Customer Reviews

The Films of Gloria Swanson

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Fantastic! Hard to believe the author could find so many super-rare photos of these early Gloria Swanson films - a large number of these films are sadly lost forever - and he is obviously a Swanson partisan (Cheers - tired of reading books by jealous writers belittling their subject's accomplishments.) Swanson was famous for saying in SUNSET BLVD - "In my day, we have faces." This book shows over and over how true that statement was.

I'm a big fan of Citadel Books' "The Films of..." series, and as my reviewing colleague says, this is one of the best in the group. It's written by the estimable Lawrence Quirk, who has penned numerous other fine books on classic movies and those who performed in them, and he's done one of his best jobs here. Of particular value is his discussion of Swanson's silent films (those who know her only through "Sunset Boulevard" should be reminded that she was one of THE superstars of the silent era), including many - such as "Madame Sans-Gene" - that have apparently been lost forever. (Hard to believe, but up until a few decades ago, film was considered a disposable medium and a lot of items that today would be considered priceless collector's items or historic documents were casually destroyed.) No color photos - the only problem I have with the "Films of..." series - but the B&W photos are uniformly excellent. A must-have, especially in combination with Swanson's autobiography _Swanson on Swanson_!