Robert Aldrich: Interviews (Conversations With Filmmakers Series) (Paperback)

~ Eugene L. Miller (Editor), Edwin T. Arnold (Editor) "THERE'S SURE TO BE A "new look" in MGM's The Big Leaguer if Robert Aldrich has his way..." (more)
Key Phrases: gorilla picture, production clerk, best script, The Big Knife, Robert Aldrich, Kiss Me Deadly (more...)

Editorial Reviews

From Booklist

For director Aldrich (1918-83) life was a struggle. That is reflected in his best films, such as the noir classic Kiss Me Deadly (1955) and the horror comedy What Ever Happened to Baby Jane? (1962) and in the 15 interviews in this book. He was a born maverick, whose rebellious nature and liberal politics led to more career ups and downs than most of his peers experienced. At one time, flush with profits from his World War II blockbuster The Dirty Dozen (1967), he owned his own studio, but a string of flops soon forced him to unload it. The interviews span from a brief 1953 newspaper story to a lengthy French interview published shortly after his death. Although most come from specialized film journals, Aldrich generally eschews discussing technical details or philosophical intentions, preferring to disclose interesting background on the making of his films and his travails within the industry. His lack of pretension and self-aggrandizement stands in surprising contrast to the testosterone-driven films for which he is best remembered. Gordon Flagg
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

Product Description

In this collection of interviews, Robert Aldrich (1918-1983) tells fascinating stories of making motion pictures with such film legends as Burt Lancaster, Lee Marvin, Jack Palance, Robert Mitchum, Bette Davis, Joan Crawford, James Stewart, Charles Bronson, Eddie Albert, and Burt Reynolds. As he speaks of them, of his on-going battles with censors, and of his audacious but failed attempt to create his own studio, he talks bluntly, sometimes ferociously, about struggling to make movies that accented his uncompromising view of life.

Among Aldrich's interviewers are Richard Combs, Peter Bogdanovich, Alain Silver, Pierre Sauvage, and David Sterritt. In dialogue with these critics and film scholars he recounts a life in filmmaking that encompassed both old Hollywood's studio system and the spirited independence that took American cinema in a new direction in the 1960s and '70s.

Although he was a member and a kinsman of wealthy, powerful families (the Aldriches of Rhode Island and the Rockefellers of New York), he gained a reputation as an anti-authoritarian maverick whose films condemned corruptive power. While succeeding as popular entertainment, they also were personal attacks on hypocrisy and intolerance.

Aldrich redefined genres and undercut the conventions they portrayed. Kiss Me Deadly transformed the detective film into a satire on Cold War America. Vera Cruz disclosed the corruption at the heart of the traditional western. The Dirty Dozen and Twilight's Last Gleaming rendered the ambiguous underside of combat and the military. Whatever Happened to Baby Jane? and Hush . . . Hush, Sweet Charlotte shaped horror films into psychological studies of female loneliness and alienation.

Eugene L. Miller is the author, with Edwin T. Arnold, of The Films and Career of Robert Aldrich.

Edwin T. Arnold, a professor of English at Appalachian State University, is co-editor of Perspectives on Cormac McCarthy and A Cormac McCarthy Companion: The Border Trilogy (both published by the University Press of Mississippi).

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 192 pages
• Publisher: University Press of Mississippi (February 1, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1578066034
• ISBN-13: 978-1578066032
• Product Dimensions: 8.8 x 5.9 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 13.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #1,544,986 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5.0 out of 5 stars Reads like a novel, October 26, 2006

By	Michael Samerdyke (Big Stone Gap, VA USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This is the best book I have read in the U. of Mississippi series of interviews with filmmakers.

The first interview catches Aldrich just after the start of his career, so the interviews proceed with the career, as opposed to just having him reflect back on things from years later. We see what Aldrich is doing and hear him talk about projects that never come to pass.

A few fascinating things emerge. He apparently never got over getting fired from "The Garment Jungle." Even when he is a success after "The Dirty Dozen," he still is bitter/regretful about that. Also, his relationship with Burt Lancaster, which seemed okay on the outside (they made about four films together) is revealed as contentious and mistrustful.

If you like Aldrich's films, you need to read this book. It will tell you things you never knew and will add to your appreciation of this man.