SIR,—H ow bitchy can a reviewer get? I have gist seen
a cutting of Mr. Brian Inglis's notice
Charges me with making a dull job of a story Methods of Mr. John Huston.
of my book, The Crazy Kill, in which he founded on the personality and working I would not normally answer a hostile review, but in this instance there arises a point of ethics. It is known to me that Mr. Inglis was being considered for the assignment of writing a book on the Moby Dick location in 1,4 Canary Islands. This was abandoned when Inglis was offered a staff job on your Jeurnal.
Knowing this, I fear that Mr. Inglis, using
mask of critical impartiality, has exploited Your columns to rebuke me for not writing lhe kind of book he might have written. I Fun just imagine his exquisite mind sharpen- !og its perceptive knives at the thought of neing able to notice my book, thereby proving to himself hbw much more delicately and sensitively he would have done it. He. calls my narrator, Slim (also a mask; Used for dramatic and narrative effect), a 'nasty Piece of work' because, I guess, Slim is in- ch.gPable of using the jargon of jobbing critics. well, I prefer Slim.
I wrote my 'Huston' book to show that being With an original and unorthodox film artist afl be fun. Mr. Inglis, I'm sure, would have Used his Canary experiences to show the world `It large what a superior and cultivated mind he has.
One of the first film scripts Huston helped to write was Dr. Ehrlich's Magic Bullet. The director, the brilliant William Dieterle, was later accused of missing a lot of chances in Portraying Ehrlich. He replied, 'The dramatisa- tion of a man's life is condensing, and not copying, the historical facts. It is the steam, arid not the water, that moves the engine.' I think Mr. Inglis has rendered Huston a great service by choosing, no matter under what subterfuge, to give the benefits of his great erudition and sensitivity to the Spectator. I cPugratulate you, Sir, on having such a tender plant in your otherwise gloriously well and Wittily stocked shrubbery.—Yours faithfully,
CHARLES HAMBLETT
8152 Sunset Boulevard, Hollywood 46. California
, [Brian Inglis writes: `Mr. Hamblett is right :
ought to have declared my interest—though whY he should think that it would prejudice !Ile against him is not clear. On the contrary, It Whetted my appetite for what I imagined was going to be an entertaining piece of reportage; and I fear that I let disillusionment Provoke me into criticising the book at much greater length than it deserved.'—Editor, SPectator.]
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