Act One (film)

Act One is a 1963 American film starring George Hamilton, directed and screenwritten by Dore Schary. It is the film version of the autobiographical book Act One by playwright Moss Hart.

In 1929 young Brooklynite Moss Hart, influenced by the great playwrights, devotes his leisure time to writing for the theater. Failing in his aspirations, however, he accepts a job as social director in the Catskills and then stages plays at the YMHA in Newark. Eventually he takes the advice of agent Richard Maxwell and writes a comedy, Once in a Lifetime, which deals with the early days of Hollywood films, despite the fact that his knowledge of the movie industry is derived from the pages of Variety. After being subsidized by a friend, Joe Hyman, he sends the manuscript to producer Warren Stone, who promises a decision within a week. When months pass without any word, Harts friends sneak a copy of the play to Sam Harris, who agrees to produce it if George Kaufman will collaborate on the script and also direct. Although Kaufman consents, the Atlantic City opening is a failure, and he considers quitting until Hart comes up with an idea that both men feel will turn the play into a hit. It finally opens to rave reviews in New York City in September 1930, thus beginning the longlasting KaufmanHart collaboration.To promote the upcoming release of Act One, George Hamilton appeared on a September 1963 episode of Ive Got a Secret, a primetime game show in which a panel of celebrities attempted to discover the guests secret. Hamiltons secret? The actor identified as Hamilton and grilled by the panel who failed to guess his secret was that he was not actually Hamilton at all but instead a darkhaired handsome sortoflookalike pretending to be Hamilton. The real Hamilton showed up at the end of the spot and earned the admiration of panelist Henry Morgan who expressed astonishment that any performer of Hamiltons stature was secure enough to take part in a stunt which, in essence, pointed up the fact that he was unrecognizable to a quartet of supposedly intheknow celebrities. ........

Source: Wikipedia