Rather winning life of Jean Harlow, with some revisions on the tale offered by Samuel Marx and Joyce Vanderveen in Deadly Illusions (1990)—and many fresh interviews plus a handful of new folks speaking out who have kept silent until now. Stenn (the well-received Clara Bow, 1988) gives a sympathetic, well-rounded Harlow—one immensely superior to the Harlow (1965) by Irving Shulman and Arthur Landau that prompted two scurrilous film bios back in the mid-60's—but he doesn't actually add much to the Harlow we already know. Aside from massaging the boot blows by Shulman and Landau, and cleaning up the suicide of Harlow's second husband, producer Paul Bern, this is more a refresher course than a set of discoveries. The big, definitive life is yet to be written, although most of Harlow's intimates are dead and still fresher material than Stenn's is not likely. The best qualities here are Stenn's attention to his subject's acting and the growth of her talent, and Harlow's often physical presence on the page, especially in her wacky nude scenes with studio photographers and at parties, and in Stenn's capturing of her shyness, the modesty at the core of the woman, which her nude moments only enforce. Yes, Jean Harlow, aided by her mother, would ice her breasts to a tight firmness and play scenes braless—but this was ``Jean Harlow'' the image and top moneymaker for MGM, not Harlean Carpenter, the towhead deep inside the image. The biggest villain in this bio is Mother Jean, ``who had slave-driven her [daughter] to stardom, sabotaged her marriages, squandered her money, and sacrificed her happiness.'' Harlow, going by Stenn, was marked for early death when her mother, a Christian Scientist, didn't have Jean properly diagnosed at 15 for the nephritic infection that killed her at 26. Between takes, a platinum Venus sits firmly on your lap, knitting socks. (Sixty photos)
Pub Date: Oct. 1, 1993
ISBN: 0-385-42157-5
Page Count: 380
Publisher: Doubleday
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 1993
Stricter than, say, Bergen Evans or W3 ("disinterested" means impartial — period), Strunk is in the last analysis...
Privately published by Strunk of Cornell in 1918 and revised by his student E. B. White in 1959, that "little book" is back again with more White updatings.
Stricter than, say, Bergen Evans or W3 ("disinterested" means impartial — period), Strunk is in the last analysis (whoops — "A bankrupt expression") a unique guide (which means "without like or equal").Pub Date: May 15, 1972
ISBN: 0205632645
Page Count: 105
Publisher: Macmillan
Review Posted Online: Oct. 28, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 1972
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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