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THE WRITE STUFF

Beaton Portraits (Yale University Press, $50)
It's the photo of Robert and Ethel Kennedy that got to us. We always knew Cecil Beaton was a genius --- actor, costume designer, diarist, lover of Greta Garbo, social historian and all-around 20th century Gadabout. There wasn't a place worth going to that he hadn't been, and there wasn't a person worth knowing that he hadn't met. And, as evidenced by the comprehensive Beaton Portraits, damn few celebrities he hadn't photographed.
     But here was Bobby and Ethel in a way that we had never seen them before, stripped of the Hyannisport-baked tans, free of the clinging kiddies. Beaton captures just Bobby and his wife; she's standing behind him, so positioned that her head seems to be floating on his left shoulder. Bobby is smiling awkwardly, Ethel is a toothy beam. It is, in one word, stunning.
     Proof, indeed, that among Beaton's many talents, the strongest was his power of observation. He used a camera most of his life, to photograph everything from the day-to-day mundane to world shaking events and personalities. During the war, Beaton's photos of the uncelebrated British populace going to and fro in their workaday world, trying to ignore the horror and pain of the rubble caused by German bombs surrounding them, take your breath away, even today. And his candid, painstaking diaries, recording the earthshaking and ephemera of his life day-to-day, even hour-to-hour, are splendidly entertaining and a feast for history and entertainment buffs. But, as this current book shows, Beaton's true genius lay in his ability to capture the look, heart and soul of all those celebrities he photographed.
From Queens to Rock Stars, from old masters to young mistresses, from the 20s through the 70s, media [prostitutes] and geniuses reside side-by-side in these pages. And, if God is in the detail, these seemingly simplistic photos are rich with telling trivialities. The clown's collar framing Audrey Hepburn, the vibrant plants surrounding Sylvia Sidney's face, Orson Welles' hand draped carelessly over a skull, the pearl earrings and necklace accenting Leontyne Price ... each photo hauntingly evokes the time and personality of each celebrity. The British Royal Family, as well as the outcast Wallis Simpson, are lovingly recreated here, as well as Churchill, Noel and Gertie, Warhol and Jagger, and everyone in-between.
     Beaton was a true historian --- his evocation of the 20th century is an astounding trip through six decades of the famous, talented, twisted and distinguished. But Beaton Portraits is much more than a slick coffee table book. Each of the more than 150 plates summon our previous century as quickly and immediately as a flash of half-forgotten memory. Beaton happily records more than 50 years of glamour, style and the effortless world where charm and taste were the only requirements.

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FOR THE RECORD

Noel Coward At Las Vegas (DRG Records) Celebrating Noel all year 'round? Indeed! Pour the champagne and pop open the caviar because the best of Noel --- Noel Coward that is --- has finally made it to CD. DRG Records has given Cowardophiles most welcome gifts: the 1955 Noel Coward at Las Vegas, and the 1957 follow-up recording, Noel Coward in New York. One listen and you'll understand why playwright Terence Rattigan was hardly cowardly when he said: "Noel Coward is simply a phenomenon --- and one that is unlikely to occur ever again in theatre history." The Las Vegas show, recorded live, is an astounding accomplishment considering the conservatism and blandness of the Eisenhower era. The songs span the decades from the '20s ("Dance, Little Lady") to material written just for Vegas, such as the incomparable "Nina," about the only Argentinean lady who refuses to dance. One of the more remarkable things about this recording, however, is the manner in which the audience feasts on each and every morsel the performer sets before them. Shrieks of laughter and deafening applause greet each song and comment. The art of the cabaret performer has fallen into deep decline and of this art Coward is undoubtedly the master, but the audience of almost 50 years ago seems infinitely hipper, faster and more intelligent than those hordes that drag themselves slovenly to theaters, nightclubs and concert halls of today ... with forced-fed reminders to 'please silence all cell phones and pagers' --- and then still hearing them go off. The New York gem is a studio recording, and, although lacking the spontaneity of a live audience, it presents Coward with a greater variety of his material, brilliantly performed. From the faux sophistication of "Marvelous Party" to the hysterical paean to show-biz angst, "Why Must the Show Go On?," the wit and wonder of his words are, as always, extraordinary to behold. But in the bittersweet "Sail Away" and the haunting "Twentieth Century Blues," Coward's true power, not only as a brilliant composer/lyricist but also as the best interpreter of his own material, shines dazzlingly.

