Movies Books

We have Community Theatre Groups. Now, with David Shepherd's ground breaking book, we can have community movie groups! Movie making is a social art similar to theatre, but the great thing about it is you get to keep your finished work and share it with future audiences. Anyone interested in screen acting and movie making will benefit from this. Most importantly, it opens up the movie making process as a community nurturing activity that can eliminate barriers and build bridges. No serious movie maker, community leader or drama teacher should be without it.

Lots of video cams get purchased every year, especially during the holidays. But too many of these cams end up gathering dust on a closet shelf. Why? After you've taped that sixth grade concert and the odd birthday party or three, there isn't much to do with the darn thing. This book opens up ways that the creative person can use their camera to experience a great group process, building friendships and making a real statement along the way.

The author has been experimenting with video and performance with regular folks for many years, and his expertise shines through. If you're considering getting a video camera, buy this book first!

David's book is rich with ideas and formats. This book is a treasure for all levels of improvisational work. It's the kind of book you come back to for new avenues and inspiration.

Innovative and exciting. I devoured this book - which can be appreciated by people from all walks of life. A fantastic creative outlet for those bored with sitting on their couch in front of the tv. By the end of the first chapter I was already shooting test footage with my friends.

Informative and entertaining. This book has some great suggestions for getting people engaged in creating and collaborating.

I know that almost everyone out there in the world loves a good book and if your one of those people go to your library and check out Step Up it is based on the cool tv show Thats So Raven.it has two awesome stories, but i want to tell you about my favorite, story two it is soooooooooooooooooooooooooo cool Raven,Eddie,and Chealse have to get the zoo to come to Ravens house, because Ravens parents got food poisning and had to cancel Ravens brother,Corys b-day party at the zoo,but next time Ravens parents tell her to throw out the food that made them sick mabe she shold listen!!!What happens next you have to read Step Up to find out!

I pick all of the stars.It's about her cousin Andrew.Raven does notlike her.I don't like it i love it.I love it because when Eddie made his kissing face it was funny.I love it alot.Y ou should try it.It's a good book.

I like the show and I have five books from That's so Raven.I like both parts when Raven's cousin Andrea came from Paris and Cory had his 10th birthday party and Raven ruined it.I enjoy the book.

Raven is a psychic who has visions that her cousin is going to kiss her best friend. In part one it teaches you a lot about how to solve problems. This book can help you solve your problem, instead of making it worse.
In part two it is Cory's birthday. How do you think she is going to put up with it? Now Ray has a bad vision about Cory. Do you think she will let her vision come true?
I will recommend this book cause it has interesting facts in part one and cool party tips in part two.
K.G.

I enjoyed this book, some of the parts were different from the TV show, Raven RULES!

Purchased this product 2 days after seeing Theodore Bikel in person give an outstanding performance playing the author Shalom Aleichem. Book is very interesting reading, and this particular edition is personally autographed by Mr. Bikel, so that makes it even better.

This book is delightful. It is a must for every theater goer, folk music lover. I think it should be required reading for ALL drama students and students in general. It is a rollicking story of a lifetime spent being in the present moment, facing all forms of worldly turmoil from a childhood in Vienna as a jewish boy to manhood and family in America.
It is the loving story of a man choosing to fight for human rights with only his guitar as a weapon.
From his days in Israeli theater and on to England in Repertory theater to appearing on American stage, movie screen and television to activism of all colors, this story reveals a man whose quest for LIFE brings him into our lives. And we are all the better for it.

SHalom and God speed to a wonderful character in my life.
Mrs. Leslie Van de Ven, RN, BA

"Theo" is a wonderful journey through the life of an interesting, entertaining, many faceted person. You'll be facinated to follow him from his birth place in Vienna, through his many travels and career to his comments on the present day world conditions.

He is a jack of all trades and master of all!

Theodore Bikel's name is syynonymous with the Arts. His autobiography detailing his years on the London and Broadway stage and his Hollywood film career is stuffed with anecdotes about actors and legends. It brings a real sense of living that charmed life. I enjoyed every minute of his story.

