If you'd rather place an order by talking to one of our cheerful order desk clerks, please call 1-888-232-4444 (USA and Canada only) or 250-383-6864. From Europe, ring our UK order desk clerk at local rate number 0845 230 9601 (UK only) or 44 (0)1865 722 113.

Last Tango With Marlon: A novella

by Fletcher Rhoden

76 pages; quality trade paperback (softcover); catalogue #07-2958; ISBN 1-4251-5265-1; US$11.99, C$11.99, EUR8.19, £6.19

In 1974, screen legend Marlon Brando shares memories and mind games with his best friend, actor Wally Cox, who died over a year before.

About the Book

In 1974, screen legend Marlon Brando has made a dramatic return to form with The Godfather and Last Tango In Paris. But his family life is crumbling and his sanity begins to slip away. Only an imagined dialogue with his best friend, actor Wally Cox, can soothe the troubled actor and help him pull back from the brink of self-destruction. Cox, who died over a year before, is the perfect foil for Brando's drunken self-pity. Marlon and Wally relive memories of their Illinois childhood and their years sharing an apartment in 1950's New York. They discuss and dissect the dilapidation of their friendship in the '60's and '70's, as well as each man's career highs and lows. Politics and pop culture are touched upon as Marlon conjures another of their famously animated conversations. Ultimately, the great actor cannot escape facing his own lesser instincts and taking responsibility for the repeated cycles of destructive behavior in his family line. He must also face the harrowing prospect of what is to come for his children if he cannot change his ways. Last Tango With Marlon is a fast, funny, furious exchange that runs the gamut of human emotion and experience from the acclaimed writer of The Trial Of Davy Crockett.

About the Author

In the spring of 2008, Fletcher Rhoden directed the premiere run of the stage play in two acts, Last Tango With Marlon. Fletcher Rhoden ( www.Fletcher Rhoden.com) is an acclaimed author/illustrator (The Trial Of Davy Crockett, Trafford), produced playwright/director (Soul Cancer), festival veteran short subject writer/director (The Christopher Walken Ecstatic Dance Academy), creator of popular animated short subjects (Rabbit In The Moon) and children's programing (Balloonzee), songwriter and performer (I Love You, Now Change), radio producer and on-air personality (The Mighty Three), extended solo exhibition painter (Fletcher Rhoden Sleeps With The Fishes) and muralist (Kenmore Island). Fletcher Rhoden has screenplays and unpublished novels available to publishers and producers. Contact Lew Weitzman, PREFERRED ARTISTS.

Reviews

Bravissimo! I swear this was one enjoyable read!

Fletcher Rhoden*s Last Tango with Marlon was entertaining and enlightening. When I read this book I not only felt that Fletcher knew these two men but that he knew them well.

The book opens with Marlon on the telephone trying to make arrangements to star in a film about the Dee Brown classic Bury my Heart at Wounded Knee. It is at this point where he first evokes the ghost of his childhood friend, fellow actor, Wally Cox.

The entire novella is a dialogue between Wally Cox and Marlon Brando about their highs and lows, their triumphs and defeats. I can certainly tell that the background research on both men was lengthy and thorough. The dialogue throughout is exceptionally believable. I didn*t know much about Wally Cox before but after reading the book I found some clips of him on YouTube and could see that character in Rhoden*s Last Tangon with Marlon was indeed a true to life portrayal. Wally Cox was just as I imagined him to be.

And the character for Marlon Brando was very telling as well. With Wally he wore his short comings on his sleeve and Wally obliged the same. We learn at least what we imagine to be their deepest secrets and was also learned of their long standing regard for one another. And though Wally is just a ghost, like in the Dickens tale, he leaves Marlon Brando with the message that as bad as Brando may have mucked up his life, especially with his children, he can still change. The ball is in his court*.

How true!

This short book is amazingly well written and henceforth I will read anything of Fletcher Rhoden*s that I get a chance to.

