I was fascinated to find out that Sal Mineo tried to option William Maxwell's The Folded Leaf as a film, and while in England trying to put together a film treatment for a pulp novel about hustlers, tried to get Edna O'Brien for the screenplay. Through their representatives, both Maxwell and O'Brien declined Mineo. I wanted to like this book more, as I've long been intrigued by Sal Mineo as a later day glbtq film icon and of his time screen idol that sunk into tragic mediocrity. This was forced by Hollywood typecasting/racism, financial incompetence, and Mineo's unwillingness to compromise his sexuality in certain aspects, but he had an unending drive to rise again and make what he saw as art. At varying times the biography was lacking the psychological theorizing depth that made Bosworth's Montgomery Clift great. Much of Mineo's earlier years is a rote listing of his life and film making. Only when Jill Haworth and then Courney Burr III enter with their personal recollections, as the two most prominent relationships in Sal Mineo's life (as I assume Mineo's surviving family did not contribute, as they are not depicted in an exceedingly great light in the later years of Sal's sexually open life), does the book pick up. The main difficulty may not quite be the author's fault alone, as Mineo was simultaneously a gregariously, casually open person on some things (acting craft, sex, filming experiences, sex) but still very guarded on his own inner emotions, encompassing his personal statements within a breezy, life is a thrill! sheen. With such a self guard up, we see a many facet portrait of Sal Mineo: a skilled young actor who took crap acting jobs in later years to maintain a ridiculously spendthrift life style, while remaining dedicated to personal projects of an artistic vision, that unfortunately often melded again and again with the limited theme of renegade sexuality that he loved exploring in his own life. The strangest sadness is if Sal Mineo had been born decades later, he would have been the same great actor/screen idol and heralded for his riskier projects and open sexuality. I was very disappointed with this book for several reasons. When it first came out - it was on my 'to read' least for sometime until I finally purchased it...had been looking forward to it. But - it did not live up to my hopes. First - it's just not written very well. It's another book of so many that think they need to get EVERY boring detail in and none of the heart or storytelling. The book has very little feeling..just stale reporting. And on top of that...it's hard to realize someone you liked for knowing a little about...turns to someone you dislike when you know too much about them. I'm not sure I would have like Sal much as a person - seemed rather mixed up and just not very nice or smart, really...not what I expected at all...and not really a very good or interesting read.
What do You think about Sal Mineo: A Biography (2010)?
I've read scores of movie star bios over the decades. this is one of the best.
—jia78
thanks goodreads for the complimentary book! Well-written and fascinating!
—tdrizzy
Only for guys liked me who had a crush on him in the 50s.
—danieliti
