Dominick Dunne: After the Party
Encyclopedia
Dominick Dunne: After the Party is a 2008 documentary directed by Kirsty de Garis and Timothy Jolley.
Hollywood outcast, top-selling author and reporter, Dominick Dunne
is a prominent columnist and society correspondent. This biographical documentary film reflects on his successes and tribulations as a big name in the entertainment industry. In the film, Dunne remembers his past as a World War II Veteran, falling in love and raising a family, his climb and fall as a Hollywood producer, and his epic comeback as a writer.
Dunne enlisted in the army and served in World War II, where he distinguished himself by running towards approaching German forces to rescue two injured American soldiers, and was awarded the Bronze Star for his bravery.
When the war ended, Dunne moved to New York City and studied at Williams College
. After graduating, he secured a position as floor manager for The Howdy Doody Show and then for Robert Montgomery Presents
.
Dunne met Ellen "Lenny" Griffin, who was in a relationship with his college roommate when he asked Dunne to pick her up at the railroad station. Dunne recalls, "She got off that train and I'll never forget it. It was like a scene from a movie!" Within six weeks they were married. They went on to have five children, although two ended up dying in infancy.
During his time as a stage manager, Dunne met a number of aspiring actors that hadn't yet made a name for themselves, such as Grace Kelly
, Steve McQueen
and Joanne Woodward
, among others. Before long, he was a member of the social circle which included these talented, soon-to-be stars. In the film, Dunne speaks most affectionately of Humphrey Bogart
. "What nobody knows about Bogart is that he went to Andover and he's from that kind of family too, but he played all these tough guys so he got a kick out of me and I really just worshipped him." In the film, Dunne intimates a memory of his first A-list Hollywood party, which happened to be at Bogart's house. "Sinatra sang, Judy Garland
sang and Lana Turner
lived next door. Lana Turner was so fantastic at that time, and Spencer Tracy
... and David Niven
... and Hank Fonda [were] there that night. And it went on and on. I mean I thought I'd died and gone to heaven. They just sort of took me in and accepted me like I was one of them... I never went to a party as good as that again."
Dunne's rising success in television soon resulted in the family's relocation to Los Angeles, where Dunne hit the big time, earning position of Vice-President at Twentieth Century Fox and producing the popular series, Adventures in Paradise
. He and Lenny socialized with such top Hollywood stars Natalie Wood
, Michael Caine
, Elizabeth Montgomery
, Dennis Hopper
, Rock Hudson
and Mia Farrow
. The dinner parties thrown at the Dunne residence become nothing short of legendary. Dunne's son, Griffin recalls, "My parents thought nothing of having a small orchestra playing and people coming over on a weeknight in full black tie." remembers Dunne's son Griffin. Playwright Mart Crowley reminisces with fondness about the legendary parties the Dunnes held.
Countered by the success of the limelight, however, was Dunne's developing addiction to alcohol and drugs. Despite his downturn, Dunne was resolute to create a facade of the perfect family when it discontinued being a reality. "He was infuriating," recalls his son. "He wanted us to dress in these Lacoste shirts...we were even art directed... Deadly serious Christmas cards that I think were based on Lord Snowden's portraits of the royal family, that were taken in the middle of the summer. No smiling. So they weren't your happy Christmas cards, they were 'look how beautiful this family is'."
In the next decade, Dunne fell from grace in Hollywood. When the film, Ash Wednesday, starring Elizabeth Taylor
flopped and Dunne, in fury of the failed attempt, insulted the film's writer, Jean-Claude Tramont, and his fiance, Sue Mengers
, the most influential agent in Hollywood, gossip columns all over had a field day. Dominick Dunne was no longer one of America's sweethearts. In fact, his name was cursed throughout Hollywood.
Dunne thought his career was over. Despondent, he drove north, not stopping until he blew a tire near the Cascade Mountains in Oregon. There, he rented a small cottage and set about trying to reconstruct his life. At the age of 50, he began to write for the first time. Dunne was commissioned to write The Winners, a sequel to The Users, a novel about the secret life of Hollywood superstars. The novel was reviewed by the New York Times, and after six months in that Oregon cabin, he resolved to move to New York and begin a new life as a writer.
