Marlon Brando Books

"Marlon Brando" by Patricia Bosworth is a well written and intriguing biography. I enjoyed reading it very much and I enjoyed that it was fairly nicely balanced and included details of Marlon's on-screen and off-screen life.

I think Marlon took some serious and unfair hits in his life - personally, with tragedies that befell him and his family and, professionally, as a result of other peoples' misjudgments regarding his having taken stands for important humanitarian causes and against social injustices. He was a human being that cared deeply for others and one who tried to put that caring into positive action. He was also the greatest actor ever to grace the stage or screen.

It is sad to me that Marlon was alone at the end of his life. He had his children who loved him and cared about him, but he reportedly lived alone. I have always wondered if the rejections he suffered throughout his life marked him so deeply that he felt unworthy and, thus, rejected the idea of having someone there loving him, caring for him, and supporting him physically, emotionally, and spiritually through his illness at a time in his life when things may not have been as "pretty" as they once were. He WAS worthy, despite his possibly not knowing that at the time.

I appreciate Marlon's statement that people who are deeply sensitive are more easily brutalized than most. I think this is very true. Pain is felt much more deeply and is more deeply internalized by those who are the most sensitive. It can leave one feeling unworthy and untrusting and all of the money and fame in the world cannot repair the damage. It is a spiritual thing, not a thing of earthly possessions or material accomplishments.

Marlon was a sensitive soul who needed to be cared for differently than he was during so many parts of his life.

Hey, I like Brando tremendously as an actor and have read his biographies for years. I particularly like his autobiography SONGS MY MOTHER TAUGHT ME. There is certainly nothing wrong with Ms. Bosworth as a writer. The book is an interesting, easy read. My objection is not to Ms. Bosworth but to the constraints of the format of Penguin LIVES. It appears to me that a writer cannot do an in-depth examination of someone's life in such a short book-- assuming that anyone will ever get much into the inner recesses of Mr. Brando's mind. Perhaps his private life should remain private. For instance, do I need to know that he has taken the drug librium for years? I think not. Additionally I would have liked to see footnotes. Ms. Bosworth makes a lot of statements about Brando with not the slightest hint of where shes got such information. Granted, she does list other biographies she consulted as well as the people she interviewed for writing this bio. I assume that extensive footnotes would have make the book too long. Having said all that, I am now in need of a Brando film festival, having finished the book. Ms. Bosworth made me want to revisit the Brando movies I've seen and see others for the first time.

A vivid portrait of the man and his acting genius. Bosworth does a bang up job depicting his life and the development of his enormous talent. He is one of the world's greatest artists and we get a clear unencumbered picture of the man and his life in clear, practical, prose. Really fascinating.

This was a revelation - a wonderful, wonderful biography
for which I am extremely grateful. It's touching, deft, and
I liked the fact that she focused on Brando the artist. I'm
sure he would like this book - I would, if I were him. It is
not at all condescending nor overly fawning.

I really felt for the man and the brilliant communicator of emotions, whose movies have always taught me about being an artist myself. Now I want to go and see all his films again. especially Mutiny on the Bounty. And my heart goes out to Marlon Brando, the neglected child of alcoholics, the big-hearted giver, the best friend of some very special people, including Wally Cox and Stella Adler,
the co-dependent son and father, the compulsive overeater who really should join O.A.

The book zips along, thanks to Bosworth's fine writing. And I'd like to say that it's a lesson in the efficacy of the brief biography. I'm so sick of trying to wade through tomes that tell you about everything from the kindergarten teacher who inspired the star to his toenail clipping habits. This little
book synthesized a complex life in a very dignified way.
Hats off to Patricia Bosworth.

This was a very quick and engrossing read. If, like myself, you know very little about Brando's life, this book will be a revelation. Brando is one of the most fascinating personalities of our time. This book does a good job of shedding light on the forces that helped shape his personality. His alcoholic mother and philandering and bullying father created a depressing family environment. It seems that he could never quite break free from their destructive influence despite years of psychotherapy. A sad story.

Published in 1973, THE FILMS OF MARLON BRANDO covers his film career from his first film, "The Men," released in 1950, through "Last Tango In Paris" which was released in 1972. The book opens, after a short introduction by Pauline Kael, with a fairly detailed discussion of Brando and his career and continues with a chronological, movie by movie, discussion of the films he made during the 22 year scope of the book.

