Illustrates the vital creative influence upon the cinema of James Cagney in his gangster, vaudeville, Western, and other film roles

Product Description: The 1942 smash musical hit Yankee Doodle Dandy has long remained a favorite among audiences and film buffs. Ostensibly the story of "Mr. Broadway"—George M. Cohan— the movie evolved in its making into one of Warners' trademark "biopics" and a showcase for the singing and dancing talents of James Cagney...read more

Product Description:     Among the countless gangster films produced by Hollywood, few are as haunting, complex, or ingeniously crafted as White Heat (1948). Students of film history and screen writing will appreciate this treatment—an engaging study of teh various artistic elements that turned what might have been just another gangster film into an innovative classic of the genre and a model of cooperative filmmaking at its best...read more

Interviews with the actor's principal directors--Raoul Walsh, William Wellman, and Howard Hawks--and members of his family, together with rare photographs, complement this biography and film study of the inimitable Cagney

Traces the life and career of Robert Altman, and discusses the production and critical reception of each of his films

Product Description: "Backstory" is the screenwriter's term for what happens in a plot before the screen story begins. In this companion volume to McGilligan's widely praised Backstory: Interviews with Screenwriters of Hollywood's Golden Age, fourteen studio scribes active in later decades rail and reminisce about their fifty-plus years of inventing and scripting movies...read more (view table of contents, read Amazon.com's description)

Relates the life of top Hollywood director George Cukor, who guided to stardom such legendary actresses as Garbo, Bergman, Garland, and Hepburn, and who led a secret double life as a homosexual

Product Description: Screenwriter Robert Riskin (1897-1955) was a towering figure even among the giants of Hollywood's Golden Age. Known for his unique blend of humor and romance, wisecracking and idealism, Riskin teamed with director Frank Capra to produce some of his most memorable films...read more

Product Description: The Backstory series of unique "oral histories" chronicles the lives and careers of notable Hollywood screenwriters—in their own words. Backstory: Interviews with Screenwriters of Hollywood's Golden Age focused on the early sound era and the 1930s...read more (view table of contents, read Amazon.com's description)

Product Description: Screenwriter Robert Riskin (1897-1955) was a towering figure even among the giants of Hollywood's Golden Age. Known for his unique blend of humor and romance, wisecracking and idealism, Riskin teamed with director Frank Capra to produce some of his most memorable films...read more (view table of contents, read Amazon.com's description)

The acclaimed chronicler of Jack Nicholson and Robert Altman takes on another Hollywood legend, peeling back the mystery surrounding Clint Eastwood to reveal a rebel with a clear vision of human existence. 20,000 first printing.

A collection of interviews with many great figures of Hollywood's Golden Era from a respected Hollywood biographer offers revealing insights into such directors as Hitchcock and George Stevens and stars including Ida Lupino and future President Ronald Reagan. Reprint. 10,000 first printing. (view table of contents)

A no-holds-barred biography that squelches Clint Eastwood's Hollywood image reveals him to be an artist, compulsive egotist and habitual womanizer as drawn from court documents, studio archives, and unpublished manuscripts as well as interiews with family, friends, and associates.

Product Description: A fresh and definitive portrait of the Master of Suspense by acclaimed biographer Patrick McGilligan Full of fresh revelations, dark humour and cliff hanging suspense, this new biography of Alfred Hitchcock follows his life from its humble beginnings, as the son of an East End greengrocer, through an extraordinary career in which his films set new standards for cinematic invention, to his death as a Hollywood legend in Beverley Hills...read more

Product Description: Madrid. 2005. T y B. 24x17. 703p.

Continuing Patrick McGilligan's highly acclaimed series on Hollywood screenwriters, these engrossing, informative, provocative interviews give wonderfully detailed and personal stories from veteran screenwriters of the seventies and eighties focusing on their craft, their lives, and their profession. Backstory 4 is a riveting insider's look at how movies get made; a rich perspective on many of the great movies, directors, and actors of the seventies and eighties; and an articulate, forthright commentary on the art and the business of screenwriting.The screenwriters interviewed for this volume include well-known Oscar winners as well as cult filmmakers, important writers who were also distinguished directors, and key practitioners of every commercial genre. These writers have worked with Steven Spielberg, Woody Allen, Peter Bogdanovich, George Lucas, Francis Ford Coppola, Robert Altman, Clint Eastwood, and other film giants of the so-called New Hollywood. The stories of their collaborations—some divine, some disastrous—provide some of the most fascinating material in this volume. They also discuss topics including how they got started writing screenplays, their working routines, their professional relationships, their influences, and the work of other major writers and directors.Backstory 4 features interviews with Robert Benton, Larry Cohen, Blake Edwards, Walter Hill, Ruth Prawer Jhabvala, Lawrence Kasdan, Elmore Leonard, Paul Mazursky, Nancy Meyers, John Milius, Frederic Raphael, Alvin Sargent, and Donald E. Westlake.

Traces the life and career of a pioneering director from the genre of African-American cinema, discussing his childhood in the homesteading communities of South Dakota, his direction of numerous silent and sound films at a time before black-produced movies could be shown in white theaters, and his lesser-known influence on American black culture. 25,000 first printing.

Product Description: Del spaghetti western al cine de autor. La primera gran biografía del polifacético cineasta integral norteamericano. Aunque es uno de los rostros más conocidos de nuestra...

A portrait of the filmmaker traces his career and numerous works, noting his role in the establishment of industry standards and the characteristics most associated with his persona, while offering insight into his private, professional, and family life.