Customer Reviews

Ladies' Man: An Autobiography

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I highly recommend this book. It is a great auto-biography of the brilliant actor Paul Henreid. It's a great and interesting book to read.

Paul Henreid was a good actor in Hollywood films of the forties and early fifties, after having made a name for himself in Austria and England. He had a few top notch film roles--the secondary male lead in the classic "Casablanca" with Bogart and Ingrid Bergman and the role of Bette Davis' great love in "Now Voyager," in which he lights the two cigarettes that became a sensation at the time.

He also appeared with Ida Lupino, Hedy Lamarr, Joan Bennett, Lizabeth Scott, Maureen O'Hara, Eleanor Parker and other leading ladies of the day. He paints a picture of being one of the great leading men of the time; however, he wasn't even close. The top leading men included Robert Taylor, Tyrone Power, Clark Gable, Errol Flynn -- he was never in a class with any of them.

He spins tales of the early days in Austria and the beginnings of his London stage career with ease and charm. But when he gets to the states his tales seem somewhat exaggerated.

There are a number of mistakes amongst his Hollywood tales. For instance. he states that Warner Bros threatened all their leading men with the lead in The Beast With Five Fingers (including him) and that Vincent Price finally played the role. Price was not in the film--Peter Lorre was. He states that he appeared in Four Horsemen of the Apocolpyse with Robert Wagner. Wagner was not a cast member. And he states that he directed James Garner and Paul Kelly in the Maverick TV series. Paul Kelly was a character actor of the forties and fifties and was not in Maverick. Jack Kelly was the other Maverick.

Because of these and other noticeable errors it is hard to sometimes believe much of what he remembers about his life.

The book is nicely written and contains some interesting pictures from his life and his career.

This book has 45 beautiful black & white photos and 270 pages on which the Austrian actor describes his upbringing in Vienna and how he refused to join the Nazi's actors' guild and rather established a career in England.Henreid dedicates one entire chapter to his best film "Now Voyager" and another chapter to "Casablanca". It then describes the years when actors and other artists have been under tremendous pressure due to the blacklist. His last film was in 1977 with Richard Burton (The Exorcist II) and the book ends in 1980.

Try to get a used hardcover copy with dust wrapper as it contains the best photo from "Now Voyager" and also a good description of the book.

I really enjoyed reading this one!