Brando's reputation as a stage star was wholly due to his portrayal of the brutish Stanley Kowalski in "A Stretcar Named Desire." His fame as a film star came from his first six films. These were followed by many years of poor film choices and lackluster performances. His career was finally revived by his starring roles as Don Corleone in Mario Puzo's "The Godfather" and of Paul in "Last Tango in Paris."

According to Thomas, Brando never fit into the Hollywood lifestyle and was very open in expressing his disdain for both the film industry in general, and for the people who made films.

It was interesting to note that, because of Brando's many years of making unsuccessful movies and because of his reputation for "being difficult," when Francis Ford Coppola suggested to Paramount that they cast Brando as Don Corleone in "The Godfather," Coppola was told to forget that idea and to cast someone else in the part. Through subterfuge, Coppola finally got Paramount to accept Brando for the part, but they were unwilling to pay the large fee that he normally demanded., He agreed to a salary of only $100,000 but asked for, and received, a percentage of the gross. With the great success of the film, Brando eventually made millions from this contract.

I'm afraid that I've never understood why his performance in "The Godfather" was so critically acclaimed, but I do agree with the book's evaluation of at least three of his early films. These were: "A Streetcar Named Desire" which was written by Tennessee Williams, "On the Waterfront" by Bud Schulberg, and "Viva Zapata" with a screenplay by John Steinbeck. I think that all three had writing that was superior to that found in most Hollywood scripts. This fact, along with Brando's best acting, contributed heavily to their success and, coincidentally, to my enjoyment of them. The reviews in THE FILMS OF MARLON BRANDO are all very well written and give credit to all those who contributed to the success of each film. On the reversie side of the coin, they pull no punches when discussing the mediocrity of many of Brando's films in the 60's.

I can recommend this book both for its biographical material and for its discussions of Brando's films. Brando was a very private man who gave very few interviews, so it is really a bonus that this book uncovers a little of the mystery that was Marlon Brando.

Mutiny on the Bounty was one of the most expensive and difficult movies to make. The producers wanted the scenes to be as realistic as possible, which meant that the movie version of the Bounty had to be built from scratch and it had to be shot on location, which meant travel to the remote island of Tahiti. Once there, the male actors and film crew were distracted by the beautiful local women. According to some accounts, many of the male members of the cast and crew spent a great deal of time in sexual liaisons with Tahitian women.
This book was part of the publicity for the film put out by Metro-Goldwyn-Meyer when it came out. There are brief snippets of the history of the Bounty, the discovery of the Tahitian islands by Europeans and the event of the actual mutiny. This is followed by a series of brief synopses of the actors and actresses in the movie as well as the major members of the production crew.
Published in 1962, this book has little historical value other than as an example of how movie marketing was done in the early sixties. It provides an interesting historical comparison to the mighty marketing efforts performed to publicize modern movies.

Mr. Manso researched this book for ten years and apparently forgot to mention Marlon Brando's involvement with "Rebel Without A Cause". He either did a screen test for it or shot scenes which were not used (the footage can be seen in the special edition of "Streetcar"). It's interesting stuff and even includes a brief interview with a shy Brando between takes. After I saw the footage, I looked up "Rebel" in the Manso book. He completely ignored it! Poor research or poor judgement, I say.

Although this is a terribly good book, and covers every aspect of Brando's life in excruciating detail, if one is in search of the source of his genius, as I was, he is likely to be disappointed. As that is one thing he is unlikely to find here. Like in the case of Miles Davis, the source of Brando's genius remains a mystery. Except for being a cantankerous iconoclast, there is not much rhyme or reason to Brando's life that would single him out to become a great actor.

He grew up insecure and uncertain of his place in the family or in society. His mother was an amateur actor who exposed Brando to the artsy side of life at an early age, but she was also a lush - a free-spirit and a loose woman at a time when it was scandalous to be any of those. She was just short of an "unfit mother." His father was a nondescript nobody.

But none of this explains much...

Brando lurched about as a troubled child and for a short while was a teen bully, getting kicked out of a military school where he was sent because of his behavior. This was about as close as one could get to a reform school in those days. Until he stumbled upon acting, his life was headed nowhere in particular. But even though he was naturally talented, and found acting easy, he was never enamored with it, or particularly committed to it. Until his death, he held the whole profession in laughable contempt.

