Christmas in the Movies: 30 Classics to Celebrate the Season


Jeremy Arnold - 2018
    "Christmas films" come in many shapes and sizes and exist across many genres. Some, like It's a Wonderful Life and A Christmas Story, are perennials, while others, such as Die Hard, have only gradually become yuletide favorites. But they all have one thing in common: they use themes evoked by the holiday period - nostalgia, joy, togetherness, dysfunction, commercialism, or cynicism - as a force in their storytelling.Turner Classic Movies: Christmas in the Movies showcases the very best among this uniquely spirited strain of cinema. Each film is profiled on what makes it a "Christmas movie," along with behind-the-scenes stories of its production, reception, and legacy. Complemented by a trove of color and black-and-white photos, Turner Classic Movies: Christmas in the Movies is a glorious salute to a collection of the most treasured films of all time.Among the 30 films included: The Shop Around the Corner, Holiday Inn, Meet Me in St. Louis, It's a Wonderful Life, Miracle on 34th Street, White Christmas, A Christmas Story, National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation, Home Alone, Little Women,and The Nightmare Before Christmas.

Quentin Tarantino


Wensley Clarkson - 1995
    His uniquely stylish films, with their designer violence, exuberant black humour and rapid-fire, tough-guy dialogue, have won him worldwide critical acclaim and rock star status. Tarantino is walking, talking, Oscar-winning proof that you can break the rules and still triumph over Hollywood. This roller coaster ride through Quentin Tarantino's life and work is based on over 100 in-depth interviews with friends, colleagues and family and was written with the invaluable support of Quentin's mother, Connie. Perceptive and compelling, Quentin Tarantino: Shooting From The Hip penetrates the eccentric world of Hollywood's hottest movie director. It is essential reading for everyone wanting to understand Tarantino the man, and the phenomenon.

Katharine Hepburn


Barbara Leaming - 1995
    She is the last of the great ones: a celebrated actress, a brilliant personality, an original.Barbara Leaming has discovered thousands of never-before-seen documents that finally illuminate the mystery of this enigmatic, fascinating woman. Based on letters by Hepburn, her friends, and her family, as well as interviews with Hepburn herself, Leaming's book is a family story that brings alive three generations of fearless women, personal and political crusaders who shaped the history of women in our century.

The Independent Film Producer's Survival Guide: A Business and Legal Sourcebook


Gunnar Erickson - 2002
    In this comprehensive guidebook, three experienced entertainment lawyers tell you everything you need to know to produce and market an independent film-from the development process to deal making, financing, setting up the production, hiring directors and actors, distributing and marketing your film.

Don't Tell Dad


Peter Fonda - 1998
    From his growing up in the Fonda household, to his mother's suicide and its ultimate effect on the family, to his own wild Adventures -- and sordid misadventures -- with some of the world's best-known actors and icons, this is a personal reflection and a deeply introspective look at one of the most talented and fascinating celebrities of our time. Don't Tell Dad is sure to be the most talked-about book of the spring, and your customers will want to experience it to the fullest in Peter Fonda's own words from HarperAudio -- Publishing simultaneously in April with the hardcover edition of Don't Tell Dad from Hyperion Books.-- This audiocassette edition of Don't Tell Dad will be read by Peter Fonda himself -- Peter Fonda is the star and co-writer of the classic Easy Rider, a film widely considered the quintessential film of the '60s.-- Peter Fonda is also the star of Ulee's Gold, one of the most critically-acclaimed films of 1997.-- Peter Fonda is part of one of the most well-known celebrity families of our time -- he is the son of Henry Fonda, brother of Jane Fonda, and father of Bridget Fonda.

Jaane Bhi Do Yaaro


Jai Arjun Singh - 2010
    Some of the country s finest theatre and film talents all at key stages in their careers participated in its creation, but the journey was anything but smooth. Among other things, it involved bumping off disco killers and talking gorillas, finding air-conditioned rooms for dead rats, persuading a respected actor to stop sulking and eat his meals, and resisting the temptation to introduce logic into a madcap script. In the end, it was worth it.Kundan Shah s Jaane Bhi Do Yaaro is now a byword for the sort of absurdist, satirical humour that Hindi cinema just hasn t seen enough of. This is the story of how it came to be despite incredible odds and what it might have been. Jai Arjun Singh s engaging take on the making of the film and its cult following is as entertaining as the film itself.

Horror Films of the 1970s


John Kenneth Muir - 2002
    This detailed filmography covers these and 225 more. Section One provides an introduction and a brief history of the decade. Beginning with 1970 and proceeding chronologically by year of its release in the United States, Section Two offers an entry for each film. Each entry includes several categories of information: Critical Reception (sampling both '70s and later reviews), Cast and Credits, P.O.V., (quoting a person pertinent to that film's production), Synopsis (summarizing the film's story), Commentary (analyzing the film from Muir's perspective), Legacy (noting the rank of especially worthy '70s films in the horror pantheon of decades following). Section Three contains a conclusion and these five appendices: horror film cliches of the 1970s, frequently appearing performers, memorable movie ads, recommended films that illustrate how 1970s horror films continue to impact the industry, and the 15 best genre films of the decade as chosen by Muir.

