With a single canny deal, a brilliant agent named Lew Wasserman dramatically and permanently changed the economics of the movie business. By snagging superstar client James Stewart a percentage of the Winchester '73 gross in exchange for a reduced up-front fee, Wasserman helped destroy the studio system and ushered in an era where stars, agents, and directors acquired much of the power previously held by studios and producers. In many crucial ways, Wasserman may be the pre-eminent architect of today's movie business, but like the Wizard Of Oz, Wasserman preferred to work behind the curtains.
Wasserman left behind no paper trail and treated the press with suspicion and disdain, but that hasn't kept biographers and documentarians from trying to unlock the enigma of one of Hollywood's most mysterious power brokers. Barry Avrich's The Last Mogul follows Dennis McDougal's exhaustively researched 2001 biography The Last Mogul: Lew Wasserman, MCA, And The Hidden History Of Hollywood in documenting Wasserman's remarkably sustained reign as a Hollywood kingpin. Unfortunately, Avrich's slick documentary gives audiences the E! True Hollywood Story version of Wasserman's life—all screaming tabloid headlines, sordid insinuations, and purple narration. Uncovering the truth about a figure as guarded and elusive as Wasserman is a Herculean undertaking that the filmmakers just aren't up to; The Last Mogul feels about as intimate and personal as a bloated newsreel.
In lieu of genuine revelations about Wasserman's shadowy existence, especially his personal life, the filmmakers offer up a parade of big stars, big movies, and big turning points in cinema's unsteady evolution. Avrich's film aspires to muckraking in its coverage of Wasserman's extensive dealings with the mob, but in this area and many others, Avrich barely lays a glove on his subject. The film's interview subjects speak admiringly about Wasserman's computer-like brain, but in Avrich's telling, Wasserman seems to have a computer-like personality as well. And the life of a sentient computer just isn't that compelling, no matter how many huge stars or American presidents he befriended. Wasserman begins and ends The Last Mogul as an intriguing cipher and there's precious little of substance to be gleaned in between.
Key features: None.