Customer Reviews

Wind At My Back Signed

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

 

 

I first read this book when I was a little kid and I read it again 20 years later. I loved it! Pat O'Brien was a charming man and a product of his time. Although his recollections as a successful Hollywood character actor are old-fashioned by today's standards, it's still fun to read what "old Hollywood" was like in his eyes. He made his debut in the 1931 film, "The Front Page" and he was a very popular actor throughout the 1930's and 1940's. He enjoyed working in "pre-Hays code" films with actresses like Carol Lombard and Jean Harlow. O'Brien was blacklisted in the 1950's and didn't work much during that decade. He doesn't say WHY he was blacklisted--but I've read elsewhere that his political views were extremely right wing. Regardless, his memoir is gentle and kind and great escapist entertainment. Anyone interested in the Golden Era of Hollywood should read this book. I love his description of what life was like in a rented Malibu mansion overlooking the Pacific Ocean in the early 1930's--complete with Sunday afternoon barbeques in the backyard, attended by his co-workers at Warner Bros. It made me wish I could hop into a time machine and go back to that time and place. Pat knew all the greats--Spencer Tracy, Marion Davies, Bette Davis and so many more. He was a proud Irish-American and a very talented actor. AMC frequently shows his vintage films from the 1930's.