Movies Books

The book is called New York Minute the Success of Jane Ryan's. She's doing fine until her hand held organizer was stolen. Then her sister Roxey got into trouble with the police and she was accused of stealing a jacket and got put in jail, but it wasn't her. Then they found out that it wasn't them and let them go. Also she was running for class president and someone was sabotaging it. Mean while she was getting into a relationship with her crush. She thinks he's the one who's sabotaging her but it's really friend because she's jealous of her. At the end she finds everything out and she wins the campaign.


I really liked the book because it's like a mystery. I would recommend this book to girls because boys wouldn't like it. Also for girls that like mystery type of books. Another thing is this is a Mary-Kate and Ashley book so it could be for Mary-Kate and Ashley fans. This was an exiting book and I couldn't keep my eyes out of the book.

The book is called New York Minute the Success of Jane Ryan's. She's doing fine until her hand held organizer was stolen. Then her sister Roxey got into trouble with the police and she was accused of stealing a jacket and got put in jail, but it wasn't her. Then they found out that it wasn't them and let them go. Also she was running for class president and someone was sabotaging it. Mean while she was getting into a relationship with her crush. She thinks he's the one who's sabotaging her but it's really friend because she's jealous of her. At the end she finds everything out and she wins the campaign.


I really liked the book because it's like a mystery. I would recommend this book to girls because boys wouldn't like it. Also for girls that like mystery type of books. Another thing is this is a Mary-Kate and Ashley book so it could be for Mary-Kate and Ashley fans. This was an exiting book and I couldn't keep my eyes out of the book.

She is the kind of girl everybody wants to be(secertly). But everyone is really like Roxy. This book takes you deep into Janes personal life and what she does. You think she's a goody-goody from what you've seen or heard will think agian. she has an adventures side to herself.

This book has the best of both worlds:
- Through the trivia questions, the book is an enjoyable source of entertainment for the film noir lover, and even let me learn some stuff about my favourite movies;
and
- The list at the end of the book serves as a thorough reference to complete one's knowledge of all the film noir movies out there.
Highly recommended!

I am the author of this book and hope you enjoy it as much as I enjoyed writing it. It's a great way to learn more about your favorite films and learn about films you may never have seen. There is also a large section on actors, writers, and directors which gives insights into their lives.

A fun read for fans of film noir, this book compiles trivia for dozens of the top film noir from the 1940s and 1950s. It's a great way to spend some time, testing your knowledge of these films, the actors who starred in them, the writers who wrote them, and the directors who made them. The book concludes with a fairly comprehensive list of film noir, including many foreign film noir movies not listed in some books on the subject.
Truly a must for the classic movie lover.

Reviewed by Carol Hoyer for Reader Views (10/08)

What a captivating read! Mr. Relyea has given us a great look at the inner workings of Hollywood and making movies. As we look at movies in the theater and at home we have no idea of what it really takes to make a movie.

One cannot imagine how hard it is to work with temperamental actors and actresses, trying to stay in budget and be politically correct at the same time. The author did a great job on comparing how movies were made early on as compared to today. After having worked with them, Relyea talks about the temperaments, wild requests and affairs of such great talents as Steve McQueen, Audrey Hepburn and Charles Bronson.

Can you imagine working at remote locations where bugs bite, snakes are in the water and the heat is unbearable? The creative descriptions of many great movies put the reader on the set and in tune with the actors. "Not So Quiet on the Set" by Robert E. Relyea is a great read for anyone who remembers the great stars and how wonderful old movies were without the digital enhancements.

This is a tremendous book that flows like a classic novel. Robert Relyea gives you a front row seat into the making of some of the greatest films made during an era before digital editing and effects were available. Where the media seems to use the phrase "Hollywood Elite" with wild abandon and some bizarre air of negativity, Robert reveals the incredibly demanding and arduous roles that create the final product. These artists put their lives on the line to get the right shot. They work countless hours in very dangerous working conditions in order to tell a story in the best way possible. Robert takes you all over the world to describe these efforts in very entertaining detail. He's a wonderful narrator.