His experiences escaping the Nazis as a child, his passion for folk music, and his stewardship of actors' and civil rights show him as a champion of the less fortunate and a righteous individual. This is the story of a totally expansive life and in spite of my earlier knowledge and enthusiasm for his work and music, I came away with greater insights and understanding of the man's drive and achievement. It's a great book. I recommend it to every theator-goer, activist, music lover, and any soon-to-be fan of Theo Bikel.

I first discovered Theo when I was in college -- and a friend of mine found some folk music records of his at a campus record store.

Then I discovered he's an actor. And a writer. He's written some wonderful books on folk music, with the stories that go with the music. He wrote the back jacket copy for the records, and it opened gateways into the music and out of the music into the world that music came from.

He's appeared on almost all the major hit TV series. Most memorable for me is that he is/was Ivanova's Uncle on Babylon 5 and Worf's human father on Star Trek: DS9 etc.

You surely know who he is -- you've seen him again and again.

But only a true die-hard fan like me -- who goes to his concerts whenever I can -- picks up enough about his life history to get a feel for where this immense talent comes from.

Theo is one of the major influences that led me to become a professional sf writer. Today, I play his CD's and tapes made from the old vinyl in my car -- and it gives me the strength and energy to keep on. Keeping-on has begun to pay-off! Just today, I have another new title now available on amazon.[com], The Unity Trilogy.

The story of Theo's life is the story of Art. And here and there you get to peek into the world as it was during some terrible war times -- and what it meant to escape all that horror.

This is a book to treasure. It should be available as an ebook download forever!

Live Long and Prosper,
Jacqueline Lichtenberg

It never occurred to me that gay people went down on the Titanic. But of course they did. Think of how gay an airplane or cruise ship is today. Why is the Titanic always considered a straight experience? This book makes the probable seem very real. Also the other stories in the collection are good--particularly the camp-like "I Married an Aquanymph" and the butch story of gaining muscular weight in the hot "Buzz Spaulding's Training Academy." The Hollywood theme keeps going in the porno screenplay of an actual video, "Buck's Bunkhouse." Also, I liked the dozen photographs in the book--for nights when I don't want to read as much as "look."

Be assured this tale of gay victims and gay survivors is historically accurate in its details of Titanic culture on board in all classes, and in its details of the sinking and rescue.

This novel is reviewed with praise at several Titanic websites for both its accuracy as well as for its rather daring angle in being the first book to deal with gay men on Titanic as passengers, pursers, and stokers.

This story, which is a QUEER EYE FOR THE STRAIGHT READER, is a metaphor of what gay people must do to save themselves in a time of Aids and fundamentalist politics.

As such, it is true to the legend of Titanic which has always been about progress and how ALL OF US, STRAIGHT AND GAY, MUST SAVE OURSELVES IN A TIME OF TERROR that changes everything.

The tone of the book is romantic and will be culturally challenging in a good way to those readers who have never thought about all the gay people who served on Titanic. This is their FORBIDDEN STORY that till now they were NOT ALLOWED TO TELL.

It's a charming hoot to read how MOLLY BROWN interacts with the gay men on board! And to read how Molly, handing out her ballgowns, teaches "survival at all costs."

Fritscher is also the author of the nonfiction books, "Popular Witchcraft: Straight from the Witch's Mouth" and "Mapplethorpe: Assault with a Deadly Camera."

"Titanic" is recommended for those readers open to cross-cultural experiences. Actually, Fritscher's "Titanic," despite the ending, has a fun, musical-comedy feel appropriate to the way the passengers felt as the celebrated ship set sail.

Enjoyed the read(so did my seat mate as I flew to NY).
Hot and very creative man to man action..a real fantasy come to life in the pages. The scenes on the Titanic with the hunky engine crew is amazing. A bit of romance and nostalgia as well.

