Movie Anecdotes
Format:Paperback
Publisher:Oxford University Press Inc
Published:12th Dec '91
Currently unavailable, and unfortunately no date known when it will be back
In this sparkling collection of anecdotes about the stars before and behind the cameras, Peter Hay takes the reader on a delightful - if occasionally bumpy - ride through the world that has captivated audiences for almost a century. Moguls' heads would spin if they reckoned the fees for a cast that includes Chaplin, Garbo, Gable, Bogart, Davis, Crawford, Monroe, Nicholson, Streep, and assorted Hepburns, Fondas, and Hustons, but here they all are, and under the keen directorial eyes of Griffith, Eisenstein, Hitchcock, Kurosawa, Bergman, Welles, Ford, and Visconti, to name but a few. If you think the credits are good wait until you get a look at the plot, which bursts at the seams with battles over money, contracts, and artistic control, overnight sensations, tragic declines, romances, divorces, and any number of scandals. For anyone who has spent a night at the movies, this colourful, incredible, bitter, and hilarious book is a must.
"Well-chosen....Wry, telling and tinged (not drenched) with a kind of bittersweet nostalgia....If you're a movie buff, or live with one, I suspect that Movie Anecdotes will likely end up on your coffee table."--The Los Angeles Times
"Amusing, critical tales--tall and true. Hay is a pro at unearthing acerbic or outrageous sayings or events; his topical arrangement is smooth and his delivery fluid."--Booklist
"[Hay] reveals the backstage and often hilarious lives of a plethora of screen legends."--The Sunday Express
"Another enjoyable collection from the anecdote-archivist Hay....[The stories] range from one-liners to full-fledged stories and as a rule reveal film folk as the eccentrics many believe them to be....Light, browse-able entertainment."--Kirkus Reviews
"A melange of stories on Hollywood and its inhabitants which range from the droll to the bizarre to the informative....Hay embellishes and tells stories with such zeal and fluidity that even items on less famous persons as Arnold Schoenberg and William Meiklejon make good reading....This makes the book informative as well as entertaining....Make a date with Movie Anecdotes. It's bound to be an enjoyable experience."--The New Straits Times
ISBN: 9780195045956
Dimensions: 203mm x 138mm x 17mm
Weight: 299g
336 pages