His talents were raw and his ability to explode emotionally placed him in a very elite group, early on. He just happened to have come on the scene at the right time: when "Method Acting" was "the new thing." The Meizners, Stella and Steve, set off a revolution in acting in the U.S. and Brando's talent, was exhibit Number One. With Stella's tutelage, Brando's raw talent was honed until he repeatedly "blew away" those "in the know." His meteoric rise to the top of acting royalty was based on sheer, raw talent. The rest of his life was troubled but terribly uninteresting in my view. But the writing is good. Four stars.

I'm a big fan of Brando. His smouldering sexual charisma changed movies. Even so there came a time later in his life where he became such a repulsive self-indulgent slug that you had to wonder; was he always such a nasty mess? Did we all just excuse it because he was easy on the eyes?

On top of that, as much as he altered the gender role of the fifties, there is another trend across his career of playing against that type, in a series of fops & closet cases: Moreau, Mutiny on the Bounty, Teahouse of the August Moon, Reflections in a Golden eye. You just don't choose to play this many roles as dandies by accident.

There really is no bigger story of squandered talent in Hollywood, so what the hell was going on inside him? This is not the book to read if you're a fan and you need the PR world to move heaven and earth to meet you where you are. There are any number of fanboy Brando biographies (inlcluding Brando's own limp effort) to choose from. Instead this painstakingly researched book presents such a disturbing portrait of Brando that I lost any remaining respect I had for him. Consider it a favor!

Manso presents Brando as a rapacious, predatory sociopath who used his sexuality to bed & manipulate hundreds of women. That's consistent with other versions. Manso continues though and argues that the actor probably molested his own daughter, Cheyenne; that all has not been told about the shooting death of her boyfriend on his Tahitian island. There is a strong suggestion via Brando's intrusion on the Miachael Jackson molestation lawsuit that Brando may have even been into children himself.

You get the sense that his Tahitian island was a place where his unrestrained self-indulgence could construct & rule over a childish feifdom. (Moreau anyone) without witnesses.

It is very difficult to finish this book, as you beome repulsed by Brando so early. But the real proof of whether this is unfair or not is that Brando failed to bring a lawsuit against Manso, choosing instead to publish his own belated, tepid, ghost-written effort to combat the Manso press. Which means it's safe to assume that Manso's book is not far off the mark.

For those who can't bear to hear criticism of Brando, I suggest you look up the word "hagiography," because what you prefer has a name.

Manso's biography of Marlon Brando is a mixed bag. It is distinguished and praiseworthy for its incredible detail. Manso conducted an enormous number of interviews for this work, and he is able to provide valuable detail on Brando's acting career, personal life, politics, and relationships--detail that is not available elsewhere. This is the strongest attribute of the work. A problem, though, is that it is difficult to know how much of the detail to actually believe. Manso is manifestly hostile toward his subject, giving every other person in his life the benefit of the doubt instead of Brando. Manso also has a rather distasteful eye for the salacious--the more tabloid-like the better. Thus the reader does not know quite what to believe. A good example is Manso's treatment of Brando's alleged bisexuality. He is able to give names, dates, places, addresses, favorite colors, shoe sizes, and any other detail when discussing any of Brando's hundreds of heterosexual partners, but is not able to supply a single name when speaking about allegations and rumors of homosexual conduct. In a way, Manso's prejudiced stance toward his subject, and his own propensity to wallow in the gutter, marred what would otherwise have been a more valuable work.

I finally managed to read Manso's long, laborious biography of Marlon Brando. Overall, it's a disappointing piece of work. It seems like Manso made up his mind on Brando very quickly during his exhaustive 7 year stretch to research and write this book. And it isn't pretty. Reading this massive tome, the reader comes away feeling that Brando was little more than a very talented yet egocentric, sexist, misguided, confused, cruel jerk.

Brando, like many cult personalities, sharply divides people. Usually, you either love him or hate him. Legions of actors like Jack Nicholson, Dustin Hoffman, Johnny Depp, etc, worship Brando and put him on an Olympian pedestal with no equal. Obviously, they love the man. Yet other people like certain movie critics, Hollywood producers, some former friends and acquaintances, etc., sharply loathe Brando and found him troublesome, vindictive, mean and incredibly ungrateful for his talent and for the money he was paid for his film work. Manso falls in this latter category.