I was glad to search "disaster" and find this book, because the 9-11 attacks on the World Trade Center made me wonder about the human interest stories of all the lesbigay people in the Twin Towers. Then I read that it took 3.5 hours for the Titanic to sink and only 2.5 hours for the Twin Towers to collapse. Which all brought me to this book which tells the gay stories from Titanic. Not only informative, but imaginative and probably true, and certainly erotic, particularly the scenes with the sexy Stoker below decks. The story does not trivialize disaster, but rather makes you think about what being gay and being inside a tragedy is like. AIDS, of course, is a parallel subtext symbolically present in the Titanic sinking, just as HIV scares for gay people make the anthrax scares a bit simple by comparison. (At least for now.) I recommend this book particularly at this time that everyone is watching disaster on TV and maybe wants to read some escapist fiction around disaster--where some survive. Timely and hot.

"Love And Slumming." Okay, that about wraps this one up. Or how's about: "Now I know why handguns should be outlawed."

This is the fourth collection of Jack Fritscher's short stories, collected from three decades of sensual erotica. But perhaps this time, more than in any other of the collections, "Titanic" displays his razor sharp wit. The temptation to just list line after memorable line in this batch of stories is tough to resist.

Tied loosely together by a Hollywood concept, "Titanic" is also something else that many never expect from a collection of Fritscher's magazine work. There is very little leathersex involved here. Plenty of man on man horseplay, more than a few uncircumcised folks (the book could just as easily been subtitled Memories Of Headcheese) and lots of hypermasculine images, but the ropes and the dungeons are pretty much kept locked in the projection booth. That doesn't make the pieces any less wild, in fact, it enhances the craziness of a story like "CBGB 1977" and reminds you that the 70's in New York weren't all boogie nights at Studio 54.

Yes, the sex is fast and dirty, and often, funny. Funny in a way that suggests whimsy, which is pretty much a lost art in American humor, where a fart joke is easier to insert than a set up for a pattern of good belly laughs. To have a starlet so shamelessly exploit her he-she sexiness (in "Aqua-Nymph") will make many squirm in the fact that they're becoming more than a little female icon worshipping suckler, all while looking for Fritscher's usual cask of rough players. Think Bette Davis. Or even Cher. Not leather. Glitter. ...

OKAY! You want the nasty? Read "Buck's Bunkhouse Discipline: The Screenplay." (You thought no-one concerned themselves about porn film plotting!) "Three Bears In A Tub," which attempts to answer the question of how much sex can you fit into a single sentence. It's a gasping run-on of he-men in the wild for reel men in the big screen world. There's not a story here among "Titanic's" dozen that won't leave you with a 16cc smile. I'll indulge myself with one more Jack Fritscher quote to close this review: "Most people prefer masculine men...masculine in the best sense, not macho in the worst."

I have every one of the Charmed series books, this is just as good as all the rest. The girls keep you on the edge of your magical seats in another great adventure.

Trickery Treat (Charmed) was an awesome book. It had lots of history, detailed history that made me realize that it was the last in the series, but it still could have gone on another few years. They could have done what the Buffy book have done, written stories in different seasons. They could have had short stories even books written by fans. I think that would have really ended the series on a much higher note. To bad there was no Prue in this book! This whole time, we could have seen Prue at some point,especially since when we didn't get to see it in the series. Only a few minor bloopers, but all and all a great book for all you Charmed fans. A great ending to a wonderful show.

The Charmed Ones must stop this ghost before it does more harm to the house.

'Trickery Treat' was a wonderful treat to read. It gave us 'our' witches back AFTER the end of the TV series. I was delighted to resume my relationship with the characters and would encourage more books on the same vein. We want to know what happens with Wyatt growing up and Peobe pregnant. And please note not all readers are aged 9 to 12. Us grownups loved the series and I consider the books a continuation of this relationship. Thanks Diana and keep em coming!!

As always great book loved it & would like to see more books written on the charmed series

I had no idea the spectrum of videos available until I read this book. It's also the perfect book if you want to get a video to watch with your lover and tells you how to introduce the idea to them. Plus it tells you who the good filmmakers are. Comprehensive and highly recommended.

