NEW AND NOTABLE FILM BOOKS September 2020
HITCHCOCK’S CALIFORNIA: VISTA VISIONS FROM THE CAMERA EYE by Robert Jones, Dan Auiler, and Aimee Sinclair; introduction by Bruce Dern; afterword by Dorothy Herrmann (Middlebrow Books) At first glance I thought this striking, oversized book was a series…
THE PERSONAL HISTORY OF DAVID COPPERFIELD
I’m a sucker for Charles Dickens, and I must confess I came to him through movies. It was a showing of the 1935 David Copperfield that inspired me to read the source novel when I was a boy; then I became…
JOHN WAYNE, MARLENE DIETRICH, OUR GANG AS YOU’VE NEVER SEEN THEM
Imagine John Wayne hosting a television show like Entertainment Tonight. In a way he did, when he was rebounding from the failure of his first starring film, Fox’s epic production The Big Trail in 1930. The make-believe television series was called The Voice…
REMEMBERING OLIVIA DE HAVILLAND
It had to happen sometime, but with the passing of Olivia de Havilland today at the age of 104 the curtain rings down on the golden age of Hollywood. There are other survivors of that era but none can…
STAN & OLLIE & BUD & LOU & BUSTER ON BLU-RAY AND DVD
LAUREL & HARDY: THE DEFINITIVE RESTORATIONS (Kit Parker Films) I’ve been watching Laurel and Hardy since I was very young, when they were a daily presence on local television, but I’ve never seen their films look or sound…
MOVIE BOOK ROUNDUP JULY 2020: MAX STEINER TO THE KEYSTONE COPS
MUSIC BY MAX STEINER: THE EPIC LIFE OF HOLLYWOOD’S MOST INFLUENTIAL COMPOSER by Steven C. Smith (Oxford University Press) You don’t need to be musically educated to appreciate or enjoy this thorough, meticulously researched and entertaining biography. Smith,…
THE GHOST OF PETER SELLERS
With each passing year we see more documentaries about films and filmmakers. Some get only a passing nod while others are embraced by critics and buffs alike. In The Ghost of Peter Sellers, Hungarian-born filmmaker Peter Medak travels back 47…
