| Blues legend Bessie Smith. Novelist William Faulkner. Artist Man Ray. They’re just a few of the people that filmmaker Dudley Murphy collaborated with in the course of his idiosyncratic career. Swerving in and out of Hollywood, Murphy ricocheted from the avant-garde Ballet mécanique—one of the first films to be considered a work of art—to studio hack jobs like Confessions of a Co-Ed to the tenacious independence of The Emperor Jones.
Murphy could always be found at the center of the cultural scene—Greenwich Village when it was bohemian, Jazz-Age Paris, Hollywood in its golden era, Harlem at the height of its renaissance. Part adventure hero, part slapstick comedian, part techno-geek, part playboy, he was a complete visionary with a directing style that was decades ahead of its time.
Dudley Murphy, Hollywood Wild Card is his story. |