I always thought I would watch adult movies if only there were any good ones! I was never very excited about adult movies but I am a fan of the author, and the video guide is not only her best book to date but made me want to go out and rent some of these movies. As a woman I am used to being insulted by adult movies, but the guide is written by an intelligent woman and she's pointed the way for me to find hot movies, and her recommendations have been right on the mark. She gives the reader a guide with which they can make informed decisions about what they do and do not want to watch. How refreshing.

This is a great book! My girlfriend and I love it, and she's now happily put herself in charge of renting our videos. Violet Blue's tone is warm, funny, and excited about sex and adult videos, and she takes no prisoners in her hilarious video reviews. There are hundreds of films in this book and she explains how to find the good stuff. My girlfriend liked where Blue explained how to avoid seeing things that are offensive and we cracked each other up reading the "porn glossary" out loud to each other. It's nice to see a guide that takes us readers and porn watchers seriously. It's a great book for us couples. Don't read it alone! Thank you Violet Blue!

This is the ultimate consumer guide to porn and it's perfect for women and couples. The female perspecitve is utmost here and it shows you how to steer clear of low quality and female degredation while still finding really hot porn. This is an encyclopedia of modern adult film and nothing has been left out. History, backstories, profiles on interesting people in the business, lots of women-made erotic films and even softcore and mainstream titles are covered here. Nice sections on finding and selecting porn to suit individual's tastes. This book is a welcome relief and is intelligent, funny and free of the usual judgement and stigma in other porn writing. Blue treates porn like an independent film genre, and it's about time.

As someone who has been recommending intimate videos to my girlfriends for years, I was anxious to see what I might learn from Violet Blue's, `The Ultimate Guide to Adult Videos.' As it turns out - if you're an experienced porn watcher - not much! (More on why not later.) But if you're a newbie, this book actually has a lot to offer!

For those of you who might be hesitant to watch porn, this book offers many reassurances, such as - people who watch porn are NOT compulsive masturbators, or - porn watchers DO enjoy regular sex with their partners, and, most significantly - watching porn will NOT affect your ability to have a meaningful relationship but, in fact, it might do just the opposite! (Hear, hear!)

On the positive side, the book also provides many GOOD reasons for watching porn, such as - to satisfy one's curiosity (and to expand one's horizons), as education, as entertainment before (or during) sex, or quite simply - to get off! On this last point, Violet offers a lot of encouragement particularly to women - to allow themselves to masturbate while watching porn - which, for men, is only second nature (like breathing)! Lastly, for couples, this tome does review the sensitive issue of how to view porn with a partner - especially when one partner is reluctant. (Luckily, my husband has never had this problem!)

Violet also reassures us - that it's not always necessary to attempt (in one's own bed) everything we might see in porn - and that it's ok for certain types of action to remain in the realm of `fantasy.' In fact, one of porn's strongest roles - is to dimensionalize (add realism) to our sexual fantasies. So even if your boyfriend watches some of the raunchiest porn imaginable - that doesn't require you to try it (or even admit to liking it, even if you do) - so long as he's able to separate fantasy from reality (which most men are surprisingly able to do.)

Probably the most useful sections of the book deals with the types of porn available, such as - feature films, educational videos, all-sex videos (all sex, no plot), to name just a few - as well as my favorite, girl/girl -- which is sometimes called lesbian videos, even though most of the performers are not true lesbians. So if you're unsure of what to watch, this book can add structure to the sometimes bewildering array of porn that's available.

On the downside, this book was published in 2003 -- just a few years ago - but a long time, unfortunately, in porn years! As a result, most of the movie titles it recommends - which make up about 2/3rds of the book - may be difficult, if not impossible, to find today (unless one looks in the classics or marked-down sections). Fortunately, some of the directors, studios, and series listed -- may still be around in some later incarnation.

There's also very little mention of one of the hottest new genres - gonzo -- in which the director interacts (verbally) with the actors -- which saves cost, since there's no script and no rehearsing - but results in some of the hottest, most spontaneous action you'll ever see on screen.

For the experienced porn watcher, this book also seriously dates itself by pointing out that the most prevalent and brazen type of (male) climax available at the time - were facials (an ejaculation served across a woman's face) - which are as useless and degrading back then as they are today! (Ladies, honestly, how often have you asked your lover to do this for you? If you're like me - how about NEVER!) Let's get real!

