Book Description

Moviegoers often assume Frank Capra's life resembled his beloved films: as in Mr. Smith Goes to Washington or It's a Wonderful Life, a man of the people faces tremendous odds and, by doing the right thing, triumphs. But as Joseph McBride reveals in this meticulously researched, definitive biography, the reality was far more complex, a true American tragedy. Using newly declassified U.S. government documents about Capra's response to being considered a "subversive" during the post-World War II Red Scare, McBride adds a final chapter to his unforgettable portrait of the man who gave us It Happened One Night, Mr. Deeds Goes to Town, and Meet John Doe. ... Read more

Reviews (8)

A Biography from a Prosecuting Attorney
This was a disappointment. I don't like everything that Capra made ("Platinum Blonde" and "You Can't Take It With You" do nothing for me)but this book proved too much to take. It reads like a legal brief against Capra by a prosecuting attorney. Every action Capra undertakes is wrong. Every success Capra enjoys is really the work of someone else.

Shortly after reading "Catastrophe of Success," I read "Christmas in July" by Diane Jacobs, a biography of Preston Sturges. It was the difference between night and day. Jacobs seemed to enjoy her subject, and while she noted Sturges' personal failings, she didn't dwell on them or harp on them. Instead she focused on the films and why they worked (or didn't). If only McBride had done the same.

"It was a horrible life"
This book is an unholy surprise for any Capra film lover picking it up and expecting to read a warm-hearted tome about the greatest director of 1930s Hollywood. The author hates Capra, and to be fair he makes his case really well. It is sort of like Frank Capra is a china shop and the author goes into him with a baseball bat and vast damage on his mind. Nothing is left unbroken, not even Capra's reputation as a maker of great movies. Much of the credit for those masterpieces is shifted to Robert Riskin. This doesn't even come close to the hit that Capra the man takes, especially with the revelation he named names to federal Commie seekers. Guys like that never get off easy these days. But the most fascinating aspect of the book is how Frank Capra -- the All-American movie maker -- was hounded to prove his patriotism. And nothing worked. No wonder Capra was left so exasperated and bitter. The only good thing is he didn't have to read this book.

Want revenge? Write a biography!
One gets the same feeling finishing Frank Capra's autobiography The Name Above the Title as one does finishing a Capra film: thrilled with the zigs and zags of life and optimistic about one's own future.

But following up The Name Above The Title with Catastrophe of Success is akin to washing down Thanksgiving dinner with a rotten-egg-and-sour-grape smoothie. McBride has tainted a seven year odyssey of painstakingly documented research (175 interviews! weeks with Capra's personal papers! archive searches! FOIA releases! federal declassifications!) with an animosity uncommon in academics, at once vilifying Capra and his father while portraying those who loved and associated with Capra as selfless victims of Capra's insecurities, inner torments, and anticommunist political convictions.

In reading McBride, one senses that behind it all, there exists an even better story than the one McBride has scratched out from the voluminous source material. Why did McBride seek to so vehemently deconstruct what he called "the Capra myth," and soil the dignity of Capra's image by using such tactics as only quoting those interview passages in which his subject used expletives, or subjectively interpreting Capra's blinks and nods in a This Is Your Life episode as queasy squirming in the face of some underlying "irony"?

Was it because Capra declined to direct a made-for-TV sequel to It's A Wonderful Life, one which McBride hints he may have been involved in on page 644 of the paperback edition? Did Capra at one point step on McBride's toes as had done with so many insufferable fools?

McBride's perseverant scholarship is self-evident, yet his shamefully slanted execution degrades the whole presentation, making the book unreadable except to Capra enemies and eternal sourpusses. Readers are advised to reserve a second helping of "legend" for after the egg-and-grape "truth" sauce.

Complexity is fascinating
I was captivated by this book from the very first page. (Read the first three paragraphs and see if you can put it down after that!) Frank Capra was a fascinating man, a man of contradictions, a man who could make great films and inspire the passionate loyalty seen in some of the other reviews below, yet who had a dark side to his personality that haunted his life. McBride is equal to the task of encompassing Capra's compexities. His writing is both detailed and flowing. Like any great biography, this book raises large questions of human life: What happens when worldly success outpaces our own inner sense of worth? What do we do as adults with the enduring wounds of childhood? To see how a well-known man struggles with such issues is one reason to read a book like this one. The panorama of Hollywood in the 20s, 30s, 40s, and 50s is another. Highly recommended.

Biased Attack on Capra
This book, though it does have much interesting detail, is essentially an attack on Frank Capra, with many dubious conclusions drawn, and is so unrelentingly negative and unfair that it at times borders on the ludicrous. The theory of the book is that Frank Capra was a pathlogical liar and unrelenting egotist, who used the talents of others to make his films and then tried to hog all the glory himself, culminating in his famous autobiography, "The Name Above the Title," which is a "self-aggrandizing fairy tale." Capra was essentially a front man for the brilliant work of screenwriter Robert Riskin, who is the main reason behind Capra's success. When you finish this book, however, you stop and say, "How did this pathetic fraud produce such a staggering array of classic films, in such a distinctive style, and in such a variety of genres (comedy, drama, documentary, and even educational films)?" None of McBride's conclusions makes the slightest bit of sense. One key flaw of the theory is that Capra's two greatest films, "It's a Wonderful Life" and "Mr. Smith Goes to Washington," were not written by Riskin. McBride attempts to answer this by saying that they "followed the Riskin formula," as if by watching a few Disney Classics we could each make one ourselves, simply by following the formula, as if any decent movie was ever made by a "formula." In actuality, the brilliant screenplay of "It's a Wonderful Life" bears little resemblance to anything written by Riskin, although Capra's directorial style is easily recognizable (his style is almost as easily identifiable as Hitchcock's). The fact that Capra made many great films without Riskin (The Strong Man, The Bitter Tea of General Yen, Arsenic and Old Lace, State of the Union, Why We Fight series, the Bell Science series, and the two classics mentioned above), while Riskin made none without Capra, though he was given the opportunity to direct his own material, should seem to be a telling blow.