It's hard to judge a guy like Brando. At the tender age of 23, Brando starred in the stage version of A Streetcar Named Desire and completely revolutionized acting. At age 30 he won an Oscar for Best Actor for On the Waterfront and was promptly proclaimed as the greatest, most electrifying actor in films. I think thereafter he quickly became bored and disdainful of films and Hollywood in general. He had the world at his feet...nothing much else to do or prove. He then fueled his main interests: food, sex, social activism and intellectual interests. To Brando, acting was merely the best way to pursue these other things.

I agree with another reviewer, for a more insightful treatment of Brando, read George Englund's biography, The Way It's Never Been Done Before : My Friendship with Marlon Brando. Englund does a much better job capturing the real Brando. Englund doesn't portray Brando as a saint or sugarcoat the man's eccentricities. He shows Brando's shortcomings and loutish behavior. However, Englund also shows a real affection and admiration for Brando.

Brando would say that few of us are all good or bad. We're "polka-dot" people. Manso, unfortunately, saw little good in Brando and decided to dish the dirt in a very demeaning way. I'm giving it 2 stars instead of 1 because I'm amazed that despite his contempt for his subject, Manso still managed to write this thing!

What is "friendship?"

I am sorry to say that I felt the book, "The Way It's Never Been Done Before: My Friendship With Marlon Brando," was a betrayal. The book's author, George Englund, was a "friend" to Marlon Brando for decades. When I purchased the book, I expected a poignant remembrance from a beloved friend of Marlon Brando. This book was anything but that, in my opinion. Then, I realized that George Englund's book was published in 2004. Marlon died in 2004. You do the math.

Sad...terribly sad...Marlon was right. He had reason to feel distrust of people, even of those who claimed to be his friends.

Marlon deserved better.

As for the details contained in the book, the "dish" had no juice. I thought that most of it was George Englund attempting to elevate himself and telling his OWN life story...which was VERY boring. I bought the book to read about Marlon, not to read about George Englund.

George Englund should have titled the book, "The Way It's Always Been Done Before: My Friendship With Myself...Oh, and Did I Mention Marlon Brando?"
______________

I wanted to write an addendum to my post because I recently saw George Englund speaking about Marlon Brando. I think that his tender feelings toward Marlon and his void in missing Marlon is evident and I feel for him. He also mentioned that just prior to Marlon's death, he went to visit Marlon. It sounds like they had a healing conversation. I am glad for that. I no longer think that George Englund had ill intentions behind the writing and publication of this book. I may have been too harsh in my opinion about George Englund when I originally wrote the above-listed review, so I wanted to let that be known.

The problem with biographies of Marlon Brando, and celebrities in general, is that they are often written by an outsider, someone who had little or no personal acquaintance with the subject and is sometimes just out to cash in on their celebrity. It is these problems with most biographies that makes George Englund's biography of Marlon Brando such a joy to read.

Englund's friendhip with Brando started in 1956 and his biography therefore thrusts us directly into the height of his fame and spares us the date and details of his birth and upbringing. These often constitute the more tedious parts of other biographies. Another common problem with biographies is that they have a tendency to simply list off the actions and professional achievements of their subjects, sometimes giving them the appearance of a prolonged C.V. This is another area where Englund's book comes into its own. His close relationship with Brando allows him to recount many very personal and revealing tales that allow the reader to feel a closeness to Marlon that is difficult considering how private a man he was. The difficulties of Brando's life are well documented, but the accounts offered here are far more vivid and moving. The writer is not pre-occupied with sensationalism or scandal, merely the real story and the emotion felt.

