Dorothy Malone is Diana Barrymore in "Too Much, Too Soon," based on her autobiography. Her father, John Barrymore, is portrayed by Barrymore's good friend in real life, Errol Flynn.
This seems to be a very shallow version of Barrymore's life. I see everyone is crazy over Flynn on the board. Well, all I can say is, it's no wonder Olivia de Havilland didn't recognize him when she came back to the states one year. He was so bloated, so dissipated, so old-looking - it is a very sad thing to see. Also, I'm not sure that he acted much like Barrymore - he played, in my opinion, a generic alcoholic. In Christopher Plummer's one-man show, he had Barrymore down perfectly - the voice, the intonation, everything.
The film covers Diana's uneasy relationship with her mother, Michael Strange (Neve Patterson) and her relationship with her father, which was sporadic since she didn't see him much. Her brother Robin is not in the film. It shows her work on the stage and her work in Hollywood, which was brief, because of her alcoholism.
One strange thing I didn't get at all - the executives show "All Through the Night" with Humphrey Bogart and collect the preview cards from the audience at the end. Supposedly, Diana Barrymore is in this film. I believe the implication is supposed to be that she was so bad, she was cut out. I don't think that was the case - she just wasn't in it. Why fictionalize it? And of course the film has Barrymore die the same night.
The movie covers Barrymore's three marriages, but gives her first husband, Bramwell Fletcher, a fake name (he was still alive in 1958). He was played by Efrem Zimbalist. Her last marriage, shown in the film, was to an actor who was a recovering alcoholic. Diana got him drinking again. They mostly did summer stock. The marriages were somewhat telescoped, as was her time in burlesque - actually she did burlesque and was making $1000 a week. She always needed money and used to get it from people like family friend Tyrone Power.
The Barrymore name was good for a job; when she was finished in Hollywood, she went to New York; when she was finished in New York, she went to Australia and was a big celebrity until her alcoholism caught up with her. This was her pattern.
The film ends when after Diana has been in treatment for a year and leaves to cowrite her book with writer Gerold Frank, a friend and co-writer of her mother's. So the ending is upbeat. I'm not exactly sure what happened to her in the ensuing three years. She must have had money from the book and movie; she promoted the book on talk shows (one host asked her why she didn't like Hollywood and her reply was, "too many dykes.") I assume she continued drinking, because she died in 1960 from drugs and alcohol. A sad ending for a pretty woman with a lot of opportunities.
In the role of Diana, Dorothy Malone is beautiful, sad, and emotional, doing a very good job in a role that was better than the script. She was always a very sympathetic and likable actress, and through her, you really feel Diana's pain.
See it for Malone's performance. Flynn, so incredibly handsome, energetic, and dashing, is none of those things here, about one year before his death. Sadly, neither was his friend John Barrymore by the end of his life.
This seems to be a very shallow version of Barrymore's life. I see everyone is crazy over Flynn on the board. Well, all I can say is, it's no wonder Olivia de Havilland didn't recognize him when she came back to the states one year. He was so bloated, so dissipated, so old-looking - it is a very sad thing to see. Also, I'm not sure that he acted much like Barrymore - he played, in my opinion, a generic alcoholic. In Christopher Plummer's one-man show, he had Barrymore down perfectly - the voice, the intonation, everything.
The film covers Diana's uneasy relationship with her mother, Michael Strange (Neve Patterson) and her relationship with her father, which was sporadic since she didn't see him much. Her brother Robin is not in the film. It shows her work on the stage and her work in Hollywood, which was brief, because of her alcoholism.
One strange thing I didn't get at all - the executives show "All Through the Night" with Humphrey Bogart and collect the preview cards from the audience at the end. Supposedly, Diana Barrymore is in this film. I believe the implication is supposed to be that she was so bad, she was cut out. I don't think that was the case - she just wasn't in it. Why fictionalize it? And of course the film has Barrymore die the same night.
The movie covers Barrymore's three marriages, but gives her first husband, Bramwell Fletcher, a fake name (he was still alive in 1958). He was played by Efrem Zimbalist. Her last marriage, shown in the film, was to an actor who was a recovering alcoholic. Diana got him drinking again. They mostly did summer stock. The marriages were somewhat telescoped, as was her time in burlesque - actually she did burlesque and was making $1000 a week. She always needed money and used to get it from people like family friend Tyrone Power.
The Barrymore name was good for a job; when she was finished in Hollywood, she went to New York; when she was finished in New York, she went to Australia and was a big celebrity until her alcoholism caught up with her. This was her pattern.
The film ends when after Diana has been in treatment for a year and leaves to cowrite her book with writer Gerold Frank, a friend and co-writer of her mother's. So the ending is upbeat. I'm not exactly sure what happened to her in the ensuing three years. She must have had money from the book and movie; she promoted the book on talk shows (one host asked her why she didn't like Hollywood and her reply was, "too many dykes.") I assume she continued drinking, because she died in 1960 from drugs and alcohol. A sad ending for a pretty woman with a lot of opportunities.
In the role of Diana, Dorothy Malone is beautiful, sad, and emotional, doing a very good job in a role that was better than the script. She was always a very sympathetic and likable actress, and through her, you really feel Diana's pain.
See it for Malone's performance. Flynn, so incredibly handsome, energetic, and dashing, is none of those things here, about one year before his death. Sadly, neither was his friend John Barrymore by the end of his life.