If you read Capra's own book after reading this one, you will be surprised to discover no sense of rampaging ego, but the thoughts of a rather straightforward, idealistic, and often self-deprecating person. Capra did very little research for his own book, largely relying on his wife's scrapbooks and his own memory, and so there probably are some minor factual errors, but McBride jumps on every minute inconsistency, and if Capra says one thing and some obscure person says something contradictory, he immediately and annoyingly assumes Capra is lying and the other person is telling the truth.

As an example, Capra says in his book that he graduated high school a half year early. McBride pounces on this eagerly, and says that Capra graduated on time with his class. However, we learn that Capra graduated on January 27, and didn't start college until September, so it's very easy to see how he could remember that he graduated 6 months early when recalling the events 50 years later. Capra also then says he spent 6 months working at the Western Pipe and Steel Company to earn money for college. McBride pounces again, saying that Tony Capra claims that he was the one who worked there. Later McBride ruminates about "the mysterious missing 6 months" after Capra graduated High School and ponders what he could have done in that time. Gosh, could it be that Tony Capra is the one mistaken, and that Frank did work at the factory?-such a possibility would never occur to McBride.

McBride even somberly and absurdly quotes a certain Eugene Vale, who claims that he was the man who wrote most of "The Name of Above the Title" and that he "made" Capra, as if Capra's classic films don't speak for themselves. Capra's book is great because we get to hear Capra's own opinions on various aspects of his films, not because it's brilliantly written. We're all still awaiting with bated breath the next astonishing literary production from the great Eugene Vale.

It appears that McBride's animosity toward Capra is largely due to the fact that Capra was a Republican who believed in rugged individualism and conservative values, which seems to lead McBride to think that it was therefore impossible to care about his fellow man, and that surely there must be a liberal somewhere responsible for all these powerful films.

McBride claims he wrote the book because after World War II "no other Director had such a precipitous decline" as Capra. For the record, after World War II Capra made possibly the greatest movie of all time, an outstanding political comedy-drama, two mediocre remakes of his earlier films, an enjoyable musical comedy, a disappointing musical comedy, and 4 Educational films (Out Mr. Sun, etc.) that have been beloved by schoolkids everywhere for the past 45 years.

In conclusion, it's especially galling that shortly before his final, paralyzing stroke, the 87-year old Capra was gracious enough to grant McBride a number of interviews, and supply him with information (such as his military records), while McBride (no doubt acting as servile and ingratiating as possible) knew full well that he intended to do a vicious hatchet job on him the second he could no longer defend himself.

Watch the films, read "The Name Above the Title," and don't bother with this book ... Read more

Book Description

Reviews (3)

amazingly enjoyable
I found myself trapped in an airport beginning a longish flight and this book was the single semi-appealing book available; once I started reading I was again trapped by his self-deprecating and insightful wit. How difficult it must be to make a good movie if someone as thoughtful, intelligent and sensitive as this only succeeds a small part of the time.

An enjoyable book from the first with the added bonus of glimpses into the real lives of other artists and creators. I may be over-grateful because the book was much more than I expected or hoped - but I don't think so.

Lovely....and a bore
Although it begins with great lyrical promise, Boorman's memoir loses steam less than half way through and becomes a stale and plodding bore. I enjoyed the writing in description of his hope-and-glory childhood, and some wonderful stuff taken from the Emerald Forest diary, but otherwise I've rarely seen a Briton write such flat-footed prose. And I bought the book looking forward as much to the prose as to the stories Boorman might have to tell.

As for his stories, he has a few to tell, and you might enjoy them, but eventually they all begin to recount the disasters that seem to surround his filmmaking. I grew impatient with them, and with him. (Does he never learn from these things?) Further, unless you regard Lee Marvin with the same outsized fascination that Boorman does, you'll learn far, far more than you ever wanted to know about the man. It's too much.

I've always regarded Zardoz as shallow and sophomoric. Boorman's extended discussion of this film and its attendant off-screen disasters does nothing to raise my opinion. Boorman is, mostly, a would-be Deep Thinker. But "would-be" is the key and the film remains a silly embarrassment.

Boorman has written elsewhere about The Emerald forest, and he cheats the reader of this book out of a decent discussion of that film, particularly the critical and social response to it.

suburban boy
Boorman writes with great wit and humility about his career as a filmmaker, working his way up the ladder. He adds interesting stories about legends such as Lee marvin, Toshiro Mafuni, Neil Jordan, etc. He talks about the struggles of having his films made, and the fact that many filmakers ideas never make it to the screen. A very honest nad enlightening autobiography. ... Read more

Reviews (6)

Fascinating Guy, Fascinating Book
I'll tell you right off the top, I'm not a huge fan of Broadway musicals. Mostly I'm a fan of Fosse because of his films, which rank among my favorites. But regardless of any of that, Fosse's personality and his life make him a fascinating subject for biographical study.

