All About Bette: Her Life from A-Z [Hardcover]

Randall Riese (Author)

Product Details

• Hardcover: 512 pages
• Publisher: Contemporary Books (November 1993)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0809241110
• ISBN-13: 978-0809241118
• Product Dimensions: 9.9 x 6.9 x 1.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.6 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 2.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,730,639 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Hatchet Job by unsympathetic author, May 12, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: All About Bette: Her Life from A-Z (Hardcover)

This book is good as a factual guide about la Davis' life. But the author sneers and blasts nearly all of Davis' movies, merely repeating what other uninformed hacks have critiqued. He misquotes all over the place. Instead of Davis saying in the movie "Beyond the Forest" the line: "If I don't get out of here, I'll die!", the author has her saying "I've got to get out of here!" His contempt for his subject makes him a very unlikely candidate to asess this great artist whose movies today hold up better than nearly any other star of the 30s and 40s. While he completely destroys Davis' films like "Beyond the Forest" and "In This Our Life," both films have generated tremendous re-evaluations for being the masterpieces they are.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars A disaster, November 4, 2010

By 

Daniel G. Madigan (Redmond, WA United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: All About Bette: Her Life from A-Z (Hardcover)

You could never use this as a reference book, because it is so biased. His reviews of her films are stupid, with stars to mark the merits of a particular film. He also uses BD Merrill's awful book to vent his rage for Bette Davis, that makes one wonder why sucha book was written.

My favorite evaluation: BD has a great marriage, and all through the years since BD married, Bette has been so jealous of BD beacuse all of Bette's own marriages failed.

When TCM did a documentary after 20 years of Bette's passing, BD was interviewed and her comments about Bette and everything else on earth were at best psychotic. She was always troubled and very scared of the world. She needed Bette's attentions constantly, and she needed her money to finance her and her husband's Fascist ministry that has about as much to do with Christ as Mein Kampf.

Also, I am from Cape Elizabeth, Maine. I lived there for years and through the years Bette Davis did, very close to her house. Bette Davis was a generous contributor to the local community, she was a great sharerer of her personal career, and a stalwart, audacious artist whom the author of this low end book could never encompass.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars All you ever wanted to know about Bette, October 29, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: All About Bette: Her Life from A-Z (Hardcover)

Randall Riese takes a different approach to the life of this legend than other authors have done in the past. The result is a virtual encylopedia of Bette's life and career. This book is a good reference tool for the begining davis fan. You can look up her films, her co-stars, directors, almost anything. The book is filled with info nuggets and photos that haven't been published before.