Montgomery Clift : A Biography [Paperback]

Michelangelo Capua (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0786414324 | ISBN-13: 978-0786414321 | Publication Date: October 14, 2002

At the peak of his career in the 1950s, Montgomery Clift was the symbol of a very talented yet rebellious generation of movie stars. His acting combined the personal and the professional, and his seventeen movies show his superb craft and extraordinary sensitivity. Yet there was much more to his life than his talents as an actor—more than most people knew.

This book is a biography of the extremely handsome, acutely intelligent, but tormented Montgomery Clift. His life has been described as "the longest suicide in the history of Hollywood," and this biography shows the accuracy of that description. It covers Clift’s sheltered childhood, his discovery at the age of 12, the early critical acclaim that brought attention from such noted directors as Elia Kazan and Antoinette Perry, his development as a professional actor and work with many of Hollywood’s greatest directors (including Kazan, Fred Zinneman, Alfred Hitchcock and John Huston), and the devastating car accident that disfigured his face and caused him to turn to drugs and alcohol. Throughout the book, attention is given to Clift’s self-destructive personality—which created problems that even close friends like Elizabeth Taylor could not help him solve—and his closet homosexuality, which contributed to his intense insecurity. Richly illustrated.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Book dealer Michelangelo Capua has worked in the fashion industry and as a New York correspondent for an Italian film magazine. He lives in New York.

Product Details

• Paperback: 184 pages
• Publisher: McFarland & Company, Inc. (October 14, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0786414324
• ISBN-13: 978-0786414321
• Product Dimensions: 9.8 x 6 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 9.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 2.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #929,235 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Biography, January 30, 2006

By 

Simon LaFontaine (Chicago, IL) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Montgomery Clift : A Biography (Paperback)

This book is a translation of a biography which came out in Italy in 2000. It made a lot of sense in that country were no books were ever written or translated on Clift. In the States this can be considered just a summary of all the biographies available here. Mcfarland is an academic oriented publisher therefore their books are all over priced because sold mostly to libraries and institutions. This book is a good start for someone who wants to know all about Clift withouth reading too many pages. It contains also some wonderful unseen photographs completely different from the Italian edition. It's a book not to dismiss.

11 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars WAY too much money..., July 27, 2005

By 

RetroMan "baker-of-birchwood" (Mineola, NY USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Montgomery Clift : A Biography (Paperback)

...for an brief, inaccurate, and at best an only average book which offers nothing new on the great but tragic actor, Montgomery Clift. Most of it is in fact a collection of annotations from well over 100 different sources - biographies, news clippings, etc.
At 150 pages (not including the footnote references or appendixes, which are at least informative), this book was overpriced and underwritten.

3 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars His information on "The Heiress" is false...he's got the facts wrong..., December 17, 2007

By 

N. Doyle "film buff" (USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Montgomery Clift : A Biography (Paperback)

Any book on MONTGOMERY CLIFT that gives a brief rundown of the facts on THE HEIRESS and gets them all wrong has got to be a book I don't want to bother reading in full.

The author states that William Wyler was "pressured by Paramount" to take Olivia de Havilland as the star, when in truth it was Olivia de Havilland who saw the play in New York City and asked Wyler to see it, as it would make a film project they could both do at Paramount. Wyler went to see the play and immediately let Olivia know that he would be happy to direct it with Olivia in the starring role. There was no such thing as Paramount pressuring him to take Olivia.

As for her calling him a "bully", there were tensions during filming, especially when Wyler demanded too many retakes of scenes without telling the actors what he wanted differently--but this was true on all of Wyler's films. It's also well known that neither Wyler nor Olivia liked the fact that Clift was paying too much attention to his drama coach on the sidelines, until Wyler was able to convince him to rely more on the director than his coach.

To get wrong, something as simple as Olivia choosing the project for herself and Wyler, and state something completely opposite, makes the rest of the book a questionable matter indeed. On this basis alone, I doubt whether the book has any value as film history.