Gottfried's book is heavily detailed, describing the events of Fosse's life, exploring his work and his personal realtionships, and really getting inside the man's head, all the while maintaining a very readable, and appropriately jazzy style. There's also enough quoted dialogue to keep the book flowing almost like a work of fiction.

A great read and an informative one. Highly recommended to fans of Fosse and his work, or those simply interested in one of the most intriguing of showbiz lives.

Pure Fun
Maybe I'm biased: I'm a shrink. I lived in New York in the early 80's. I knew some of the people mentioned in the book. But this was the most fun I've had reading since Letters from a Nut. Full of tidbits about a raft of celebrities. Another reviewer complained about the lack of pictures. Why stop there? We need all the films, too. Must watch All That Jazz again ASAP, AND try to get my hands on Sweet Charity and Cabaret. A great ride!

Jazzed out!
The book is very thorough and does give a very accurate blow by blow description of every moment in Bob Fosse's life. If you love the man and want to relive his life for him, read this book. On the other hand, if you are trying to do a paper, you might want to start reading this about 6 months before your paper is due. It is very hard to weigh through the many, colorful words and facts in this book in any small amount of time. I will someday read this book for pleasure but right now, after only reading three chapters (though be very interesting), I am totally jazzed out! phew!

Neither Hero Nor Villain
"All His Jazz" is compelling for the blow-by-blow account that it gives of Bob Fosse's unparalled career. It is probably one of the more comprehensive and insightful books about show business that has been written. The main problem with the book lies in his subject matter, which one would think would be untenable for a biography. Bob Fosse and those around him (with the exception of very few) come across as arrogant, self-centered, and certainly self-destructive. Hey, let's face it. Truth certainly can be stranger than fiction, but it kept me from really getting into the book on a personal level. I ended up angry more than sympathetic and incredulous more than intrigued. The other problem I had with the book is a noble one, but exposes the flaws all the same. There really are not enough photos to supplement the narrative. The only reason I say this is because so much attention is spent on the details of Fosse's career, that it is a shame there are so few photos representing his amazing stage career. We can all go rent the movies if we want to see what they are about, and it might not be a bad idea to watch "All That Jazz" (which, by the way, is one of my all time favorites) before picking up a copy of this book.

THE GREATEST BOOK ON EARTH!!
This book is one of , if not the, greatest books I have ever read. It reads so wonderfully. I read it in three days. It just flew off the pages. I can't give this book enough praise. FOSSE FANS READ THIS BOOK!!!!! ... Read more

Amazon.com

It's hard to overrate Howard Hawks, the extraordinary filmdirector whose credits include the classics Bringing UpBaby, HisGirl Friday, To Have and HaveNot, TheBig Sleep, Red River,Gentlemen PreferBlondes, and Rio Bravo.Hawks directed Cary Grant in most of his best comedies, and JohnWayne in many of his best Westerns. He was instrumental in furtheringthe careers of Angie Dickinson, James Caan, Jane Russell, and MarilynMonroe. Fortunately, the critical writing on Hawks is excellent and thisbook collects the best of it. With essays by Graham Greene, James Agee,Andre Bazin, Jaques Rivette, Robin Wood, Andrew Sarris, MollyHaskell, Hawks's screenwriter Leigh Brackett, Stanley Cavell, and LauraMulvey, this will surely be the single most important book on Hawks formany years to come. ... Read more

Book Description

Reviews (4)

In His Own Words......
He wanted his audience to be interested in his films....and so we are. He wanted to stir people to something...he does. He wanted to inspire us...and that he did. Fans of Krzysztof Kieslowski, film buffs and aspiring filmmakers alike will get as much out of his story told in "Kieslowski on Kieslowski" as through his cinematic works of art.

Although not a very long career, due to his untimely death, it certainly was an illustrious one. And how fortunate we are to have had the filmmaker who brought us the beautiful and moving films "The Double Life of Veronique", the "Three Colours Trilogy" and the unbelievably intuitive "Decalogue", tell us in his own words his views on life and what he was thinking during the filming of these works.

The book, wonderfully edited by Danusia Stok, takes in Kieslowski's early years as a child, his film school years, his early short films and finally the feature films. Kieslowski is open and frank about his life and his work. He didn't see himself as a genius at all(we fans may tend to disagree on that point),quite the contrary he tends to point out what he feels were mistakes and his shortcomings. He talks of working in Poland, having to skirt around the political upheaval around him, films he made that were never shown to the public, and his quest for trying to make the stories as authentic as possible.

He discusses each and every film. He gives much of the credit to the cast and crew and although he touches on what the films meant to him,he usually speaks more of the technical aspects of each than the analytical.He talks of what was going on in the world, his life and his mind during the making of each film. The feature films are given more time and one whole chapter is devoted soley to "Three Colours"(these films were still in the editing stages at the time this book was written).

Included are many still photos of working on the sets, and personel pictures with his family, the actors and his collaborators. There is a section devoted to notes on many of the names and events, and also a complete filmography with a brief summary and list of credits for each film.