Fortunately, achieving a climax within a woman's body (on screen) is much more accepted and commonplace in porn today - which makes the action more realistic, more romantic - and much more emotionally satisfying to watch! (It's about time!)

As another nit, the book sadly has only a brief chapter on lesbian and girl/girl videos, which is a shame. And it mixes them with bi-videos (where the men do it with both men and women) which have an entirely different audience and a much more limited appeal.

Luckily, the author, Violet Blue, has a new book coming out, `The Smart Girls Guide to Porn,' which sounds well targeted - since its women who will probably seek out this type of info, especially in a book!

As a happily married (bisexual) female, here are my suggestions for what I'd like to see included in her new book - which this present edition was sorely lacking:

There are now genres of porn - which explore the lovingness of every orifice (such as oral and anal) - and the creative after-climax uses for a man's output (such as swallowing, swapping, and cream pies which is the oozing of ejaculant out of the orifice where it was deposited, plus other combinations of the above).

The natural eroticism of girl/girl should be more strongly highlighted - especially for women. In my own experiences, I've yet to meet a girl who doesn't like to watch two cute babes making love to each other. And I've also found that a woman's enjoyment of porn will increase tremendously - after she discovers girl/girl, which only makes sense since porn is about women - and women have always had an appreciation for the beauty of the fairer sex. (Said differently, it's harder to believe that porn exploits women, and to restrict one's own enjoyment - when pretty girls can now be an object of desire - for both men and women!)

Needless to say, a section of the book should be added to reassure MEN - that watching girl/girl videos will NOT turn their girlfriends or wives into lesbians! (Take it from me -- they won't!) Unfortunately, the most common reason I've found to explain why some women DON'T watch girl-only videos - is because their men don't (yet) approve. Fortunately, that attitude is quickly changing.

I didn't say this earlier, but back in 2003 - it was also taboo to mix boy/girl and girl/girl action - in the same scene. The thinking was (and still is) that guys will be turned off. But one of my favorite type of videos today is girl/girl/boy threesomes, where the girls are free to make love to each other early on (usually in the segment's opening) - and later all throughout the scene - even after their guy has joined in, which is pretty heady stuff!

As further expansion, the nastiest and most romantic of these girl/girl/boy threesome titles are probably more easily recognized under the `swapping' genre where the girls do just that orally with their lover's output - which, for me, is a great heterosexual reassurance - which allows the intimacy of the girl/girl action to go even higher! (As a watch-out, these videos are probably better suited to the more advanced porn watcher - but they are items which I suggest quite often - to my girlfriends who really enjoy porn!)

In conclusion, Violet Blue's `Ultimate Guide to Adult Videos' offers some timeless advice to overcome one's hesitation when it comes to watching porn. The plethora of videos it recommends, though - are hopelessly out-of-date! Fortunately, porn just keeps getting better and better - for both men and women! Enjoy.

As an avid horror fan, I must say Vincent Price is the long-standing king of horror. When I think of horror movies, he immediately comes to mind. Finally, a book that specializes in the work of a true master who truly loved his work. Having recently purchased this, I look forward to mulling through its contents and watching the many films of "The Master of the Macabre." Long live Vincent Price!!!

True fans of Vincent Price don't really care whether or not we're watching something badly made like SCREAM AND SCREAM AGAIN or some auteur-approved masterpiece like TOMB OF LIGEIA. As long as Vincent Price is in it, hamming it up and acting all others right off the screen we are in hog heaven. It's a strange, fervid fraternity and way back when someone started calling us The Price Club and the name just stuck.

Denis Meikle has given us a book that clears up some of the myths surrounding Price's career, but he seems determined to create a new one, based somewhat on Victoria's great book. His thesis is that the McCarthy hearings and the "graylist" of which Price was the victim made him scared that he would never work again, so that afterwards, from the mid 1950s on, he consented to appear in any piece of schlock if the "price was right." Again and again he evinces this theory to explain, for example, why VP appeared as "Egghead" on TV's BATMAN. Price himself often stated that he wanted money to but more modern art with, but Meikle discounts this simple explanation.