His next novel, The Two Mrs Grenvilles, saw immense success, selling over two million copies and effectively placed Dunne back on top. Dunne's success was brought to a halt when Dunne received a telephone call from Lenny in November 1982, informing him that his only surviving daughter, Dominique, was on life support after being attacked by her former boyfriend, John Sweeney. Dunne immediately boarded a plane to Los Angeles, but was devastated when Dominique never regained consciousness. The experience of losing his daughter and the trial that ensued, in an effort to indict Dominique's murderer so enraged Dunne that it directed the course of the rest of his life.
The night before flying to Los Angeles for the trial of Dominique's killer, Dunne attended a dinner party, where he sat next to Tina Brown
, former Editor-in-Chief of Vanity Fair
magazine. When Brown heard Dunne's story, she urged him to keep a journal of the court case and to visit her when the case was finished. "Tina Brown literally discovered me. She found something in me that I didn't know I possessed." Dunne's account of the trial of his daughter's killer was a huge success in Vanity Fair and kicked off his long and illustrious career with the magazine. "Dominick had a voice that was so personal, that spoke to you right off the page. He just buttonholes you as soon as he starts, in his first sentence. And, that really is what a writer is, it's a voice. I realised then that Vanity Fair had found its first voice. And we signed him up immediately and he became our first star writer and really, the defining voice of the magazine," says Tina Brown.
Today, Dunne is a correspondent for Vanity Fair magazine and is known for his boisterous support of victim rights in memorable murder cases (such as those of O.J. Simpson and the Menendez Brothers). Now, in his early 80's, Dunne is focusing on his last murder trial for Vanity Fair-- that of music producer, Phil Spector
. He also hosts his own successful television show, Dominick Dunne Presents: Power, Privilege and Justice, featured on Tru TV.
Dominic Dune died on August 26 2009 of bladder cancer at the age of 83.
"The film was great in that it caught all his candor and his sense irony about himself, which is what's so appealing about Nick. There isn't any pretense or fakeness to Nick."
Joan Didion - Author
"I thought they did a really remarkable job. It got closer to my brother-in-law than anybody I have seen has gotten to him...He's seen it and he feels the same way."
Harry Evans - Publisher
"Watching the film was as if you added water to the powder of a person and they sprang to life. It was very, very moving and entertaining and brilliantly made. It's so fascinating, that mixture, that strange eclectic collision between stars and criminals. Lunatics, murder, glamour--it was an extraordinary mix. Of course, Dominick is the presiding genius of connecting the world of grime and the world of glamour."
Colin Firth - Actor
"A fascinating portrait of a compelling and complex man."
Jim Schembri, Writer, (The Age, Australia)
"Reflecting on a life chequered by triumphs, failures and several career renewals, Dunne demonstrates in this fabulous documentary how the creative urge is something that refused to age along with the body"
Timothy Jolley – Writer/Director/Producer
Sue Maslin – Executive Producer
Daryl Dellora – Executive Producer
Suresh Ayyar – Editor
Andrew Commis – Director of Photography
Andrew Plain – Supervising Sound Editor
Antony Partos – Composer
Hollywood outcast, top-selling author and reporter, Dominick Dunne
Dominick Dunne
Dominick John Dunne was an American writer and investigative journalist, whose subjects frequently hinged on the ways in which high society interacts with the judicial system...
is a prominent columnist and society correspondent. This biographical documentary film reflects on his successes and tribulations as a big name in the entertainment industry. In the film, Dunne remembers his past as a World War II Veteran, falling in love and raising a family, his climb and fall as a Hollywood producer, and his epic comeback as a writer.
Film Synopsis
Born in Hartford, Connecticut in 1925, Dominick Dunne was born the second-oldest of six children in a large, well-to-do Catholic family. He always had a passion for dance, theatre and Hollywood. His relationship with his father was often difficult. The prominent surgeon had difficulty accepting his son's disinterest in sports and other 'masculine' pursuits and would occasionally beat young Dominick with a riding crop. Dunne reflects on his relationship with his father in the film, "My father was this famous heart surgeon, a wonderful man...but there was something about me that drove him crazy. He mimicked me, he called me sissy. It may seem like nothing now but it's awful to hurt a child. It's a terrible thing. My opinion of myself was nothing... I believed I was everything he said."Dunne enlisted in the army and served in World War II, where he distinguished himself by running towards approaching German forces to rescue two injured American soldiers, and was awarded the Bronze Star for his bravery.
