Customer Reviews

The Films Of Olivia De Havilland

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Tony Thomas died in July 1997,just a few days after Olivia deHavilland's 81st.birthday. His work here is,for the most part,the most accurate,and least opinionated,of all the deHavilland Film/Bio-Graphies to date,and his writing on this subject is quoted liberally (Mistakes and all!),in at least one multi-volumed film guide. The introduction by the late Bette Davis is a sincerely kind,and profoundly positive tribute,that can be considered more insightful about Miss deHavilland's personal character,than much else that's written in the book. This book served for me as a starting point for my own research into Olivia deHavilland's work,and on more than one occasion I have found myself being confused,and amused,by viewing one of her films for the first time,and discovering that it didn't quite go the way I had read about it! I discovered (Also from my own research),that he was sometimes short on facts,and slighly over romantic on some points of the deHavilland family history,especially the family of Sir Geoffrey deHavilland (Find out more on him in his autobiography "Sky Fever",and hopefully in Olivia's new autobiography to be released... someday),who was Olivia's uncle ,and who was famous for founding his own British aircraft company. Overall,a good book for it's time,but hopefully,better is yet to come!

Any fan of OLIVIA DE HAVILLAND would be glad to get his hands on this handsome book featuring a vast collection of stills from all of her films and some interesting comments on her personal life and the films themselves.

Studded with gorgeous photos, it's a keeper.

As often happens in film books, the author's description for some of the films is not entirely accurate but this is a minor flaw in an otherwise well-written and informative piece of work.

Definitely worth buying if you're a fan of this two-time Academy Award winner who was honored last year by the Academy two weeks before her 90th birthday which was a tremendously successful sold-out event.

Olivia is one of those rare actresses who had a career handed to her on a silver plate, beginning with Shakespeare, just shortly after graduating from high school. Little could she have known that in the course of a year she would be starring in the famous film version of A MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S DREAM, a few years later would go on to play Melanie in one of the most beloved films of all time--GWTW--(at 22), would win two Oscars (1946 and 1949), as well as a landmark law suit against Warner Bros. when Jack Warner tried to enforce her contract indefinitely--of which Bette Davis said--"every actor in Hollywood owes her a debt of gratitude"--and would hold onto her reputation as a prestigious actress for fifty years in films.

Fine tribute to a legendary star of the Golden Age.

Although this book had quite a few errors in the movie descriptions and wasn't 100% accurate, It is still worth owning if you are an Olivia de Havilland fan. The pictures, all black and white, are really great and a lot of them I haven't seen before. I also liked the foreword by Bette Davis, short and sweet.