Craig embellishes this fine work by describing the impact a life in film had on the family. His is the voice of a son who is very proud of his dad. It's a marvelous collaboration.

This book is intense, very funny, and humanizes so many of the cast and crew who jointly created so many renowned films during 4 decades of filmmaking. It's a great insight into many of the crew-members responsibilities. He's also very honest as he describes interactions with some of the many recognizable people he's worked with over the years. The book takes you through the full gamut of emotions associated with balancing a very difficult job with family, friends, business associates. He relays some great and eye-opening moments with some of the most brilliant and popular actors of that era as well.

If you want to work in Hollywood and be involved in Production of movies, this is the book for you. Clear, honest, and a fair report of how Hollywood worked before You-Tube and the digital revolution; it deals intellegently with the emotional toll of working in an industry where there is little time for anything other than work. An essential read for anyone thinking of working in media.

Tom Schiller has an amazing filmic vision. It was great to read all the details of the making of this overlooked classic film.

I'm an older SNL fan and I do remember seeing several of Schiller's films on SNL. What I enjoyed most about the book is the details provided for every step of Schiller's cinema portfolio. I never realized how involved the filmmaking process was for a short clip. The writing is easy-going and quite engaging. The photos are precious, and I would have preferred to see them on glossy paper as opposed to on regular paper. Any one who loves films and is considering film as a career should pick up the book. The book really provides a bird's eye view of what the industry is really like: the good and the bad. Makes me appreciate Schiller's work even more.

"Nothing Lasts FOrever" gives SNL fans like me an inside account of how the show was put together in the early years. It's sort of a book within a book. The detailed accounts of Shillers short films, combined with a summary biography of Schiller, provide the background for the intriguing inside story of a feature length film, "Nothing Lasts Forever", written and directed by TOm Schiller in 1982. MGM commisssioned the making of the film but decided not to release it. The six chapters dealing with that film leave the reader interested in seeing it. And the choice of the title of Michael Streeter's book makes it clear that at least one of his motivations for writing this very well researched book is his hope that "Nothing Lasts Forever" will not be lost forever.

As a Destination Imagination team manager, I highly recommend this book for its potential as an improv tool. Teams can create an assortment of wild scenarios and enact the scenes, improving their ability to improvise. With 27,000 possible scenarios, it is a resource that will last teams for years!

Kris Bordessa, author
**Team Challenges: Group Activities to Build Cooperation, Communication and Creativity

The Official Movie Plot Generator is an engaging means to generate 27,000 admittedly cliche movie plot possibilities. Not an ordinary book, The Official Movie Plot Generator is spiral-bound and divided into three segments that can be mix-and-match flipped to put together a number of familiar movie hero styles with two possible yet predictible sidekicks, plot twists, or other features. Sample phrases to mix and match including "A cop who doesn't play by the rules" / "fights crime" / "with a mischievous orangutan" and "a fraternity of lovable slobs, misfits, and drunks" / "indulges in beer bashes, toga parties, and an assortment of ill-advised high jinks" / "despite being admonished by a crusty old dean", and many more. A fun and entertaining sourcebook for linking retreaded popular themes into hilarious combinations.

You can literally spend hours flicking through this book, and it never gets old! It's really good fun, and had my entire family begging for more. I would highly recommend it, both for your own entertainment and as a gift for almost any occasion. Highly addictive!