I am the proud owner of a signed copy of Price's awesome book THE ART IN MY LIFE and I think that he indeed loved art and that he wasn't just "running scared" from the HUAC police.

But everyone deserves a forum for their views and Meikle makes a good case for his.

Vincent Price came into horror films by way of the studio system. His body of work is amazing, and he showed a fine sense of comedic timing in His Kind of Woman, with Robert Mitchum and Jane Russell, playing an OTT hammy actor. Later this tough for droll comedy would show in two gems - The Raven and The Comedy of Terrors. However, he really gathered attention in 1952 with House of Wax. After that wonderful performance, it was non stop fun all the way.

Many of his films were for William Castle or Roger Corman, and often considered Drive-In fodder - such as The Fly, The Bat, House on Haunted Hill. It was the series of Poe movies that firmly linked the word horror to Price - and I think it was a term he enjoyed completely. At the time the Corman-Price-Poe series of movies - The Pit and The Pendulum (with Scream Queen Barbara Steele), House of Usher, Tomb of Ligeia, Masque of the Red Death, Haunted Palace (which was really Lovecraft not Poe, but what the hey...) were often dismissed. But looking back, you will see finely crafted horror films that are still a pleasure to what now, with many of Price's wonderful performances.

Even later, he continued to seek out this same spotlight with the campy Theatre of Blood and the Dr. Phibes duo of films or the more serious Cry of the Banshee and Conqueror Worm (one of his most underrated performances).

He scared us with a gentle boo, mesmerising with that voice, thrilled us with the wondrous menacing laugh, enchanted us with his devilish twinkle in his eye...he entertained us cooking fish in his dishwasher on Johnny Carson.

His legacy lives and this is wonderful tribute to the master! Loaded with pictures, it is a must for Price fans.

When I was a kid way, way back in the late sixties to the early
seventies I never failed to catch a great Price film on the late night Creature Features. This book is hard to put down.
Dennis Meikle does'nt white wash the Master of Menace, nor present him in any unfavorable light. All of Price's successes
and failings are told here in a very respectful manner. As a
matter of fact there were some parts of Price's life I did'nt want to know. This is the story of a great actor the likes of whom we will never ever see again. Well illustrated. A really
excellent book.

I just finished reading this excellent book on Vincent Price. It concentrates just on his work in the horror film genre which is primarly what he is remembered for. Denis Meikle follows Vincent's career chronologically film by film, giving details of the production as well as what was going on in Price's life at the time. While this is not an exhaustive work on this wonderful actor, it makes a great companion piece to his daughter's book "Vincent Price: A Daughter's Biography" which covers his personal life and Lucy Chase Williams' excellent "The Complete Films of Vincent Price" which covers all his film output. All together, these tell the story of one of the last true renaissance men. Recommended.

Probably the only work available that pairs a film scholar/interviewer with the masters of the screen. Obviously a must for any film enthusiast.

VOICES FROM THE SET is a MUST READ for all film historians, film students and cinephiles. Macklin gains amazing insight into the working lives of such screen legends as The Duke, Altman, Beatty and Peckinpah, all captured in rare form. This is an excellent read.

When teaching film and television in Los Angeles, I had the luxury of having top industry professionals visit my classes. This is simply not possible at universities distant from the major centers of production. However, with Tony Macklin's unique and special tome, I can have many of the all-time greats "visit" my class anywhere. VOICES FROM THE SET will be required reading for all future "Masters of American Cinema" courses I teach-- anywhere...ever.