When the war ended, Dunne moved to New York City and studied at Williams College
Williams College
Williams College is a private liberal arts college located in Williamstown, Massachusetts, United States. It was established in 1793 with funds from the estate of Ephraim Williams. Originally a men's college, Williams became co-educational in 1970. Fraternities were also phased out during this...
. After graduating, he secured a position as floor manager for The Howdy Doody Show and then for Robert Montgomery Presents
Robert Montgomery Presents
Robert Montgomery Presents is an American dramatic television series which was produced by NBC from January 30, 1950 until June 24, 1957. The live show had several sponsors during its seven-year run, and the title was altered to feature the sponsor, usually Lucky Strike cigarettes, for example,...
.
Dunne met Ellen "Lenny" Griffin, who was in a relationship with his college roommate when he asked Dunne to pick her up at the railroad station. Dunne recalls, "She got off that train and I'll never forget it. It was like a scene from a movie!" Within six weeks they were married. They went on to have five children, although two ended up dying in infancy.
During his time as a stage manager, Dunne met a number of aspiring actors that hadn't yet made a name for themselves, such as Grace Kelly
Grace Kelly
Grace Patricia Kelly was an American actress who, in April 1956, married Rainier III, Prince of Monaco, to become Princess consort of Monaco, styled as Her Serene Highness The Princess of Monaco, and commonly referred to as Princess Grace.After embarking on an acting career in 1950, at the age of...
, Steve McQueen
Steve McQueen
Terrence Steven "Steve" McQueen was an American movie actor. He was nicknamed "The King of Cool." His "anti-hero" persona, which he developed at the height of the Vietnam counterculture, made him one of the top box-office draws of the 1960s and 1970s. McQueen received an Academy Award nomination...
and Joanne Woodward
Joanne Woodward
Joanne Gignilliat Trimmier Woodward is an American actress, television and theatrical producer, and widow of Paul Newman...
, among others. Before long, he was a member of the social circle which included these talented, soon-to-be stars. In the film, Dunne speaks most affectionately of Humphrey Bogart
Humphrey Bogart
Humphrey DeForest Bogart was an American actor. He is widely regarded as a cultural icon.The American Film Institute ranked Bogart as the greatest male star in the history of American cinema....
. "What nobody knows about Bogart is that he went to Andover and he's from that kind of family too, but he played all these tough guys so he got a kick out of me and I really just worshipped him." In the film, Dunne intimates a memory of his first A-list Hollywood party, which happened to be at Bogart's house. "Sinatra sang, Judy Garland
Judy Garland
Judy Garland was an American actress and singer. Through a career that spanned 45 of her 47 years and for her renowned contralto voice, she attained international stardom as an actress in musical and dramatic roles, as a recording artist and on the concert stage...
sang and Lana Turner
Lana Turner
Lana Turner was an American actress.Discovered and signed to a film contract by MGM at the age of sixteen, Turner first attracted attention in They Won't Forget . She played featured roles, often as the ingenue, in such films as Love Finds Andy Hardy...
lived next door. Lana Turner was so fantastic at that time, and Spencer Tracy
Spencer Tracy
Spencer Bonaventure Tracy was an American theatrical and film actor, who appeared in 75 films from 1930 to 1967. Tracy was one of the major stars of Hollywood's Golden Age, ranking among the top ten box office draws for almost every year from 1938 to 1951...
... and David Niven
David Niven
James David Graham Niven , known as David Niven, was a British actor and novelist, best known for his roles as Phileas Fogg in Around the World in 80 Days and Sir Charles Lytton, a.k.a. "the Phantom", in The Pink Panther...
... and Hank Fonda [were] there that night. And it went on and on. I mean I thought I'd died and gone to heaven. They just sort of took me in and accepted me like I was one of them... I never went to a party as good as that again."
