Posted: 08/24/2006

Buzz

(2006)

by Alan Rode

A.I. “Buzz” Bezzerides might have forever remained a little-known screenwriting cult figure if not for Greek filmmaker Spiro N. Taraviras. His documentary, “Buzz” had a scintillating debut screening at the Writer’s Guild in Beverly Hills on the evening of August 22nd.

Taraviras’ documentary of Bezzerides’ colorful life is a skillful and affectionate homage to the last man standing from the ranks of elite studio screenwriters (“They Drive at Night”, “Juke Girl”, “Thieves Highway” “On Dangerous Ground” “Kiss Me Deadly”) who were active before World War II. Bezzerides was much more than an erstwhile movie scribe from Hollywood’s past. Although often categorized as a ‘noir’ writer due to his film work, he was a consummate craftsman of gritty, working class stories. His novels, “The Long Haul” and “Thieves Market” belong next to those of Steinbeck and Bezzerides’ good friend, William Faulkner, as seminal works of fiction that delineated the previous American century.

It is not injudicious to characterize Bezzerides’ life as a literal ‘Hundred Years War’ against a system he came to view as rife with injustice and betrayal. Born near the Black Sea in 1908 to a Greek father and Armenian mother, Bezzerides immigrated to Fresno, California when he was a toddler. His childhood memories are lucidly precise about his father, a hard-working produce farmer who was repeatedly swindled, and his mother who inspired him to write while taciturnly withholding her approval. While he eventually made peace with his mother, Bezzerides appeared preordained to a similar legacy experienced by his Father, if not in fact, certainly in mind.

Schooled as an engineer at UC Berkeley, Bezzerides’ writing quickly became his chosen profession. After composing short stories for magazines, he wrote “The Long Haul” (1938) that drew on his youthful observations about the truckers of the Central Valley and their quest for the big load while battling dangerous roads, poor equipment and chiseling produce brokers. His book was made into the film by Warners, “They Drive By Night” (1940), starring George Raft and Humphrey Bogart.

In a classic case of Hollywood deception, Bezzerides agent concealed the fact that Warner Brothers had already started preproduction on “The Long Haul” without bothering to obtain the book rights. Instead of using the available leverage to obtain a big payday for his client, the agent connived with the studio to obscure the situation from Bezzerides and pay him a tenth of what he could have obtained. Although he was subsequently signed as a contract screenwriter at Warner’s, the memory of being gypped still rankled over six decades later. “Jack Warner signed me out of guilt!” thundered the aggrieved screenwriter. This opening scam was the first of a long covenant of grievances that the writer would have with the movie studios about equitable compensation for his work.

Bezzerides’ lengthy career as a screenwriter, novelist and friend of the famous is seamlessly woven into a skillful montage of film clips, location shots in Fresno, San Francisco and Los Angeles with interspersed interviews of family members, intimates and associates. The collage includes legendary director Jules Dassin, actress and friend, Gloria Stuart, film journalists Dan Georgakas and Phillippe Garnier along with actress Terry Moore, who introduced the screening. The sequences with Garnier were particularly incisive, providing an intimate, historical perspective rounded out with amusing anecdotes that burnished the rough edges of a complicated and passionate man. Jules Dassin added heft to the film with some rapier-like witticisms about the studio system along with a succinct observation that Bezzerides was often his own worst enemy in obtaining just payment for his work.

While the writer possesses a veritable warehouse of bitter gripes over his treatment by Old Hollywood, but one can’t help but observe that Bezzerides certainly had a prolific career and created an admirable body of work. Bezzerides never got rich, but he always got paid; it just wasn’t enough. As noted by Jules Dassin among others in the film, very few screenwriters in Hollywood obtained appropriate recognition and compensation. Bezzerides wanted to speak through his writing, then go home and have the checks clear. He had no truck with the political B.S. of the movie business. He was a writer. This admirable posture provides ample testimony to his virtue, but, in the end, it probably cost Buzz part of the money. The thematic juxtaposition of a life spent not being able to have things both ways is dealt with in admirable fashion.

Less praiseworthy are several notable inadequacies in the overlong 118 minute documentary. A truncated explanation of the Blacklist by writer Dan Georgakas serves as an entree to the allegation that Bezzerides was ‘grey-listed’ in the 1950’s. The writer’s purported dilemma is compared to actor Edward G. Robinson, who actually had to testify before Congress and fight to clear his name. No specifics whatsoever are advanced in the film to support the ‘grey listing’ assertion. A sequence with Bezzerides relating a story about how L.B. Mayer hired him despite finding the writer’s name on some sort of list of ‘Red’ screenwriters and throwing it away supports the contention that the writer wasn’t damaged by the Blacklist. Bezzerides was distinctly non-political and is credited with authoring nine screenplays during the 1950s in addition to episodic TV work. The writer was actively employed during the entire Blacklist period. This unsubstantiated subtext about the alleged ‘gray-listing’ struck this writer as an artificially inserted device that added nothing but dead time to the picture.

Conversely, there was an actual opportunity of high drama concerning the Blacklist period that was inexplicably omitted. This issue concerned the HUAC testimony of Bezzerides second wife, writer Silvia Richards. There is about a five second sequence in the film with Bezzerides stating that he coached his wife to only name those names before the Committee that had already been named earlier! What would have been a compelling (and probably painful) line of inquiry to explore appears to have been quietly glossed over.

Although film clip previews are used effectively to highlight Bezzerides screenwriting career, a disappointing omission was the absence of any footage from “On Dangerous Ground” (1951). Not only was this one of Bezzerides best screenplay adaptations and a crackerjack film noir, but the writer actually played a cameo role as a bartender opposite Robert Ryan. In one of the interview sequences, Bezzerides briefly comments about his solitary screen acting experience. Not including the scene of the writer in his prime from “On Dangerous Ground” was a notable let-down. More heartening was the sequence about “Kiss Me Deadly” (1955) with Bezzerides discussing his screenplay adaptation of Mickey Spillane’s best seller that included his famous doomsday denouement. The presence of “Kiss Me Deadly” star Gaby Rodgers at the “Buzz” screening added luster to a fascinating account of a legendary film noir.

“Buzz” is, on balance, an engaging documentary and an entertaining film eminently worth watching. For Spiro Taraviras, the debut screening was the culmination of a labor-of-love that dates back to when he began interviewing Bezzerides in 1999. The key accomplishments of the film are its striking visuals-

scenes of Bezzerides at his ramshackle Woodland Hills house amongst a sea of wrecked cars are symmetrically poetic- and transcendence of an old man’s residual bitterness over scammed paydays and vanished opportunities. The years drop away to reveal a talented, sensitive artist who retains the youthful vitality for social justice while engaging poignant reminiscences about Bogart, Mitchum, Stanwyck et al from a glorious long ago that has few eyewitnesses remaining.

The most gratifying moment of the screening was the presence of the 98 year old A.I. ‘Buzz’ Bezzerides in the first row of the Writers Guild Theatre, receiving a huge birthday cake amid a standing ovation before the screening. After watching this reception and then “Buzz”, one hopes that overdue validation for this talented artist tastes just that much sweeter.

“Buzz” opens exclusively at Los Angeles Laemmle Theatres on August 25th with a screening at the Chicago Film Festival followed by a national roll-out in October.

Alan Rode is a writer and film journalist based in Los Angeles. He is a director of the Film Noir Foundation and senior staff writer for Film Monthly.

His book about Charles McGraw, film noir and Old Hollywood is due out next year.

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