'The way it's never been done before' is a fascinating read and is a must have for anyone that is passionate about the work of Marlon Brando, surely the screen's greatest ever actor

George Englund's memoir of Marlon Brando is that, a memoir and far from a full-scale biography. It is a touching remembrance, filled with genuine affection for its subject, but not so much as to make the author blind to the shortcomings and warts of the greatest of all our film actors. In its affection it is a welcome departure from some of the more vicious tabloid-like portrayals of Brando--Peter Manso's biography comes to mind. At its best Englund's work is distinguished by some really beautiful interludes and gripping passages--his description of visiting his own absentee father after decades is especially moving. One senses that Englund believed he was privy to the whole of Brando, the insider of all insiders. His graphic description of Brando's last night is almost an exercise in trying to prove to himself, and us, how close he was to Brando. And it is a rare occurrence of Englund going perhaps too far. But for all that he was allowed to see, it is also apparent to the reader, if not to Englund himself, that Georgie was kept at arms length from various facets and compartments of his famous subject. There are dramatic and notable gaps in the book, and one gets the feeling that Englund's import as a macho and intellectual sidekick grew once Wally Cox died. It is perhaps too much to ask any single book to cover the whole of Brando--the subject is simply too complex. But this is a useful glimpse inside at least some aspects of Brando's life.

While their supposed friendship lasted for nearly fifty years, from 1956 to Brando's death in 2004 (with a noticeable break in the 1990's), I can't help feeling that all author George Englund wanted all these years was to earn information about Marlon so he one day would be able to write a book like this one. He claims that they were very close, and one would think he has a reason for saying so, inasmuch as the two talked about quite personal experiences and memories. But tell me: am I unfair to put to question whether a true, close friend would ever publish an intimate account on their relationship after the other's death, despite being well aware that the latter despised to be written about and analyzed in public?

George Englund's book THE WAY IT'S NEVER BEEN DONE BEFORE: MY FRIENDSHIP WITH MARLON BRANDO opens with some reflections from the author, written a few months before the actor's death. "Marlon is an old man. I both laugh and weep as I write the sentence. Marlon Brando old? It can't be true. It is, though; he is eigthy. But it isn't the number of years that's significant, Brando could still be youthful. It's how the years have treated him and how he has treated them." The book eventually covers the first meeting between George and Marlon, the opening of their film-company Pennebaker and the filming of a movie Englund directed which Brando starred in, the lesser known THE UGLY AMERICAN from 1963. Perhaps surprisingly to some, none of this information reveals anything significant about Brando as a man or actor; George nearly fell asleep during at the opening of Pennebaker Productions. Marlon ate too much while filming UGLY AMERICAN. He was wild about women. Thing is, it's "been done" numerous times before. Fortunately for Englund, this is what many people prefer to read about. He describes Brando's relationships with women in a tasteless way, giving the impression that he did not care a whoop about any of his sweethearts except if the setting was in bed. It is no secret that Brando could be a troublesome man at times. My point is just that we need not another account to remind us of that. We have all the tabloids and Peter Manso-book to do that job for us. Instead Englund could, as a "friend," provide us with some new insights into Brando's good qualities, which have been widely ignored ever since he became a star.

But that is not what he does. I don't know if Englund intended a book of this sort, but I find it not only downright disguisting but also completely unnecessary of him to present long excerpts of telephone conversations with Marlon which he'd taped through the years; I also wonder whatever I am to do with descriptions of a nurse cleaning the actor's rear end at a late point in his life, when he was in need of constant care.

But Englund has not reached his peak yet. What really leaves me convinced that the author is, frankly, just another footnote in Brando's life who, unsuccessful as he was, found it necessary to befriend a star in order to get some status, was when the topic of the Drollet-murder was brought up. (In 1990 Brando's son murdered his sister's boyfriend while heavily intoxicated.) Englund admits that he did not attend court during the trials and never got to watch any footage of it anywhere, but when he read in the newspapers that Marlon began to cry in court, he nevertheless knew Brando was lying: "he acted. But this wasn't the greatest actor of his time seizing everyone's imagination, this was a former champion, overweight, out of shape, sloppy with his technique."

Not quite as sloppy as yourself, George. You say that you intended this book as a gift for Marlon. Sweet of you. I still wonder, though; how comes it that you actually admits in your book that to write a book about Marlon was the biggest sin a friend could do to him? Do you consider yourself an exception? Or do you in the end realize what you really are? Brando said, several times, "My friends don't write books about me." In a well-published interview with Laurence Grobel, he stated, "["Friends who write books about me] weren't friends from the beginning." Englund furthermore insists that Marlon's true motive for writing his memoirs was not, as he claimed, his children's insecurities of him, but the money which such a book would gain him. All right: what was your motive behind this thing, George?

