Peter Viertel Black Heart", which was made into a film starring Clint Eastwood in 1990. It is a thinly-disguised account of Viertel's experiences working with film director John Huston while they were making "The African Queen". The central character is scriptwriter Pete Verrill while the Huston character is called John Wilson. Film critic Pauline Kael wrote in 1999 that "White Hunter" was “still the best Hollywood novel I’ve ever come across — and it isn’t even set in Hollywood.” Viertel's opinion of the finished film was tempered by his idea that Huston himself would have preferred a portrayal with more sarcasm. Viertel's
Clint Eastwood in the 1990s murderer Frank Beechum (played by Isaiah Washington) execution. The film was a box office bomb domestically and Eastwood's worst performing film during the 1990s. Later in 1990 Eastwood directed and co-starred with Charlie Sheen in "The Rookie", a buddy cop action film. Critics found the macho jiving between Eastwood and Sheen unconvincing and scenario improbable, and believed that many of the actors were miscast. In 1991, for the third time in his career, Eastwood didn't appear in or direct any films. Instead he was a defendant in a lawsuit after he rammed a woman's car while backing out of his