THE GOLDEN EGG

A throughly documented, long novel that reveals much of the picture business, more of the men that make it, with an ear for the language of the pictures, and an eye for human weakness. It is a relentless case history of Willie Levinson (Levinsky) in particular, the industry in general. Willie's father and uncle, by combined shrewdness, bring their Miracle Pictures to the top of the trade. Willie, however, at a fashionable school, flubs it after his family is forced to backtrack, earns the school's hatred, retaliates with his own for being a Jew. Into the family business, Willie soon produces a ruthlessness, brutality, that even causes him to displace his father and uncle. He is made aware of new goals by schicksa Lucy, and with Lucy ready to become his mistress, finds he is impotent. After betraying his father and uncle, he finds he has also betrayed himself and is definitely out. Of its kind, it lacks the bitter impersonality, say- of I Can Get It For You Wholesale, in its warmth and sympathy.