This is Anthony Quinn's second autobiography. Since he lived to be 86, he apparently felt that he couldn't tell his life story in only one autobiography. He was probably correct in that assumption. As of this moment, I've not read his 1972 "The Original Sin" but it will probably be my next read. Quinn was an excellent writer as well as a visual artist and famous stage and film actor. He was also a very randy fellow he couldn't keep his hands off the beautiful women he attracted like bees to honey. He had thirteen children from his three wives and three known,long-time mistresses. Like most motion pictures stars he had affairs with most of the beautiful actresses he met in his 100 plus motion pictures and plays. One of his affairs involved actress Ruth Warrick in 1945. "Years later, she offered the following comment to a reporter: `Anthony Quinn, in the middle of a love affair with me, once said he wanted to f**k all the women in the world, and impregnate all of them. I never knew he'd get this far.'"
Despite his inability to resist the ladies for whom his addiction and appeal was legendary, Quinn lived a life that could not have been fictionalized to be more interesting. He was born in a Mexican hut to a mother who had only recently been sent home from the front lines of the Mexican Revolution. She had wanted to remain and continue fighting, but her obvious pregnancy resulted in her being sent home. Her husband stayed and continued fighting with Poncho Villa. Years later his father moved to Los Angeles and eventually became an assistant cameraman at Zelig's Movie Studio. Anthony showed a talent for art early in life. Quinn studied briefly with Frank Lloyd Wright through the Taliesin Fellowship he won in a high school architectural design contest. Quinn was sent to have his speech impediment surgically corrected on Wright's recommendation. To further correct his speech he was sent to an acting school. That, combined with his father's friendships at Zelig's, led to Quinn being hired as an extra in the movies.
This second autobiography was published in 1997 when the actor was eighty-two years old. His last two children were born in 1993 and 1996 to Quinn and his third wife Kathy Benvin. Both his first wife Katherine DeMille and his third wife were named Katherine, which is one of those odd coincidences that make his life a bit confusing for the reader.
This memoir is 419 pages long and is written in such a way that the reader never gets bored. The reader may, however, get exhausted because the vehicle Quinn uses to tie his life experiences together is one of his day-long bicycle rides around the steep hills of his Italian Villa. He is constantly climbing another hill or avoiding a swerving truck coming around the next mountain bend. During this physically tiring day of bike riding he reminisces about his long life, his many crazy experiences, the people he has met and many of the women he has loved or bedded. He is old enough to be trying to make sense of his rich life experiences and to understand his purpose in life. As an artist he feels that he must constantly be creating or he will die.
Quinn turns out to be a deep thinker in addition to a talented actor, painter, sculptor and writer. It's useless for me to even attempt to convey some of the wise sage advice and observations that Anthony expresses so eloquently. So I won't try. His book is peppered with fascinating characters he has met. Frederico Fellini who directed him to an academy award nomination in "La Strada" gave him some memorable advice about giving interviews to journalists. "Why do you tell these people the truth?"
"Me, I never tell the truth to a journalist. I always lie. It is like an exercise to me, because when I lie I have to use my imagination...you will read it in the papers the next day."
After reading that summary of Fellini's advice to Quinn I wondered if Anthony might not have taken it too much to heart. I especially wondered when I read the last few lines of the book when Quinn wrote: "I wish to go out in style. There will be no pine box sunk six feet under ground, no urn to be placed on a mantle and forgotten. No...There will be my dozen children, carrying me up a hill in Chihuahua and leaving me to rot in the hot sun. I can picture the scene, transposed over the fertile ground of my youth. (I have the specific hill mapped for my executors.) I will be laid to rest at the top of the rise, a feast for the vultures. My children will go back to the rest of their lives and the birds will pick at what is left of me. They will lift me up, piecemeal, and defecate me out all over the countryside, returning me to the earth from which I had sprung, leaving me forever a part of all Mexico.
"And the dance goes on."
Now the book doesn't tell you if that is what Quinn's executors really did concerning his funeral arrangements. If you are like me, you will head straight to the Internet to find out where and how Quinn's funeral was actually carried out. The reader may be surprised.
The reader definitely won't be bored with this book. Anthony Quinn was a man peddling madly on his bicycle to find the truth of life. He was always in search of the answers to the age-old questions: "Who Are We, Why Are We Here, Where Are We Going?" Remember than Quinn won an Oscar for his role as Gauguin in "Lust for Life." During the filming of that motion picture he felt that Gauguin's ghost had actually taken over his body and soul in order to properly portray his life for the silver screen.
Quinn always leaves the reader of his autobiography wanting to know more. This is one of the most enjoyable autobiographies this reviewer has ever had the multiple pleasures of reading.

