Book picks similar to
Wheeler & Woolsey: The Vaudeville Comic Duo and Their Films, 1929-1937 by Edward Watz
biographies-of-men
film_pre-code-hollywood
movies
non-fiction-memoir-or-biography
My Stroke of Luck
Kirk Douglas - 2002
In this vivid and very personal reflection upon his extraordinary life as an actor, author, and legend in his own time, Douglas offers a candid and heartfelt memoir of where it all went right in his life -- even after the stroke.Revealing not only the incredible physical and emotional toll of his stroke but how it has changed his life for the better, Douglas shares the lessons that saved him and helped him to heal. Alongside his heartfelt advice and insight, he also recalls warm memories of some of the most famous figures of our time -- including Frank Sinatra, Burt Lancaster, Michael J. Fox, and Gary Cooper -- as well as others who have soared to greatness in the face of adversity.Charming, soulful, and filled with personal photographs, My Stroke of Luck is an intimate look at the real person behind the fabulous talent -- and at a life lived to its very fullest.
Fritz Lang: The Nature of the Beast
Patrick McGilligan - 1997
A thoroughly researched examination of the life of the renowned director not only looks at the great volume of Lang's work, but also at his personal life, including the question of whether or not he murdered his first wife.
Masters of Cinema: David Lynch
Thierry Jousse - 2010
1946) is perhaps the best known of all cult directors, whose Mulholland Drive marks cinema's arrival to the 21st century. His career began more than 30 years ago, with the groundbreaking, mystifying "Eraserhead" (1977). With "Blue Velvet" (1986), "Wild at Heart" (1990) and "Lost Highway" (1997) Lynch breathed new life into the sensory experiences of film audiences and disrupted narrative logic to mysterious and mystifying effect. In the early 1990s, he invented a new TV series genre with "Twin Peaks". Although he is a Hollywood director, Lynch works at the edges of the studio system, exploring the many facets of his artistic talent, whose creations, including photography, painting and music, are now making their way into museums and galleries.
The Official Godzilla Compendium: A 40 Year Retrospective (Official Godzilla)
J.D. Lees - 1998
144 pp. Ages 14 and up. Pub: 3/98.
The Phantom of the Opera Companion
Martin Knowlden - 2007
It has dazzled more than 100 million people in 22 countries, and went on to become a major feature film. This pictorial companion is the definitive account of the award-winning masterpiece. It traces the Phantom legend from its origins in historical fact through numerous artistic incarnations to the present-day theater production and film. Arranged in three parts, the first introduces the reader to Gaston Leroux’s classic story, while the second part offers a unique insight into the acclaimed theater production, with backstage photos and commentary from the director, designers, and crew. The final section, which contains the original screenplay, looks at the making of Joel Schumacher’s film, introducing the cast and featuring exclusive photos and interviews. A splendid celebration of a classic story and its many incarnations. This ravishing volume features the complete original screenplay and more than 150 color images from both the film and theater productions worldwide. Now in an elegant and affordable smaller-format edition.
Marlene Dietrich: Life And Legend
Steven Bach - 1993
Based on six years of research and hundreds of interviews—including conversations with Dietrich herself—this is the last, best word on one of the century's greatest movie actresses and performers, an icon who embodied glamour and sophistication for audiences around the globe.
Hello, I Must Be Going: Groucho and His Friends
Charlotte Chandler - 1978
Declining to be interviewed, he invited her over to his house so he could tell her no in person. After talking with her for hours, Groucho asked, “Why aren't you writing?”Hello, I Must Be Going is the story of Groucho and the Marx Brothers, told through Groucho's everyday conversations with Charlotte Chandler and his friends. And what a group of friends they were! Woody Allen, Jack Nicholson, Elliott Gould, Bill Cosby, Marvin Hamlisch, Betty Comden, Adolph Green, Sidney Sheldon, and dozens of others walk through the pages of this fascinating book. Anyone interested in Groucho or the Marx Brothers, or who wants to spend a few hours in fabulous company, will find this book irresistible.
Negative Space: Manny Farber on the Movies
Manny Farber - 1971
His witty, incisive criticism later worked exacting language into an exploration of the feelings and strategies that went into low-budget and radical films as diverse as Michael Snow's Wavelength, Werner Herzog's Fata Morgana, and Chantal Akerman's Jeanne Dielman. Expanded with an in-depth interview and seven essays written with his wife, artist Patricia Patterson, Negative Space gathers Farber's most influential writings, making this an indispensable collection for all lovers of film.
Company of Heroes: My Life as an Actor in the John Ford Stock Company
Harry Carey Jr. - 1994
Offers an intimate look at the work of Hollywood director John Ford through the observant eyes of actor Harry Carey, Jr.
