Friday, April 6, 2007
Film Clifford Irving and the Watergate break-in
Posted by Jonathan Rosenbaum on Fri, Apr 6, 2007 at 5:11 PM
My friend Mark Rappaport, a filmmaker and writer now based in Paris, has responded to my long review of The Hoax in this week's Reader with some demurrals about my assertion that "the movie's most outrageous claim" is "that the [Clifford Irving] hoax somehow led to the Watergate break-in." He also has a few demurrals about his demurrals, which I'll cite first: "I'm not really sure I got all the facts right. There seem to be a lot of them crammed into a very small space." But since Mark seems to know a lot more about the Watergate back story than I do, I'll turn next to his first email:
"No, it is not an outrageous claim that Howard Hughes was at the center of the Watergate break-in.
"Howard Hughes had given, not lent, I don't think, Nixon's brother either $100,000 or $50,000 (both of which were considered a vast amount of money in the 50s and 60s). I don't think it was ever returned. He also gave Nixon $50,000 which Nixon, almost as paranoid as Hughes, gave to Bebe Rebozo to hold in his safe. Nixon couldn't return the money and was terrified that this information would come out.
"Also, Larry O'Brien was the head of the Democratic National Committee. Larry O'Brien had been Hughes's publicist and/or right hand man for years and knew where all the bodies were buried. Nixon, being even crazier than Hughes, just had to know what O'Brien had on him. I do believe that's the correct Watergate story, although no one talks about it because the details are so complicated and insane.
"Knowing a little about all the nuts involved, I don't think this is all that far-fetched."
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What's Mark Rapaport been up to lately, filmwise? Is there any possibility of his early films coming out on dvd? If I had to I'd settle for just The Scenic Route and Local Color, although if I was being greedy I'd ask that Jean Seberg become available again too.
Mark has been writing a good many stories and essays lately, some of which you can find in English in such places as www.rouge.com.au (including the current issue) and Film Quarterly; others have been appearing in French translation in Trafic and Cinema. He hasn't made any more films since Color Me Lavender (which I notice is still readily available on DVD, in addition to Rock Hudson's Home Movies; some of the others can occasionally be found on VHS, but in many cases it seems, after checking Amazon, that they're already becoming collector's items). I agree that DVD editions of the others are long overdue, and suspect it's only a matter of time before some enterprising label starts to issue them.
i'm not sure i really care if the film is factually correct with all of the details. I'd much rather see an interesting story then get bogged down in factual details. Of course the filmakers really ask for it when they put that inane "based on a true story" in front of the credits.
The Hughes connection is not so far-fetched. Do a little reading on the Glomar Explorer, the Checkers Speech, and Hughes' testimony before Congress. Also read the last chapter of Hunter Thompson's Fear and Loathing on the Campaign Trail 1972, which features Larry O'Brien.
I just love it when people argue and bicker about things they could not know about.
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