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Scott Eyman

How Studio Stars Got Their Twinkle

THE STAR MACHINE
By Jeanine Basinger
Alfred A. Knopf, 586 pages, $35

For all of posterity’s gaping wonder, Hollywood’s star system was a legendarily inexact science. For every Garbo or Dietrich successfully snatched from obscurity by someone with a discerning eye for languid pain (in the case of the former) or sexual insolence Read More

Otto Preminger : A Sybarite of Charm, Elegance and Terror

OTTO PREMINGER: THE MAN WHO WOULD BE KING
By Foster Hirsch
Alfred A. Knopf, 573 pages, $35

Otto Preminger’s primary problem was that every self-aggrandizing publicity campaign, every outlandishly elongated two-and-a-half-hour movie, implied he was a genius when in fact he only possessed talent.

The backlash was considerable.

It was Preminger’s Read More

Into the Woody

MERE ANARCHY
By Woody Allen
Random House, 160 pages, $21.95

THE INSANITY DEFENSE: THE COMPLETE PROSE
By Woody Allen
Random House, 342 pages, $15.95

Like every other kind of writer, humorists go in and out of fashion. Nobody seems to read Stephen Leacock anymore, Read More

Outtakes From a Biographer’s Life

SHOOT THE WIDOW: ADVENTURES OF A BIOGRAPHER IN SEARCH OF HER SUBJECT
By Meryle Secrest
Alfred A. Knopf, 242 pages, $25.95

Biography is the perfect occupation for the scholar-squirrel, assiduously storing lists of the guests at every dinner party, the word count of every rough draft. But it’s also tailor-made for Read More

Mamet Plays Moses Again, Laying Down Hollywood Law

Let’s be blunt, as befits our author.

David Mamet has directed more than a dozen movies, none of which suggest he has much of an affinity for the job. Things Change (1988), Homicide (1991), The Spanish Prisoner (1997), State and Main (2000) and the rest are all pleasant or even mildly diverting, but how many Read More

Briefly a Movie Actress- Still a Potent Sex Symbol

Among silent stars, Louise Brooks had the shortest career and the longest afterlife. Actually, it was a tiny career. From evocative, charming supporting parts in 1926, she became a strange sort of star in 1928, and was practically out of the movie business by 1930, rendered unemployable by either her stubborn integrity (according to Brooks) Read More

Briefly a Movie Actress— Still a Potent Sex Symbol

Among silent stars, Louise Brooks had the shortest career and the longest afterlife. Actually, it was a tiny career. From evocative, charming supporting parts in 1926, she became a strange sort of star in 1928, and was practically out of the movie business by 1930, rendered unemployable by either her stubborn integrity (according to Brooks) Read More