Act One

1963 Directed by Dore Schary

This autobiographical story traces the career of playwright Moss Hart. Moss struggles as a dramatic writer until he concentrates his efforts on writing comedy. He suffers through a series of professional and romantic failures before a meeting with George S. Kaufman which changes his fortunes.

George Hamilton Jason Robards Jack Klugman Sam Levene Ruth Ford Eli Wallach Joseph Leon George Segal Sam Groom Sammy Smith Louise Larabee David Doyle Jonathan Goldsmith Bert Convy Earl Montgomery Drummond Erskine Kenneth Mars Roger C. Carmel Janet Fox Sylvie Strause Martin Wolfson

110 mins More details at IMDb TMDb Report this film

Popular reviews

Review by David Pousak ★★½

Unfortunately comes across as campy rather than serious, but there are some solid performances despite that.
Review by Paul Anthony Johnson ★★

So earnest and broadly eager to please it almost rises to the level of camp, but ultimately its middlebrow notions of theatrical excellence and complete lack of style or sense of its period just make it a dull expression of yesterday's nostalgia, with George Hamilton comically maladroit as a young and on-the-go Moss Hart.
Review by omalleyg ★★

Les débuts de Moss Hart à broadway.

Recent reviews

Review by Ben Schwartz ★

Bert Convy plays Cary Grant, just to show you how wrong this movie is.
Two things this biopic about playwright Moss Hart captures very well are waiting for people to make a decision about your script and then listening to people who don't want your script tell you why they don't want it.
Eli Wallach is a good Jed Harris (I forget the name they gave him here for legal reasons) and George Segal is brutally cringy as Lester Sweyd, Hart's frenemy, who helps Hart hook up with the biggest producer on Broadway, and then dies inside as Hart succeeds phenomenally.
Otherwise, Oscar-winning screenwriter and former MGM boss Dore Schary's one movie as director is pretty inept. He knew Hart…
Review by David Pousak ★★½

Unfortunately comes across as campy rather than serious, but there are some solid performances despite that.
Review by Paul Anthony Johnson ★★

So earnest and broadly eager to please it almost rises to the level of camp, but ultimately its middlebrow notions of theatrical excellence and complete lack of style or sense of its period just make it a dull expression of yesterday's nostalgia, with George Hamilton comically maladroit as a young and on-the-go Moss Hart.
Review by Connie ★★

This movie was so boring but Jason was also hot in a dorky way
Review by omalleyg ★★

Les débuts de Moss Hart à broadway.
Review by Gregory Wood ★★★

good bio-pic about song writer moss hart and vehicle for george hamilton
Review by Joe ★★★★

Did "Once in a Lifetime" in high school. Didn't realize this was about that. Have the book and definitely want to read, and glad they will be televising a performance of the play.
Review by J. Crawford ★★★★

A compelling movie that tells the story of playwright Moss Hart. I caught this on TCM. I remember my parents talking about this film when I was a boy.
Review by William B. ★½

I read Act One many years ago and remember really liking it. It was the first, in what I believe Moss Hart intended to be a never completed, multi-book autobiography. This was an interesting to watch; a few fine (or at least good) actors who would go on to have long careers in movies and/or TV: George Segal, Jack Klugman, David Doyle, Bert Convey (really!?), as well as a couple well established ones: Eli Wallach and Jason Robards who is especially good as George S. Kaufman. Sadly, I couldn't get past what was the badly miscast lead, George Hamilton as Moss Hart. I just couldn't buy him in this role.