The
better film books, in particular the best biographies and histories,
are those works which break new ground, or illuminate some previously
little seen aspect of the cinema. This year saw the release of at least
five books which do just that—four of them are biographies of important
figures which till now have received scant, or insufficient,
recognition. (That’s a relative claim, of course.) The other is an
exceptional group study which reveals a host of undervalued performers.
For movie lovers who like to read up on film history, each of these
titles is worth adding to your shelves.
This list of recommended film books compares with
last year’s, which was also bountiful and demanded a
second take.
As a matter of fact, there were so many worthwhile books this year that
I am considering a second shortlist, something along the lines of “Best
Film Books of 2017: Silent Comedy Edition.” Until then…. Check out
these highly recommended titles.
Although
a Hollywood studio still bears his name, William Fox has largely been
forgotten. Entertainment journalist Vanda Krefft sets the record
straight, and in doing so, shows why Fox’s legacy is central to the
history of the motion picture and entertainment industries. Like Thomas
Edison (
with whom he did battle)
and Walt Disney and Steve Jobs, Fox was a captain of industry. His
improbable rags-to-riches story is told in grand style, but spoiler
alert, it’s not a happy ending. Fox would lose it all. At nearly a
thousand pages, Krefft’s thoroughly researched, engagingly written book
shows this scrappy visionary to be an enabler of the best sort of
talent. We have Fox to thank for vamp Theda Bara, cowboy star Tom Mix,
directors John Ford and Howard Hawks (the latter the director of the 1928 Louise Brooks film
A Girl in Every Port), F.W. Murnau’s
Sunrise, and so much more.
(For more on Fox’s legacy, see
Twentieth Century Fox: A Century of Entertainment below.)
In
this first biography of the Academy Award–winning director Michael
Curtiz (1886–1962), film scholar Alan K. Rode takes us through the
colorful and sometimes temperamental personal life and magisterial films
of a multifaceted overachiever. During his remarkable twenty-seven year
tenure at Warner Brothers, Curtiz directed swashbuckling adventures,
westerns, war films, gangster films, musicals, historical dramas, horror
films, tearjerkers, melodramas, comedies, and even a film noir
masterpiece. The director’s staggering output of 180 films surpasses
that of John Ford, and exceeds the combined total of films by George
Cukor, Howard Hawks, and Victor Fleming! And it wasn’t just
quantity—there was quality, aplenty. Curtiz’s best-known efforts include
such classics as
The Adventures of Robin Hood (1938),
Casablanca (1942),
Yankee Doodle Dandy (1942),
Mildred Pierce (1945) and
White Christmas (1954). I love
Captain Blood (1935),
Passage to Marseille (1944), and
Young Man with a Horn (1950), and have a not-so-secret weakness for one of his lesser films,
God’s Gift to Women
(1931). On top of all that, the Hungarian-born Curtiz (who worked in
Europe before coming to America) co-wrote the screenplay for the
first known Dracula film,
Drakula Halala
(1921)! As Rode shows in this impressive book, Curtiz did it all; Rode
has written the definitive biography of a major figure in Hollywood
history.
This
book looks at the careers of the funny ladies of early film—who,
compared to their male colleagues, haven’t really received the attention
they deserve. Besides the better known Mabel Normand, Marie Dressler,
or
Marion Davies, Massa’s book looks at the careers of Louise Fazenda, Madge Kennedy, Dorothy Devore, Dot Farley,
Baby Peggy
and numerous other “droll divas.” It includes hundreds of rare
illustrations, as well as capsule biographies of once famous, now little
remembered or wholly forgotten screen comediennes. There is also a passage on Louise Brooks and the comedic films in which she appeared.
Steve Massa has written a highly recommended book which belongs on the shelves of
anyone interested in early film comedy or women’s film history. Oh, and
that’s Alice ("she could be Chaplin") Howell on the book’s terrific cover; Howell was described as
“the scream of the screen.”
It’s
unusual, but not unprecedented for an actor to write a book about
another actor. Simon Callow’s epic life of Orson Welles comes to mind,
as does Diana Serra Carey’s (Baby Peggy’s) book on
Jackie Coogan. Sherri Snyder is a Los Angeles actress who portrays
Barbara La Marr
in a one-woman performance piece. Having researched her subject, she
found the once famous silent film star was far more than just the “girl
who was too beautiful” (as she was often described). La Marr was a
multitalented woman tortured by adversity who compensated for her
troubles in all the wrong ways, especially through drinking and serial
relationships. “I take lovers like roses” La Marr once said, “by the
dozen.” Few stars have burned as brightly and as briefly as La Marr.
With the help of her only child, and drawing on never-before-released
documents, Snyder has penned a compelling portrait of a forgotten star.
