Customer Reviews

Valentino: A Dream of Desire

5 star:		(0)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(10)

 

 

Curiousity got the better of me, so I read the whole thing in less than two hours. This was a repeat performance of his last book about Joan Crawford. David Bret seems to be following a recipe for mediocrity......collect all the salacious stories you can about your long dead victim (Valentino), throw in a heavy doses of gossip about friends and acquaintances (also long dead), flesh out the stories with graphic detail, call it a book, and sell it. Seriously, if you want to read an excellent Valentino bio read Emily Leider's book which is an objective treatment and well researched. Bret's book is a joke and not worth your $ or your time.

Believe none of what you hear and only half of what you see was something I learned a long time ago. I would certainly apply the adage to this book.

In all of his "biographies, according to David Bret, every (deceased) person in the movie industry; male and female, from the lighting technicians to the highest paid stars and the movie moguls themselves; the single and the married as well, were all either, bi-sexual, lesbian, homosexual... or wish they were. Mr. Bret offers no proof except what apparently exists in the fantasy dream world of others or his own imagination... and perhaps wishful thinking.

It makes for titillating reading but unless the author can back up his claims it is all fiction and the reader should take it with a grain of salt.

This book is truly horrid! According to this author 90% of 1920's Hollywood were gay or lesbian and Valentino slept with them all. The timeline of events in Valentino's life has numerous errors, errors that could have been corrected by the most basic research. There is absolutely no documentation given for the outrageous stories told in this book and quotes from movie fan magazines of the period are taken GROSSLY out of context, some even being altered a bit to fit the author's storyline. If Valentino had been gay and was forced to live in hiding due to the times he lived in - it was a great tragedy. However, if the stories in this book are to be believed he lived quite openly and everyone knew it. A hard thing to believe with the Hays "morality" Office snooping around hell bent on cleaning up Hollywood. If you want an honest look into the life of Rudolph Valentino there are many biographies better than this, some written by people who actually knew him. If however, you'd prefer the fictionalized, Jerry Springer version of events, then this is the book for you!

David Bret has a horrible reputation...

Not only are his books complete and utter garbage- a cross between poor reiteration of common knowledge and ridiculous fantasy nonsense- BUT, he is known to crash fansites of the individual he's writing about and- if they've dared to acknowledge that his work is, in fact, garbage- unleashing an onslaught of tasteless, offensive vulgarities & insults. And he delights in this. Truly sick.

I came across this book recently, and it's more of the same nonsense. What was factual has been written countless times before, and better. Beyond that he seems determined as a biographer to do little else than give credence to the ancient rumours of Valentino's sexuality.

Skip this and find something more reliable, like "Hollywood Babylon" or the National Enquirer.

This is the second most discredited bio of Valentino, in my opinion, trailing just behind Kenneth Anger's funny but spurious "Hollywood Babylon." The author claims to be in the possession of Rudy's private diary and quotes from it episodes of passionate homosexual love. Long ago that "diary" was proven to be a fake, written by a distempered mind. The French-Canadian author, Jeanne de Recqville, carefully explored every sentence of that so-called diary, and demonstrated its numerous mistakes. Let the buyer beware! You'll learn more about the author of this horrible book than you ever will about Rudolph Valentino. It is nonsense like this which cheapens the art of Hollywood biography and discredits the veracity of those who think they are contributing to cinema history.

I would not even give this book a star, it deserves a big ZERO. This is probably the worst book I have ever read on Valentino and contains so much destain and paints him in such a horrible light I wonder why Bret has such an ax to grind. Considering Valentino died 75 years ago, Bret writes as if he was privy to intimate conversations that took place between Valentino and individuals who are no longer alive to be interviewed. Brets revelations that Valentino was a raging homosexual, who had table manners worse than a pig and a temper and destain for women could only be motivated by himself and the publisher of this book attepting to make money off the gay male population who unfortunatly will believe this poorly written load of sensationalistic and vulgar nonsence. How sad for fans of Valentino everywhere and for the man himself who deserves much better than this innaccurate book about his personality and life.

There has been no direct evidence that Rudolph Valentino was homosexual, yet that doesn't stop David Bret from trying. He'll confuse dates, names and places to get his message across that Valentino had affairs with Al Jolson or William Boyd.

So if there is no direct evidence why do we need a David Bret to tell us otherwise? We don't.

This book is horrible from cover to cover all through the book it shows Rudy as a vain person who is reckless and uncaring for others it even shows him as a male prostitute who cares more for money then his own well being !!!! all in all I wish I could give this book no stars

The book is interesting in that it reveals Valentino's involvement with a number of male lovers, but it is frustrating in that no documentation is offered to support the narrative. David Bret fails to cite the sources for what he reports and quotes are likewise not cited. There are also a few factual errors in the text, such as referring to the California jail that Valentino was incrcerated in overnight as "the Tombs" (which is in fact in New York).

How can a person write this stuff?? David Bret seems content to make up a whole new life for Rudolph Valentino. He backs up the most wild stories of a secret gay life with........well nothing. No interviews, no references, no sources...at best conjecture. I would imagine that Mr. Bret..wishes Mr. Valentino had been gay. I am sure that this book paid his mortage for a while, but it does incredible damage to the legacy of a great actor and person.