Customer Reviews

The Hollywood Book of Love : From True Romance and Blushing Brides to Tawdry Trysts and Femme Fatales

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My copy of "The Hollywood Book of Love" has the subtitle "An Irreverent Guide to the Films that Raised Our Romantic Expectations." The line "From True Romance and Blushing Brides to Tawdry Trysts and Femme Fatales" appears on the back cover instead of on the front as the subtitle.

Actually, I prefer the irreverent guide subtitle because that seems to be Parish's main goal: to show how romantic movies from this (and previous) generations raised our romantic expectations to unrealistic levels. He provides highly entertaining examples of movies that create hopes for romance, sex, and love that cannot possibly be fulfilled in real life.

"The Hollywood Book of Love" works on many different levels. It provides a thorough guide book to romantic movies; it offers a behind-the-scenes look at many of the selected films; and it gives the reader some broad questions to consider about the gap between the illusion and reality of romantic love.

Leslie Halpern, author of Reel Romance: The Lovers' Guide to the 100 Best Date Movies and Dreams on Film: The Cinematic Struggle Between Art and Science.

James Robert Parish continues providing informative and entertaining accounts of different facets of Hollywood history. Peppered with off-screen anecdotes and details, he invites us to explore the differences between reel and real romance. And he succeeds admirably, because the book is fun to read and leads one to watch the films we're unfamiliar with. Highly recommended.

As if to honor the Hollywood community's off-screen attitude toward love and marriage, James Robert Parish's "The Hollywood Book of Love" operates on the belief that romance is something that lasts about as long as it takes to watch the movie itself. Here are over 150 films whose view of love ranges from lush to lousy and tempestuous to twisted. Each concise summary is burnished by Parish's skillful writing and ends with a zinger for our cynical times. Numerous sidebars enliven the text with sample dialogue, behind-the-scenes gossip, and historical perspective. Useful as a video guide as well as a survey course of movie mores since talkies, this book is something of a change of pace for Parish in that his commentary is more playful than he usually allows. The expected titles are here -- "Now, Voyager," "Gone with the Wind," and "Camille," for example -- but Parish also finds love in such unlikely places as "The Sea Wolf," "The Big Broadcast of 1938" and even "Kiss of the Dragon"! "The Hollywood Book of Love" -- which, if you believe the publisher and the movies, is heterosexual only -- emerges as a snazzy, year-round Valentine...with its fingers crossed. I only wish I'd thought of it first.

Parish has written dozens of books on American film, and his knowledge is vast. This book makes shrewd use of that knowledge, but lightens it with delightful flights of humor. This makes for a enjoyable, compulsive read. The background is there, but it's not delivered in a stuffy or academic way. For example, in his section on Love Story, Parish writes: "As you sniffle through this feature, bear in mind that these characters give shallowness new meaning. For example, our clean-cut hero asks over the soundtrack mourningfully, 'What can you say about a twenty-five-year-old girl who died?' His brilliant reply includes that she was beautiful (certainly a matter of personal taste) and that 'she loved Mozart and Bach...and the Beatles.' That's the best he can come up with? Oh, brother!"

This book shows a wonderful depiction of all types of love in movies from all eras. It is an easy and fun read all the way through showing the loves and heartaches through the years in some of Hollywoods greatest stories.

A must have for any true romantic... whether it's the irony of love you enjoy or just want to remember the key love stories of old.

THIS BOOK COVERS SOME ON SCREEN ROMANCES COVERING MANY MANY MOVIES. FROM GONE WITH THE WIND, LOVE STORY AND WHEN HARRY MET SALLY THIS BOOK IS FULL OF DIALOG, PLOT SUMMARY AND SOME GREAT FACTS ABOUT MANY OF THE PEOPLE WHO APPEARED IN THESE CELLULOID CLASSICS. THIS IS A MUST FOR ALL ROMANCE FANS. BOTH HUMOROUS AND ENTERTAINING, VERY RECOMMENDED.

Quick: what's the meaning of life?

If you answered "love," THE HOLLYWOOD BOOK OF LOVE is for you.

THE HOLLYWOOD BOOK OF LOVE explains why the most classic Hollywood stories are love stories.

More importantly, no matter how Hollywood love stories have changed over time, Parish shows us why audiences never tire of them.

Romance, sex, marraige, affairs, divorce, lust.......the author covers the many aspects of love as fictionalized by the silver screen.

Selected entries in THE HOLLYWOOD BOOK OF LOVE include factoids and personal viewpoints about each film, making it as fun as it is informative.

THE HOLLYWOOD BOOK OF LOVE reveals that there's more to
those wonderful old black and white movies on TV than we've allowed ourselves to think about. The author's position is that they're cautionary tales, warning us of the pitfalls of believing in . . . those wonderful old black and white movies on TV. What a delight!

Plenty of plot summaries of all-time favorite love stories organized in interesting, and sometimes, unexpected groups. Plenty of absolutely terrific sidebars filled with REALLY unexpected information. A good read that also doubles as a useful reference book for anyone who loves Hollywood and its loves.

From "Young Love" to "Marriage on the Rocks," James Robert Parish covers all types of Hollywood love in the 20 chapters of his latest tome. As a bonus, the reader is able to enjoy Parish's insights on the contrasts between reel love and real love. We all know that movies and life are not quite the same, but Parish's witty and flowing prose make the subject seem fresh. This is a light -- but highly informative -- fun read.