Acknowledging the iconic, but with plenty of room for the rare and unfamiliar, The Art of Classic Sci-Fi Movies presents a stellar selection of imagery, charting the story of the genre from its origins
Four Scores and Seven Reels Ago: The U.S. Presidency Through Hollywood, Real and Unreal investigates the numerous ways Hollywood has portrayed the presidency of the United States, both through biographical portraits of those who served and fictional presidents for dramatic and fantastical movies.
Movies don't exist in a vacuum. Each MGM movie is a tiny piece of a large, colorful (although often black & white) quilt, with threads tying it into all of the rest of that studio's product, going forward, yes, but also backwards, and horizontally and three dimensionally across its entire landscape. Not necessarily a "best of" compilation, this ......
With eye-popping images from all over the world, The Art of Horror Movies: Revised Edition is the definitive guide for anyone who loves horror films and movie fans of all ages.
The Ramones and the Making of Rock 'n' Roll High School
The first of its sort, The Ramones and the Making of Rock ‘n’ Roll High School provides readers with a detailed production history of this beloved film that draws upon extensive interviews the author has conducted with many of the people who contributed to its creation.
Universal Studios produced some of the most famous movie monsters in history, including Dracula, Frankenstein, The Mummy, The Invisible Man, and The Wolf Man. This book provides a fascinating look at each of the key films produced by Universal from 1931 through 1956 and discusses the continued impact of the films today.
With mingled reverence and wry humor, best-selling author Tom Santopietro embarks on an investigation to decode the enduring power of a landmark movie.
James Bond the the 60s Spy Craze will explore James Bond films and the number of movies and television shows of the 1960s inspired by Ian Fleming's character. The book also delves into the production, casting, merchandise, and music that helped to make James Bond a household name and a cultural touchstone. The 1960s spy craze lasted seven years, ......
Hollywood is a transitory place. Stars and studios rise and fall. Genres and careers wax and wane. Movies and movie moguls and movie makers and movie palaces are acclaimed and patronized and loved and beloved, and then forgotten. And yet... And yet one place in Southern California, built in the 1920s by (allegedly murdered) producer Thomas Ince, ......
Over the last eighty years, Marlon Brando has become such an object of fascination, buried under so many accreted layers of mythos and half-truth, that it is all but impossible to see the man behind the icon. As we approach the centennial of this undisputed American legend, Marlon Brando: Hollywood Rebel is a revelatory biography that tells its ......
Steven Spielberg's extraordinary career redefined Hollywood, but his achievement goes far beyond shattered box office records. Rejecting the view of Spielberg as a Barnumesque purveyor of spectacle, Lester D. Friedman presents the filmmaker as a major artist who pairs an ongoing willingness to challenge himself with a widely recognized technical ......
Gone with the Wind: Day by Day chronicles the production, premieres and reception of the iconic film from January 1, 1939 to December 31, 1939. Engaging, daily behind-the-scenes entries provide a snapshot of what was happening on and off the set. Sidebars sprinkled throughout the months provide insightful, expert commentary about the cast, the ......
A Journey through Film History and the Academy Awards
A fascinating history of motion pictures through the lens of the Academy Awards, Best Pick provides a decade-by-decade look at the Oscars by examining the Best Picture winners, highest-grossing films, and biggest misses alongside a discussion of the trends, innovations, and stories that defined the decade.
During the early era of cinema, moviegoers turned to women editors and writers for the latest on everyone's favorite stars, films, and filmmakers. Richard Abel returns these women to film history with an anthology of reviews, articles, and other works. Drawn from newspapers of the time, the selections show how columnists like Kitty Kelly, Mae ......
Author Donald Brackett-whose grandfather was Charles Brackett's cousin-delves into family lore, correspondence, contemporary media reports, and all other manner of historical records to reconstruct the strange magic of Brackett & Wilder's combustible partnership.
From The Lady Eve, to The Big Valley, Barbara Stanwyck played parts that showcased her multidimensional talents but also illustrated the limits imposed on women in film and television. Catherine Russell's A to Z consideration of the iconic actress analyzes twenty-six facets of Stanwyck and the America of her times. Russell examines Stanwyck's work ......
The Beatles produced five films during their time together: A Hard Day’s Night, Help!, Magical Mystery Tour, Yellow Submarine, and Let It Be. Some were cinematic successes, and some were not, but—along with subsequent reissues, bonus material, and Peter Jackson’s The Beatles: Get Back, a documentary companion to Let It Be—they comprise an ......
She would appear in more than thirty films and be named after a Road Atlas by Cecil B Demille. A football play would be named after her. She would appear on To Tell the Truth. She would be arrested six times in one day for indecency. She would be immortalized in the final scene of The Right Stuff, cartoons, popular culture, and live on as the ......
Behind the images and facades of stars whose fame and fascination continue to outlive them lies the naked truth. How Hollywood stars lived, worked and died is often more dramatic than their films. When we talk about movie stars we usually dwell not on their movies but their personalities or what happened to them or supposedly happened. Their lives ......
Movie studios are the wondrous, almost magical locales where not just films, but legends, are created. Unfortunately, these celebrity playgrounds are, and always have been, largely hidden from public view. Although some movie studios offer tours, few guests from outside the Hollywood community have ever been witness to the artistry, politics, and ......
Take one well-oiled effective killing machine, add a familiar hero on the ground, in the air, and on horseback; stir in a ghastly end that's surely impossible to escape, add action, add passion, made on a shoestring budget at breakneck speed, and you've got the recipe for Republic Pictures. Who, after all, cannot forget The Atomic Kid, starring ......
What the Movies Get Wrong from the Ancient Greeks to Vietnam
A fun but informative look at Hollywood's more-than-a century long love affair with historical figures, events, and places. This book delves into what really happened in history, as opposed to the Hollywood interpretation of events, and reveals why the movies don't usually reflect the reality of our known history.
Walt Disney Feature Animation Florida opened in Orlando at the dawn of the Disney Renaissance. As a member of the crew, Mary E. Lescher witnessed the small studio's rise and fall during a transformative era in company and movie history. Her in-depth interviews with fellow artists, administrators, and support personnel reveal the human dimension of ......
David Fincher's Zodiac, the first book-length study of the critically acclaimed 2007 release, offers various critical approaches to the film ranging from early influences, studies in genre and narrative, and media analysis including cinema history, game theory, musicology, and extensions in television studies.
This book tracks the changing of the guard in the 1970s from the classic Hollywood studio system to a new generation of filmmakers who made personal movies targeted primarily to a thirty-and-under youth audience. These filmmakers reinvented the content and aesthetics of the medium to show that movies can be more than entertainment.
Inside the Star Wars Empire is the very funny and insightful tell-all about the two decades author Bill Kimberlin spent as a department director at LucasFilm Industrial Light and Magic (ILM), the special effects studio founded by the legendary filmmaker George Lucas.
This book looks at approximately 45 of the best movies featuring screen icon Humphrey Bogart, from his early films as a second lead to his starring roles in such classics as The Maltese Falcon, Casablanca, The Treasure of the Sierra Madre, and The African Queen.
A History of American Animation from Gertie to Pixar and Beyond
A deep dive into the history of cinematic animation in the United States. Animated films started with simple sequential drawings photographed one at a time--little bits of comedic fluff to make amateur title scenes or surreal escapist sequences. Today, animation is a worldwide industry valued at nearly $300 billion and still growing in scope and ......