"You make films to give people something, to transport them somewhere else and it doesn't matter if you transport them to a world of intuition or a world of the intellect"....Krzysztof Kieslowski

Kieslowski lets us know in this book that we don't have to analyze each scene...just enjoy it for what it is. This book is a must read for fans and filmmakers alike!...So...enjoy...Laurie

Kieslowski unbuttoned
Possibly the last of the really great European art film directors discusses his life and work. The tone of this book was a bit of a surprise. Unlike such visionary auteurs as Bergman and Tarkovsky, Kieslowski is funny, sarcastic, and deprecating, both about himself ("I was a complete idiot") and his country ("Poles will willingly drown another Pole in a glass of water"). And the art of cinema comes across here as a somewhat ridiculous chore, with fleeting and intermittent rewards. You may spend some time puzzling over whether Kieslowski is being accurate and sincere, or just having you on.

However, there's a wealth of insight and information in this book, about KK's films, the art of cinema in general, Poland and its history, and the ideas that animated KK throughout his career. If you have yet to discover such great films as "The Decalogue", "The Double Life of Veronique", and "Blind Chance", reading this book will whet your appetite. If you already know them, you'll gain further insights. And this book is just a great read, almost like a first-person confessional novel in its style. Stories like the one about how Kieslowski feigned insanity to avoid military service make it entertaining even if you don't care about movies!

a heartwarming portrait of the human being
This is a well-organized and informative book. While it is based on a series of interviews, the Q&A format is not used; instead, Stok lets Kieslowski narrate in his own words various stages in his life and films he has made. The effect is that of eavesdropping on a chance monologue, or that of a very colloquial autobiography. Although Stok (I think) happens to be the wife of one of Kieslowski's main cameramen, personal sentiments do not get in the way at any point. This book also contains, in addition to the compulsory stills from his documentaries and movies, various other interesting material such as photographs that Kieslowski himself took as a student at Lodz Film School.

The portrait of Kieslowski that emerges is of an overwhelmingly modest, considerate, private, and above all *humane* human being, self-deprecating to the extreme even after his international success as a director. He dismisses his vocation as the worst job in the world, hilarious (issuing directions via microphone and speaker, freezing, to a half-clad Grazyna Szapolowska atop a makeshift tower at 2am) and insignificant(his frustrating administrative experiences as a member of the Polish filmmaking guild). However, you realize that the poignant messages that come through in his films are the result of a unique personal/private sensitivity; he tries to articulate the manner in which outside events touch the individual, and hopes to touch the individual in the audience through his work. You can't reproach him for insisting that "you will never know what is deep inside me, no one will ever know, the experience is mine alone."

The only thing I felt was missing from the book was Kieslowski's final pronouncement on the Blue/White/Red series, since the final interviews were conducted while he was still editing. Also, it does not answer every single question you have about his films - what does the hunchbacked old woman who creeps through Veronique and the Trilogy signify? What does Veronique's clear rubber ball mean? At times, I realized that Kieslowski's narrative and symbolic intentions were really much simpler than what I had imagined to be. In all, this book is not the terminus in your quest to discover the essence of Kieslowski, but provides a heartwarming, personal portrait to base further navigations on.

A look inside the mind of a philosopher who also made movies
The text and quotes are so well arranged that you accept the whole as a seamless narrative. Reading this book helped take his work from enigmatic to profoundly humanistic, even optimistic. Not a minute of his film is for editing, and not a word from these interviews should be overlooked. One of my favorite reads. ... Read more

Book Description

At the age of twenty-six, Orson Welles made the film which remains immovable at the top of the critics' polls for the ten best films of all time - Citizen Kane. John Russell Taylor's riveting biography of Welles examines the way the Welles legend has been constructed through the years, and how his death has shattered some of the illusions of not only his friends but his enemies. (Taylor is film critic for the London Times and the authorized biographer of Alfred Hitchcock.) ... Read more

Reviews (1)

'Celebration' deserves to be celebrated!
This book is, in a word, fabulous. The text is concise, yet flavorful, and of course the subject matter (Orson Welles) is ALWAYS interesting, but the real wealth here is in those delectable photographs. The barrage of images starts with the cover and doesn't quit until the last page. All of them are tasteful, well-chosen, and evocative.A must for any Orson Welles fan... ... Read more

Book Description

Reviews (9)

weak writing expressing a courageous point of view
'Daddy' addresses the often difficult topic of incest. I've always seen there as being two types of incest.
The first type involves an adult taking advantage of a child below, often far below, the age of consent and
causing the child great pain and often emotional scarring for life because of the profound abuse of power.
This type of incest quite properly horrifies most people, and the more abusive the situation, the more
horrible it is. The second type of incest involves consenting sexual relations between closely related
adults. This type seems to me to be far more morally ambiguous, although it still seems to evoke feelings
of shock and revulsion among many people--but these feelings seem less rational to me than in cases of
sexual abuse of a child, and are perhaps based upon people's fears of confronting their own sexual attraction
to family members. Feelings of sexual attraction to family members are no doubt quite widespread--I am
told by a woman who works as a prostitute in a legalized Australian brothel that it is fairly common for
male family members to come in and pay for sexual intercourse with their mothers, sisters, or daughters--
though it isn't necessarily talked about a lot.

So this book had an interesting, and controversial, topic to work with and had the courage to take a
difficult point of view. It tells the story, from the father's point of view, of a father who is reunited
with his two adult daughters after being separated from them early in their lives. The father quickly
develops a mutually consentual sexual relationship with both daughters. The book doesn't particularly
moralize but rather presents this as being a perfectly normal activity--which, as noted earlier, it may
well be. It was courageous to publish a book like this which had the potential to, and did, generate a
lot of controversy because it took a default position against prevailing public opinion where a lot of
people have very strong--if not always well thought out--emotions.

