The Kid Stays in the Picture 3 ½ stars ( R )

Reviewed By Cathy Edsey Collins

A Hollywood mogul speaks and speaks and speaks…

30 Second Bottom Line: This hugely entertaining documentary turns the genre on its ear as it explores the rise and fall of wunderkind Paramount Studios producer Robert Evans.

So begins this most unusual documentary. Different in that it is totally told from Evans' point of view, narrated by Evans and based on his 1994 book of the same name. No varying views are offered, only Evans' often hilarious, biting take on the incredible life he has lived. Not exactly ethical journalism but riveting from start to finish.

Born in 1930, Evan knocked about for awhile, the son of a successful Harlem dentist, and eventually worked for his brother's booming women's clothing company, Evan-Picone.

An astonishingly handsome man, Evans caught the eye of actress Norma Shearer at the Beverly Hills Hotel and she convinced the studio to cast the wannabe actor as her late husband, producer Irving Thalberg in "A Man of a Thousand Faces." But it was the furor over his role as the matador in "The Sun Also Rises" that shone the spotlight on this admittedly mediocre actor. Author Hemingway, Tyrone Power and Ava Gardner all signed a threatening letter demanding that Evans be removed from the cast. Director Henry King announced to the entire cast and crew that "The kid stays in the picture!" At that moment, Evans confesses he wanted to be the man with that kind of power.

Evans pokes fun at his limited acting ability (Scenes from "The Fiend Who Walked the West" are glimpsed and prove impossibly horrid.) and sets his sights on purchasing property and producing films.

In a catapult that can only be described as meteoric, Evans rose from lowly player to head of production at Paramount. In the late 60's his contribution to film history was mammoth. "Rosemary's Baby," "Love Story," "The Godfather," "Chinatown," "Urban Cowboy," "Marathon Man," "The Odd Couple," "Serpico"¾these classic award-winners were created under Evans' reign.

A marriage to model/star Ali Mc Graw, numerous Academy Awards, friendships with powerhouses like Henry Kissinger¾ah, yes these were heady times for Evans and he describes all of these tidbits with enormous glee, sometimes recreating dialogue, complete with accents.

Indeed, the whole story is told with such cleverness, it is positively riveting, no ordinary talking heads competing for attention in some arcane interview. Here photos come to life as they bob across the screen; newspaper headlines weave eerily in and out of focus. The inanimate comes to life, cut out, re-pasted and put in motion in a style that Ken Burns should envy.

Perpetually tan, impeccably groomed and always sporting his trademark over-sized glasses, Evans owned Hollywood in the 70's. But true to the old adage "the bigger they are, the harder they fall," Evans' luck ran dry in the early 1980's, with a cocaine bust and the subsequent scandal of the murder of one of his business associates. Though never charged with the crime, Evans' career was washed up as a result of this "Cotton Club" smear. Today, Evans is older, wiser-still tan, on the comeback road with several irons in the fire, most notably this cunning documentary that rocked the screen at Sundance.

"The Kid Stays in the Picture" is an egotistical, one-sided romp through a mogul's memories; it grabs the viewer and never lets go. Clearly, Evans knows the value of a good story.