Book Review: The Star Machine, by Jeanine Basinger (2007)

Tyrone Power and Loretta Young on the cover of The Star Machine, by Jeanine Basinger, 2007.

Film critic and author Jeanine Basinger.

Deanna Durbin, Universal's big star of the late 1930's and early 1940's, and one of Basinger's favorite movie stars.

Ann Sheridan, "the oomph girl."

Film historian Jeanine Basinger’s 2007 book The Star Machine is a thorough examination of how the studio system operated during Hollywood’s Golden Age. Basinger is the chair of film studies at Wesleyan University, and it’s very clear that movies have been a life-long passion for her. The Star Machine is 550 pages of details about film stars and movies that might not be familiar to modern audiences. 

The Star Machine’s biggest strength is also its biggest problem: Basinger is a huge fan. And while that means that she’s actually taken the time to watch all of these obscure movies, it sometimes gets in the way of her writing. Sometimes her writing just gets too fan girly, like when she’s gushing (repeatedly) about how good-looking Tyrone Power was: “Power was beautiful. Not handsome. Beautiful. Solid, substantial, and with great masculine dignity, but with the kind of physical looks that can only be labeled ‘beautiful.’” (p.143) Basinger thinks that Tyrone Power was the best-looking man ever, and, tellingly, the section in the index with the most entries for Power is "physical beauty of." Basinger also is driven to hyperbole when writing about Deanna Durbin, a very popular child star of the 1930’s and 1940’s. When summing up Durbin’s career, Basinger writes, “No matter how many imitators Hollywood might develop, there was only one Deanna Durbin, and there will never be another one.” (p.294) I’ll admit I might be guilty of these same crimes in my writing, as when on occasion I might be overly effusive when describing the attractiveness of my favorite actresses, like Kim Novak or Natalie Wood. And there’s nothing wrong with being a big fan of someone and showing it, I just think there’s perhaps more of it in this book than is necessary.

The most interesting part of The Star Machine is the beginning, as Basinger tells us how the studios discovered future stars, groomed them, and tried to find suitable roles for them. It’s a fascinating look behind the scenes of the powerful studios. Basinger is an insightful critic who is able to easily explain the appeal that these movie stars had. That being said, her criticism is mainly about the movie stars themselves. She does not dive deeply into the technical side of filmmaking, as she is more interested in the effect that these movie stars have on us in the audience. 

In the middle section of the book Basinger details the careers of several movie stars. Rather than focusing on huge legends like Cary Grant, John Wayne, and Katherine Hepburn, she writes about the careers of actors like Irene Dunne, Loretta Young, William Powell and other stars of the 1930’s and 1940’s. I think that Basinger’s point is that stars like Grant, Wayne, and Hepburn have been thoroughly analyzed elsewhere, and she wants to shed light on some stars who aren’t as well known today. I understand that, but I think it might also have been instructive to profile some huge stars like Gary Cooper and Joan Crawford to see how they succeeded in Hollywood for so long. 

The Star Machine is saddled with an awkward conclusion, “Stardom without the Machine” that is a shallow look at current movie stars, and really doesn’t add anything to the book.

One gripe I have about The Star Machine is that I’m a little annoyed at how few sources Basinger cites. Her bibliography is just three pages long. For a 550 page non-fiction book! She also doesn’t cite quotations. It really puzzles me as to why Basinger’s publisher didn’t make her do this. When Alice Faye said of Tyrone Power, “Ty was the victim of the Hollywood system that grinds actors and actresses down, makes them give their blood and their souls to the movies” as she’s quoted as saying on page 179 of The Star Machine, when did she say it? To whom did she say it? I have no idea, because Basinger does not cite the source for this quote. It drives me batty that her publisher let her get away with this. If I’m reading a non-fiction book, I want to know where the author is getting their information from. The ultimate goal behind citing a source for a quotation is so the reader could theoretically find that same quote, so they know that the author got it right. I believe that Basinger has done the research and that she knows her stuff, I just want her to show her work.  

If you want to learn about Hollywood during the studio system, The Star Machine is a great reference. But you really need to be a fan of pre-World War II Hollywood, as Basinger doesn’t cover the career of anyone who started making movies after 1940. If you still remember Ann Sheridan, then this is the book for you. You know, Ann Sheridan, “the oomph girl,” star of The Footloose Heiress, She Loved a Fireman, and Appointment in Honduras. You remember her, right? Good, I’m glad I’m not the only one.

Tyrone Power, Classic Hollywood Movie Star

Tyrone Power, 1914-1958.

Tyrone Power at the beginning of his movie career, mid 1930's.

Charles Laughton and Tyrone Power in Witness for the Prosecution, 1957.

