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Eartha Kitt: I don't know why the gods chose me to be in this business but there must have been a reason and I'm still enjoying it so tremendously.
- ConnectionsEdited into Jay-Z: 4:44 (2017)
Featured review
Opaque portrait of Eartha
My review was written in February 1982 after a showing at Manhattan's RIzzoli screening room:
"All by Myself" is a portrait film about singer-actress Eartha Kitt, which showcases the performer in effective renditions of several of her best songs but offers little insight into her life and career. Filmmaker Christian Blackwood observes and questions his star subject, but all the would-be cinema verite camera reveals is a performance.
Certainly the minimal factual material here would make an interesting dramatized biopic. Kitt's unloved childhood in the South -given away by her mother; fabulous success three decades ago in Europe and later the U. S. as a sexy cabaret singer; an important acting career in legit and films; well-publicized run-ins with political figures such as Lady Bird Johnson and subsequent career blacklisting problems.
Blackwood errs in genuflecting to his star: between the concert performances and rehearsal footage he spends too much time showing Eartha and her lovely daughter Kitt McDonald applying makeup and generally showing off for the camera.
When he tries to get tough, Blackwood asks insipid questions about her personal life, eliciting fatuous answers. After prying unsuccessfully into Eartha's love life and interracial marriage, he comes up with a howler of a revelation from the star, who says: "I fall in love with myself and want someone to share it with me".
Best segments deal with Kitt's visit to her childhood home in South Carolina, accompanied by tearful reminiscences of still troubling family problems. Shorn of her public posturing and acid tongue, Kitt comes closest to opening up to the camera in these moments.
However, nearly all the film's running time is devoted to her showing off. A Reagan Inaugural Ball held in NY spotlights her affectations, chatting with Joan Fontaine, Geoffrey Holder, Virginia Graham and others or giving the cold shoulder to comedy relief figure Mayor Ed Koch. A visit i to a new talent agency repping Kitt is played straight but wastes a reel with all concerned putting on a pleasant front for the camera. Similarly the star at home or teaching young dancers in Watts comes off as self-serving.
Beyond the wasted personal scenes (which have less impact overall than one of Kitt's poignant confessionals on the Merv Griffin talk show a decade ago), pic delivers sock vocals "I Want to Be Evil", "Solitude", Eric Carmen's title tune and others. Theatrical chances are slim, with specialized tv exposure a possibility.,
Certainly the minimal factual material here would make an interesting dramatized biopic. Kitt's unloved childhood in the South -given away by her mother; fabulous success three decades ago in Europe and later the U. S. as a sexy cabaret singer; an important acting career in legit and films; well-publicized run-ins with political figures such as Lady Bird Johnson and subsequent career blacklisting problems.
Blackwood errs in genuflecting to his star: between the concert performances and rehearsal footage he spends too much time showing Eartha and her lovely daughter Kitt McDonald applying makeup and generally showing off for the camera.
When he tries to get tough, Blackwood asks insipid questions about her personal life, eliciting fatuous answers. After prying unsuccessfully into Eartha's love life and interracial marriage, he comes up with a howler of a revelation from the star, who says: "I fall in love with myself and want someone to share it with me".
Best segments deal with Kitt's visit to her childhood home in South Carolina, accompanied by tearful reminiscences of still troubling family problems. Shorn of her public posturing and acid tongue, Kitt comes closest to opening up to the camera in these moments.
However, nearly all the film's running time is devoted to her showing off. A Reagan Inaugural Ball held in NY spotlights her affectations, chatting with Joan Fontaine, Geoffrey Holder, Virginia Graham and others or giving the cold shoulder to comedy relief figure Mayor Ed Koch. A visit i to a new talent agency repping Kitt is played straight but wastes a reel with all concerned putting on a pleasant front for the camera. Similarly the star at home or teaching young dancers in Watts comes off as self-serving.
Beyond the wasted personal scenes (which have less impact overall than one of Kitt's poignant confessionals on the Merv Griffin talk show a decade ago), pic delivers sock vocals "I Want to Be Evil", "Solitude", Eric Carmen's title tune and others. Theatrical chances are slim, with specialized tv exposure a possibility.,
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- lor_
- Jan 12, 2023
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Top Gap
By what name was All by Myself: The Eartha Kitt Story (1982) officially released in Canada in English?
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