The colorful W.S. "Woody" Van Dyke directed many of MGM's most outstanding films during the 1920s and 1930s including: The Thin Man; Rose-Marie; Tarzan, the Ape Man; and White Shadows in the South Seas. W.S. Van Dyke's Journal assembles previously unavailable source material and is illustrated with rare behind-the-scenes photographs covering all phases of Van Dyke's career. It contains Van Dyke's recently discovered manuscript journal written as he spent four months in Tahiti during 1927-28 filming White Shadows in the South Seas. The volume also includes magazine articles on Van Dyke and brief anecdotes by his associates, including Myrna Loy, Hunt Stromberg, and Ingrid Bergman. With cast and credit list for White Shadows in the South Seas, selected bibliography and filmography.
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Editorial Reviews
Review
Behlmer has done an excellent job of editing the journal, giving it a solid foundation of introductory data and framing it with a fascinating assortment of supporting material...The cumulative effect is astounding: Van Dyke revealed to us as few men ever are. (Classic Images )
In addition to providing a fascinating look behind the scenes of the expedition and clues to the thinking of a hard-driving director, there are also revealing notes about both Tarzan, the Ape Man and The Thin Man.>>>> (American Cinematographer )
To learn what Van Dyke went through tells us more about the film-making process than whole libraries of theoretical volumes. This is a rediscovered treasure, and we should be grateful both to Rudy Behlmer and to Scarecrow. (Brownlow, Kevin )
Behlmer has given us a clearer picture than we have yet seen of one of the most competent, versatile and paradoxical directors of Hollywood's Golden Age.... (Dga Magazine )
The volume is well illustrated with stills spanning the entirety of the director's career, many of them amusing and heretofore unpublished production shots. (Past Times )
This book is a little gem, shedding much light on the personality of a director who until now has been an enigma despite the popularity of his films... (The Nostalgia Entertainment Newsletter )
In addition to providing a fascinating look behind the scenes of the expedition and clues to the thinking of a hard-driving director, there are also revealing notes about both Tarzan, the Ape Man and The Thin Man. (American Cinematographer )
...the illustrations are real rarities. (Movie Collector's World )
In addition to providing a fascinating look behind the scenes of the expedition and clues to the thinking of a hard-driving director, there are also revealing notes about both Tarzan, the Ape Man and The Thin Man.>>>> (American Cinematographer )
To learn what Van Dyke went through tells us more about the film-making process than whole libraries of theoretical volumes. This is a rediscovered treasure, and we should be grateful both to Rudy Behlmer and to Scarecrow. (Brownlow, Kevin )
Behlmer has given us a clearer picture than we have yet seen of one of the most competent, versatile and paradoxical directors of Hollywood's Golden Age.... (Dga Magazine )
The volume is well illustrated with stills spanning the entirety of the director's career, many of them amusing and heretofore unpublished production shots. (Past Times )
This book is a little gem, shedding much light on the personality of a director who until now has been an enigma despite the popularity of his films... (The Nostalgia Entertainment Newsletter )
In addition to providing a fascinating look behind the scenes of the expedition and clues to the thinking of a hard-driving director, there are also revealing notes about both Tarzan, the Ape Man and The Thin Man. (American Cinematographer )
...the illustrations are real rarities. (Movie Collector's World )
About the Author
Writer-Producer-Director Rudy Behlmer has been involved with film and television for over forty years. He is the author of Inside Warner Bros., Memo From David O. Selznick, and Behind-the-Scenes.
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6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
The Wonderful World of One-Shot Woody,
This review is from: W. S. Van Dyke's Journal: White Shadows in the South Seas (1927-1928) (Hardcover)
Finally--a biography on one of the most unjustly neglected contract directors of Hollywood's Golden Age, William Van Dyke (1889-1943). Van Dyke (who's career began as an assistant director on D.W. Griffith's 1916 masterpiece of poetic-overkill, Intolerance) earned the nickname "One-Shot Woody" because of his reputation for churning out entertaining, financially successful films on schedule and under budget. Indeed, a great irony of his start with Griffith is that the high priest of studio extravagance, Erich von Stroheim, was also a Griffith assistant at the same time--too bad Van Dyke didn't assist him later in the 20's on Greed! Though primarily remembered for such highly entertaining films as The Thin Man (he directed the first three in the series), Rose Marie, Manhattan Melodrama and It's a Wonderful World in the 1930's, Van Dyke initially gained the attention of MGM Studios with his unique ability to take over another director's muddled project and turn this sow's ear into a silk purse. Van Dyke was given his initial such opportunity in the last days of the silents in 1928--with the reigns of Robert Flaherty's follow-up to Nanook of the North--White Shadows of the South Seas. Not only did he salvage a successful movie, he created a silent masterpiece which stands next to F.W. Murnau's Sunrise for the sheer beauty of its images and timeless handling of its subject matter, which concerns white mercenaries' shameless exploitation of nature and a peaceful island society (Maybe George W. Bush should see this film before he goes blundering into the Alaskan wildlife preserve in the name of oil). This is Van Dyke's working journal--a priceless, day to day insight into a time of creative filmaking that has forever vanished and our motion picture heritage is all the much richer for it.
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