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BOGART

Two celebrated biographers lend their diligence to this dense, insightful work on a much analyzed icon. Sperber (Murrow: His Life and Times, 1986) had spent seven years researching and completing a manuscript when she died in 1994; Lax (Woody Allen: A Biography, 1991, etc.) picked up where she left off. The resulting book is strong on original research (drawing on interviews with nearly 200 people, on film archives, and on Bogart's FBI file) and refreshingly free of worn Hollywood anecdotes and tired film analysis. Among other things, it reveals the depths of of imbalance in Bogart's seemingly successful family (his parents, a physician and an artist, were alcoholics, emotionally remote and violent-tempered), the excruciatingly long road to stardom at Warner Brothers (``even in A pictures, Bogart wound up in B roles'' early on), and the self-recrimination that followed his public apology for his political activity at the HUAC hearings. (The re-creation of red-scare fear in Hollywood is especially clear and full.) The reasons for Bogie's first two marriages are examined in depth (his first, brief marriage, to successful actress Helen Menken, appears to have been in part to advance his career), as is the sense of duty that tied him to third wife Mayo Methot after he fell in love with Lauren Bacall. Sperber and Lax need no devices (such as Jeffrey Meyers's parallel between Bogart and Hemingway, see p. 281) to define the actor. Here Bogart's words and actions explain him, revealing his psychology and his place in American popular culture. When he tells a friend that he chronically berates himself because ``I expected a lot more from me. And I'm never going to get it,'' he encapsulates his own outlook and screen persona, as well as the national self-doubt that was key to his success. Dramatic, historically informative, and elegiac, this exemplifies an honorable standard in the uneven world of film biographies. (40 b&w photos, not seen) (Author tour)

Pub Date: April 1, 1997

ISBN: 0-688-07539-8

Page Count: 480

Publisher: Morrow/HarperCollins

Review Posted Online: April 13, 2011

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 1997

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NUTCRACKER

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

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TO THE ONE I LOVE THE BEST

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

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.

Pub Date: Feb. 23, 1955

ISBN: 0670717797

Page Count: -

Publisher: Viking

Review Posted Online: Oct. 25, 2011

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 1955

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