The difficulty is that, for all its potential, the book itself simply isn't all that good. The
author/father spends a good deal of time describing all the physical specifics of his relations with
his daughters in more detail than I really needed or wanted to know. As sex, it just isn't all that
interesting--it is physically no different from any other sexual relationship between a man and a
woman and didn't particularly interest me to hear it described in detail. We don't learn that much about
the topic of incest--how did the fact that these were incestual relationships affect the participants
involved? What is the author's feeling about the incest taboo in society in general, and how does he
feel it can be overcome--or should it be overcome? How open should people about incest, trading off
the need to be true to oneself with the fact that it is almost universally taboo and more often than not
illegal? These are not questions the author needs to come to a final answer about, but they are
really not addressed at all--instead we get details about sexual relationships that are too graphic,
at least for me, to be really considered erotic.

I cautiously recommend this book because of the important point of view it presents, but I'm hoping
that in the near future we will see similar books that are much better written.

Great read
I loved this book. It gave me a different perspective. You get a little tired always hearing the politically correct views, which just about everyone has (except for the silent majority). The way people harp today about incest reminds me of how people once harped about homosexuality or nakedness. I'm sorry, but while I might disaprove of many things, I cannot say that this person is evil. He is simply honest. Get with it.

Don't Bother
To be sure, this is not a good book. Schmidt overwrites, overanalyzes, and overexplains, providing an effect much like suffocation. Despite being fairly short, this book is a long read--it takes time to slog through Schmidt's self-indulgent excess. He could have excised entire chapters without significantly changing the story. Its sheer, numbing badness makes it easy for me to believe this man is indeed a television writer. Daddy fails as a novel and it fails as erotica.
For what it's worth, I do think this is a memoir, rather than poorly-executed fiction, if only for the rather cynical reason that none of the three main characters changes very much. The elder daughter gains enough self-reliance to hold a job and keep an apartment, but the three of them finish with the intense egocentrism they begin with. As the joke goes, "Truth is stranger than fiction, because fiction has to make sense."

not what i expected...
Wow, I read this book and its' not what I expected. Yes I knew what it was about. But it's the explicit detail that the author gives everytime he is with one of his daughters. I personally DO NOT think he needs to be THAT specific to tell the story, and tell it well. It doesn't matter wheather incest is common, or misunderstood, whatever. I still think it's way to detailed. But, if you like that kinda thing, and like reading about incest, then buy the book. But I think anyone reading it is going to be shocked at first by the detail.

Tough to review .. but let's not kid ourselves .. puleeezzze
Anyone that bought this book thinking it's a clinical review of the ramifications of incest will surely be surprised to say the least. The title of 'Daddy' has to tittilate from point one.

This is 'an erotic memoir' written under a pseudonym .. DUUUUHHH ... Aficionados of erotic literature, especially the Victorain classics, would not even bat an eyebrow in reading this book since incest in Victorian times was not only practiced but actually quite common.

The author in this book tells us a story about reuniting with his two estranged daughters, now 21 and 24 after a 20 year separation. He is portrayed as a struggling writer in LA when his daughters, still living with the authors ex in northern California, send him a letter hoping to find him to set up a meeting.

Both girls in their own way seduce daddy and encourage a very sexual and of course incestous relationship. The story is written in a very gentle manner and I as the reader get the distinct impression that it may have been written by a woman. Since the apppreciation of eroticism is in the mind of the beholder this book certainly will appeal to women who may have had a crush on their fathers or on their father figure. Obviously, the three main characters know what they are doing and if there are any self recriminating thoughts of the consequences of their actions they are only described to add realism to the story.

The spice of eroticism must be the fusion of a good story and the reader getting to enjoy the taste of forbidden fruit. In this book the story is paramount and the sex and eroticism is definitely soft core and rates a five star recommendation in my book..... Enjoy ... Read more

Book Description

William Desmond Taylor (1872-1922) was a leading silent film director remembered as the victim of Hollywood's most sensational unsolved murder, which shook the nation and shattered the reputations of several top Hollywood stars. Until now, Taylor's film career and leadership role in the Hollywood film industry have been completely overshadowed by the scandal of his death. By reprinting over 400 items from contemporary newspapers, magazines, and trade journals, the book reveals Taylor's life in Hollywood--from his arrival as a minor actor in 1912 until his death in 1922 as one of Hollywood's top directors. These annotated clippings and articles, many containing Taylor's own words, provide substantial insight into Hollywood life and film production during the decade that transformed Hollywood into the movie capital of the world. Included in the book is the most extensive filmography of Taylor's work ever published. Taylor's murder is also examined, including a critical analysis of two recently-published "solutions" to the crime. ... Read more

Book Description

Amazon.com

This delightful memoir by acclaimed film director Paul Mazursky is not strictly an autobiography. Rather, it's a series of anecdotes told without regard to chronological order--a fluid, surprising structure that allows Mazursky to focus on the highlights of his life. He tells tales of directing cinema celebrities, stories about his family members, and accounts of his work as an actor and writer, all with equal humor and facility. As the picture of his remarkable journey from Brownsville, Brooklyn, to the Hollywood director's chair develops, we visit the sets of I Love You, Alice B. Toklas, Bob and Carol and Ted and Alice, An Unmarried Woman, Tempest, Down and Out in Beverly Hills, Moscow on the Hudson, and Enemies: A Love Story.