Here is a biography worth reading, about a man whose life was worth living and worth hearing about: a man who lived every inch of his life on the edge and to its fullest. Even with its foibles and demented aspects, one cannot read this well-crafted biography without being envious of Quinn's life.

Quinn, a Mexican from Chihauhua, possessed an inner drive and an ego destined to make him larger than life in one arena or another. Although with multiple hidden talents, most of which only to be discovered later in life, Quinn became an actor in order to learn English better. But during a bumpy life course he became much, much more than just an actor, he sculpted, painted, cycled and kept a string of younger ladies and a host of wives and families happy until his death as an octogenarian. All of which required considerable talent.

Had it not been told so well and with such passion and verve, and from Quinn's own deeply passionate and artistic mind, this could have been a very tragic story indeed, but the way the events of his life actually unfolded lent itself to the pure poetry that is exhibited here; and the way they have been collated arranged and sorted out by Daniel Paisner, makes them a "song" to all of those like myself who only knew Quinn vicariously through that "rough but exciting" screen persona, as "Zorba the Greek" and his many other characters.

Unlike the biography of one of Quinn's (and my) heroes, Marlon Brando, which was lifeless to the point of being depressing, this one is alive and sparkles throughout. Both Quinn and Dan Paisner are to be commended for, at the same time raising the level of biographic writing, while also raising the human spirits in a story exquisitely well told.

One of the few books on any subject that is so full of life's dramas and metaphors, that you will love reading it so much that you will want to read it over and over. Fifty Stars.

I really enjoyed this book by Anthony Quinn. At first, I was put off by the way his thoughts jumped around, but in retrospect, I realize that this was just his way of getting his point across, and I became mesmerized by his thoughts and the disparity of his early years. Mr. Quinn did not flower his book with how great he was, or even sound like a celebrity, in the description of his life. In his early years he was very poor, and really let the reader feel his thoughts on his poverty, and how he fought to stay alive. It is a great example of coming from a life of nothing, with seldom having food to eat, to become a great actor, artist, lover, and family man.

Although he would never receive accolades as a husband, he truly loved his family. He mentioned several times, his grief at the death of his son and the loss of father.

He made many friends along the way, and treasured every one. Not caring whether they were paupers or kings.

In 1983, we had the pleasure of seeing and meeting Mr. Quinn on Broadway, in Zorba the Greek. We had invested in several of his paintings and sculptures, and was invited to a party for him at the Helmsley Palace in New York City. We were really impressed with his ability to encompass a room with his presence, while giving every person a piece of his persona.

This book is excellent reading, which keeps the reader waiting for his next thought. The world will truly miss this great man.

What a fun book! Every chapter is thoroughly researched and provides juicy details about each actor's screen debut. Mr. Bona engages you at every turn. He should be at your next dinner party. A must-read for movie afficionados!

James Dean as a boxer's corner man in a Martin-and-Lewis comedy film?
Gregory Peck as a Soviet partisan fighting Nazi invaders?
Sally Field as a Lolita-like teenager on a Westward bound wagon train?
Kevin Costner in a soft-core "T&A" film?
Michael Douglas as an antiwar activist who joins the Army?

Every career has to have a beginning, and acting in films isn't any different, as readers of Damien Bona's Opening Shots: The Unusual, Unexpected, Potentially Career-Threatening First Roles That Launched the Careers of 70 Hollywood Stars will discover when they explore this witty, informative, and even a bit biting tome by the author of Starring John Wayne as Genghis Khan and Inside Oscar: The Unofficial History of the Academy Awards.

Starting with Woody Allen's appearance in 1964's What's New, Pussycat? and concluding with Pia Zadora's debut in that same year's epic Santa Claus Conquers the Martians, Bona, a former lawyer who switched to entertainment reporting (he has contributed film-related articles to TV Guide, Entertainment Weekly, and Premiere), examines and sometimes skewers some of filmdom's greats (and not-so-greats) in their fledgling film appearances.

