Hamlet Lives in Hollywood


Book Description

Analyses the democratic dimension of the recent political changes in MENA




Hollywood's White House


Book Description

" Winner of the 2003 Ray and Pat Browne Book Award, given by the Popular Culture Association The contributors to Hollywood's White House examine the historical accuracy of these presidential depictions, illuminate their influence, and uncover how they reflect the concerns of their times and the social and political visions of the filmmakers. The volume, which includes a comprehensive filmography and a bibliography, is ideal for historians and film enthusiasts.




Only Victims


Book Description

In a dramatic change of role, the noted television and film star has written a vivid and incisive account of the House Committee on Un-American Activities' probe of the entertainment industry from 1938 to 1958. Formed to investigate alleged subversives, by the late fifties the committee had succeeded in ruining the careers and sometimes the lives of many of Hollywood and Broadway's top writers and performers. Quoting generously from transcripts of its hearings, Vaughn shows how the committee's primary purpose was punitive rather than legislative, and concludes that its most serious damage to American theatre and film is not easily documented: the loss of all the words never written or spoken because of the impact - and the fear - of the committee's misdeeds.




Hollywood's Hellfire Club


Book Description

They made fans go crazy and censors apoplectic, spent fortunes faster than they made them, forged Rembrandts and hung them in major museums, went on trial for committing statutory rape with necrophiliac teenage girls, reinterpreted Hamlet as an incestuous mama's boy,and swilled immeasurable quantities of spirits during week-long parties on wobbly yachts. They were "The Bundy Drive Boys," and they made the Rat Pack look like Cub Scouts. Their self-destructiveness was spectacular, the misanthropy profound, but behind the boozy bravado was a devoted mutual affection. The Bundy Drive Boys' un-bowdlerized stories have never been illustrated so well or told so completely as within Hollywood's Hellfire Club. Author Gregory William Mank also wrote It's Alive!: The Classic Cinema Saga of Frankenstein and Hollywood Cauldron.




Hollywood Cauldron


Book Description

Thirteen of Hollywood's horror classics in detail: Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1931), The Old Dark House(1932), The Mask of Fu Manchu (1932), Mark of the Vampire (1935), Mad Love (1935), The Black Room (1935), The Walking Dead (1936), Cat People (1942), Bluebeard (1944), The Lodger (1944), The Picture of Dorian Gray (1945), Hangover Square (1945) and Bedlam (1946). From original interviews and research, the styles of the various studios (from giant M-G-M to Poverty Row's PRC), along with the performers, directors, and backstage events, are examined.




Hollywood's Original Rat Pack


Book Description

In the 1930s and '40s an untamed group of Hollywood notables, men most well-known for their talents on the silver screen, frequently met and behaved in a manner that no doubt made them infamous within their community. The group included John Barrymore, Errol Flynn, W. C. Fields, Anthony Quinn, Vincent Price, and the eccentric artist John Decker. Hollywood's Original Rat Pack revisits the lives and times of this free-spirited gang and rekindles the spirit of their excesses. In this lighthearted history, Jordan introduces the members of the Bundy Drive Boys, focuses on the unique personality traits each offered, and brings their lusty stories of carousing and debauchery to life in a manner that pays tribute to their carefree, if admittedly reckless, antics.




We'll Always Have Casablanca: The Life, Legend, and Afterlife of Hollywood's Most Beloved Movie


Book Description

A Los Angeles Times bestseller A New York Times Book Review “Editor’s Choice” Selection “Even the die-hardest Casablanca fan will find in this delightful book new ways to love the movie they were certain they could never love more.” —Sam Wasson, best-selling author of Fifth Avenue, 5 A.M. Casablanca is “not one movie,” Umberto Eco once quipped; “it is ‘movies.’” Film historian Noah Isenberg’s We’ll Always Have Casablanca offers a rich account of the film’s origins, the myths and realities behind its production, and the reasons it remains so revered today, over seventy-five years after its premiere.




What Hamlet Said


Book Description

Hollywood in the Thirties: Nazi saboteurs, gangsters running gambling ships, British spies and diplomats, FBI agents, starlets looking for the big break, cheap hustlers on the fringes of the law, local cops—some are friends and some are adversaries, but all are involved somehow with Riley Fitzhugh, a private eye who’s wondering whether the death of an English aristocrat really was an accident.




Will in the World: How Shakespeare Became Shakespeare (Anniversary Edition)


Book Description

Named One of Esquire's 50 Best Biographies of All Time The Pulitzer Prize and National Book Award finalist, reissued with a new afterword for the 400th anniversary of Shakespeare’s death. A young man from a small provincial town moves to London in the late 1580s and, in a remarkably short time, becomes the greatest playwright not of his age alone but of all time. How is an achievement of this magnitude to be explained? Stephen Greenblatt brings us down to earth to see, hear, and feel how an acutely sensitive and talented boy, surrounded by the rich tapestry of Elizabethan life, could have become the world’s greatest playwright.




Jean Simmons


Book Description

Arriving in Hollywood in 1950 to launch her American film career, Jean Simmons (1929-2010) had already appeared in 18 British films and was best known for her portrayal of Ophelia in Laurence Olivier's Hamlet. She soon became a favorite female face working with some of filmmaking's greats and acted opposite many Hollywood A-listers. Two of her most popular films--Guys and Dolls (1955) and Spartacus (1960)--were international box-office hits, and in her seven decades-long career she collected numerous awards and honors including a Golden Globe, an Emmy, and two Oscar nominations as Best Actress. Despite the accomplishments and accolades, radiant beauty, and stunning versatility, Simmons is considered by many to be an underrated artist, too often handed more comfortable leading female roles than those that could've elevated her to the level of super stardom experienced by some of her peers. This, the first full-length biography of Simmons, fills a gap in film and performing arts studies, and includes extensive notes and photographs.