Mazursky offers wonderfully comic views of his grandparents, Orson Welles, Danny Kaye, Peter Sellers, John Cassavetes, Stanley Kubrick, and many others, including the great Italian director Federico Fellini, whose correspondence he publishes here. In the most fascinating and poignant chapter, entitled "The Ones I Never Made," Mazursky talks about film scripts the studios never greenlighted. Show Me the Magic relates the triumphs and failures, the insights and joys, in the remarkable life of a veteran film director. --Raphael Shargel ... Read more

Reviews (3)

I would have liked to have seen more!
I loved reading this book, both from the standpoint of appreciating Paul Mazursky the director of many of my favorite films and reveling in Paul Mazursky the no-holds-barred storyteller. But--and, I'm sorry, there is a 'but'---why devote one sentence to the great Art Carney, who Mazursky calls the most pure actor he'd ever worked with, and then not tell the reader WHY he feels that way about Carney? There are no anecdotes to share about Jill Clayburgh or Robin Williams? Come on, Paul, give! This lapse is mostly compensated for by Mazursky's tales of traveling in the "then" Soviet Union and South America, his memories of working for Danny Kaye and his sharing the bitter and the sweet about his family, his friends and the ups and downs of his life. The chapter about Mazursky's relationship with his mother is especially powerful and a reminder that much of the pathos within even his funniest films came honestly to him. So, five stars for what's here---just would've liked to have seen more!

Very Enjoyable, Recommended for Movie Buffs
I don't believe I've seen more than two of Mazursky's films but I enjoyed his book, especially the juicy chapter on his adventures with the increasingly more bizarre Peter Sellers. This is not a biography, but rather a series of essays about his involvement with different Hollywood people and some chapters about his current life and childhood. Recommended.

The Mensch (not the Mouse) Behind The Movies
An interesting, light and witty Summer read that gives you insight into Mazursky's career and tales of movie production. Mazursky, born in the Brownsville section of Brooklyn started out as an actor (Blackboard Jungle), moved on to be a comedy writer (Danny Kaye, I Love You Alice B Toklas) when acting parts were infrequent, and made his directorial debut with Bob and Carol and Ted and Alice. My favorite scenes in the book? When a young Mazursky catches his zade eating his bubbe's herring on the afternoon of Yom Kippur; when Eisner and Katzenberg ask Mazursky if he thinks that the I.B. Singer story (Enemies, A Love Story) is too Jewish... maybe it can be about the Cambodian Holocaust instead of the WWII one; when Richard Dreyfus pulls out of the Enemies project; and the creation of Down&Out in Beverly Hills. ... Read more

Book Description

Fallen Stars probes the underside of fame to reveal a host of glittering careers stunted by ill-health, alcoholism, drug addiction and egomania. Twenty-one tales of stardom turned sour, these are the tragic final years of some of the world's best-loved actors and comedians, a latter-day Hollywood Babylon that includes Benny Hill, Diana Dors, Peter Sellers, Carry On legends and many others.

Book Description

"Hanif Kureishi is a proper Englishman. Almost." So observes biographer Kenneth Kaleta. Well known for his films My Beautiful Laundrette and Sammy and Rosie Get Laid, the Anglo-Asian screenwriter, essayist, and novelist has become one of the leading portrayers of Britain's multicultural society. His work raises important questions of personal and national identity as it probes the experience of growing up in one culture with roots in another, very different one. This book is the first critical biography of Hanif Kureishi. Kenneth Kaleta interviewed Kureishi over several years and enjoyed unlimited access to all of his working papers, journals, and personal files. From this rich cache of material, he opens a fascinating window onto Kureishi's creative process, tracing such works as My Beautiful Laundrette, Sammy and Rosie Get Laid, The Buddha of Suburbia, London Kills Me, The Black Album, and Love in a Blue Time from their genesis to their public reception. Writing for Kureishi fans as well as film and cultural studies scholars, Kaleta pieces together a vivid mosaic of the postcolonial, hybrid British culture that has nourished Kureishi and his work. ... Read more

Reviews (1)

Fantastic!
As a big fan of Kureishi's work I can say that this book lives up to thelegend of this great storyteller. Excellent use of descriptive language inthis tale or greatness, artistry, and sorrow. Highly recommended! ... Read more

Book Description

This edition explores David Lynch's career from the cult hit Eraserhead through the surreal murder mystery Lost Highway, including coverage of his forthcoming film, The Straight Story, and second television series, Mulholland Drive. ... Read more

Reviews (1)

Lots of Information, some of it correct.
Paul Woods takes a fan's approach to discussing the life and works of filmmaker David Lynch. The book is at it's strongest when describing the films and the effort it took to create them. The chapter on the 5-year ordeal that Lynch and his gang of misfits underwent in order to bring Eraserhead to the screen (which most of them felt it would never see) is as facinating as the dark, experimental film itself. Woods only falters when he tries to give us a biographical glimpse of Lynch himself. Most of what he tells us about Lynch are the speculations of others and the directors own evasive little quips and soundbites that he has used to deflect interviewers over the years. The books research sometimes seems quite painstaking but at other time Mr. Woods, a british writer, demonstrates an almost unforgivable lack of basic knowledge about America and the market for which Lynch's films are created. At times one wishes that Woods had invested in a map of the U.S. (he refers to Spokane as a suburb of Washington D.C., and at another point describes Washington State as being located in the American Midwest) and perhaps gave another viewing to a few of Lynch's films during his research (he mixes up the chronology of events in "Fire Walk With Me" quite embarrasingly) but, for the largest part, his insights into Lynch's craft are fully realized and well-supported. The more a person knows about Lynch the more this book is likely to infuriate them with it's sloppy attention to detail, but for the Lynch-novice looking for an introduction to obsessive avant-garde cinema, this book will certainly entertain and illuminate. ... Read more