Of course, Bona points out the good "opening shots" as well as the weird or just-plain-bad ones. Take Robert Duvall's career-starting role of Boo Radley in the 1962 classic To Kill a Mockingbird, where he plays the oft-talked about but not-seen-till-almost-the-end of Robert Mulligan's adaptation of Harper Lee's best-selling novel. He is only onscreen for three and a half minutes (appearing 113 minutes into the film, at that!) and has no dialog, but he does save Jem and Scout from a vicious attack, revealing himself to be not a monstrous freak but just a mentally retarded man with the gentleness of a child trapped in an adult man's body.

Many of the 70 entries deal with short first roles that don't add or detract from a film's positive qualities, but the more fascinating ones involve such possible career-enders as Sally Field's appearance in 1966's The Way West "as one Mercy McBee, a teenager whose personality is entirely defined by her sex drive." Who would have thought that this future two-time Academy Award winner (and TV's cute Gidget) made her film debut as a 19th Century Lolita of the Oregon Trail?

Equally silly was Walter Matthau's villainous turn in Burt Lancaster's only directorial effort, 1955's The Kentuckian, a Western which starred Lancaster, Dianne Foster, Diana Lynn, and Donald McDonald, with Matthau earning fifth billing as a saloon keeper with a very cruel streak. He clashes with Lancaster for various reasons, not the least of which is the fact that they both want the attentions of the lovely Miss Lynn. Now, the idea of Matthau as a heavy is not ridiculous, since he could play cold and unendearing characters (as he did in 1964's Fail-Safe), but the idea of rumpled, New York City-born-and-bred Matthau as a villain in a Western is, sadly, rather ridiculous.

Another surprising first film appearance, considering his later appearances in The Big Chill, The Right Stuff, and Jurassic Park, was Jeff Goldblum as "Freak Number 1" in that Charles Bronson vigilante vehicle, Death Wish (1974). There, the guy Bona characterizes as "an expert interpreter of neurotic intellectualism" has what the author describes as "one of the most unpleasant screen debuts ever, Jeff Goldblum goes through his paces robbing ...and... murdering." (I'll take Bona's word for it; I've never seen this "classic" vendetta-driven flick that started a franchise, and judging by the obscene lines written for Goldblum by screenwriter Wendell Mayes, I don't plan to!)

Debra Winger, she of the sexiest voice (at least to me) in movies and star of the somewhat mawkish but enjoyable An Officer and a Gentleman, made her film debut in a soft-core flick called Slumber Party '57, in which six nymphets gather for a, you guessed it, a slumber party while their boyfriends are out of town. Winger (who omits this film from her official resume) bares her assets and acts poorly in this "sex-ploitation" film that Bona says "is definitely in the running as the worst film in this book." Fortunately, not many people saw this film, much less read the few obscure reviews in the Hollywood trade publications, and Winger went on to other roles until finally catching the audience's imagination in Urban Cowboy.

Opening Shots is a light and entertaining read, and Bona mixes short star biographies, anecdotes (there is, for instance, a list of Hollywood stars who married co-stars they met on sets), and witty asides on the margins of pages. Each entry is presented in alphabetical order and introduced with a major credits box to the "first film," a still, and a Bona-ism (Meryl Streep's for 1976's Julia reads, "Already with the accent") which sets the tone for the short chapter.

What a fun book! Every chapter is thoroughly researched and provides juicy details about each actor's screen debut. Mr. Bona engages you at every turn. He should be at your next dinner party. A must-read for movie afficionados!

I read this book when i was 10 and absolutely loved it! the illustrations gave me hours upon hours of enjoyment beyond reading. i strongly recommend this book for any child who is in for a good read and loves art.

I read The Pagemaster, written by David Kirschner. Richard is a boy that loves safety he made his own bike. This book is a book of fantasy it is for all ages because little kids and older kids would find it cool and funny, it is very detailed and very enjoyable. It is about Richard going into a library and everything is coming to life. I recommend this book because it is interesting and it makes you want to read it again. The problem is that he can't get out of the library, so the books are trying to help him

Richard Tyler is scared 10 year old boy. After stumbling into the library during a storm, he meets the Pagemaster and explores the world of fiction books with three companions, Adventure, Fantasy and Horror. Richard deals with his many phobias through his journey from Fiction A-Z, encountering characters of famous stories. The illustrations were brilliant, colourful, and contained lots of detail which made them interesting. The story was well paced with lots of action which made it enjoyable to read.