Ricardo
Cortez (1900-1977) was a leading man and later character actor with
bedroom eyes and an easy smile. Widely publicized as a “Latin lover”
during his rise to fame in the 1920s, Cortez was actually Jacob Krantz, a
poor Jewish kid who started out as an amateur boxer and businessman. He
enjoyed a long Hollywood career, appearing in
Torrent (1926)
opposite Greta Garbo in her first American film, a couple of Lon Chaney
films, and other notable works directed by the likes of D. W. Griffith
and Cecil B. DeMille. When the talkies came, Cortez transitioned
successfully. He was Sam Spade in the first film adaptation of Dashiell
Hammett’s
The Maltese Falcon (1931)—it was just shown on TCM,
and would play opposite leading ladies Joan Crawford, Barbara Stanwyck,
Claudette Colbert, and Bette Davis. With the passing years, Cortez
settled into character roles in films like
The Case of the Black Cat (1936, as Perry Mason),
Charlie Chan in Reno (1939), and
Mr. Moto’s Last Warning (1939). His last film was John Ford’s
The Last Hurrah
(1958). Cortez, who was once married to actress Alma Rubens
(1897-1931), was proclaimed cinema’s “magnificent heel.” Find out why in
this new book.
Regrettably,
I am happy to report that there are even more worthwhile biographies
and works of film history than can’t be fully recounted in this article.
Nevertheless, here are a few more books readers and film buffs will
want to know about.
As
the Christian right tries to push the country back to a time which
never really existed, it’s worth noting that the movies of their
parent’s and grandparent’s time were nearly as lurid as movies today.
These two titles shine a spotlight on the Pre-code era, when gangster
films, horror films, and social problem films depicted violence, drugs
and sex with an honesty and flair which led to censorship (the censors
were trying to return America to a time which never really existed).
Among the many films under consideration in these two worthwhile books
are
Baby Face (1933),
I Am a Fugitive from a Chain Gang (1932), and
Call Her Savage (1932), as well as
Freaks (1932),
Frankenstein (1931), and
Dracula (1931).
Twentieth Century Fox: A Century of Entertainment (Lyons Press) by Michael Troyan, Jeffrey Paul Thompson, and Stephen X. Sylvester & Paramount: City of Dreams (Taylor Trade Publishing) by Steven Bingen, with Marc Wanamaker
These
two studio histories impress. Each book is oversized, detailed, and
each is filled with hundreds of seldom seen or never before published
images. Both take readers behind the scenes of these two important
studios, past the studio gates and onto their historic sound stages,
prop rooms, outdoor sets, and backlots. Have a favorite star or film
associated with either Fox or Paramount (Louise Brooks' primary studio)? Chances are you will find
something you’ve never seen before in one of these recommended new
books.
Both
of these entertainers were too marvelous for words, and both were among
the most beloved of their time. Keeler (who was once married to Al
Jolson) was a star of the stage and screen famous for her on-screen
coupling with Dick Powell in a string of successful early musicals at
Warner Brothers, particularly
42nd Street (1933). Kelly was a dancer, choreographer and actor whose memorable films include
Anchors Aweigh (1945),
On the Town (1949),
An American in Paris (1951), and
Singin’ in the Rain (1952).
More than half a century later, each is still a tonic for trying times.
Silent Films in St. Augustine (University Press of Florida) by Thomas Graham & Asheville Movies Volume 1: The Silent Era (Men With Wings Press) by Frank Thompson
Before
Hollywood, when America’s emerging motion picture industry was largely
based on the East Coast, early film stars like Rudolph Valentino, Ethel
Barrymore, Oliver Hardy and Thomas Meighan (the star of
The City Gone Wild) made movies in places like
St. Augustine, Florida and Asheville, North Carolina. These two books
tells the story of the producers, directors, actors and crews who—in
search of new locales—escaped New York winters to make movies in the
sunny South. This is local film history writ large. (BTW: The 1926 Louise Brooks' film,
It's the Old Army Game, was filmed primarily in Ocala, Florida.)
[Here is an
earlier write-up on the Louise Brooks Society blog of Frank Thompson's fascinating new book.]
And without going into detail, here are yet a few more interesting, fun and worthwhile books film buffs will want to check out:
We’ll Always Have Casablanca: The Life, Legend, and Afterlife of Hollywood’s Most Beloved Movie (W. W. Norton & Company) by Noah Isenberg;
Pandora’s Box by Pamela Hutchinson (BFI Film Classics);
Warner Bros: The Making of an American Movie Studio (Yale University Press) by the inestimable David Thomson;
Hank and Jim: The Fifty-Year Friendship of Henry Fonda and James Stewart (Simon & Schuster) by the equally inestimable Scott Eyman;
Hollywood at Play: The Lives of the Stars Between Takes
(Lyons Press) by Stephen X. Sylvester, Mary Mallory, & Donovan
Brandt; and not one, but two books on the vivacious star of the
1931 Louise Brooks' film,
It's the Old Army Game,
Carole Lombard: Twentieth-Century Star (The History Press) by Michelle Morgan, and
Screwball: The Life of Carole Lombard (Echo Point Books & Media) by Larry Swindell.
And hot off the press is a new edition of
Leonard Maltin’s Movie Guide: The Modern Era.
a variant of this article by Thomas Gladysz appeared on Huffington Post
