façade: hal ashby's third act

Hal Ashby, who died 30 year ago at age 59, enjoyed a brief but exhilarating directing career. The former house editor for Norman Jewison (and 1967 Oscar winner for Jewison's "In the Heat of the Night"), he was prodded by Jewison to transition into directing, helming eleven narrative films, plus one documentary, in the modest span of about 15 years.

Ashby's debut, 1970's fabulous "The Landlord," was something of a happy accident. Jewison had commissioned Kristen Hunter's novel to direct himself, but sidelined by pre-production work on "Fiddler on the Roof," he generously handed the material to his invaluable editor.

This was Ashby's Act One as a budding auteur. A year later came the seminal, ready-made cult classic,  "Harold and Maude." Two brilliant movies, neither of which was immediately embraced by critics or audiences. He would have turned 90 this year and I've a hunch both titles would not only be embraced but celebrated for his birthday.

Ashby's Act Two was something of a jaw-dropper - rich, beautifully realized films starting with "The Last Detail" in 1973 and continuing with near-breathlessness with "Shampoo," "Bound for Glory," "Coming Home" and "Being There." Much of what is written these days about Ashby revolves around these particular titles.

Ashby's Act Three, however, produced during a particularly troubling time in his private life, is no less interesting. His choice of material was as personal and idiosyncratic as ever and his eye for casting remained fresh and sure. Less sure was his directorial confidence but the shared erratic quality of his final four films only make them more fascinating.

Either by accident or perhaps on purpose, Ashby's work on "Second-Hand Hearts" (1981), "Lookin' to Get Out" (1982), "The Slugger's Wife" (1985) and "Eight Million Ways to Die" (1986) mirrored much of the expressionism that John Cassavetes was specializing in at the time.

"Second-Hand Hearts"
(aka, "The Hamster of Happiness"), a shaggy-dog tale about losers, offers the singular team of Robert Blake and Barbara Harris, who are compulsively watchable here.

"Second-Hand Hearts" may be a genuine lost title, although it popped up on Turner Classic Movies recently, while "Lookin' to Get Out" managed to make it to DVD in a "narratively enhanced" version that restores footage excised by Paramount.  Working with Jon Voight and Ann-Margaret, Ashby took rather routine buddy gambling material and somehow twisted it into something vaguely existential.

Mainstream and middlebrow, "The Slugger's Wife," an original screenplay by Neil Simon, comes with an unexpected melancholy with Michael O'Keefe and Rebecca DeMornay, fine performers who never hit the big time, as two people - a ballplayer and a singer not entirely made for each other.

The film lingers almost in spite of itself. (Martin Ritt puts in a bit as the wittily named Burly DeVito, manager of the Atlanta Braves, the team for which O'Keefe slugs.) More memorable but no less erratic is "Eight Million Ways to Die," an atmospherically sordid character study with Jeff Bridges outstanding as detective who uses booze to self-destruct, seesawing between his planned rehabilitation and the vices that permate his personal/professional lives. Rosanna Arquette and Alexandra Paul are the atypical female leads here.

Fascinating. Ashby both opened and closed his career as a narratve filmmaker with The Brothers Bridges.

Ashby's documentary was The Rolling Stones' "Let's Spend the Night Together" (1983). Trailing off towards the end, he directed Neil Young in something called "Solo Trans" (1984); the pilot of Dennis Franz' TV series, ""Beverly Hills Buntz" (1987) and his last, "Jake's Journey," a 1988 British TV film with Graham Chapman and Peter Cook.

He died in in December of that year of liver and colon cancer.

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~images~

(from top)

~Hal Ashby 
 ~photography: United Artists 1970©

~Beau Bridges in a scene from "The Landlord"
 ~photography: United Artists 1970©

~Mood shot of Bud Cort and Ruth Gordon in "Harold and Maude"
 ~photography: Paramount 1971©

~Peter Sellers as Chance, literally walking on water in "Being There"
 ~photography: United Artists 1979© 

~Caricatures of Robert Blake and Barbara Harris for poster art for "Second-Hand Hearts"
 ~photography: Paramount 1981© 

~Poster art for "Lookin' to Get Out"
 ~photography: Paramount 1982©

~Ashby with Rebecca DeMornay on the set of "The Slugger's Wife"
~photography: Columbia Pictures 1985©

~Jeff Bridges and Rosanna Arquette in "Eight Million Ways to Die
~photography: PSO International 1986©