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ROUND UP THE USUAL SUSPECTS

Name: ROUND UP THE USUAL SUSPECTS
Author: Aljean Harmetz
ISBN: 1-56282-941-6

THE MAKING OF CASABLANCA--BOGART, BERGMAN, AND WORLD WAR II

by Aljean Harmetz ‧ RELEASE DATE: Nov. 26, 1992

It's still the same old story...

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Roundup of the usual suspects in the making of Casablanca, by Harmetz (The Making of the Wizard of Oz, 1977), the Hollywood business reporter for the New York Times.

Harmetz is an ever interesting though not lively writer, and her intense research and packaging of all possible information about Casablanca make for a book that newcomers to the film will find fulfilling and complete. Older fans of the movie and its stars, though, may not find enough that's new here to reward wading through a hill of beans this big and detailed—and it's strange that so much formidable research turned up so little fresh material. Over the years, Harmetz interviewed five cast members, three of whom are now the film's last living—and minor—players. She awards major space to Humphrey Bogart and Ingrid Bergman, Claude Rains, Paul Henreid, producer Hal Wallis and director Michael Curtiz, studio head Jack Warner, the technicians, the set designer, and what studios called "the little people'' (makeup, hairdressing, etc.). Harmetz includes the studio's vast research on North Africa, the look of Casablanca's then-current license plates and telephone poles and so on. Amusing sidelights: Bogart uncomfortable at making love to and dancing with Bergman on the first day of shooting (it was the flashback sequence of their love affair in Paris); Bergman being coy in later years about supposedly not having known how to play to Bogart and Henreid because she didn't know which one she'd wind up with (although it turns out that the last scene was shot midway during the film, so she did know); the role of character actors in filling each scene with ore (today's films, Harmetz says, "lack the thick layers of character actors who brought depth to the background and refracted the star's light so that it formed a different and more complicated image'').

It's still the same old story...

Pub Date: Nov. 26, 1992

ISBN: 1-56282-941-6

Page Count: 320

Publisher: Hyperion

Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 1992

Categories:

GENERAL NONFICTION

- BOOK REVIEW
OFF THE FACE OF THE EARTH
by Aljean Harmetz

- BOOK REVIEW
ON THE ROAD TO TARA
by Aljean Harmetz

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NUTCRACKER

by E.T.A. Hoffmann ‧ RELEASE DATE: Oct. 28, 1996

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This is not the Nutcracker sweet, as passed on by Tchaikovsky and Marius Petipa. No, this is the original Hoffmann tale of 1816, in which the froth of Christmas revelry occasionally parts to let the dark underside of childhood fantasies and fears peek through. The boundaries between dream and reality fade, just as Godfather Drosselmeier, the Nutcracker's creator, is seen as alternately sinister and jolly. And Italian artist Roberto Innocenti gives an errily realistic air to Marie's dreams, in richly detailed illustrations touched by a mysterious light. A beautiful version of this classic tale, which will captivate adults and children alike. (Nutcracker; $35.00; Oct. 28, 1996; 136 pp.; 0-15-100227-4)

Pub Date: Oct. 28, 1996

ISBN: 0-15-100227-4

Page Count: 136

Publisher: Harcourt

Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 1996

Categories:

GENERAL NONFICTION

- BOOK REVIEW
THE NUTCRACKER AND THE MOUSE KING
by E.T.A. Hoffmann ; adapted by Natalie Andrewson ; illustrated by Natalie Andrewson

- BOOK REVIEW
THE NUTCRACKER
by E.T.A. Hoffmann & illustrated by Julie Paschkis

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TO THE ONE I LOVE THE BEST

EPISODES FROM THE LIFE OF LADY MENDL (ELSIE DE WOLFE)

by Ludwig Bemelmans ‧ RELEASE DATE: Feb. 23, 1955

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An extravaganza in Bemelmans' inimitable vein, but written almost dead pan, with sly, amusing, sometimes biting undertones, breaking through. For Bemelmans was "the man who came to cocktails". And his hostess was Lady Mendl (Elsie de Wolfe), arbiter of American decorating taste over a generation. Lady Mendl was an incredible person,- self-made in proper American tradition on the one hand, for she had been haunted by the poverty of her childhood, and the years of struggle up from its ugliness,- until she became synonymous with the exotic, exquisite, worshipper at beauty's whrine. Bemelmans draws a portrait in extremes, through apt descriptions, through hilarious anecdote, through surprisingly sympathetic and understanding bits of appreciation. The scene shifts from Hollywood to the home she loved the best in Versailles. One meets in passing a vast roster of famous figures of the international and artistic set. And always one feels Bemelmans, slightly offstage, observing, recording, commenting, illustrated.