Lawrence Tierney: Hollywood’s Real-Life Tough Guy

Journalist Kearns (Tabloid Baby) delivers a hard-boiled if somewhat off-balance biography of movie tough guy Lawrence Tierney (1919–2002). Kearns tracks Tierney’s long and tumultuous career, which was bookended by his 1945 breakout role starring in Dillinger (a film so successful that it “machine-gunned box office records”) and a role in Quentin Tarantino’s directorial debut, Reservoir Dogs. Tierney had a few successes after Dillinger, among them the Oscar-winning The Greatest Show on Earth, but more notable were the roles he was considered for but ultimately lost (as Moses in a biblical epic and a spot in On the Waterfront). Kearns mostly focuses on his subject’s rough-and-tumble lifestyle, in which he played “the hard-drinking tough guy in real life” and was once stabbed in the stomach during a fight. Kearns outlines his reputation in the industry for alcoholism and brushes with the law, making for a moving look at a figure whose anger, temper, and mental illness got in the way of his talent. This portrait of a man who “could have been a star” is a nice departure from the traditional Hollywood rags to riches story. (Nov.)