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A Hundred or More Hidden Things: The Life and Films of Vincente Minnelli

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This is an interesting and informative book about the often great Vincente Minnelli. According to the author, Minnelli reinvented himself from an outcast youth (due to his effeminate behavior, appearance, and interests) into an A list MGM director with a capital "D." The author describes Minnelli as someone who lived in his head because the world was too painful for him, and whose creativity was colorful and vast. His creativity is not in question. Anyone who has ever watched "Meet Me In St. Louis" alone can see the painterly aspect of his vision of American life. Each scene in that film is very like its own little genre painting. Learning about Minnelli's early training as a window dresser extraordinaire, Broadway set dresser and musical director, and first efforts in Hollywood is enlightening. The flaws in this book have to do with the author's perseverant focus on Minnelli's sexuality as the root of all of his missteps. The author's lack of interest as to why Minnelli marries four times, why he doesn't function well outside the confines of MGM, and why he can't communicate with his actors marrs the story.

Minnelli is described in his early days as flamboyant and outre. He wears makeup, has close relationships with men whose sexuality is not straight. Minnelli's whose whole demeanor is that of a gay man. Fine. I accept that Minnelli's sexuality was at least bisexual. This matter continues throughout the book, always coyly coming up in the memory of others, and incidents which point to Minnelli's suspect (in the author's mind) sexuality. But he doesn't really explain Minnelli's astounding FOUR marriages. The Garland marriage is explained as one of convenience for him at least. He could quiet those wagging tongues in Hollywood. But the wagging tongues really didn't matter to directors of the period. If Minnelli had been on screen talent no doubt Louis Mayer would have been uber concerned about Minneli's personal life. Mayer obviously wasn't concerned about Minnelli's sex life as a director. Vincente was making great career progress despite his capes, eye makeup and mincing manner. Mayer can't have his stars offending the public, but his genius directors are left alone to make box office magic. In fact the author acknowledges that the studio doesn't want to approve photographs of Minnelli until he is in the public eye upon his marriage to Garland. In other words, Garland brings more scrutiny, not less.

Minnelli then marries the sister of a beauty queen and has a second daughter. Wife three is a social climbing European of dubious antecedents, and wife four is a nice lady who stated that she always had a crush on him. The author recites the marriages, but doesn't really tell us why an obviously gay man would do this. A definite hole in the story. I conclude the author is wrong. Minnelli is not a confirmed gay man, but something else. But we don't know what because the author is too busy proving that Minnelli is definitely gay.

Minnelli's work also gets short shrift from the middle of his career to the end. We understand the final failures as the result of onset Alzheimer's and just plain getting old. I would have liked the author to delve into Minnelli's creativity vis a vis his collaborators. Minnelli is explosively masterful as a member of the Freed unit, where his vision is supported by the MGM magic makers of sets, design, costume, makeup, hair, musical score, editing, etc. MGM may have been a factory, but it was a factory of departments peopled by unqualified master artists of their respective fields. Minnelli can't really surmount his work life without them on a consistent basis. Why? Was he so cerebral and artistic that he couldn't function in the administrative and mundane. Probably. It appears that is the reason he can communicate dumbly with some and not others. He can communicate with those approaching his intelligence. Those beneath that threshold don't get him. This also appears to be the reason he "lives in his head." I am not dismissing the author's claim that Minnelli has an ambiguous sexuality, but I have known very intelligent people who are not gay who live in their heads and are inarticulate as a result. Sex preference is one thing, and hyper intelligence is another. Both factors can have problems attendant thereto.

All in all this is a book I am glad I bought and read. But it has too many holes in the story to qualify as the compleat Minnelli.

The writing on the outside back cover tells me that this is Mr. Griffin's first book, but the writing on the inside makes me think it is the work of a seasoned pro.