Reviews (2)

A look at studios v. autuers
This is a true exposure of the battles that raged between studios and autuers in the 60's-70's. By using one of the most notable of the autuers of the time, Lewis, paints an indepth and at the same time entertaining look at the workings of film making.

decent critique of an excellent topic
The apparently antagonistic roles that the director and the financiers play in Hollywood is adeptly broken down by Lewis in this book. Lewis demonstrates how power, money and name interact in Hollywood and how Coppola, disregarding certain aspects of it, went up against an institution -- and failed. ... Read more

Amazon.com

William Wyler is not as well known as Alfred Hitchcock, Orson Welles, or John Ford, but he deserves a place among the superstar directors of classic Hollywood. His style was magnificently fluid; while his films are masterpieces of cinematic artistry, they are also filled with beautiful elements that make his characters and situations utterly real. Among other classics, he directed "Dead End," "Wuthering Heights," "The Little Foxes," "Mrs. Miniver," "The Best Years of Our Lives," "The Heiress," "Roman Holiday," "Ben-Hur," and "Funny Girl." Jan Herman's biography is a lively account of Wyler's life and career that pays special attention to the director's early experiences in Europe, his relationship to the Hollywood mogul Carl Laemmle, his combative partnership with Samuel Goldwyn, his friendships with John Huston and Lillian Hellman, his marriage to Margaret Tallichet, his harrowing experiences making propaganda films during World War II, and his long, immensely successful professional career. ... Read more

Reviews (2)

The ultimate look at Hollywoods most honoured director
A thoroughly engrossing book that delves not only in Wyler the director, but Wyler the man. This books offers a rare glimpse into the inner workings of this phenomenal director, from his early days as a young immigrant to becoming honored by the AFI.

Learn what went on before, during and after some of filmdom's greatest movies (Mrs. Miniver, Best Years Of Their Lives, and Ben-Hur) as well as Wylers' time in the service, shooting award winning documentaries. As well as how the HUAC hearings impacted on his professional life and those he came to rely on, and how he dealt with personal triumphs and tragedies.

Jan Herman has taken what could have been a dry retelling of movie making, and offers up a book that is both informative and entertaining.

A wonderful insight into a fascinating film maker
Until I read this book, I had no idea that so many of my favourite classic films were directed by William Wyler.

The book tracks through Wyler's early childhood in pre-WWI Europe, his move to the United States and how he made his start making 3 movies a week for his uncle.

The book examines the process behind Wyler's great films - Roman Holiday, The Heiress and so on. Having read a biography of Audrey Hepburn and read about how she coped with the filming of Roman Holiday, it was really interesting to read the director's verion of what happened during filming. The quality of the final product was important to Wyler. He was a meticulous film maker who cared about his films. He was also a man of principle as shown by his efforts to make realistic fims during WWII, often puttin ghis wn life at risk as he shot footage of bombing raids over Europe.

The book also shows a little bit of Wyler's personal life. He was married for most of his life to the same wonderful woman and had a family that he clearly loved.

All in all, the book was a fascinating insight into pre-sound Hollywood and into a very interesting man and great director. It was extremely well written and an "easy read". It was tough to put down! ... Read more

Book Description

In 1917, William Fox, founder of the Fox Film Corporation, sent his personal secretary, Sol Wurtzel, to California to supervise the studio's West Coast productions. Until 1923, Fox, who hated the trip west from New York, carried on an extensive mail and telegraph correspondence with his young protégé, advising him on every element of the studio's management, from how much to pay Tom Mix, to the editing needed for Theda Bara's newest picture. The letters and telegrams from those years, between "My Dear Sol," and "My Dear Mr. Fox," paint a colorful portrait of early Hollywood, from hirings and firings to the nitty-gritty of early filmmaking. Their letters reveal much about Fox's personality, as well as showing Wurtzel's development from secretary to a remarkable manager of a movie empire in its early stages. This detailed story of early Hollywood and the history of film production includes an index ... Read more

Reviews (3)

A peek into the messy inner workings of a movie studio
In 1917, William Fox hired Sol Wurtzel to run the west-coach branch of the Fox movie studios.Fox was a demanding task-master, but he hated to leave New York.He met with Wurtzel for one weekend, and then sent him off to Los Angeles.You would think that a book consisting of a bunch of business letters and telegrams would be dry and boring, but that is certainly not the case.Wurtzel immediately has to deal with employees who are stealing large amounts of film stock, an actress who skipped out of town with a salary advance, and uncooperative directors who spend the studio's money extravagantly.Over and over, Fox browbeats Wurtzel for spending too much money and making lousy films.Wurtzel fires back apologetic letters and telegrams defending himself.

One of the best things about the book is that you get to see how Wurtzel blossoms from a simple businessman to an artistic producer who really cares about his films.If you've always wondered about what went on behind-the-scenes of a silent movie studio, ignore the clunky title and pick up this book.How often to you get to read direct sources who tell things exactly how they happened 80+ years ago?

An unexpected gem!
I don't often go out on a limb and review books, but this one was just too irresistible to keep to myself.