Hawks on Hawks


Joseph McBride - 1982
    The distinguished director, Howard Hawks, discusses his techniques of filmmaking, analyzes the artistry of his movies, and portrays his experiences working in Hollywood.

Superman vs. Hollywood: How Fiendish Producers, Devious Directors, and Warring Writers Grounded an American Icon


Jake Rossen - 2008
    For the first time, one book unearths all the details of his turbulent adventures in Tinseltown. Based on extensive interviews with producers, screenwriters, cast members, and crew, Superman vs. Hollywood spills the beans on Marlon Brando’s eccentricities; the challenges of making Superman appear to fly; the casting process that at various points had Superman being played by Sylvester Stallone, Neil Diamond, Nicolas Cage, Ashton Kutcher, and even Muhammad Ali; and the Superman movies, fashioned by such maverick filmmakers as Kevin Smith and Tim Burton, that never made it to the screen.

On Kubrick


James Naremore - 2007
    This book argues that in several respects Kubrick was one of the cinema's last modernists.

The Studio


John Gregory Dunne - 1969
    Miraculously, he got it. For one year Dunne went everywhere there was to go and talked to everyone worth talking to within the studio. He tracked every step of the creation of pictures like "Dr. Dolittle," "Planet of the Apes," and "The Boston Strangler." The result is a work of reportage that, thirty years later, may still be our most minutely observed and therefore most uproariously funny portrait of the motion picture business.Whether he is recounting a showdown between Fox's studio head and two suave shark-like agents, watching a producer's girlfriend steal a silver plate from a restaurant, or shielding his eyes against the glare of a Hollywood premiere where the guests include a chimp in a white tie and tails, Dunne captures his subject in all its showmanship, savvy, vulgarity, and hype. Not since F. Scott Fitzgerald and Nathanael West has anyone done Hollywood better."Reads as racily as a novel...(Dunne) has a novelist's ear for speech and eye for revealing detail...Anyone who has tiptoed along those corridors of power is bound to say that Dunne's impressionism rings true."--Los Angeles Times

James Dean: The Biography


Val Holley - 1995
    Author Val Holley delves into Dean's early life and training on stage and in television using research that is astounding in its detail and frequently lets his sources speak in their own voices.

Leading Ladies: The 50 Most Unforgettable Actresses of the Studio Era


Turner Classic Movies - 2006
    Produced by Turner Classic Movies, this playful and definitive guide to fifty unforgettable actresses mirrors the focus of a month-long film festival on the channel. The life and accomplishments of each actress is celebrated in an insightful career overview, accompanied by an annotated list of essential films, filmographies, behind the scenes facts and style notes, Academy Award wins and nominations. Full of delightful trivia, film stills, posters, and glamorous photos, Leading Ladies pays tribute to the most charismatic, enduring, and elegant actresses of the silver screen.

Platinum Girl: The Life and Legends of Jean Harlow


Eve Golden - 1991
    Born into the pleasant middle-class world of Kansas City, Missouri, in 1911, Harlow (nee Harlean Carpenter) was the daughter of a solid, if dull, dentist, whose wife had unfulfilled aspirations to a career in films. The family was hardly prepared for what came next. Jean became a bride at sixteen, was separated at eighteen, a film goddess at twenty, a wife again at twenty-one, and a widow within a few months of the wedding. Her husband, top MGM executive Paul Bern, committed suicide (it was widely and mistakenly believed) out of despair over impotence.Bern's suicide threatened to plunge Jean Harlow into a scandal that might have ended her career. But, driven by her irresistible sparkle, glamour, and sensuality, the young star's fortunes continued to skyrocket in unforgettable films like Red Dust, Dinner at Eight, Bombshell, Reckless, China Seas, and Libeled Lady as she appeared with the likes of Clark Gable, John and Lionel Barrymore, Mary Astor, Marie Dressler, Wallace Beery, Rosalind Russell, Spencer Tracy, and William Powell.She married a third time in 1933, was divorced a year later, only to become engaged to her sometime costar William Powell. Noting that the extremely well-paid Blonde Bombshell was perpetually on the ragged edge of bankruptcy, Powell hired a private detective to investigate Harlow's stepfather, Marino Bello, who - it turned out - had long been defrauding her. Despite this and the on-again, off-again engagement to Powell, Harlow seemed unstoppable. Then, in the midst of filming Saratoga in 1937, the twenty-six-year-old Platinum Girl succumbed to kidney failure.In this, the first biography of Harlow since Irving Shulman's sensationalistic and often inaccurate 1964 book, Eve Golden explores the woman behind the legends and the scandals. The world evoked here is at once glamorous, nostalgic, poignant, and tragic. Yet, in its way, the brief life of Jean Harlow is a story of success, of a triumphal struggle with Hollywood and the consequences of rapid fame. Golden's deeply researched narrative is lavishly illustrated with rare film stills, posters, and exclusive photographs from family archives. Harlow emerges not as an oversexed mannequin, but as a vulnerable, hard-working, and tremendously likable woman who molded herself into a remarkable actress. This is an important book about one of Hollywood's most extraordinary personalities.

Forever Young : The Life, Loves, and Enduring Faith of a Hollywood Legend ; The Authorized Biography of Loretta Young


Joan Wester Anderson - 2000
    The real life and faith journey of Loretta Young -- her strong devotion to her Catholic faith and her passion for helping others in need.