Randolph Scott: The gentleman from Virginia : a film biography [Hardcover]

Jefferson Brim Crow (Author)

Product Details

• Hardcover: 302 pages
• Publisher: WindRiver Pub. Co; 1st ed edition (1987)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0940375001
• ISBN-13: 978-0940375000
• Product Dimensions: 10.7 x 9.2 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 4 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 2.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,277,190 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars It's too bad such a great subject got such a bad book, February 3, 2005

By 

Jim Beaver (Hollywood CA USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Randolph Scott: The gentleman from Virginia : a film biography (Hardcover)

Jefferson Brim Crow is an unadulterated fan of Randolph Scott, and his adoration of the great Western star is evident. Unfortunately, Crow is no film history scholar, and his book is really not much more than an impressively printed fan's scrapbook. Real biographical information is sparse, there are no substantial interviews of Scott's colleagues (of the four "interviews" in the book, two are one-sentence remarks and the other two are almost remarkably uninformative Q&A's of this sort: "Q: 'Do you know his birthplace?' A: 'I don't know.'").

The vast majority of the book is a collection of photographs, many quite interesting, but scattered randomly without connection to the adjacent text, i.e., photos of Scott's late 1950s Westerns in a chapter dealing with his early romantic juvenile period. There is a filmography with minimal detail, and a long section consisting of photocopied newspaper articles about Scott, many of which are no more than publicity blurbs. There is virtually no criticism of any kind; even the worst Scott films are beloved of the author and no critical evaluation of Scott's acting skills is attempted. And whether or not one believes or cares one way or the other about the rumors and innuendo regarding Scott's relationship with Cary Grant, it is astounding to find the one purportedly objective book to focus specifically on Scott's career completely ignoring the fact that such rumor and innuendo had significant effect on Scott's career and personal life. Crow never mentions it. It would be perplexing were it not evident that this is a fan book, written by a fan who has no interest in anything beyond promoting adoration for his idol. It's quite a nice book to look at, barring the abundant misspellings and middle-school syntax. But a real Randolph Scott biography, one that is useful to serious students of American film, has yet to be published. Robert Nott's new book "The Films of Randolph Scott" is unread as yet by me, but his wonderful John Garfield biography gives indication that a fine Scott filmography has finally arrived.