Voices From the Set is Tony Macklin's collection of interviews from the magazine he edited, the Film Heritage series. Exploring an underappreciated era in film, the early to mid 1970s, Macklin gathered interviews with directors, actors, producers, writers, even film critics who blazened a trail for independent cinema between the twilight years of the studio system and the birth of the blockbuster. The book is meant to be savored one interview at a time, and should give you a great list of films to rent if you're not familiar with them. In his introduction, Macklin calls this particular group of interviews "precious cameos that gain more value as time passes." His discussions include several maverick filmmakers still influential today, such as Martin Scorsese, Robert Altman, Sam Peckinpah and Warren Beatty. Voices also captures the essence of legendary directors and actors Alfred Hitchcock, Howard Hawks, Charlton Heston and Macklin's favorite, John Wayne. Macklin artfully probes below the surface and discusses the artists' feelings and visions, not just dry facts and dates. In the Scorsese interview, Macklin asks him for his opinion on "the new Hollywood" during the early to mid '70s. Scorsese talks at length about this group of influential filmmakers graduating from universities, himself numbering amoung them. He succinctly sums up the era and the reason for reading this book: "They [the old Hollywood] took it as a job...we come in from a whole different level...The old day is dying out, and there is a new Hollywood..."

Tony Macklin's collection of interviews, Voices from the Set, provides us remarkable reflections by some of Hollywood's greats--reflections of a Hollywood balanced at the crossroads of its artistic Golden Age and the modern-day blockbuster. Macklin's interviews with such influential film greats as Hitchcock, Altman, Scorsese, Heston, Hawks, Peckinpah, Wayne, and Beatty give us a fresh look at many of old Hollywood's most powerful, while providing us a peek at some of new Hollywood's up-and-comers.

Macklin, in skillfully eliciting responses that are compelling, honest, and human, allows us to witness a side of Hollywood that is rarely seen. Voices from the Set's subjects are willing to talk to Macklin, and Macklin is willing to give us the full transcripts of his interviews. No sound bite answers here. Macklin asks the tough, thought-provoking questions and we are rewarded with direct, insightful answers.

Both fans and students of film will not be disappointed in this book. Virtually every interview in Voices will sing to you.

Ed Watz' thoroughly researched and well-written book on the films of Wheeler and Woolsey deserves the highest praise. He approaches their career by examining their work on a film-by-film basis, providing very complete cast and credit information, production history, as well as biographical information on the two comedians. The book also includes a nice forward by their frequent co-star Dorothy Lee, who worked with the team since the 20s. Lee, who died in 1999, shares many memories of working with the comedians, and gives valuable insight into the making of these films.

Highly recommended for students and fans of stage and screen comedy.

This "sleeper" book, which I picked up because of my curiosity about the subjects (they are appearing regularly on the Turner Classic Movies station) is a revelation. Positively one of the best researched and entertaining books about a comedy team from the movies' golden age, the 1930s. To watch Wheeler & Woolsey is to understand what vaudeville-type comedy is (was) all about. Bert Wheeler and Robert Woolsey have been overlooked in favor of teams like the Marx Bros. or the 3 Stooges. This book corrects that oversight. It is also a highly readable accounts of Hollywood politics behind the scenes at some of the major studios. If you're a fan of vintage movie comedy, get this book.

Wheeler and Woolsey were second to Laurel and Hardy in the heart's of movie going audiences of the 1930's. Since then, however, their star has faded and their acomplishments have been relegated to footnote status in the history of the golden age of comedy. Thanks to Edward Watz, Bert Wheeler and Robert Woolsey are alive and kicking again in a definitive history of the lovable pair and their films. Exhaustingly researched and lovingly executed, the book chronicles the career ups and downs of the most unjustifiably forgotten comedians in the history of show business. Personal biographies are included, as well as detailed accounts of all of their features and short subjects. Long time leading lady Dorothy Lee lends her first hand account of the way things happend with a refreshingly candid foreward. She also shares her memories of each of the films that she participated in with a fascinating view that only an insider could relate. The later years are chronicled in the final chapter, featuring accounts of Bert Wheeler's career after the untimely death of his partner. All in all, this book ranks along side the superlative Laurel and Hardy, The Magic Behind The Movies, and Abbott and Costello in Hollywood, as one of the most enjoyable and informative demonstration's of film history as can be expected. If you love film comedy, you should not be without this book.

I love this book! To my knowledge, the only book around about Wheeler and Whoolsey. It made me eager to see more of their films. The author did a great job of research, which couldn't have been easy considering how long ago these comedians were active.

