THE ORIGINAL SIN: A Self-Portrait

by Anthony Quinn ‧ RELEASE DATE: Oct. 9, 1972

For those who find Anthony Quinn muy macho -- the image might even be heightened by this hard-fighting, hard-fought and Gut Sincere story of his life from the time when, at the height of his success, he leaves a Broadway stage crying all is ""vanity and vexation of spirit."" During the sessions to follow with a psychiatrist -- a very kind, low-keyed psychiatrist -- he brings back or rather up all those festering scenes of his past along with ""the boy,"" the never satisfied boy with the twisted smile of his father, who has dogged him constantly along with some other ""fucking ghosts."" Thus his mixed Irish-Mexican-Indian dirt-poor background right out of the 1915 revolution which his mother fled to keep herself and him taking in laundry in El Paso; and the father he has to kill off for good during this process; and his feelings for his mother which will be partly replicated in two experiences with older women (although he walked away from Mae West); and his start in films with de Mille where he met Katherine, who became his wife and mothered his five children but always left him with one unresolved problem (Quinn is one of those destructive competitors with a streak of both mysticism and idealism); and finally at the end, the necessary disposition of that troublesome boy. No one can reproach him lack of earnest candor; would that it were not so vehement and there's none of the bubbly tittletattle with which David Niven charmed a more predictable audience.

Pub Date: Oct. 9, 1972

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: Little, Brown

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 1972

Categories: NONFICTION