With a long, nonfiction, reference-y title like you see above, I wasn't exactly expecting entertainment when I picked up this book.What a nice surprise!

While I'm guessing you're familiar with the name William Fox (as in the Fox Film Corporation), I'm also guessing you've never even heard the name "Sol M. Wurtzel."And why would you?After all, he was just a lowly personal assistant... or so Fox would have liked us to believe.

This book, which is a collection of the actual letters that were exchanged between Mr. Fox and his "personal assistant" (nowadays, Wurtzel would be known as CEO, or "studio head"), paint a dramatic, cartoonish, sometimes hilarious, sometimes pitiable view of what it was like to work in the film industry in 1917.

That was the year when Fox, whose office was in New York, decided he needed a presence in Los Angeles.He didn't want to travel, though, so he sent Wurtzel.Fox wasn't exactly a generous boss; although his "precious" letters were always addressed "My Dear Sol," the pretentiousness of his formal and contrived language is quickly recognizable as just that.Not far below the surface was a demanding, moody, penny-pinching, nearly un-pleasable man who needed a scapegoat to blame whenever things didn't go perfectly.

He couldn't have picked a better punching bag.Wurtzel did backflips to please his boss; always catering to his every whim, apologizing for things that weren't his fault, trying to be everything to everyone while receiving no credit and only one-third of the salary of the man he replaced.

This book again proves the idea that fact is often more interesting than fiction.The scandals, the deceit, the nepotism... pampered stars who ask for advances for their "mothers' operations" and then skip town, sons of studio owners who steal raw film... it's all here, and every piece of it is piled onto Wutzel's overburdened shoulders.

Only once is he brave enough to ask his boss for a little help; he talks about the family he hasn't been allowed to visit for three years, and the fact that Fox himself hasn't met with him the entire time he's been there.But he's quickly put in his place by the man who demands to know if his ego has "grown too big for his position."

I'm not sure if I was supposed to laugh out loud, but I did, through many parts of this book.The passive-aggressive comments (along the lines of "You've given me no other choice but to blame you for this,") along with the laughable scenarios in which Fox's New York secretary would pretend he was out of town whenever trouble arose, made this book feel like satire. But I suppose the stereotypes have to come from somewhere!I couldn't help but to picture Ebenezer Scrooge and Bob Cratchit, and I kept waiting for the Ghosts of Christmas to come knocking on Fox's door.

In a sense, I suppose they did.Fox was eventually ousted from his own corporation, and Wurtzel stayed on, producing successful B movies and launching many careers.

This book, brought to publication by Wurtzel's daughter and grand-niece, is a compelling and fascinating character study.So, ignore the clunky title and read the book as the editors originally wanted it titled: "My Dear Sol."...

A surprising page-turner
Carla Winter should be highly congratulated for bringing surviving correspondance between her uncle, Hollywood mini-mogul Sol M. Wurtzel, and William Fox to the attention of silent film scholars. And McFarland deserves equal credit for publishing this series of letters, which are entertainingly annotated by (I assume) Wurtzel's late daughter, Lillian Wurtzel Semenov. In his foreword, film historian Scott Eyman expresses the wish that correspondance between the two pertaining to the later 1920s -- when Fox made several classic epics -- also had survived and I obviously agree. But if I absolutely had to chose between the two periods, I would pick the earlier and much less documented years. I actually expected a series of interesting but rather dry discussions of costs, bookings, etc. But "William Fox, Sol M. Wurtzel and the Early Fox Film Corporation" (McFarland's most cumbersome title yet?) is instead a vastly entertaining series of harangues from the penny-pinching Mr. Fox to the sometimes defenseless but at other times crafty Mr. Wurtzel. As the author of the annotations so correctly states at one point, it is no wonder that poor Sol Wurtzel spent his life afflicted with troublesome digestion and various facial tics. Anyone remotely interested in silent film ought to read this volume of letters which, amazingly enough, becomes a true page-turner where, as Harry Ritz reportedly once said, things tend to go "from bad to Wurtzel." ... Read more

Book Description

Tim Burton's uniquely beautiful, disturbing films continue to beguile audiences and critics alike, and Tim Burton is a timely examination of this singular film-maker's incredible body of work. From the acclaimed 1982 short Vincent to 2000's smash-hit Sleepy Hollow, Burton has created a dream world that simply cannot be matched. Animated projects Frankenweenie and The Nightmare Before Christmas, offbeat fantasies like Beetlejuice and Edward Scissorhands and big-budget extravaganzas Batman and Mars Attacks all explore Burton's fascination with the darker side of human nature.

Illustrated with over 400 photographs, and also looking at his work with composer Danny Elfman, Tim Burton explores the meaning behind the motion pictures. ... Read more

Reviews (1)

Not true at all
Although this book has excellent pictures in black and white and gives some good information, many of the storylines in the descriptions of the movie ARE NOT TRUE. For example, I quote, "In response to the hypothetical question of what one should do upon finding someone's wallet, Edward suggests giving money to friends. LATER ON, Edward is caught by the police taking part in a break-in..." Anyone who has seen this movie knows that Edward breaks into Jim's house BEFORE Mr. Boggs gives him the pep talk on right and wrong. Even the movies are presented in the wrong order. They present Batman Returns before Batman. Many other mistakes are made. If you are a huge fan of Tim Burton like I am, I suggest reading Tim Burton(Virgin Film) by Jim Smith and J Clive Matthews. That one gives much more and quite better im formation on the best director (in my opinion) EVER!!! ... Read more