Customer Reviews

Life On Film

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This isn't just well-written (& no ghost writer!), it's also a wonderful tour of the history of movies from the early 1920's through the mid-60's, when Mary Astor retired from film.

She was beautiful and her parents, especially her father, noted early that her looks could be worth money. At the point when it looked like she'd have a shot at the movies, her father quit working and packed the family off to New York to push her career. It was 1921 and she was 15.

Astor paints a vivid portrait of herself as the obedient, eager-to-please daughter of a classic pair: stage father/stage mother. She describes the making of movies in detail: the actor/director relationship, the performance process, the role of crew members. She writes of the strict caste system on the set. She relates the good and bad aspects of being under contract: the good was the security, the bad was being assigned to pictures with little say in the matter - and being typecast (MGM cast her as "the mother" for years).

A couple of details are particulary interesting: Astor was able to make the transition from silents to talkies and discusses what that was like for herself and other silent era stars. She also reveals that she was more suited to being a "featured player" rather than a star because she was never comfortable with the idea of being the one responsible for carrying a picture. Considering she had a domineering father who ran her life with an iron hand, that's not surprising.

This is an intriguing inside look at the movie business during more than one Golden Age. She worked with many legendary stars over the years - John Barrymore (who became her first lover), Humphrey Bogart ("The Maltese Falcon"), Bette Davis (Astor won her Oscar for "The Great Lie"), and James Dean, with whom she performed on live TV.

Highly recommended. Extremely well-written. Intelligent. Insightful.

This is a good book, but the Dell paperback edition I bought provided obviously shrunken typeface from the hardcover edition, and it is hard to read, hard on the eyes.

It's worth paying more to get OK typeface when paperback editions are not re-set so the typeface is OK in the smaller binding format.

This is a real issue people should consider. It's important to be comfortable when reading a book and the size of the typeface is important.

Whether you are a fan of Ms. Astor's work (I am) or not, this book is one of the definitive works on the film industry in it's most influential era. From the 20's into the 1960's Ms. Astor, worked in films along side the legends (Bogart, Barrymore, Davis, Garland, Colman, Robinson etc.)and the contract players alike in everything from classics to everyday potboiler B pictures. Her insights into the art of putting a movie together are fascinating as well as her witty stories about the films she appeared in. If anything, she is overly critical of herself, dismissing some fine work of her own along the way. The hardcover of this book is also loaded with great pictures from the films which show up clearly in this edition. The paperback uses smaller type print and much smaller pictures which diminishes them a bit. The book is out of print now, which is really too bad, (Publishers: are you paying attention here?)but worth seeking out for anyone who would like an insider's story for how films are made as well as the people who made them. It's witty, well written, and a lot of fun to read!