CLASH OF THE MOGULS!.........LEVINE VS. SUSSKIND IN "SHOWMAN"

Showman (1963)  This raggedly little Maysles Brother documentary on legendary movie producer Joesph E. Levine is barely worth discussing.......

                 Considering the great Prime Subject, it's a draggy, pointless, throwaway wasted opportunity..... its 55 minute running time eaten up with random ogling of bikini girls at the Cannes Film Festival and droning business calls of dark-suited Levine minions........

                 But for a few minutes, the film comes alive when Levine clashes with fellow movie producer David Susskind at New York City radio talk show........

                 Susskind, a prolific film and TV producer turned radio and TV host, fancied himself a cultural uplifter of America and sworn enemy of Philistines filling the theaters with crude junk for the ignorant and unwashed.......

                 He couldn't possibly comprehend a producer like Levine, who was all about the hype and hustle, the hard sell to put paying customers into the seats.........no matter what you were selling, diamonds or dung.......

                  And here's what killed Susskind about Levine.......Joe made no distinction between brazen, exploitation crap and high art........whether it was the hilariously awful Steve Reeves "Hercules", the trashy film versions of equally noxious Harold Robbins' novels, or groundbreaking cinema like "The Graduate", "Carnal Knowledge" and Sophia Loren's Oscar winning "Two Women".......it made no difference to Levine.

                   It was all product to push........and scoop up the cash and bask in the publicity....

                   There was the big difference between the two moguls..........when Susskind, the cultured, well spoken Patron Of The Arts, confronted the simple but savvy businessman Levine.....the Patrol Of The Bucks......

                   Susskind, salivating over a potential "gotcha" moment, confronts Levine about "Hercules"....(we guess Steve Reeves pectorals and the rubber monsters somehow deeply affected Susskind's sensibilities......). He crows over the fact that Levine's been overheard admitting that......gasp.....he, Levine, doesn't like "Hercules"!   

                     My God! You mean........Joe knows he's infesting movie theaters with junk?

                    You might be thinking at this point (and you'd be right)......so what?   Isn't that what all movie moguls do.......produce Academy Award winners right along side worthless trash?

                    For a few minutes, you get to see Susskind, from the high altitude of his artistic pedestal, attempt to mock Levine, the streetwise dealmaker who gave the world "Hercules" and the re-dubbed "Godzilla, King Of The Monsters" while at the same time flying to Rome to hand Sophia Loren her Oscar for "Two Women".........

                    So Joseph E. Levine didn't know art.......but he knew what he liked.......and what would make him some box-office buckolas.......and BQ loves 'im for that........as for David Susskind's simpering condescension from the cultural high ground, I'd have told him to go **** himself.....and given him a free full color poster of "Hercules"......autographed by Steve Reeves.

                    1 star (*) for "Showman"......and you now know exactly which few minutes of it deserve that 1 star........