Gary Dale
BookPleasures.com

Marlon Brando and Wally Cox were boyhood friends back in Evanston, Illinois. They remained close for the rest of their lives, most of which were spent in Hollywood, where Brando became rich and famous for his film work, Cox somewhat less so for his TV accomplishments (Mr. Peepers, Hollywood Squares). Their intense and revealing relationship was the subject of a recent stage play, Last Tango With Marlon, which was done in L.A. in this year. Written and directed by Fletcher Rhoden with Frank Cavestani starring as Brando, Raf Mauro as Cox, the hour-long drama is set in 1974. Brando's flagging career has been revitalized by his startling performances in The Godfather and Last Tango In Paris, but these triumphs haven't served to slay the actor's personal demons. Deeply unhappy, drinking to excess, on the verge of a nervbous breakdown, Brando summons up the ghost of his recently deceased friend Cox, who then proceeds to try and save Brando from self-destructing. Alternately lecturing, then babying Brando, Cox begins to bring his friend around. They share memories of their unhappy childhoods (parental abuse and disapproval), their struggles in show business. Soon the two of them are joking and clowning around, performing favorite song and dance routines, investigating the highs and lows of their personal lives. Mauro and Cavestani are a marvelous team; each brings his character to life with flair and fire, capturing the many sides of Brando and Cox with impressive skill. Working together effortlessly, like an old vaudeville team, they make Last Tango With Marlon a theatrical dance to remember.

Willard Manus
What's Up magazine, Aug. 2008

Fletcher Rhoden has written a fascinating play about the unlikely friendship between Wally Cox and Marlon Brando, and it's fast-moving and full of interesting tidbits.

Veteran actors Frank Cavestani as Marlon, and Raf Mauro as Wally, resemble only slightly their famous counterparts, but they make it work. There's Frank as a heavy Marlon, complete with his familiar high-pitched and halting delivery, and then there's Raf, as the short, bespectacled Wally, who is intensely comedic. Marlon, aware of his being fat, and distanced from Tahiti, his children, and good roles, is not in the best frame of mind, but is happier when Wally comes back from the dead after one year. The play opens with Marlon talking to Wally's ashes.

Rhoden's meticulous research gives the audience insight into their relationship. They knew each other from childhood on, both of their mothers were drunks, and Marlon's father was cruel and abusive. Beyond the family connection, they were connected both intellectually and emotionally. During the 1 1/2 hour play, they match wits and act out a few scenes from Marlon's movies, such as Viva Zapata, taking on different accents for whomever they're portraying, and The Last Tango in Paris, where Marlon felt uncomfortably exposed. In fact, Marlon wanted to be a comedian like Wally, who shined in the TV classic game show, Hollywood Squares.

In one scene, Marlon plays the ukulele adeptly, and sings with Wally the Irving Berlin song, Mr. Jazz Himself, and later, St. James Infirmary.

In addition to directing, [Rhoden] handled the sound effects like a pro.

Beth Temkin
The Tolucan Times, February 06, 2008

Though not obscure, Wally Cox is certainly less well remembered than his childhood friend and perennial buddy, Marlon Brando. In Fletcher Rhoden's new play, set in Brando's study in 1974, Cox returns from the grave to visit his aging friend who, with a gun on his desk, may be contemplating suicide.

The two recall professional ups and downs, neglected children and abusive parents. Rhoden makes the case that childhood traumas are responsible for everything else. The first act climaxes with Brando asking Cox if he committed suicide.

The dialogue is leavened with duets, fake football games and the kind of horseplay they indulged in as kids. They deny tabloid rumors of homosexuality.

Frank Cavestani has the difficult task of representing the well-known Brando. Though he has the look, the bloated handsomeness and the mannerisms, he's still growing into the part. We're looking for the gravitas and mischievousness that Brando retained even into his final interview on the Larry King show.

The play is brightened by the deliciously funny Raf Mauro as Cox, who, with exquisite comic timing, makes us understand why Brando hated to see him go.

Performed on a nearly bare stage, this ghost play's eeriest moment comes at the end when Brando is alone, a knock comes at the door and a voice says, "Dad, it's Christian." The actor's son Christian Brando died last week and it's too bad he couldn't get to see his father's pain expressed here one last time.

UpCurtain.com
Feb. 4, 2008

A funny and touching play is playing in the amiable church basement at Prospect and Rodney known as the Mt. Hollywood Theater: Last Tango with Marlon. Written by Fletcher Rhoden, who knew more than a few of those Hollywood Squares as a kid, and draws from some of that too. Raf Mauro as the ghost of Wally Cox is a constant delight. Notable aside at wikipedia: "Cox and Brando remained very close friends for the rest of Cox's life, and Brando is reported to have kept Cox's ashes in his bedroom and conversed with them nightly." Bet you didn't recall that Wally Cox and Marlon Brando were childhood friends, and maintained the friendship all the way up until Cox's death in the early 1970's. Brando's ashes were ultimately scattered with Cox's.

Joseph Mailander
Mayorsam.blogspot.com

Excerpts