Ed Watz's book 'Wheeler & Woolsey' is a superb film history of a great and sadly forgotten movie comedy team. This volume evokes the golden days of both Vaudeville and Hollywood, as we follow the rise and sad fall of Wheeler & Woolsey. Mr. Watz also sets straight the historical record in that the boys were second only to the great Laurel & Hardy in the 1930's and certainly ahead of their rivals the Marx Bros., the Ritz Bros., and the Three Stooges! Readers of this book will want to go out and see the films of Wheeler & Woolsey. Watz's book is a lost treasure.

This is a fairly pedestrian novelization of the movie by Robin Hardy and Anthony Schaffer. If you have seen the movie, it won't really enhance the experience much. There are a few lines which give some insight into Detective Howie's character but its nothing you can't extrapolate from Edward Woodward's performance in the film. If you are, as I am, a devoted fan of the film, you will want to have this as a memento - but don't expect it to reveal anything profound about the film.

Robin Hardy and Anthony Sheffer, The Wicker Man (Crown, 1978)

The emergence of a rabid cult following for the film version of The Wicker Man prompted the publication of the novel on which it was based. And a good thing, too. As fine as the film is, the book has its own special charm.

If you've been living in a cave the past thirty years, the plot of The Wicker Man goes as follows: Neil Howie, a Scots police Sergeant and fine upstanding Christian fellow, receives an anonymous letter saying that a girl has gone missing on Summerisle, a small island only barely under Scot protection, thirty-eight miles west of the last of the Outer Hebrides. Howie goes out to investigate, and finds that, while all the inhabitants of the island are seemingly quite forthcoming with what they know (save the none of them acknowledge the missing girl so much as exists), Howie is torn between his desire to see the case through and his offense at the various heathen goings-on on the decidedly non-Christian island.

The movie does an absolutely lovely job in detailing the various conflicting emotions of Neil Howie throughout, and in this it lies faithfully close to the book. Where the book does the movie one better is in the expanded opening (even the opening to the 104-minute version of the film, rarely seen, leaves quite a bit unanswered about the whole mess) and allowing us to get inside Howie's head for a few of the harder-to-understand decisions he makes over the course of his time on Summerisle. The downside of it all is that the same strengths one can get from a book opens up its weaknesses, and while The Wicker Man does handle sudden emotional changes with a more deft hand than most novels of its ilk, there are still some embarrassingly jarring ones (from offense to affability in an instant simply isn't convincing, no matter how you dress it up it still looks like an ogre). Still, it's obvious Hardy spent a lot of time thinking and plotting this one out before coming up with a final draft, and what finally got released is a pleasure. This is not at all easy to find these days, but whether you've seen the film or not, this is definitely one to pick up. **** ½

Based on the marvelous film of the same title, this book is a must for those who've seen the movie, whether the long or short version. Beyond filling in the gaps of the background and true personality of Sergeant Howie, it is, quite simply, a great read! Rather than a novelization of exact dialogue and events, this gives a more complete picture of Howie and Summerisle, why he feels so adamant about his Christianity and the need to mission to the "poor pagans." Unfortunately out of print in the US (I purchased my copy used), it was available from Amazon UK last time I checked.

I won't bore you with details since someone has essentially given you most of the plot. The film as well as the book adaption are absolutely brilliant, a believable Horror story hasn't been done better before or since. Get ready for the American film remake/reimagining starring Nicholas Cage/aka The Wooden Indian, The man who acts the same, sounds the same(monotone) in everything he's ever made and it will probably have a rap or hiphop soundtrack even though it takes place on an island off the coast of Scotland, EEWWWWW!...God! I dread it. This is almost guaranteed to suck s#!t out of a Horses A$$!!, read the book or see the classic original movie before the new one spoils it for you.

The book makes for enjoyable, easy reading. I've never seen the movie, so I cannot comment on its resemblance to it. The plot is interesting and moves fluidly. The books only weak points are its somewhat lackluster prose and the main character's self-righteousness, which becomes nauseous at times. Also, I wish the author would've delved a bit deeper into the pagan rites. Overall, its a good read.