Dunne's rising success in television soon resulted in the family's relocation to Los Angeles, where Dunne hit the big time, earning position of Vice-President at Twentieth Century Fox and producing the popular series, Adventures in Paradise
Adventures in Paradise
Adventures in Paradise is an American television series which ran on ABC from 1959 until 1962. It starred Gardner McKay as Adam Troy, the captain of the schooner Tiki III which sailed the South Pacific looking for passengers and adventure. The show was created by James Michener...
. He and Lenny socialized with such top Hollywood stars Natalie Wood
Natalie Wood
Natalie Wood, born Natalia Nikolaevna Zacharenko was an American film and television actress. After first working in films as a child, Wood became a successful Hollywood star as a young adult, receiving three Academy Award nominations before she was 25 years old.Wood began acting in movies at the...
, Michael Caine
Michael Caine
Sir Michael Caine, CBE is an English actor. He won Academy Awards for best supporting actor in both Hannah and Her Sisters and The Cider House Rules ....
, Elizabeth Montgomery
Elizabeth Montgomery
Elizabeth Victoria Montgomery was an American film and television actress whose career spanned five decades. She is perhaps best remembered for her roles as Samantha Stephens in Bewitched, as Ellen Harrod in A Case of Rape and as Lizzie Borden in The Legend of Lizzie Borden.-Early life:Born in Los...
, Dennis Hopper
Dennis Hopper
Dennis Lee Hopper was an American actor, filmmaker and artist. As a young man, Hopper became interested in acting and eventually became a student of the Actors' Studio. He made his first television appearance in 1954 and appeared in two films featuring James Dean, Rebel Without a Cause and Giant...
, Rock Hudson
Rock Hudson
Roy Harold Scherer, Jr., later Roy Harold Fitzgerald , known professionally as Rock Hudson, was an American film and television actor, recognized as a romantic leading man during the 1950s and 1960s, most notably in several romantic comedies with Doris Day.Hudson was voted "Star of the Year",...
and Mia Farrow
Mia Farrow
Mia Farrow is an American actress, singer, humanitarian, and fashion model.Farrow first gained wide acclaim for her role as Allison Mackenzie in the soap opera Peyton Place, and for her subsequent short-lived marriage to Frank Sinatra...
. The dinner parties thrown at the Dunne residence become nothing short of legendary. Dunne's son, Griffin recalls, "My parents thought nothing of having a small orchestra playing and people coming over on a weeknight in full black tie." remembers Dunne's son Griffin. Playwright Mart Crowley reminisces with fondness about the legendary parties the Dunnes held.
Countered by the success of the limelight, however, was Dunne's developing addiction to alcohol and drugs. Despite his downturn, Dunne was resolute to create a facade of the perfect family when it discontinued being a reality. "He was infuriating," recalls his son. "He wanted us to dress in these Lacoste shirts...we were even art directed... Deadly serious Christmas cards that I think were based on Lord Snowden's portraits of the royal family, that were taken in the middle of the summer. No smiling. So they weren't your happy Christmas cards, they were 'look how beautiful this family is'."
In the next decade, Dunne fell from grace in Hollywood. When the film, Ash Wednesday, starring Elizabeth Taylor
Elizabeth Taylor
Dame Elizabeth Rosemond "Liz" Taylor, DBE was a British-American actress. From her early years as a child star with MGM, she became one of the great screen actresses of Hollywood's Golden Age...
flopped and Dunne, in fury of the failed attempt, insulted the film's writer, Jean-Claude Tramont, and his fiance, Sue Mengers
Sue Mengers
Sue Mengers was a talent agent to many significant filmmakers and actors of the New Hollywood generation of the 1960s, 1970s and early 1980s.-Early life:...
, the most influential agent in Hollywood, gossip columns all over had a field day. Dominick Dunne was no longer one of America's sweethearts. In fact, his name was cursed throughout Hollywood.
Dunne thought his career was over. Despondent, he drove north, not stopping until he blew a tire near the Cascade Mountains in Oregon. There, he rented a small cottage and set about trying to reconstruct his life. At the age of 50, he began to write for the first time. Dunne was commissioned to write The Winners, a sequel to The Users, a novel about the secret life of Hollywood superstars. The novel was reviewed by the New York Times, and after six months in that Oregon cabin, he resolved to move to New York and begin a new life as a writer.
