I felt like I had been transported back to those times. Everything was so graphic and believable.******************************************************************************

This was an interesting story about the early film industry during the change from silent films to talkies. The writing captured the tension of a changing era well, and overall I found it to be a thoughtful and engaging read.

I received this book from NetGalley. Thank you Glenn R. Miller. All opinions are my own.

“Rough Cuts” intrigued me with its premise: At the tail-end of the silent movie era, a director is making his last film before he retires, and he hopes to make it a worthy legacy. But first he’ll have to get his swan song past Ohio’s state review board – which has fallen under the control of a show-boating young minister who wants to make a name for himself by riling people with his calls for censorship.

The director, Patrick J. Shepard, is flawed but likeable, with a good career behind him … but he wonders if it’s good enough. And, poignantly, he’s dying, although his cast and co-workers don’t know that. Under that hidden pressure, Shepard tries too hard; at one point, a loyal colleague tells him he’s not getting the performance he wants from his lead actress because he’s over-directing her.

The minister, Harold Dawdry, was more problematic for me. Young and ambitious, he serves under an aging senior pastor, and he’s itching to make a bigger impact. But it’s difficult to imagine why our rookie chose his line of work, as he shows so much contempt for his parishioners and just about everyone else around him. I wouldn’t think a freshly-ordained minister would be such a cynical misanthrope. But when the senior pastor hands off the Ohio review board assignment to Dawdry, the young clergyman starts previewing movies … and his mouth begins to water. He decides that stirring up moral outrage over Hollywood’s decadence is just the thing to spice up his sermons.

It’s a great set-up, although the first half of the book lags a bit. Shepard’s half of the story spends a lot of time on a couple of subplots involving the movie’s cast. We get some glimpses into the director’s long history and quiet internal struggles, but I would have liked to spend more time with him. Meanwhile, in Ohio, Reverend Dawdry is full of himself and caught up in literal theatrics. He has it both ways by directing members of his congregation to re-enact some of the “objectionable” material that he’s ordering Hollywood to take out of films. Clearly, both the reverend and the congregation are loving these scandalous scenes. This is amusing, but it’s a lot of “more of the same,” and he’s still a one-note character.

Eventually, of course, these worlds have to collide. For me, this is where the story finds its stride. When Reverend Dawdry previews Shepard’s last film, he sends vigorous objections to the state review board – which threatens the movie’s distribution not only to Ohio, but many important surrounding states.

To save his final labor of love, Shepard takes his small cast to Ohio to confront the enemy. From here, the story builds to a heartfelt, satisfying payoff. While the storytelling could have been tighter for this reader, I truly ended up loving the story.

NOTE: Thanks to Koehler Books for providing this book for review consideration via NetGalley. All opinions are my own.