Jack Hunter made a name for himself as “Action Jack,” star of a series of adventure flicks in the 1930s. But by 1942, the world is at war, he’s retired from the screen, and he’s living on a ranch with his fellow survivors from a previous jungle adventure: his wife, Max; her nephew, Tyler, and…
Mary Wickes: I Know I’ve Seen That Face Before Steve Taravella Release Date: June 1, 2013 University of Mississippi Press Hardcover, 370 pages Throughout a seven-decade career in show business, Mary Wickes was a welcome and hilarious presence in hundreds of movies, television series and films, stage productions, and radio broadcasts. Much like contemporaries such…
Behind the Screen Door is a collection of short stories that tell of Richard Gregson’s rise in his career as an agent in the film industry. From humble beginnings as a sales clerk in a religious bookstore, Gregson became one of the most influential agents in Hollywood. Although he was married to the famous Natalie…
Gun-for-hire Walter Steale, a world-weary veteran of World War I, finds himself in the middle of a political quagmire when his brother, Sam, the lieutenant governor of California, asks him to exert some muscle on behalf of his boss, Governor Edwin Davies. But when the man he’d muscled ends up dead, Steale must go on…
I recently received a copy of Saul Austerlitz’s Another Fine Mess: A History of American Film Comedy, which was released last month. It is, in a word, engrossing. But a pithy, single-word review won’t do, will it? Nor is that single word sufficient, really, to explain to you how wonderful this compendium of film comedy…
Recently, on a whim, I picked up a copy of Maureen O’Hara’s 2004 autobiography, ‘Tis Herself (written with John Nicoletti). I’ve been on a bit of a nonfiction kick lately, and any day in which I can take some time to read about my favorite classic film stars … well, that’s just a damn good…
For Christmas, my friend Erin (the heretofore referenced “number one reader”) decided to indulge both the classic film fan and the latent foodie in me, and thus gifted me with Francine Segan’s book Movie Menus: Recipes for Perfect Meals with Your Favorite Films. The result of years of research, Segan’s book provides updated, time-tested recipes…
A couple of years ago, as a Christmas gift from both my blog “partner in crime” and our lovely “number one reader” (you know who you are), I received two of TCM’s compilation coffee table books: Leading Ladies: The 50 Most Unforgettable Actresses of the Studio Era, and its counterpart, Leading Men: The 50 Most…
True Classics 