A Times Literary Supplement Book of the Year, chosen by Tom Stoppard**"A revelation."—Marc Weingarten, Washington PostAcclaimed film director Billy Wilder’s early writings—brilliantly translated into English for the first time**Before Billy Wilder became the screenwriter and director of iconic films like Sunset Boulevard and Some Like It Hot, he worked as a freelance reporter, first in Vienna and then in Weimar Be...

Sunset Boulevard (1950) is one of the most famous films in the history of Hollywood, and perhaps no film better represents Hollywood's vision of itself. Billy Wilder collaborated on the screenplay with the very able Charles Brackett, and with D. M. Marshman Jr., who later joined the team. Together they created a film both allusive and literate, with Hollywood's worst excesses and neuroses laid out for all to see. After viewing Sunset Boulevard Louis B. Mayer exclaimed: "W...

During the late 1940's and early 1950's, several different radio programs brought in Hollywood stars to reprise their performances from popular films. Among them, Screen Directors' Playhouse offered something that no other show had: the directors. Imagine, if you will, listening to a radio play of A Foreign Affair and then hearing Marlene Dietrich and director Billy Wilder share their thoughts on the making of this classic film.In addition to Wilder, you'll hear directors like Tay Garnett,...

Few movie stars made as great an impact as Marilyn Monroe. Although she died in 1962, a half century later she remains vivid in popular culture, even to those who have never seen her films. Two of the men she married, Joe DiMaggio and Arthur Miller, themselves made a powerful cultural impact.In this moving essay, David Morrell analyses Monroe's poignant life, which had more significance than any movie in which she appeared. Even her most knowledgeable fans will find something new i...

"Full of Weimar Berlin decadence and the scandal of Hollywood, this is a gloriously entertaining read. Marlene is utterly beguiling." —Beatriz Williams, New York Times–bestselling authorRaised in genteel poverty after the First World War, Maria Magdalena Dietrich dreams of a life on the stage. When a budding career as a violinist is cut short, the willful teenager vows to become a singer, trading her family's proper, middle-class society for the free-spiri...

America’s most trusted and best-known film critic Roger Ebert presents one hundred brilliant essays on some of the best movies ever made.Roger Ebert, the famed film writer and critic, wrote biweekly essays for a feature called "The Great Movies," in which he offered a fresh and fervent appreciation of a great film. The Great Movies collects one hundred of these essays, each one of them a gem of critical appreciation and an amalgam of love, analysis, and hi...

**INTERNATIONAL BESTSELLER: This “absolute gem of a book” offers a month-by-month account of the year before World War I—one of the most exciting times in the 20th century (The Observer).“A sexy, comic and occasionally heartbreaking soap opera” for history buffs interested in 20th-century art, music, and literature (Washington Post).**It was the year Henry Ford first put a conveyer belt in his car factory, and the year Louis Armstrong first picked up a tru...

“Everybody wants to be Cary Grant. Even I want to be Cary Grant.”—Cary GrantHe is Hollywood’s most fascinating and timeless star. Although he came to personify the debonair American, Cary Grant was born Archibald Leach on January 18, 1904, in the seaport village of Bristol, England. Combining the captivating beauty of silent-screen legend Rudolph Valentino with the masculine irresistibility of Clark Gable, Grant emerged as Hollywood’s quintessential leading man. Today, “the ...

A "meticulous history" of the classic suspense film based on exclusive interviews with the director, writers, cast, and crew ( The New York Times Book Review).First released in June 1960, Psycho altered the landscape of horror films forever. But just as compelling as the movie itself is the story behind it, which has been adapted as a movie starring Anthony Hopkins as Hitchcock, Helen Mirren as his wife Alma Reville, and Scarlett Johansson as Jane...

In Berlin, he was named Levi: a good Jewish dog with a good Jewish name.When his owners fled to America, he became Hercules: star of the silver screen in Hollywood's golden age.Then he caught the eye of Hitler, who called him Hansi: a pure-bred lapdog, privy to all the Führer's secrets.But he was known to the Resistance as Sirius: the insider who could bring peace to a world at war.SIRIUS: the little dog who almost changed history.

From America's most trusted and highly visible film critic, 100 more brilliant essays on the films that define cinematic greatness.Continuing the pitch-perfect critiques begun in The Great Movies, Roger Ebert's The Great Movies II collects 100 additional essays, each one of them a gem of critical appreciation and an amalgam of love, analysis, and history that will send readers back to films with a fresh set of eyes and renewed enthusiasm—or perhap...