John Mulholland (director)

John Mulholland is an American filmmaker, writer, and film historian. Born in New York City, he has worked primarily on documentaries concerning classic Hollywood, American film history, literary figures, and the cultural history of motion pictures. Lit Hub describes Mulholland as "a film historian and an American writer and director, specializing in documentaries," and identifies him as director of Cooper & Hemingway: The True Gen, Inside High Noon, and Elmore Leonard: But Don't Try to Write. His later documentaries also include Sergeant York: Of God and Country.

Mulhullond on CUNY TV's City Cinematheque, 2003

Career

Early documentary work

Mulholland entered documentary filmmaking in the early 1980s through the ARTS Network, described by HuffPost as an ABC cable channel before it became A&E. In a 2017 profile, Mulholland said he had been working as a journalist for a trade magazine when Curtis Davis, formerly head of production at NET before it became PBS, brought him in to write and direct documentaries for ARTS.

His early documentary subjects include Vincent van Gogh, Eastern European composers, Charles Dickens, and Macbeth. The Letters Of Vincent Van Gogh And Theo Van Gogh is narrated by Leonard Nimoy, On Macbeth by Estelle Parsons, and Eastern European Composers by Jack Palance. HuffPost specifically mentions The Letters Of Vincent Van Gogh And Theo Van Gogh and describes his ARTS work as ranging from Eastern European composers to Charles Dickens and "the real drama behind Macbeth."

Other documentaries include Liza Minnelli Reflecting, discussing her father Vincente Minnelli and mother Judy Garland working on the film Meet Me in St. Louis; Reflections on Gaslight with Angela Lansbury; and As Time Goes By, about the making of Casablanca.

Inside High Noon

Mulholland wrote and directed Inside High Noon, a documentary about the 1952 Western High Noon and the political circumstances surrounding its production. The documentary examines the film's connection to the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC), the Hollywood blacklist, and screenwriter Carl Foreman, whose refusal to cooperate with investigators led to his blacklisting and exile from Hollywood. The film also explores actor Gary Cooper's decision to remain committed to the project amid mounting political pressure.

The Matthew Rhys-narrated version of Inside High Noon includes on-camera participants President Bill Clinton, Albert II, Prince of Monaco, Jonathan Foreman, Tim Zinnemann, Gary Cooper's daughter Maria Cooper Janis, Brian Garfield, Lee Clark Mitchell, Stephen Prince, and M. Z. Ribalow. The documentary was presented on PBS and listed by PBS America in the United Kingdom.

The American Society of Cinematographers described it as "an excellent 49-minute examination of the film's production history, cultural legacy and political subtext."

Mulholland appeared on WNYC's The Leonard Lopate Show with Maria Cooper Janis, Gary Cooper's daughter, and Jonathan Foreman, son of High Noon screenwriter Carl Foreman, to discuss the film.

KPBS describes the film as exploring the 1952 Western starring Gary Cooper, Grace Kelly, Lloyd Bridges, and Katy Jurado, and "the gripping story behind its troubled production."

KPBS also states that Inside High Noon explores the film's relationship to the House Un-American Activities Committee, the blacklisting of screenwriter Carl Foreman and cinematographer Floyd Crosby, and later controversies surrounding the film's treatment of masculinity, women, and civic responsibility.

NorthJersey.com reported that Inside High Noon, directed by Mulholland, would debut on PBS in April and was already available for streaming. The article described the film's focus on Gary Cooper, screenwriter Carl Foreman, the House Un-American Activities Committee, and the McCarthy-era pressures surrounding the production of High Noon.

PBS America describes Inside High Noon as a documentary exploring the 1952 film starring Gary Cooper and Grace Kelly and the story behind its troubled production.

Sergeant York: Of God and Country

Mulholland wrote and directed Sergeant York: Of God and Country, a documentary about the making of the 1941 film Sergeant York. Gary Cooper portrayed World War I soldier Alvin C. York. The documentary is narrated by Liam Neeson, with on-camera participants Joan Leslie, June Lockhart, Michael Birdwell, M. Z. Ribalow, Maria Cooper Janis, and film historian Robert Osborne.

MODA Productions lists the film as running 38 minutes and 55 seconds and describes it as combining movie clips, archival materials, and interviews.