The ethical aspects apart, THE WAY IT'S NEVER BEEN DONE BEFORE is also a very flawed book on a technical basis. Although pretty well written literally, Englund moves from one time to another back and forward which I found to be very confusing at times. For example, he mentions one incident when he visited Marlon's house while the actor watched ON THE WATERFRONT on TV; it took me a while to figure out that this was at the end of his life.

A little final footnote: in the superb TCM-documentary on Brando in 2007, Englund was one to be interviewed. At one point, he recalls a story to which his wife corrects him, telling his story is not a truthful version. "Who cares about that?" he laughs, "this is Hollywood." In the end, THE WAY IT'S NEVER BEEN DONE BEFORE presents Marlon Brando as little more than a self-absorbed, womanizing, irresponsible money-hunter, but while he may have possessed some of these qualities to various degrees, the man who sent an Indian woman to refuse his Oscar due to the unjust treatment of Indians in America so very obviously consisted of much, much more. It is only Englund who ends up in a bad light. Ironically perhaps but quite deservedly so. My reason for giving this thing two stars is out of pity.

Good book, but I have one major reservation:
In an interview, George Englund said he penned this account of Marlon Brando with, "Brando's dignity in my hand". So presumptively, Englund as a best friend wouldn't think to ever reveal personal information or details that Brando would have never wanted known, right? Isn't that what best friends are for?
Um, quite the contrary here: Englund's telling of Brando's last days were too dam detailed, at times vile and completely unnecessary. Surely, this is not what people want to remember of the revered legend.
I'm unafraid to say that I wept on the day Brando died like I had lost someone I knew and loved. For fans who really loved him a good portion of this thing -in excruciating pain from his disease and lying in helpless condition on a deathbed- you will find incredibly depressing. I'd recommend skipping some parts if you wanna keep the image of Brando the Almighty One intact.
Dark clouds away this was indeed a pure delight to pore through... when is the subject ever boring afterall? I was happy Mr.Englund released this very personal tale of his friendship with Brando I only wish the actor himself were still alive to admire even more.

I liked this book, but was not over-enthused. It is obviously a book written from one individual's point of view, and events in Brando's life are viewed through this prism. As a starter, I preferred Darwin Porter's Brando Unzipped. Lots of racy gossip and it took my breath away with details of the sheer scale of Brando's womanizing and 'manizing'! Richard Shickel's Brando is less racy but with a more broad-brushed approach.

The beginning of this book seems a little plodding, self-reverential, and a slightly distracting shift from the very late Brando to earlier episodes. But if you persist past the first 15-20 pages, there is an informative and sympathetic perspective on a truly mesmorizing life.

"Georgie", a contemporary and friend of Marlon's, looks back at many of their encounters and experiences together, over the last 40+ years. The story is framed by the time Marlon is already bedridden and succumbing to a rare lung disease. The reader gets a bit of insight into the actors life and his attitude to money, sex, friends, his father, understanding (rather non-understanding) of his dogs behavior, and finally death. Do not expect a biography by any means: much is "left out", e.g. his marriages, and other personal relationships, as well as much that would be connected to his profession as a famous actor. The author includes aspects of his own life. The book is well written, entertaining, in taste, honest, compassionate.

The story of the making of this novel is as interesting as the book itself -- the tale of a Scottish-American sea captain who signs on with some Chinese pirates in the South Pacific during the 1920s. The late Marlon Brando struck up a friendship with Donald Cammell during the 1960s when the actor was in France shooting The Young Lions. The two eccentrics had many character similarities and decided to collaborate on this ultimately unfinished project. An editor and film historian stepped in and finished the job...

I am not really much of a fiction reader, but I had to read "Fan-Tan" since the story came from the mind of Marlon Brando, himself.

It is sad that both men who originally participated in bringing this story to fruition, Marlon Brando and Donald Cammell, are no longer with us. But, how grateful I am for such works that are part of the legacy of wonderful artists such as they both obviously were. And, how grateful I am that David Thomson did such a wonderful job in completing this novel so that it could be made available to us.

Although fiction is not my favorite kind of reading, I enjoyed "Fan-Tan" so much with its intriguing plot and its twists and turns. I found myself looking forward, page by page, to what would come next.

