Who the Devil Made It: Conversations with ... (Hardcover)

by Peter Bogdanovich (Author)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review
The title comes from an exchange between filmmakers Howard Hawks and Peter Bogdanovich. Asked which directors he preferred, Hawks replied, "I liked almost anybody that made you realize who in the devil was making the picture." Hawks is talking about distinctive directorial personality, about movies that bear the stamp of a filmmaker's character. This book collects 16 interviews Bogdanovich conducted with some of the best directors working in the golden age of Hollywood. All of them, from the famous--Alfred Hitchcock, Fritz Lang, Chuck Jones, and Hawks himself--to the lesser known but equally wonderful Leo McCarey, George Cukor, Josef von Sternberg, and Edgar G. Ulmer--had a remarkable and inimitable style. In their interviews, they provide insight into their craft and a view of Hollywood's golden age that is informative, anecdotal, and often hysterically funny.

From Library Journal
Noted film director (The Last Picture Show, 1971) and author (This Is Orson Welles, LJ 11/15/92) Bogdanovich here consolidates 16 interviews with a very representative selection of significant cinema pioneers. Bogdanovich begins with a lengthy introduction in which he lays out his credentials, provides an overview of cinema history, and discusses the pervading influence of Ernst Lubitsch (d. 1947). Each director receives a career analysis followed by the interview and concluding with vital statistics and a complete filmography. As a film historian, Bogdanovich knew which questions to ask. Except for the previously unpublished Robert Aldrich and George Cukor interviews, these pieces originally appeared in periodicals, monographs, and books dating as far back as 1960. The books are out of print, and some of the periodicals are hard to find, making this compendium very valuable, even essential, for film collections.?Kim R. Holston, American Inst. for Chartered Property Casualty Underwriters Lib., Malvern, Pa.
Copyright 1997 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 849 pages
• Publisher: Knopf; 1 edition (March 11, 1997)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0679447067
• ISBN-13: 978-0679447061
• Product Dimensions: 10 x 6.5 x 2.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.8 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars See all reviews (13 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #301,998 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Forget other movie reference books. Buy this!, July 14, 2001

By	Don Eldredge "1017" (Sherman, TX United States) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This review is from: Who the Devil Made It: Conversations with Legendary Film Directors (Paperback)

I wonder if we (the movie fans) appreciate that we have two of the greatest film historians ever still with us today? Peter Bogdanovich and Martin Scorsese not only make movies, they also have gone to great lengths to give us insight into those who came before them in filmmaking - Scorsese with his personal journey through American films and Bogdanovich with his insightful interviews of Welles, Ford and the long list of pioneers he included in this massive volume. Here we are given more than 800 pages of interviews, some of which are fully developed and others which are but snipets of interesting careers. We should be thankful he included the snipets with the others, because in many cases these are the only true looks we have into these men who led today's young filmmakers to find their way. From Allan Dwan to Chuck Jones, Bogdanovich explores with his interviews what was behind the eyes of the men who did many things in filmmaking for the first time and with distinction. He includes some who were there when filmmaking was in its infancy, and some who started in television and moved to movies. The length and some of the lesser-known names among the subjects at first gave me pause in tackling this book, but I surprisingly found each of the interviews interesting and now count this among the best (among many) reference books I own about movies. I've gone back to it several times when viewing some of the films these men have made, and that, for me, makes this a valuable posession.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Access to Genius Otherwise Unavailable, April 29, 2002

By	Robert Morris (Dallas, Texas) - See all my reviews (TOP 50 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

This review is from: Who the Devil Made It: Conversations with Legendary Film Directors (Paperback)

The title was suggested by Howard Hawks who once observed, "...I liked almost anybody that made you realize who in the devil was making the picture...Because the director's the storyteller and should have his own method of telling it." Hawks is one of the 16 "legendary film directors" represented in this volume. It is important to keep in mind that these are conversations rather than interviews such as those conducted by Robert J. Emery in The Directors: Take One and its sequel, The Directors Take Two, as well as interviews conducted by Richard Schickel in The Men Who Made the Movies. It is also worth noting that Bogdanovich is himself a distinguished director of films such as The Last Picture Show, What's Up, Doc?, They All Laughed (a personal favorite of mine), and Texasville. As a result of his own background, Bogdanovich's questions and comments reflect somewhat different interests and perspectives than do those of Emery and Schickel.

I rate all of these books Five Stars but probably enjoyed reading Bogdanovich's book the most because the conversations ramble along somewhat messily, as most of my own conversations tend to do, and also because Bogdanovich is more actively involved in the interaction than Emery and Schickel are. As a reader, I feel as if I were really an eavesdropper as 16 directors casually share their opinions, information about specific films and actors, gossip, "war stories," and overall evaluations of their careers' various successes and failures. At no time does Bogdanovich seem intrusive or manipulative. Moreover, perhaps to an extent he did not realize when writing this book, he also reveals a great deal about himself...much of it endearing and some of it admirable. His passion for film making and his appreciation of the great directors are almost palpable. Readers' interests about various directors and their respective films obviously vary. I include myself among those who are die-hard film buffs and so I enjoyed reading every chapter and every word in each chapter. Indeed, each conversation was for this amateur "gourmet" a feast to be consumed with delight and, yes, gratitude.

8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Devil is in the Details, November 22, 2000

By	Michael Pinto "Anime Fan" (NYC, USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This review is from: Who the Devil Made It: Conversations with Legendary Film Directors (Paperback)

You can spend years going to film school, or you can read this book! Bogdanovich does a great job with this collection of interviews of great film directors. Not only does the book give you a good inside view of the craft of cinema, but it also acts as a history book of the film industry.

This book would be good for the serious indie director who has bet his/her credit cards on their dream or even the special person in your life who stays up until 4am watching the Turner Classic Movie channel.

There is something here for everyone as there is a wide range of directors who work in a wide range of styles. There isn't a genre that isn't touched in this book - from Hitchcock on Horror to Chuck Jones on cartoons. What's great is that Bogdanovich captures insight into directors that are no longer with us (like Fritz Lang who directed Metropolis). Since the directors tell their own stories, you don't get the Hollywood hype filter.

If you had to buy one book on film this year, this would be it!