The Devil's Candy: The Anatomy Of A Hollywood Fiasco [Paperback]

Julie Salamon (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: May 28, 2002

When Brian De Palma agreed to allow Julie Salamon unlimited access to the film production of Tom Wolfe's best-selling book The Bonfire of the Vanities, both director and journalist must have felt like they were on to something big. How could it lose? But instead Salamon got a front-row seat at the Hollywood disaster of the decade. She shadowed the film from its early stages through the last of the eviscerating reviews, and met everyone from the actors to the technicians to the studio executives. They'd all signed on for a blockbuster, but there was a sense of impending doom from the start—heart-of-gold characters replaced Wolfe's satiric creations; affable Tom Hanks was cast as the patrician heel; Melanie Griffith appeared mid-shoot with new, bigger breasts. This riveting insider's portrait provides a timeless account of an industry where art, talent, ego, and money combine and clash on a monumental scale.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Salamon chronicles the making of the film version of The Bonfire of the Vanities , one of Hollywood's all-time biggest flops. Photos.
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.

From Library Journal

Salamon, film critic for The Wall Street Journal , was given seemingly unlimited and early entree to the production of Brian De Palma's film version of Tom Wolfe's novel The Bonfire of the Vanities . This is apparently the first time a writer has been allowed such unfettered access to the creation of a film since Lillian Ross wrote Picture ( LJ 10/1/52) based on the filming of The Red Badge of Courage (1951). Wisely, Salamon's narrative includes not only De Palma and the leading actors, but lesser-known contributors such as the costume designer, production assistants, and location scouts. She is adept at interweaving all viewpoints and activities into the whole. Although the film was a colossal failure, for reasons which Salamon makes very clear, the book is an eminently readable success.
- Roy Liebman, California State Univ. Lib., Los Angeles
Copyright 1991 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 448 pages
• Publisher: Da Capo Press; New edition edition (May 28, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0306811235
• ISBN-13: 978-0306811234
• Product Dimensions: 8.5 x 5.6 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.3 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (9 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #131,869 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

25 of 25 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars No better book to describe how a movie is produced, July 22, 2006

By 

D. C. Palter "literary curmudgeon" (Los Angeles, CA USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Devil's Candy: The Anatomy Of A Hollywood Fiasco (Paperback)

The Devil's Candy is the story of the making of The Bonfire of the Vanities. It is the best (and possible only) book in recent times to describe how a movie is made, in depth, from inception to casting to production to editing to screenings and focus groups through release and box office.

The subtitle, "The Anatomy of a Hollywood Fiasco" is misleading. This is not a book that analyses why a movie production went wrong. It is a journalistic look at how a movie is made, any movie, and this book uses the example of the Bonfire of the Vanities because that happened to be the production Julie Salamon was invited to observe from beginning to end. Tellingly, the original version of the book was subtitled instead "Bonfire of the Vanities Goes to Hollywood" and the new subtitle was obviously added for the paperback version to try to pump up sales.

Most of the other reviews have said this book is for industry insiders, but it isn't. For insiders, there is nothing new here. This book is for people on the outside who want to know how the movie industry works. And what we learn is that for all the glamour, movie production is mostly meetings and sitting around sets doing endless takes of scenes that eventually get cut.

Assuming you're interested in learning how Hollywood works, from the endless scouting of locations to who is responsible for carrying the director's thermos of coffee, you will be educated. This book, at more than 400 pages, goes into gory detail, from just about everyone's point of view, from the director to costume manager. It's written as you would expect from a journalist on the banking desk at the Wall Street Journal (before she became the movie critic) - straightforward, inclusive, and accurate, not the breathless style with plenty of italics and exclamation points characteristic of showbiz books. But it is also the weakness of the book. There is too much detail that isn't important, too much describing the color of every carpet in every room visited, what kind of shoes everyone wears, and who is holding De Palma's coffee thermos at at every moment, too many people's points of view to keep the narrative flowing.

Overall, if you're looking for a juicy, fast flowing story about Hollywood disaster, you will be entirely disappointed. However, if you want a textbook on how a movie gets made, want to learn how Hollywood really works, this is *the* book.

13 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great read if you're curious about the movie business, April 17, 2002

By A Customer

This review is from: The Devil's Candy: The Bonfire of the Vanities Goes to Hollywood (Paperback)

Julie Salamon was lucky enough to get in at the beginning of what was anticipated to be a great film, and turned out to be one of the biggest critical and financial failures for Warner Bros. The book Bonfire of the Vanities was so popular and written in such a style that taking on the task of adapting it to film was a true challenge and doomed to fail. And fail it did. Salamon also gives a background of the steps it takes to get a picture made from buying the rights of the book to marketing the finished picture. She details the different roles of the movie set, answering the age-old question, "What does a grip do?". You gather a great understanding of how difficult it is to make a picture by studio standards and how the hierarchy on the set works. Fascinating insight from an outsider let into the circus of making a major motion picture. Brian De Palma must curse the day he agreed to let her chronicle the journey.
Also, I have to recommend reading Tom Wolfe's Bonfire of the Vanities. You can understand why he wanted no part of making the film adaptaton of his infamous book.

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great blow-by-blow account of movie making, January 15, 2007

By 

Hal Jordan "A reader" (USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

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This review is from: The Devil's Candy: The Anatomy Of A Hollywood Fiasco (Paperback)

First rate account of the making of Brian De Palma's Bonfire of the Vanities. Salamon, at the time a reporter for the Wall Street Journal, received what appears to have been total access to director De Palma, the actors, costume designers, cameramen, and practically everyone else involved in the making of the movie. The level of detail may be too much for someone looking for a quick account of what went wrong in the making of this film, but I found it all fascinating. The only other book I know of that provides a comparably detailed inside look at the making of a movie is Lillian Ross's Picture, which was an account of the making of John Huston's Red Badge of Courage in 1951. A fair amount has changed in movie making since this book was written. For instance, Salamon devotes considerable time to following the second unit director as he attempts to set up some difficult shots, one involving the landing of a Concorde jet at sunset. These days, I imagine most movie goers would assume such a shot was actually cgi. I read the Da Capo Press 2002 reprint. (Interesingly, the subtitle of the book changed from "The Bonfire of the Vanities Goes to Hollywood" to "The Anatomy of a Hollywood Fiasco." Probably an indication that this film had been largely forgotten by 2002.) The reprint edition has an afterword that briefly discusses the reception of the book -- Bruce Willis was livid -- and the impact of the film on the careers of De Palma and the other people who are the focus of the book. Unfortunately, the photos from the first edition are not reproduced and the quality of the printing is a little off. Whatever reproduction technique was used imparted a bit of waviness to many of the lines of text.