The book is well-paced and full of intrigue. I enjoyed its unique and eccentric characters, including that of Annie Doultry - a character Brando might have played. The book's content is imaginative and downright spicy in some parts. I found the sexual "escapades" interesting, edgy, daring, and surprising. I also enjoyed the descriptive writing and the vivid settings - I was able to picture each scene in my mind's eye.

I think Marlon Brando fans will enjoy reading this book, if for no other reason, to further savor the genius of Marlon Brando.

Fun read. A pearl of a wild ride. A must for Brando fans.

You're supposed to be willing to give every book 50 pages or so before giving up on it, right? I seldom give up on novels and usually read the whole thing... usually there is some enjoyment to be had even in a below average book, ya know?

Well, Fan-Tan threw me on the mat and made me say uncle. I can't believe anyone published it. It's like the product of a hundred drunk monkeys with typewriters.

Let me treat you with a portion that really blew my mind.

"His memory was a mess, as full of giant holes as an old sock. Scotland was an accent he loved. On the other hand, he thought a lot about the future. "That is one of my characteristics, Lorenzo," he said firmly to the bum of a Portuguee who occupied the bunk above, all aswamp in his noisome reflections."

You may believe I have taken that passage out of context and this is a great book. You may think I am a simple minded fool who can't handle stream of consiousness writing.

However, I think it is a crime againist humanity that those sentences happened IN A ROW. Also, "on the other hand" needs to have what was in the first hand in the general proximity of the phrase.

I couldn't get very far in this book.

I have read some bad novels in my time. Spectacularly bad in some cases. Books that made my eyes bleed. Books that made me want to watch TV shows for the rest of my life and never touch the printed word again. Books that were that close to being doused in lighter fluid and sent up in flames.

Nothing, but nothing, has even been quite as bad as this.

Vanity project in the extreme; this should have stayed in the grave with Brando. What on earth was David Thomson (otherwise top notch film historian) doing putting his name to this? I would respect him more if the answer was 'for the cash' than if he ever claims it was because he liked the book.

Do yourself a favour. Stick pins in your eyes for a week rather than read this.

while this Book has some good intentions it doesn't reach the true Depth of the Genius that Marlon Brando was.the Book never fully reaches where it attempts to go.

This is a just passable examination of Mr Brando's life and is redeemed by the writing on his early theatre work.

When I read this book for the first time, I had been a fan of Brando for several years and this book was probably not a very good choice because of this. But to a newcomer, or to those who want to know a little about Brando but not have time (or interest) to read a big, 500-pages long deep biography, this book is not bad at all. It presents--not in very much detail, though--all of his films from the 1950's, some from the 1960's and of course The Godfather. It includes also several little stories from Brando's life that he ignored in his autobiography. The book is certainly written with much respect for Brando's acting talent and person, but it dosen't heroship him. It is a honest, easy-read little book I can recommend to any newcomer of the great actor Marlon Brando.

If you still have any illusions about Hollywood and/or your favourite actors and actresses, please do not read this book or they'll be shattered for ever! Apart from that, a highly entertaining book, if somewhat repetitive.

Cannot imagine someone enjoying this book or believing 99% of it. It is not even speculative. It's lower. Suited for a person of very low intelligence, so please do not waste your money. Talentless author that published the book a year after Brando died. Truly the work of genuine scumbag. Have to say I did not read the description before I purchased it. My fault. It's somewhere in the county garbage dump.

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It is worth noting that except in the cases where people have already told all in their memoirs, or have made no secret of their proclivities, ALL the peopled referred to are dead. Because of a quirk in the law which says that the dead cannot be libelled, a muckraker can say anything he or she wants to without having to verify the facts. If we are to believe this writer, there is hardly a deceased actor or actress who was not gay or bisexual, on drugs and engaging in frenzied sexual activity, trolling the brothels or picking up rough trade.

Other than quotations from "tell all" memoirs, as there are very few references we have no way of knowing where the information came from and whether it was true. As other reviewers have noted, how did they find the time for all these liaisons? There is hardly a big star of the 40's and 50's who is not allegedly gay or lesbian. While we know that there have always been long-standing rumours about some stars, I for one refuse to believe that so many actors and actresses worked as prostitutes prior to stardom, or the A list female star who liked to go to brothels specialising in look-alikes, and pretend to be her own impersonator. As I said before, they are all dead, and cannot refute these claims.