Love the book - would love to listen to the Chieftans "Song without End" - Patrick and Marty's music - if I could find it. Miss these characters on One Life to Live.

I enjoyed the book and the tape. I would hope that patrick would return but I understand that that won't happen. I wish you luck and happiness.

Seldom, in one's all too mundane existence, does so utterly sublime a tome as Patrick's Notebook fall into the humbly outstretched hands of the ever-optimistic reviewer. This book is a gift from the goddess. The reviewer's patience has been magnificently rewarded.

In his own words, our own courageous, selfless, devoted, and poetical Patrick Thornhart lays bare before us his noble soul, writing movingly of his eternal love for the bewitching but troubled Margaret Saybrooke, who became the love of his lonely life the instant he lay his eyes, not to mention his lips, on hers.

The story of how Patrick and Margaret met on the enchanted Irish isle of Inish Crag sets the stage for the timeless romance with which the author spellbinds his readers in these pages. Not only is this tale mesmerizing on its own terms - a captivating story of lovers equally as captivating - but Thornhart gifts us with many lyrical poems that reflect on his feelings for Miss Saybrooke - and that also offer a welcome opportunity for the reader to reacquaint herself with some of the world's most senstive love poetry.

Some of the immortal poems included in Patrick's Notebook are the Shakespeare sonnet 116 ("Let me not to the marriage of true minds admit impediments..."), A Thing of Beauty, by John Keats, How Clear She Shines, by Emily Brontë, She Walks in Beauty, by Lord Byron, Miles From Home, by Thorsten Kaye, and Longing by Matthew Arnold. Each of these poems, and all the others here besides, enhance Thornhart's true story of love, heartbreak, turmoil, and determination, and his own words suffer not by comparison...

We have in Patrick Thornhart an instinctive, articulate, and irresistible writer of the first rank, and we have in Patrick's Notebook that rare maiden effort that is destined to become a classic. Incredibly, the book comes packaged with an audiocassette of Thornhart's own recital, in his deep, warm, velvety Celtic-tinged voice, of several of the poems found in the book. His rendering of Sonnet 116 is especially heartfelt, and you'll hear his ringing Mother Ocean in your dreams for many nights to come.

Everything you always wanted to know but were afraid to ask about the freaky Dutch filmmaker.

This is a fantastic biography of the director of The Fourth Man, Robocop, Basic Instinct, Showgirls and Starship Troopers. The first half of the book extensively details Verhoeven's childhood, education and early film career in the Netherlands, then switches to chapter-long "making of" stories on each of his American films up through Showgirls (Starship Troopers was still in production at the time this book was published).

Verhoeven is a VERY smart man and has led an intriguing life. If all you know of him is that he's "the pervert who made Showgirls," you'd do well to read this book. Good job, Rob Van Scheers!

Whether you're a Verhoeven fan, or just want to read an interesting account of a director's relationship with the film industry, this book will satisfy you. The author interviewed past Verhoven associates from the stars of his Dutch films to Michael Douglas, as well as longtime friends like cinematographer Jost Vacano (who has worked with Paul for 25 years). He also spoke at length with Verhoeven himself, getting some great quotes--not to mention insight--in the process. The translator has done an excellent job of making this book engaging and readable, unlike some biographies where the recitation of facts can get boring.

The book covers Verhoeven's childhood, early student days, his time in the military making documentaries, and his entire film career in detail from his first major Dutch production through the making of Showgirls. For the length of the book (only 300 pages) there is A LOT covered. If you are hoping to learn more about this rather infamous director you will not be disappointed.
There is a new chapter for each of his major Dutch and American films.

Besides the biographical text, there are some black and white photos before and after each major section and a complete filmography (through Starship Troopers). The book also has an index that is actually useful in finding the info you need.

I recommend this highly for anyone interested in Verhoeven--you might even find yourself surprised at how personable, intelligent, and funny he is.