The documentary examines how York's story was brought to the screen, including the film's casting, script development, performances, production problems, and historical context. It also addresses the political environment in the United States before American entry into the Second World War, including isolationism, anti-Semitism, and the war in Europe.

The official documentary site identifies Mulholland as writer-director and Liam Neeson as narrator.

Interview subjects include authors Michael Birdwell and M. Z. Ribalow, actors Joan Leslie and June Lockhart, Gary Cooper's daughter Maria Cooper, and film historian Robert Osborne.

The documentary was included with the Warner Home Video DVD release of Sergeant York, which DVD Talk / DVD Savant identified as including Sergeant York: Of God and Country as a new making-of documentary on the second disc.

Mulholland appeared on C-SPAN's American History TV program Sergeant York, the Man and the Movie, where he discussed Alvin York and the 1941 film.

Cooper & Hemingway: The True Gen

John Mulholland wrote and directed the feature documentary Cooper & Hemingway: The True Gen about the 20-year friendship between actor Gary Cooper and writer Ernest Hemingway.

The project was publicly presented before its later theatrical release. The Times-News of Twin Falls, Idaho reported that the world premiere of Mulholland's two-hour film would open the second annual Ernest Hemingway Festival at the Sun Valley Opera House. The article described the title phrase "true gen" as a Hemingway expression used to separate "the phonies from real men," and called it "the perfect title" for a documentary about Cooper and Hemingway's 20-year friendship.

The John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum hosted a Kennedy Library Forum titled "The True Gen," where Mulholland and Patrick Hemingway, Ernest Hemingway's son, discussed the documentary and showed selected excerpts. The library described the film as focusing on the close friendship between Ernest Hemingway and Gary Cooper and identified Mulholland as its director.

The film was also shown at the Sedona International Film Festival, where actress Mariel Hemingway, Ernest Hemingway's granddaughter, introduced the screening. In her remarks, she described the film as being about the friendship between her grandfather and Gary Cooper.

Cooper & Hemingway: The True Gen was released theatrically and opened in New York at Quad Cinema and later played in Southern California at Laemmle Playhouse 7. It is narrated by Sam Waterston, with Len Cariou as the voice of Hemingway. TV Guide lists the film as a 2013 documentary and identifies Waterston as narrator and Cariou as Hemingway. It describes the film as "an unprecedented look at the bond between two of the most iconic artists of the 20th century," noting that Cooper and Hemingway remained friends until their deaths seven weeks apart.

Mulholland is interviewed on CUNY TV's City Cinematheque with Patrick Hemingway and Maria Cooper Janis, 2002

The film's official credits identify Mulholland as writer-director. Credited on-camera interview subjects include Kirk Douglas, Charlton Heston, Patricia Neal, Robert Stack, Robert Osborne, Elmore Leonard, George Plimpton, Patrick Hemingway, and Maria Cooper Janis, among others.

The film was selected as a New York Times Critics' Pick. In his review for The New York Times, Andy Webster wrote that the film showed that "their work endures, and so does what they stood for." The documentary was also reviewed by Variety, the Los Angeles Times, and The Village Voice.

In an interview with Hollywood Soapbox, Mulholland said his interest in the subject began after encountering references to the Cooper-Hemingway friendship in Gary Cooper biographies and seeing Robert Capa photographs of the two men hunting in Sun Valley. He said the film's style was shaped by available photographs, footage, letters, interviews, and the challenge of presenting the relationship between a writer and an actor visually.

The film was later released as a special-edition Blu-ray. DoBlu reviewed the release, describing it as a 1080p release from Transmultimedia Entertainment with a second disc of special features, including audio commentary by John Mulholland, deleted scenes, production stills, a theatrical trailer, and additional interview footage. DVD Talk also reviewed the special-edition Blu-ray, noting that it was a two-disc release with feature-length commentary by John Mulholland, extended interviews, deleted scenes, a behind-the-scenes photo gallery, the theatrical trailer, and a folded 16-page newspaper-style booklet conceived by Mulholland containing articles, photographs, and reproduced reviews and advertisements related to Hemingway's writing and Cooper's films.

