Million-dollar Movie [Hardcover]

Michael Powell (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: December 1990

In this second volume of his memoirs, Michael Powell continues the story of his life, describing his love affairs and two happy marriages. He tells of his battles with film tycoons to prove that art films could be box-office success. After making "Peeping Tom", a film that shocked the world, his career came to an abrupt end, although the film is now considered to be an established classic.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

This outspoken, splendidly rambling memoir is the great British director's (d. 1990) follow-up to his A Life in the Movies. While the earlier volume discusses the making of the eccentric and opulent Red Shoes (1948) and Black Narcissus (1947), Powell chronicles here a career in decline, one bottoming out with the much-derided Peeping Tom (1960), a study of voyeurism to be celebrated only by a later generation of filmmakers-among them Francis Ford Coppola, who serenaded a delighted Powell in a Manhattan restaurant, and Scorsese, who spurred reappraisal of Powell's career. To Powell, Hollywood executives were "chair polishers" myopically focused on the bottom line; he and collaborator Emeric Pressburger, on the other hand, were artists for whom the box-office "grosses are too gross." The book is buoyant and unpretentious, full of affectionate anecdotes about actors Jennifer Jones, Michael Redgrave and Dirk Bogarde; larger-than-life producers Samuel Goldwyn and Alexander Korda; and figures great and obscure-Henri Matisse, Hitchcock, even Powell's beloved dogs, who take over the narration at strategic points-that reflect Powell's exuberance and generosity. Photos not seen by PW.
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Library Journal

British film director Powell is best known for The Red Shoes (1948), made, as virtually all his important films were, in close collaboration with writer Emeric Pressburger. The second volume of Powell's memoirs (the first was A Life of Movies: An Autobiography, LJ 4/1/87) begins in 1948 as the Archers (as Powell and Pressburger called their company) was riding high after the success of The Red Shoes. Unfortunately, Powell's career then began a downward spiral, hastened in 1960 by the scathing reception accorded Peeping Tom (1959). Later appreciation by American cineastes such as Martin Scorsese (who provides an introduction here) revived Powell's reputation. Powell, who died in 1990, is a witty and literate memoirist who might well be remembered for these books as mcuh as for his films. For larger film collections.
Thomas Wiener, formerly with "American Film"
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 448 pages
• Publisher: William Heinemann Ltd (December 1990)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0434599476
• ISBN-13: 978-0434599479
• Product Dimensions: 9.4 x 6.5 x 2.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #8,501,709 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5.0 out of 5 stars The 2nd part of the auto-biography of a Master Movie Maker, June 10, 1996

By A Customer

This review is from: Million Dollar Movie (Hardcover)

This is the 2nd part of Michael Powell's auto-biography.

Now regarded as one of the most important British Movie
Makers (The Red Shoes, The Life & Death of Colonel Blimp,
A Matter of Life & Death, Tales of Hoffmann etc etc).
Here Michael tells his own colourful story.

Often quoted by Martin Scosese as a major influence on his
work (and later a personal friend).