Review of Sex In the Cinema: The Pre-Code Years (1929-1934) by Lou Sabini, an encyclopedic collection of articles about 107 pre-Code movies. 2017, BearManor.
Recommended: Women Film Editors by David Meuel
A look at David Meuel’s highly recommended third volume of film history Women Film Editors, published by McFarland, 2016.
Review: Nobody’s Stooge: Ted Healy by Bill Cassara
A review of the 2015 BearManor Media release Nobody’s Stooge: Ted Healy by Bill Cassera. A biography of the creator of The Three Stooges, who met an untimely and controversial death in 1937.
Review: Women in the Films of John Ford by David Meuel
In praise of David Meuel’s excellent volume, Women in the Films of John Ford, which focuses on an often ignored aspect of the director’s work. Review includes a dissection of Meuel’s chapter about Henrietta Crosman in Ford’s Pilgrimage.
‘My Lunches with Orson’ Review – Orson Welles Speaks
‘My Lunches with Orson: Conversations Between Henry Jaglom and Orson Welles” as recorded between 1983-85. Edited with introduction by Peter Biskind. A fascinating new book that was much better than anticipated.
Review: Three Bad Men: John Ford, John Wayne, Ward Bond by Scott Allen Nollen
A review of Scott Allen Nollen’s Three Bad Men: John Ford, John Wayne, Ward Bond. Published by McFarland in March 2013.
Sidebar: Walter Huston and the Duke of Crovenay
A review of John Weld’s biography of Walter Huston, September Song, including a story about the fabled Duke of Crovenay and the birth of the Crovenay Society.
Alan Mowbray Book Review: Up from Central Park: Scenes From an Actor’s Life
Over 40 years after his death the memoirs of character actor Alan Mowbray have been published by his son, Alan, Jr. A look at Mowbray’s life and the memories he left us.
Dwight Frye’s Last Laugh – Before and Beyond Dracula and Frankenstein
Dwight Frye is legendary for his roles in the Universal horror classics Dracula and Frankenstein. The 1997 biography Dwight Frye’s Last Laugh chronicles the actor’s fast rise to surprising heights and even quicker fall.
Myrna Loy – The Only Good Girl in Hollywood vs. Being and Becoming
Myrna Loy’s 1987 autobiography Being and Becoming is an all-time favorite here. 2011 brings the first Myrna Loy biography since that time, Myrna Loy: The Only Good Girl in Hollywood by Emily W. Leider. Here’s a look at both titles, side by side.