A Third Face: My Tale of Writing, Fighting, and Filmmaking
Samuel Fuller - 2002
Winner of Best Non-Fiction for 2002 Award from the Los Angeles Times Book Review! Samuel Fuller was one of the most prolific and independent writer-director-producers in Hollywood. His 29 tough, gritty films made from 1949 to 1989 set out to capture the truth of war, racism and human frailties, and incorporate some of his own experiences. His film Park Row was inspired by his years in the New York newspaper business, where his beat included murders, suicides, state executions and race riots. He writes about hitchhiking across the country at the height of the Great Depression. His years in the army in World War II are captured in his hugely successful pictures The Big Red One, The Steel Helmet and Merrill's Marauders . Fuller's other films include Pickup on South Street; Underworld U.S.A., a movie that shows how gangsters in the 1960s were seen as "respected" tax-paying executives; Shock Corridor, which exposed the conditions in mental institutions; and White Dog, written in collaboration with Curtis Hanson ( L.A. Confidential ), a film so controversial that Paramount's then studio heads Jeffrey Katzenberg and Michael Eisner refused to release it. In addition to his work in film, Samuel Fuller (1911-1997) wrote eleven novels. He lived in Los Angeles with his wife and their daughter. A Third Face was completed by Jerome Henry Rudes, Fuller's longtime friend, and his wife, Christa Lang Fuller. "Fuller wasn't one for tactful understatement and his hot-blooded, incident-packed autobiography is accordingly blunt ... A Third Face is a grand, lively, rambunctious memoir." Janet Maslin, The New York Times; "Fuller's last work is a joy and an important addition to film and popular culture literature." Publishers Weekly; "If you don't like the films of Sam Fuller, then you just don't like cinema." Martin Scorsese, from the book's introduction
Essential Cinema: On the Necessity of Film Canons
Jonathan Rosenbaum - 2004
Guided by a personal canon of great films, Rosenbaum sees, in the ongoing hostility toward the idea of a canon shared by many within the field of film studies, a missed opportunity both to shape the discussion about cinema and to help inform and guide casual and serious filmgoers alike.In Essential Cinema, Rosenbaum forcefully argues that canons of great films are more necessary than ever, given that film culture today is dominated by advertising executives, sixty-second film reviewers, and other players in the Hollywood publicity machine who champion mediocre films at the expense of genuinely imaginative and challenging works. He proposes specific definitions of excellence in film art through the creation a personal canon of both well-known and obscure movies from around the world and suggests ways in which other canons might be similarly constructed.Essential Cinema offers in-depth assessments of an astonishing range of films: established classics such as Rear Window, M, and Greed; ambitious but flawed works like The Thin Red Line and Breaking the Waves; eccentric masterpieces from around the world, including Irma Vep and Archangel; and recent films that have bitterly divided critics and viewers, among them Eyes Wide Shut and A.I. He also explores the careers of such diverse filmmakers as Robert Altman, Raúl Ruiz, Frank Tashlin, Elaine May, Sam Fuller, Terrence Davies, Edward Yang, Hou Hsiao-hsien, and Orson Welles. In conclusion, Rosenbaum offers his own film canon of 1,000 key works from the beginning of cinema to the present day. A cogent and provocative argument about the art of film, Essential Cinema is also a fiercely independent reference book of must-see movies for film lovers everywhere.
American Legends: The Life of Paul Newman
Charles River Editors - 2014
*Includes Newman's own quotes about his life and career. "The first time I remember women reacting to me was when we were filming Hud in Texas. Women were literally trying to climb through the transoms at the motel where I stayed. At first, it's flattering to the ego. At first. Then you realize that they're mixing me up with the roles I play - characters created by writers who have nothing to do with who I am." - Paul NewmanA lot of ink has been spilled covering the lives of history's most influential figures, but how much of the forest is lost for the trees? In Charles River Editors' American Legends series, readers can get caught up to speed on the lives of America's most important men and women in the time it takes to finish a commute, while learning interesting facts long forgotten or never known.Over the course of his long film career, Paul Newman was once one of the most bankable stars in Hollywood during his peak, and that was decades before he won an Academy Award for Best Actor for his role in The Color of Money (1986), one of the eight times he was nominated for an Oscar. Having come to prominence as a handsome but rebellious young man in the mold of James Dean, Newman was able to maintain an aura that viewers found both cool and irresistible even into his 60s, typically an age when leading men find themselves on the outs. Newman was even nominated for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for Road to Perdition (2002), when he was in his late 70s, and he continued working in the industry until just shortly before his death in 2008.While Newman was a recognizable film star in his time, younger generations know Newman more as a pop culture fixture than as a movie star. Newman acted and directed in Hollywood for six decades, but he was noteworthy off the screen for various pursuits, including running a racing team that was successful in IndyCar racing, but especially for the food products that bore his name. Newman established the food company Newman's Own as a philanthropic endeavor, once joking, "When I realized I was going to have to be a whore, to put my face on the label, I decided that the only way I could do it was to give away all the money we make. Over the years, that ethical stance has given us a 30 per cent boost. One in three customers buys my products because all the profits go to good causes and the rest buy the stuff because it is good." Although he started jokingly referring to himself as the "star of oil and vinegar and the oil and vinegar of the stars", consumers still find Newman's face on labels for goods like salad dressing and popcorn, and the brand name is still very popular today, helping carry Newman's name and legacy forward.American Legends: The Life of Paul Newman examines the versatile life and career of an American icon. Along with pictures of important people, places, and events, you will learn about Paul Newman like never before, in no time at all.
Double Lives, Second Chances: The Cinema of Krzysztof Kieslowski
Annette Insdorf - 1999
His best-known films, Blue; White; Red; The Double Life of Veronique; and The Decalogue, remain watershed events in lmmaking history. Author Annette Insdorf, Kieslowskis close friend and translator, offers a revealing portrait of his life and monumental body of work. From the gold-bathed images of The Double Life of Veronique to the emotionally dark, visually haunting Blue, Kieslowskis films explore personal and social issues with inimitable brilliance. This paperback edition includes an updated introduction with information on the much anticipated release of Heaven (March 2002) which Kieslowski wrote and planned to film, before he died unexpectedly in March 1996.
Step Right Up!: I'm Gonna Scare The Pants Off America
William Castle - 1976
Here are the outrageous memoirs of an American original whose life was every bit as outlandish as his movies. Photographs. Filmography.
Orson Welles: A Biography
Barbara Leaming - 1985
...[What] makes this book remarkable is Welles's own contribution. His comments, opinions, interviews cut in and out of the narrative with an almost cinematic force." -Patricia Bosworth