His next novel, The Two Mrs Grenvilles, saw immense success, selling over two million copies and effectively placed Dunne back on top. Dunne's success was brought to a halt when Dunne received a telephone call from Lenny in November 1982, informing him that his only surviving daughter, Dominique, was on life support after being attacked by her former boyfriend, John Sweeney. Dunne immediately boarded a plane to Los Angeles, but was devastated when Dominique never regained consciousness. The experience of losing his daughter and the trial that ensued, in an effort to indict Dominique's murderer so enraged Dunne that it directed the course of the rest of his life.
The night before flying to Los Angeles for the trial of Dominique's killer, Dunne attended a dinner party, where he sat next to Tina Brown
Tina Brown
Tina Brown, Lady Evans, CBE , is a journalist, magazine editor, columnist, talk-show host and author of The Diana Chronicles, a biography of Diana, Princess of Wales. Born a British citizen, she took United States citizenship in 2005 after emigrating in 1984 to edit Vanity Fair...
, former Editor-in-Chief of Vanity Fair
Vanity Fair (magazine)
Vanity Fair is a magazine of pop culture, fashion, and current affairs published by Condé Nast. The present Vanity Fair has been published since 1983 and there have been editions for four European countries as well as the U.S. edition. This revived the title which had ceased publication in 1935...
magazine. When Brown heard Dunne's story, she urged him to keep a journal of the court case and to visit her when the case was finished. "Tina Brown literally discovered me. She found something in me that I didn't know I possessed." Dunne's account of the trial of his daughter's killer was a huge success in Vanity Fair and kicked off his long and illustrious career with the magazine. "Dominick had a voice that was so personal, that spoke to you right off the page. He just buttonholes you as soon as he starts, in his first sentence. And, that really is what a writer is, it's a voice. I realised then that Vanity Fair had found its first voice. And we signed him up immediately and he became our first star writer and really, the defining voice of the magazine," says Tina Brown.
Today, Dunne is a correspondent for Vanity Fair magazine and is known for his boisterous support of victim rights in memorable murder cases (such as those of O.J. Simpson and the Menendez Brothers). Now, in his early 80's, Dunne is focusing on his last murder trial for Vanity Fair-- that of music producer, Phil Spector
Phil Spector
Phillip Harvey "Phil" Spector is an American record producer and songwriter, later known for his conviction in the murder of actress Lana Clarkson....
. He also hosts his own successful television show, Dominick Dunne Presents: Power, Privilege and Justice, featured on Tru TV.
Dominic Dune died on August 26 2009 of bladder cancer at the age of 83.
Reviews
Tina Brown - Editor (Vanity Fair, The Daily Beast)"The film was great in that it caught all his candor and his sense irony about himself, which is what's so appealing about Nick. There isn't any pretense or fakeness to Nick."
Joan Didion - Author
"I thought they did a really remarkable job. It got closer to my brother-in-law than anybody I have seen has gotten to him...He's seen it and he feels the same way."
Harry Evans - Publisher
"Watching the film was as if you added water to the powder of a person and they sprang to life. It was very, very moving and entertaining and brilliantly made. It's so fascinating, that mixture, that strange eclectic collision between stars and criminals. Lunatics, murder, glamour--it was an extraordinary mix. Of course, Dominick is the presiding genius of connecting the world of grime and the world of glamour."
Colin Firth - Actor
"A fascinating portrait of a compelling and complex man."
Jim Schembri, Writer, (The Age, Australia)
"Reflecting on a life chequered by triumphs, failures and several career renewals, Dunne demonstrates in this fabulous documentary how the creative urge is something that refused to age along with the body"
Credits
Kirsty de Garis – Writer/Director/ProducerTimothy Jolley – Writer/Director/Producer
Sue Maslin – Executive Producer
Daryl Dellora – Executive Producer
Suresh Ayyar – Editor
Andrew Commis – Director of Photography
Andrew Plain – Supervising Sound Editor
Antony Partos – Composer