Billy Wilder’s 1957 film Witness for the Prosecution, based on the play by Agatha Christie, was the last movie the popular matinee idol Tyrone Power completed before his death the following year. Witness for the Prosecution starred Power as a man on trial for murder, Charles Laughton as his defense attorney, and Marlene Dietrich as his wife. It’s an interesting movie, with especially good performances from Laughton and Power. Laughton plays Sir Wilfred Robarts, a defense attorney who is recovering from a heart attack, and his nurse Miss Plimsoll, (played by Laughton’s real-life wife Elsa Lanchester) is eager for Sir Wilfred to not take any new cases that might cause him to overexert himself. Then in walks Leonard Vole (Power) a man who is about to be arrested for the murder of an older widow who recently changed her will to make Vole the beneficiary of her estate. Vole protests his innocence, and Sir Wilfred, highly intrigued, agrees to take the case. Power is very effective because the actor playing Leonard Vole needs to be sympathetic and likable, and Power was both of those things. Since the end of the movie expressly told me not to reveal all of the surprises of the plot, I won’t say anything more about what happens. No spoiler alerts for 57 year old movies here!

I’m using Witness for the Prosecution as an excuse to write a short piece about Tyrone Power’s film career. I don’t claim to be an expert on Power’s career, as I’ve only seen three of his movies: Witness for the Prosecution, The Black Swan, and the excellent film noir Nightmare Alley. Power had an interesting, and highly successful, career. He was an extremely popular movie star for more than 20 years, from the mid 1930’s until his untimely death from a heart attack at the age of 44 in 1958.

Power was under contract to 20^th Century Fox for the majority of his career. Power’s striking good looks assured him of a substantial female fan base, and he quickly became one of the most popular matinee idols of the late 1930’s and early 1940’s. Power was an amazingly handsome man who won the genetic lottery big time with his thick dark hair, lively eyes, chiseled features, high cheekbones, dramatically arched eyebrows, and winning smile. Power acted in a great variety of movies, and he found success in many different film genres, including period dramas, light comedies, westerns, war movies, and swashbuckling action films. 

Although Power was an extremely popular movie star for a long time, I would wager that few people under the age of 50 today know who he was. Power’s long filmography is unfortunately not terribly distinguished. His movies, for whatever reason, have not made it into the canon of “great movies.” Power never won an Oscar. Indeed, he was never even nominated for an Oscar. He doesn’t have one signature performance that every movie fan has seen.

Power’s career is similar to that of his swashbuckling contemporary, Errol Flynn. Flynn was also a highly popular actor who might not be that well known today, but his turn as Robin Hood in 1938’s The Adventures of Robin Hood has entered the canon of “great movies” and probably remains his most well-known performance. Another actor who was similar to Power and Flynn was Robert Taylor-who was to MGM what Power was to 20^th Century Fox-namely, their handsome leading man who could also handle action films. Like Power, neither Flynn nor Taylor were ever nominated for an Oscar. 

Despite not receiving a lot of acclaim for his acting skills, Power actually was a fine film actor, and his performance in the gritty 1947 film noir Nightmare Alley is excellent. Unfortunately, because it was such a departure from his usual screen image, Nightmare Alley was not heavily promoted by Fox and flopped at the box office. Power had worked very hard to get Nightmare Alley made, and it was no doubt a great disappointment to him that Fox didn’t promote it whole-heartedly. It was difficult for Power to find roles that didn’t rely only on his good looks. During the 1950’s Power became more dissatisfied with the kind of movies he was offered, so he acted in plays more and more frequently.

Director Billy Wilder had extremely high praise for Power’s work in Witness for the Prosecution. He said of Power:

“He was one of those rare occurrences in Hollywood, he was an absolutely totally gentleman….He was excellent and professional and prepared and intelligent…totally impeccable in his professional life…The picture we did together was one of the few joys of my professional life.” (The Secret Life of Tyrone Power, by Hector Arce, p.269) 

In his personal life, Power was an excellent pilot, a skill that served him well during his World War II service in the Marines. Power flew missions carrying wounded troops out of Iwo Jima and Okinawa during 1945. Like many men of his generation, Power never bragged about his military service, but he was proud of it. After World War II ended, Power dated Lana Turner. According to Turner’s daughter Cheryl, Power was the love of Turner’s life. Unfortunately, they never married and split up. I think it’s unfortunate they didn’t have any kids together, because those children would have been amazingly good looking. 

The film critic Jeanine Basinger is a huge Tyrone Power fan, and she has a full chapter about Power’s life and career in her 2007 history of the Hollywood studio system, The Star Machine. Basinger thinks that Power was the best-looking man ever, and, tellingly, the section in the index with the most entries for Power is “physical beauty of.” Actress Alice Faye, who co-starred with Power in three movies, said of him, “All my life, I was asked what it was like to kiss Tyrone Power.” 

Tyrone Power would have turned 100 in May 2014. His good looks and charisma still jump off the screen, and he’s a movie star who should be better remembered today.