Two white house maids, a remarkable mother and her daughter, reveal what it was really like upstairs, downstairs at the white house.

    You'll fall in love with her like everybody else."-Humphrey Bogart

    The author provides vivid descriptions of classic pictures such as The Birth of a Nation, Intolerance, Sunrise, The Covered Wagon, and Greed, and lucidly discusses their technical and artistic merits and weaknesses. He pays tribute to acknowledged masters like D. W. Griffith, Charlie Chaplin, Buster Keaton, Douglas Fairbanks, Mary Pickford, and Lillian and Dorothy Gish, but he also gives ample attention to previously neglected yet equally gifted actors and directors. In addition, the book covers individual genres, such as the comedy, western gangster, and spectacle, and explores such essential but little-understood subjects as art direction, production design, lighting and camera techniques, and the art of the subtitle. Intended for all scholars, students, and lovers of film, this fascinating book, which features over 150 film stills, provides a rich and comprehensive overview of this unforgettable era in film history.

    -New York Times Book Review It stands as the definitive work on the gifted, haunted actor. -L

    

    Now you can read the whole story of the spectacular and complex undertaking in this first-hand report by a writer who was there(from the back cover of the US edition)

    

    

    This edition is expanded to include essays which explore "neo-noir", postmodernism and other trends.

    Illustrates and provides synopses of the best British films imported to the United States from 1933 to 1971, including The Lavender Hill Mob, Women in Love, Tom Jones and A Night to Remember

    Since all journalists and writers were barred from the shooting of the movie Close Encounters of the Third Kind, actor Bob Balaban's diary is a rare on-the-spot account of the making of Steven Spielberg's classic sci-fi film.