Nobodys Perfect [Paperback]

Charlotte Chandler (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 6, 2003

Having been introduced to each other by Groucho Marx in the mid-1970s, Charlotte Chandler became the biographer of this legendary screenwriter/director. Charlotte made frequent trips to Hollywood to spend time with Wilder and his wife, Audrey. At every visit the tape-recorder was left on, and their conversations were preserved. Over time, Wilder introduced her to his friends, who also were taped for inclusion in the book. The result is an amazing wealth of riches, conversations that are as fresh and vital now as when they were recorded. Included are such greats as Gloria Swanson, William Holden, Ginger Rogers, Kirk Douglas, Audrey Hepburn, Jimmy Stewart, Tony Curtis, Jack Lemmon, Shirley MacLaine and Henry Fonda. The portrait they present of Wilder is both loving and complex, an amalgam of adoration and respect. For Wilder, these were actors, and as long as they did their job well, he wanted to be with them. A case in point is Marilyn Monroe. Wilder made two films with her, SEVEN YEAR ITCH and SOME LIKE IT HOT, and both times he spoke openly about the difficulty working with the emotionally unstable star, 'Marilyn was like smoking,' Wilder revealed. 'I knew she was bad for my health, but I couldn't give her up.'

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Everyone knows Wilder's reputation as a consummate storyteller who had one true or not for every occasion. Upon his death in March of this year, homages to the great director were filled with well-known anecdotes, passed along like great jokes. They were always funny and showed the filmmaker at his sharpest, but they also helped obscure the man behind a wall of wit and showmanship. This new biography from Groucho Marx and Federico Fellini biographer Chandler, which takes its title from the last line of Some Like It Hot, avoids this trap by simply letting Wilder talk at length. Unlike Cameron Crowe in his 1999 book of conversations with Wilder, Chandler keeps herself mostly in the background, popping up only occasionally to point out which actor had led her to interview which director, and so on. As a result, the book is a rich compendium of primary source material, containing interviews with Wilder himself, Kirk Douglas, Jack Lemmon, Shirley MacLaine, Ginger Rogers, Jimmy Stewart, Gloria Swanson and others. The book doesn't offer lengthy discussions of Wilder as a cinematic genius; readers will not find critical appraisals of Ace in the Hole or Sunset Boulevard. However, the author does richly document the making of some of Wilder's masterpieces and open the sluice gates for the voluble Wilder as well as the recondite storytellers mentioned above. Altogether, it makes for a comprehensive portrait of Wilder that goes beyond the witty stories. Photos.
Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Library Journal

Chandler (Hello, I Must Be Going: Groucho and His Friends; I, Fellini) here adds the late Billy Wilder to her list of celebrity subjects. Best known as one of Hollywood's most prolific writers, producers, and directors, Wilder grew up in Vienna and later moved to Berlin, where he became involved with German cinema. When the Nazis rose to power, he escaped to Hollywood. After covering Wilder's early years, Chandler devotes a chapter each to Wilder's best-known movies (e.g., Some Like It Hot and Sunset Boulevard). These chapters consist of transcribed interviews with Wilder and many of the stars he directed, which results in an unfortunate lack of technical information and context. Film students, then, won't find much to glean here. Chandler also skimps on Wilder's personal life (he was divorced and later remarried), rendering it uninteresting to general readers. This biography is similar in format to Kevin Lally's Wilder Times, discussing many of the same films. Chandler fails to unearth new details on Wilder, and her filmography is not as informative as Lally's. With other biographies on Wilder available, this is not an essential purchase.
Rosalind Dayen, South Regional Lib., Pembroke Pines, FL
Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 368 pages
• Publisher: Simon & Schuster (October 6, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0743460987
• ISBN-13: 978-0743460989
• Product Dimensions: 7.7 x 5.1 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 9.1 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #8,975,749 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A WILD, ENJOYABLE READ ABOUT A MOST PERFECT DIRECTOR, February 8, 2003

By 

Alan W. Petrucelli (THE ENTERTAINMENT REPORT (ALAN W. PETRUCELLI)) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Nobody's Perfect: Billy Wilder: A Personal Biography (Hardcover)