Fade Out Fade In (Decca)
Fade in, many a year ago: Fans clamor for Decca to release Fade Out Fade In on CD. Fade out, 2003: It finally happens! The most requested original cast recording is finally available here, proving again, that good things do come to those who wait.
     So the book and lyrics by Betty Comden and Adolph Green (music by Jule Styne) is far from their best. But they do manage to bring the glamour of Tinseltown to the stage in this hilarious homage to the Golden Age of Hollywood of the '30s. (Let us not forget the Betty and Adolph took on the world of silent flicks in Singin' in the Rain.)
     There are glorious touches in this tale of Hope Springfield, a girl pulled from the chorus and mistaken for a star. When the show opened on Broadway in 1964, it marked the return of hot new star Carol Burnett, and critics roared their approval ... sort of in the same way Carol roars like the MGM lion in her opening number "It's Good to Be Back Home."
     And so Fade Out Fade In was expected to be a huge hit; it even outgrossed Barbra in her new show, Funny Girl. Then, fate stepped in rather nosily when Burnett suffered whiplash while riding in a taxi. The show closed prematurely. Betty Hutton replaced Carol and bombed; Carol then sued to leave for TV. She lost, and returned to the stage, even though Cassidy had been replaced (by Dick Shawn) and Tina Louise left to star in the series Gilligan's Island.
     And so Fade Out Fade In faded out for good. And so we have the CD to remind us of what once was ... briefly. Jack Cassidy is a delight as Movie Star Byron Prong. (Trivia alert: Comden and Green used Byron's name six years earlier in a scene from the flick Auntie Mame ... he gets billing in the Mame Dennis/Vera Charles show Midsummer Madness.)
     And it is a delight to hear the egomaniac Prong sing about his virtues in "My Fortune is My Face" ... the rhyming of "actor" with "Max Factor"
is priceless. It is Burnett who steals the show, even on a teeny circular disc. Her take on Shirley Temple in "You Musnt't Be Discouraged" would become the springboard for her love letter to the moppet on Carol's long-running TV series. Fade in: To a smash hit!

DVD QUICK PICKS

Film Noir Classic Collection (Warner Home Video)
A dark night. A rain-drenched sidewalk. A streetlight flickering on the pavement. Murky shadows, creepy shapes. A gunshot. A beautiful woman chased down the street by a man whose body is encased in a trench coat and whose face is obscured by a fedora.
     Relax. Loosen up. Enjoy.
     You haven't witnessed a crime, but are witness to the America's newest nostalgia craze: Film Noir. Shadows, Lies and Private Eyes: Film Noir Classic Collection is a set of five flicks overflowing with dames, gats and double-crosses, and packaged with bonuses including audio commentaries, trailers, interviews and other assorted gimcracks and gewgaws.
     Gun Crazy, which film noir expert Eddie Muller refers to as "a noir Bonnie and Clyde," stars Peggy Cummins and John Dall. (To noir buffs, these two are major stars. To all others "who?") The blatant sexuality of Dall's love for guns and Cummins love for, well, killing people is extraordinary for 1949, and today, the creepy carnality is still disturbing.
     The masterpiece The Asphalt Jungle (1950) walks the line between gangster and noir, but with a young Marilyn Monroe and a studly Sterling Hayden, John Houston?s tale of dishonor among thieves torches the screen with lust and violence.
     The Set-Up, directed by Robert Wise way, way before The Sound of Music and starring Robert Ryan, is the personal favorite of both the director and the star. Filmed in real time, it's a 72 minutes tale of life before, during and after the boxing match that defines a fighter's life. It's all here --- the smoke-filled rooms, the bloodthirsty fans, the savagery in the ring, the delusional dreams of boxing's palooka world.
     Robert Mitchum and Jane Greer heat up Jacques Tourneur's Out of the Past (1947). With Mitchum spouting lines like "Then build my gallows high, baby," this archetypal noir has a hoodwinked detective in Mitchum and a scary hood in Kirk Douglas.
     The Warner collection rounds out with Edward Dmytryk's Murder, My Sweet (1944), as quintessential film noir as you can get. Based on Raymond Chandler's novel Farewell, My Lovely, the flick stars Dick Powell as Philip Marlowe. The search for the treacherous Velma through the indigent void called Los Angeles powers this black excursion into near oblivion. As Powell/Marlowe says: "I'm just a small businessman in a very messy business."
     So go, sweetheart. Enjoy. Get the lowdown on all the cats and kittens, molls and johns, and bad guys, hustlers and con-men who hawk their hearts on the streets of broken dreams called film noir. By the way, is that a gun in your pocket, or do you just like watching movies like these?