When Lillian Ross, a New York journalist, heard that John Huston was planning to make a film of Stephen Crane's The Red Badge of Courage, she resolved to follow the film's progress in order to learn about the American cinema industry. In the spring of 1950 Huston visited New York and called the young writer to say that progress was not smooth. Ross's account first appeared as a serial in The New Yorker and was subsequently published in book form in 1952. It presents a portrait of how the making of a major film, based on an American classic and directed by a leading director, was hindered by the inadequacies of studio heads.