Dominick Dunne: After the Party

Reviewer: James Van Maanen
Rating (out of 5): ****

Confession: I’ve never read anything by journalist/novelist/ex-movie producer, Dominick Dunne. Yet I imagine somehow that I know who he is. That’s the nature of celebrity; it wraps its cloak of reflective fame around those who possess it, lighting them up even as it obscures the person underneath. Celebrity is what this excellent Australian documentary is all about. In fact, its original title was "Celebrity: Dominick Dunne," though its Americanized one – Dominick Dunne: After the Party – works as well. It was a party, after all, that turned Mr. Dunne’s life around and sent him spinning toward the thing he loved most: being near those who were famous and, eventually, becoming so himself.

When, more than a half-century ago (the fellow is now 83), he worked as stage manager on the popular TV show Robert Montgomery Presents, no less than Humphrey Bogart invited him to his home for a party. That evening changed everything, and from Mr. Dunne’s description of the party, you’ll understand why.

By his own admission, the man is more a popular than a critical success. His work, whether fiction or non-, deals with the rich and famous and thus titillates readers by putting them believably enough, as his friend and gossip columnist Liz Smith explains, into a milieu that most of us will never get near. (Smith calls him the Anthony Trollope of his time. Well, maybe…) What Dunne proves to be, at the very least, is a terrific raconteur, whose life is quite worth exploring. Abused physically and verbally by his father, he’s never gotten over this. The story of how he went on to become an unlikely WWII hero is also worth hearing about, as is his marriage to a lovely woman, who eventually left him. His children include the actor Griffin Dunne, whom we also hear from: the anecdote regarding the Dunne family’s yearly Christmas card is spot-on and memorable). Other talking-head contributors include his sister-in-law, Joan Didion; the celebrity who “discovered” him as a writer, Tina Brown; and that famous celebrity stalker, Vanity Fair-editor Graydon Carter.

What makes the documentary work so well, however, is Dunne himself. Still active and with his wits about him, he looks back on his life with less pride, it often seems, than with regret. His admissions of bad behavior range from funny to sorrowful. One of the most interesting of these involves the tale of Ash Wednesday (the failed film about plastic surgery with Elizabeth Taylor and Henry Fonda, which Dunne produced), its “pseudonymically”-inclined screenwriter, uber-agent Sue Mengers and producer Robert Evans. Mr. Dunne behaves very badly here – and pays for it -- and one of the strengths of the film (and of the man) is that it (he) never tries to excuse this behavior -- nor even apologize for it. He sees it, in retrospect, as something unpleasant but simply part and parcel of the “milieu,” as Ms Smith might say.

Over the 80 minutes we spend with the fellow, we watch him not simply aging, but growing. Probably the most moving part of the film is his recollections of the last days of his late ex-wife (the two remained close until the end). His coverage of the murder trials of the rich and famous – from that of his own daughter (who was murdered by her stalking ex-boyfriend) to OJ’s and Phil Spector’s – provide much of the film’s meat, while exploring Dunne’s aversion to the behavior of celebrities, and what their status and wealth allows them to get away with.

For first-timers, documentarians Kirsty de Garis and Timothy Jolley have done a bang-up job in putting together their many details into a fascinating, cohesive whole. I’ll look forward to seeing whatever they next attempt. As for Mr. Dunne, because this fine film delves so well beneath that cloak of celebrity, I am now more inclined to crack open one of his books.