This is an often fascinating slice of Hollywood history, although it is geared primarily to serious film buffs.
The “legends” interviewed by film historian and biographer McGilligan (Fritz Lang, 1997, etc.) are mostly directors whose careers date back to the silent movie days. His anthology brings together a dozen pieces published during the 1970s.
By the time McGilligan, often accompanied by a co-interviewer, caught up with the subjects, most were in their 80s. Never intrusive, the journalists asked just enough questions to kickstart reminiscences. Raoul Walsh recollects how Humphrey Bogart was cast in High Sierra only after George Raft turned it down because he superstitiously didn’t want to die in the end. Clarence Brown talks about Greta Garbo (he was her favorite director) and an 11-year-old actress named Elizabeth Taylor. The one connecting thread among them (and René Clair, George Stevens, actress-turned-director Ida Lupino, and William Wellman) is the happenstance that brought them to their profession. Joel McCrea provides an actor’s view of other legendary directors such as King Vidor and William Wyler. Sheridan Gibney and Dore Shary provide two of the livelier stories: Gibney, a screenwriter who thought of himself mainly as a playwright, became embroiled in the difficulties of the Screen Writers Guild during the 1940s, while Schary, who became a studio executive, recalls his screenwriting days as his happiest. As René Clair likens films to sparkling water to explain why a film can never affect audiences the same way years after it was produced, so McGilligan’s anthology is more archival than immediate. The filmography and introductory essay that introduce each section make for a pleasing format, although the overall style is sometimes distractingly inconsistent. The interview with Ronald Reagan during his 1976 primary campaign seems to belong in another book. The concluding interview with Alfred Hitchcock smacks of promotion for the author’s forthcoming biography.
This is an often fascinating slice of Hollywood history, although it is geared primarily to serious film buffs.Pub Date: July 1, 2000
ISBN: 0-312-26131-4
Page Count: 288
Publisher: St. Martin's
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2000
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
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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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