldn't.

This is the kind of laborious book that you have to skip through in order to get past the dull spots. Then when you hit something interesting, like Spiegel's lecherous ways with barely legal-aged women, you'll wonder why the writer didn't include more details of the moviemaker's bad sides. It isn't until the end that you figure out that the point of the book is really to make Spiegel's legend positive and please his estate.

In truth he was a precursor to terrible Harvey Weinstein. Here's hoping this writer doesn't take up Weinstein's cause as well, summarizing that creep's life the way she ends Spiegel's book by claiming "it's inconceivable to love a producer" but many in Hollywood supposedly loved Sam Spiegel. No woman should stand up for disgusting criminal movie producers that have this kind of evidence against them.

[Dianne · Rating 4 out of 5]

A very interesting read if you are interested in the film industry. A bit horrifying now to read how misogynistic the industry was back during Sam Spiegel's the time. I suppose my take away was that this guy was a shyster at best and a crook at worst. But somehow he was involved in some of the all time best movies ever made. Guess that means there is hope for the rest of us.

[Mauvais__gout · Rating 3 out of 5]

Sam Spiegel main slayer

[Andrewh · Rating 2 out of 5]

Sam Spiegel, AKA S. P. Eagle, was one of the all-time great independent Hollywood producers (On the Waterfront, Lawrence of Arabia, etc) and also, famously, one of the biggest con men who ever worked in the film biz. Unfortunately, this book sheds very little light onto his career or personality and mainly comprises a string of endless anecdotes of his misdeeds and sayings ('Dunes. Baby, I want Dunes!' being his famous advice to stiff-upper-lipped David Lean on the set of Lawrence). If you want to read a good book on being a producer then Scott Berg's Goldwyn is a fa r better read and full of actual insights rather than just gossip.

[Vikas Datta · Rating 4 out of 5]

Brings out the legendary producer out in all his vibrant colours (including quite a bit of the less than salutary aspects not to mention the chicanery), and as such gives an unforgettable view of the Hollywood system and the making of some classics as well of those who acted in them...

[Christian · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fascinating about the Hollywood legend.

[Brian Neuls · Rating 4 out of 5]

What I learned from the last three years and this book:
You either have to inherit or be remarkably unscrupulous to
make your way.

[Azman Jalani · Rating 5 out of 5]

The author arranged the storyline of man's life (Sam Spiegel) with delicacy and nourishingly astounding.