Ray Of Light

I just read Patrick McGilligan's biography Nicholas Ray: The Glorious Failure Of An American Director.  It's sort of a sad life, filled with doomed marriages and affairs, drug and alcohol binges, and what amounts to a failed film career.

Ray, born in Wisconsin in 1911, was mentored by people like Thornton Wilder, Frank Lloyd Wright, Elia Kazan and John Houseman before he found his calling as a film director in the late 40s.  He was considered an "arty" director, and didn't always get along with the studio brass.  That along with personal problems amounted to a Hollywood career that lasted about fifteen years.

During that time, he made a fair amount of memorable films, even though he sometimes had to fight his lead actors, and didn't always have full control: They Live By Night, In A Lonely Place, Flying Leathernecks, The Lusty Men, Johnny Guitar, Rebel Without A Cause (his only major hit), Bigger Than Life.  I'm not sure if I'd call any of them great, but there's no question Ray had a style (that often goes too far).  He was somewhat appreciated in his day--the French went wild for him--but when he left Hollywood I don't think too many felt it was a big loss.

He kicked around his last couple decades, sometimes teaching.  He spent some time with SUNY students working on an "arty," definitely non-commercial film entitled We Can't Go Home Again.  Ray died in 1979.  Many of his films have become cult favorites, and Rebel still represents a moment in time like few others  For a guy who never really fit in, he could have done a lot worse.