Elmore Leonard: But Don't Try to Write

Elmore Leonard: But Don't Try to Write is a documentary written and directed by John Mulholland about novelist and screenwriter Elmore Leonard. The documentary is narrated by Campbell Scott and premiered on public television stations in 2022. The documentary examines Leonard's career, body of work, writing process, and influence on later writers. The official film site states that the documentary explores Leonard's legacy and influence on generations of writers, includes previously unseen home-movie footage, family photographs, and interviews, and was distributed and presented by American Public Television beginning July 1, 2022.

The project was in development when BroadwayWorld reported that Mulholland and Richard Zampella had completed a week of Los Angeles interviews for the documentary. The interviews focused on Leonard's writing and on film and television adaptations of his work, including Get Shorty, Jackie Brown, Out of Sight, and Justified. BroadwayWorld identified several interview subjects for the documentary, including Gregg Sutter, Graham Yost, Rachel Howzell Hall, Wendy Calhoun, and Cheryl Dorsey.

The program aired on public television stations in the United States, including PBS SoCal, PBS Hawaiʻi, PBS Western Reserve, and Detroit PBS. PBS SoCal describes the documentary as an exploration of Leonard's career, body of work, and writing process, featuring previously unseen home movie footage, family photographs, and interviews with literary experts, colleagues, family members, and childhood friends. PBS Hawaiʻi listed a December 16, 2022 broadcast of the documentary, and Detroit PBS promoted a September 5, 2022 broadcast.

The documentary aired on PBS America in the United Kingdom, which describes it as "an exploration into the legacy and works of Elmore Leonard, one of the finest crime novelists of the past half-century."

Elmore Leonard: But Don't Try to Write screened at the Freep Film Festival in Detroit. The festival describes the documentary as exploring Leonard's legacy and influence on generations of writers, and notes that it features previously unseen home movie footage, family photographs, and interviews with literary experts and people who knew Leonard. The listing identifies Mulholland as the film's writer and director. After the screening, Detroit Free Press columnist M. L. Elrick spoke with Mulholland, Richard Zampella, and Peter Leonard, Elmore Leonard's son.

Writing

John Mulholland is the writer of several graphic novels. Colossal New York describes itself as an independent graphic novel publisher based in New York and lists High Riviera and After the Hell Is Over by John Mulholland among its graphic-novel titles.

Colossal New York describes High Riviera as a graphic novel by Mulholland set around Nice, Monaco, and Ajaccio. The publisher lists After the Hell Is Over as adapted from John Mulholland's biographical screenplay and inspired by Mulholland's documentary work on Hemingway and Gary Cooper.

Colossal New York also lists several forthcoming titles associated with Mulholland, including Tenderloin, Seven Against the House, The Trial of John Peter Zenger, Assault on the Eagle, Justice Be Done, The Ferry, and The Web, the last described as a graphic-novel adaptation based on a play by John Mulholland.

His official site has also announced Classic Film Chatter, a book series about film genres, with Politics in Film listed as an inaugural volume.

Selected writing

Colossal New York lists several graphic-novel titles associated with Mulholland.

• High Riviera
• After the Hell Is Over
• High Legend: Inside High Noon
• Tenderloin
• Seven Against the House
• The Trial of John Peter Zenger
• Assault on the Eagle
• Justice Be Done
• The Ferry
• The Web
• Classic Film Chatter: Politics in Film

ICONS Radio Hour

From 2007 to 2010, Mulholland hosted ICONS Radio Hour, a podcast devoted to classic Hollywood and film history. The program featured conversations with actors, historians, family members, and others connected to Hollywood's studio era and its legacy. Author and film historian Meir Z. Ribalow joined him on some episodes.

Shakespeare authorship question

Mulholland is listed by the Shakespeare Authorship Coalition as a signatory of the Declaration of Reasonable Doubt About the Identity of William Shakespeare, a statement associated with the Shakespeare authorship question.

Selected filmography

• The Letters Of Vincent Van Gogh And Theo Van Gogh
• On Macbeth
• Charles Dickens and A Christmas Carol
• Eastern European Composers
• The Lake Poets
• Liza Minnelli Reflecting
• Reflections on Gaslight
• As Time Goes By
• Inside High Noon
• Sergeant York: Of God and Country
• Cooper & Hemingway: The True Gen
• Inside High Noon Revisited
• Elmore Leonard: But Don't Try to Write

External links

• Official website
• John Mulholland at IMDb