There is no one wilder in Hollywood than Billy - Billy Wilder, that is.  And the new bio of him, "Nobody's Perfect: Billy Wilder: A Personal Biography," is as close to the "perfect" non-critical, fun history of a man and his movies. Written by Charlotte Chandler (whose previous works include "I, Fellini" and "Hello, I Must Be Going: Groucho and His Friends"), the tome is based on interviews she conducted with Wilder and his friends over a period of years. The result is a wonderful kaleidoscope of movies, politicians, actors, geniuses and louses. From Sigmund Freud to Louis B. Mayer, from Richard Strauss to Joan Fontaine, from Prince Yussupov to Walter Matthau --- Wilder knew them all. He is the man who put Marilyn Monroe over a subway grate, Jack Lemmon in a dress and Gloria Swanson in the most famous close-up of them all. The great beacon shining through the entire book is, of course, the wit and humor of the man.  Wilder is certainly one of the great comic directors of all time, and his legacy is astounding. By structuring the book around the subject's work in a strictly chronological manner, Chandler creates a picture of Wilder that is at once true and wildly engrossing. The early stories about journalism in pre-war Berlin are as fascinating as the later tales of success in glittering Hollywood. That the last 20 years of his life, arguably the most creative time in an artist's life, were spent without a single film project is the underlying tragedy of this book, and Chandler doesn't exactly dwell on it, but the painful reality is certainly there. We like to think of him as this way: Billy Wilder, Somebody's Perfect. (Submitted by staff member Stephen J. Finn)

11 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars An Enjoyable Look at a Supreme Opportunist, April 27, 2003

By 

James Paris "Tarnmoor" (Los Angeles, CA USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Nobody's Perfect: Billy Wilder: A Personal Biography (Hardcover)

My love of films came to fruition during a brief period when the "auteur theory" held sway in the 1960s and 1970s. Auteurist critic Andrew Sarris classified Billy Wilder in his "Less Than Meets the Eye Category," primarily because he was "too cynical for the more serious demands of middle-class tragedy (DOUBLE INDEMNITY) and social allegory (ACE IN THE HOLE). A director who can crack jokes about suicide attempts ... and thoughtlessly brutalize charming actresses like Jean Arthur (FOREIGN AFFAIR) and Audrey Hepburn (SABRINA) is hardly likely to make a coherent film on the human condition."

It was only as a result of seeing Wilder's films that I discovered what Sarris was really saying was that the director was both too versatile and too successful -- and it didn't help that his approach to directing films was as a writer rather than as a visual artist.

Reading Charlotte Chandler's oral history of Wilder's career, I was impressed with Billy Wilder's ability to be able to create iconic native masterpieces of film noir (DOUBLE INDEMNITY) and Hollywood Gothic (SUNSET BOULEVARD) without the benefit of growing up in the United States. While his later comedies (such as SOME LIKE IT HOT) owe much to his collaboration with Lubitsch, Hawks, and Mitchell Leisen, Wilder developed his own style of comedy and retained his ability to make good films well into his eighties.

In the chapter on SUNSET BOULEVARD, actress Nancy Olson makes an astute comment: "Billy said, 'Every character in SUNSET BOULEVARD is an opportunist.' It seemed to me that what he is saying is that this picture is not only about opportunism, but about ... the consequences of it."

A little light bulb went on in my mind. Wilder's films are all, in their own way, about opportunism. Walter Neff and Phyllis Dietrichson take advantage of each other for their own nefarious ends in DOUBLE INDEMNITY. In picture after picture, I see a pattern of characters using one another with interesting results, with the ultimate example being Kirk Douglas in ACE IN THE HOLE.

Chandler's interviews are mostly interesting, though the intrusion of plot summaries in the middle of each chapter is intrusive: These should have been relegated to the Filmography in the back of the book. I was disturbed that Chandler did not see fit to add any of her own observations about Wilder except insofar as to provide a segue for the many quotes. Still, it is both a useful and entertaining book and a valuable addition to the literature about this fascinating filmmaker.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Engaging story of one of the great figures of 20th century, October 6, 2004

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Midwest Book Review (Oregon, WI USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Nobody's Perfect: Billy Wilder, A Personal Biography (Paperback)

Nobody's Perfect: Billy Wilder by biographer Charlotte Chandler is the personal and engaging story of one of the great figures of 20th century movie-making -- the legendary Billy Wilder (1906-2002). The great director perhaps best known for classics such as "Some Like It Hot", "The Apartment", "Sunset Boulevard", and many more, Billy Wilder narrates much of "Nobody's Perfect" in his own words, rendering it as close to an autobiography as any story of his life can be. A filmography complements this witty, insightful, life story of a creative visionary.