Mr. Griffin paints a picture for the reader of Minnelli the man through a skillful blend of the author's own insightful obeservations about Minnelli's films, personal observations about Minnelli obtained through interviews Mr. Griffin conducted with people like Kirk Douglas, Lauren Bacall and Tony Curtis who worked with the man and what I am sure is well more than one hundred facts about Minnelli and his films that the author gathered through extensive, well documented research.

It is a well paced, informative, and entertaining book that I had trouble putting down, but have no trouble recommending that you pick it up.

This is a well written, engaging biography about one of Hollywood's greatest directors. I was swept away by Mark Griffin's passion for bringing Vincente Minnelli's story to life. It's no surprise Turner Classic Movies has chosen to feature this as its book of the month in April 2010.

There's no question that Vincente Minnelli was one of the greatest directors going during Hollywood's studio era - and we now have a biography that is worthy of this brilliant auteur. "A Hundred or More Hidden Things" manages to be thoroughly entertaining while earnestly exploring the life of a multifaceted and often eccentric individual. Mark Griffin really did his homework by interviewing most of Minnelli's surviving stars (on page 180, Laruen Bacall's hilarious anecdote about working with Minnelli on "The Cobweb" had me laughing out loud). It's been a long time since I've read a major biography that was this much fun. It's like a Minnelli movie in book form. Highly recommended.

The first part of this book provides a well researched and detailed biography of the early life of Mr. Minnelli. Some of the relevations about his family and personal relationships were unexpected. However the more famous he became the less personal information is provided. At this point (mid 1940s) the book becomes more or less an analysis of Mr. Minnelli's movies. However this proved very intersting reading and contained many worthwhile facts about the "behind the scenes" of these films. I do believe that the author provided all the personal information that is available - people weren't forthcoming with information and/or Mr. Minnelli was successful in keeping his personal life very, very private.

All in all I would recommend purchasing this book, but don't expect a complete biography.

An enjoyable, well-research biography with lots of interviews. Much better than any other book on Vincente Minnelli.

I agree with the other readers who have posted reviews here. As an in-depth exploration of Vincente Minelli's films, this book is really superb-thoughtful, well researched and engaging throughout. As a biography, it's almost as good-though discussion of Minelli's films tends to dominate most chapters. One thing that gives this book an edge are the touching and funny anecdotes courtesy of Minelli's most important collaborators, who don't hold back when they talk about working with a director who was clearly brilliant but also very eccentric. Although I haven't seen all of the films mentioned, I had a great time with this one. There are plenty of photos and it's well worth the affordable price.

What a wild book this is. At first, it seems like a conventional biography and we learn how shy, introverted little Lester Minnelli grew up as the son of traveling theater performers and dreamed his way out of Delaware, Ohio and into the highest ranks of show business (designing and directing for Broadway and later creating some of the most memorable Oscar-winning films in Hollywood history). Once Minnelli gets to Hollywood, the author takes things in a very different direction and begins to reveal how MGM's most accomplished director was basically telling the story of his life through his movies. And what movies..."Meet Me In St. Louis," "Lust for Life" and "Gigi," among many others. This fascinating narrative approach works really well in terms of some of Minnelli's later films, especially "Home from the Hill" and "Tea and Sympathy." While I don't agree with all of the author's opinions (I think Minnelli's remake of "The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse" with Glenn Ford is an important film and shouldn't be written off completely), I did find this a very engaging and at times fascinating biography of one of Hollywood's most misunderstood artists. The chapters devoted to Minnelli's marriage to Judy Garland were handled very well. Plenty of great photos - including some I've never seen before.

This is a vastly disappointing book about a major director. It's shallow in depicting Minnelli's life as a unique musical director and as a homosexual (though married four times) artist. There is no discussion of the contexts (MGM and Hollywood) in which Minnelli worked and thrived, and the analysis of his films is brief and lacks poignancy. I recently read a much better and more comprehensive biography of Minnelli (I think it was the first), titled Hollywood's Dark Dreamer by film scholar and critic, Emanuel Levy. Levy's book is highly recommended.