Whether or not there is any truth in it, I would prefer to keep my illusions of handsome leading men intact.

The book contains inaccuracies that a good editor should have caught: e.g. Susan Cabot is reported to have married in 1968 and subsequently gave birth to a son, Tim, who allegedly killed her on December 10, 1986 when he was 22 years old; however, if he had been born in 1968 he would only have been 18 yrs. old! The book is also surprising for totally leaving out some people whose nefarious association with famous stars has long been known, such as Nick Adams and James Dean.

While Marlon Brando's many affairs and lack of parenting skills are well documented, this trashy Hollywood Babylon paints a picture of a voracious sex maniac willing to try anything and everything.

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I had read the serialised version of the book and thought that it was going to be a well written, racy, and meticulously researched biography of Marlon Brando. I was bitterly disappointed.

The structure of the book is very poor. The book seems to meander through Brando's early life at a very slow pace. The author fails to use endnotes and footnotes to help make the book more readable and instead chooses to be easily distracted by the interesting lives of Brando's acquaintances. For example Liz Renee a burlesque dancer with a fascinating life story of her own supposedly had a brief affair with Brando. Personally I believe her life story should have been in the footnotes and just the part about her affair with Brando belonged in the main text. Instead we were given a summary of her exploits, interesting as they were, when you consider how many people Brando knew you can imagine how distracting this is and how tedious it becomes when every other character receives this treatment. Concentrating heavily on Brando's early life and career the book seems to stop in the early to mid 1960s. After this point it descends in to boxes with a picture and a few paragraphs about later events in Brando's life. I expected there to be quite a lot of information about Brando's children especially Christian there wasn't. Even the death of Dag Drollet was reduced to just a brief outline of events that took place. It would have been better if the book only concentrated on his life up to the late 1950s because after this the book seems to be unfinished. Considering the author's determination to put all sorts of mini biographies of Brando's acquaintances in the main text it seemed to really jar that after the 1960's the detail becomes so scant. I was even left wondering who Brando's children were exactly and to whom? What became of his children, wives and lovers?

The content of the book varies greatly in detail and I was frequently unsure where the information was coming from. I was unhappy with the fact that there where not explicit references. I gather that the author got a lot of information from interviews but even then I was not always sure who the contributor was. Even written sources such as other biographies were not referenced within the text. The revelations made in the book are not for the faint hearted and are frequently cringe worthy and the lack of referencing only made me suspect their validity. Whole conversaions were remembered at times in the book which just didn't ring true to me, I imagine this was the result of using interviewees recollections but it simply didn't seem right. Although I would not doubt that many of the revelations were possibly true it made the book read like a fictionalised biography. By the time I had finished reading the book I felt as though I had waded through an uncorrected proof that was going to be subject to a major overhaul.

One good point about the book was that it did include lots of photographs that were useful for identifying people that were mentioned in the text. However the pictures themselves were only small and printed within the text itself so they were not really of great quality.

In short I found the book to be tedious and repetitive. It was long winded at the beginning and seemed to be extremely brief at the end. Ultimately I wondered how the author had made such a wild life such a chore to read about!

This is one of those rare books that is so terrible that it's worth reading just as a profound oddity. Darwin Porter, who may be completely out of his mind, has put together one of the most fantastical, tittilating and hilarious biographies ever. In his so-called research, he lists an impressive number of Hollywood personalities whom he has either known or managed to contact, and thrown their quips and rememberances into a sludge pot of gossip nirvana. Marlon Brando emerges not so much as the great artist, but as a seething multi-sexual lothario, bedding nearly every attractive (and quite a few unattractive) guys and gals that had happenned to cross his path in life. A considerable amount of book-time is spent on grafic sexual exploits, and espeially Brando's 'tool', which one assumes, may have been the true source of this great actor's talent. Anyway, for nearly anyone who an inkling of Hollywood history back in the time of the 50's and 60's, this book should be of considerable interest. It's chuck-full of terrific photos, including the infamous 'oral' photo of Brando and Wally Cox. I am gay and I love Hollywood. This book is sheer camp, the trashiest trash ever, and even if most of it is piffle, it is truly fun to read.