The Producers Books

This book was organized well, was written wonderfully and was very informative.

The title's misleading, as this is not so much a biography as it's a study and analysis of Stevens' work. You expect to learn about Stevens the man, and Moss really doesn't delve into that at all. For every paragraph where she talks about his life, there are twenty that analyze his films. She really should have written two books on Stevens: One a biography, which this was supposed to have been, and a second, which would have been an analysis of his work, which this book wound up being.

The other review of this book has missed the point entirely. Since George Stevens lived his life in film, the continuous comparison between what he lived and what he put on screen is completely valid. Kudos to Ms. Moss for being intelligent enough to make these kinds of connections. This is an insightful, well-written, well-thought out book that explores the life and work of a great film maker thoroughly. If you have any interest in George Stevens or Hollywood of this time, then you will find this book a great read.

"Giant" is a comprehensive biography of the enigmatic George Stevens, one of the greatest (and most under-appreciated) directors of all time. Moss does a terrific job giving valuable insights into the man's creative process and his films. She captures the mood of the times in which Stevens worked (from the 20s to the 60s) and shows how he directed great stars such as Elizabeth Taylor, James Dean, Rock Hudson, Montgomery Clift, Cary Grant, Fred Astaire and Katharine Hepburn and guided them to wonderful performances. This is a highly readable biography: well-rounded, packed with information and wonderfully paced. A terrific read!

Burt Kennedy has directed many famous stars and made many famous Westerns. He may be a great story-teller in person however this does not come through in this book. There are many things he says are funny before relating a particular anecdote, but I can't really remember laughing once during this book. All the stories seemed to fizzle out and the punch-line seemed to leave the anecdote unfinished. You all know the type of thing I mean. Think of the last party you went to that had the guy who couldn't tell a joke to save his life.

Mr. Kennedy does give some insight into the business of movie-making, and this is interesting, but not enough so to save this effort. I have to wonder after reading some of the other reviews if we all read the same book....

This work of vignettes of Burt Kennedy's life and times as a Hollywood Movie Director gives the reader an inside look at Hollywood without the usual petty back biting. Burt keeps the reader interested and amused throughout without having to resort to the more tawndry side of the picture business. A great work to keep at bedside and reread regularly.

Burt Kennedy's HOLLYWOOD TRAIL BOSS is great inside stuff on some of the great Stars, their personalities, quirks, and talents. Kennedy's style of writing is easy reading, often funny and full of intimate humor. His 50 years of producing, films and directing many of the Greats gives him a unique personal insight to Stars like John Wayne,Glenn Ford, Henry Fonda,James Garner, Frank Sinatra, Alex Baldwin, and some sexie gals like Raquel Welch, Angie Dickinson,Ann-Margret, and scores of others. Reading his book is like sitting across from a very nice easy talking guy and having an intimate gabfest about the personal thoughts and behavior of some of Hollywood's most notable Stars. HOLLYWOOD TRAIL BOSS is a terrific read to be enjoyed by just about anyone who is a movie buff, past or present. This is written by a bonafide veteran producer and director with a noteworthy Filmography to his credit. His anecdotes about the Hollywood scene and actors are memorable. Though his book you'll see the Stars as they are in real life. The book is full of very enlightening stories that are fun and revealing.

Burt Kennedy writes a fast-paced, fun-filled book about behind the scenes events in his great old westerns and TV shows. Find out how they did those war sceens in Combat, how to find a train to use in a movie and what John Wayne was like to work with. Then of course, there's the scene of Angie Dickinson emerging from her bath, that was cut--check the pictures in the middle of the book for this vintage shot. Becky Reid

While I can sympathize with not buying a book if you believe it is sloppily written, jacket copy isn't written by the author but by some copy writer at the publishing company. It shouldn't have gone out like that (why didn't spellcheck catch it? probably it was written in the layout program and not the word processing one), but neither the author nor the editor are on the hook for this one.

This is more a review of the sample presentation on this page, since it is supposed to entice the reader into buying the book. I'm a person who was looking forward to buying the book and now I have my doubts.

Books cost a lot of money. While I'll put up with the sloppy grammar and spelling which are the spice of life for internet writers, if I pay for a book I expect decent proofreading. What is on the front flyleaf? In discussing Hiken's greatest creation, Sgt. Bilko, the editor allows the author to misspell "Sergeant." Three times. On the flyleaf, which is supposed to dazzle us.

And then Amazon compounds the sloppiness. In going through the sample pages, I find that pages 7 & 8 aren't even from this book.

Some people claim that demanding literacy and correct spelling from authors and editors is excessive. Well -- they probably wouldn't say "excessive"; they'd say it was "sucky". Or "suckee", if they wanted to be exotic. These people make my jaw drop.

I gave three stars because it's not fair to rate a book high or low when you haven't read it yet.

*******
Since writing the above, I've read the book. It's worth the three stars I gave it. It's pretty good; worth reading. But just because there IS a book on a hitherto uncovered topic doesn't automatically mean it's a GOOD book.

As a child I watched Car 54 Where Are You ?, and then in later years I watched The Phil Silvers Show ( Sgt Bilko ) on the BBC - which they repeat regularly to this day. Perhaps one day they will show Car 54 again ?
It was strange to realise only recently ,that one man, Nat Hiken ,was responsible for both shows.
This excellent biography tells the story of how these shows came to be, and is a fascinating glimpse into the early days of TV. David Everitt gives great discriptions of the behind the scenes dramas, as well as analysing in an acessable way just why Hiken's work has stood the test of time.
If it is true that his work has largely been forgotton in America, then that is very sad. I notice that car 54 was released on video some years ago, and there is no authorised Bilko DVD . Shameful .
His attention to detail, and striving for perfection, created some outstanding comedy. However this was not without taking a toll on his health.
His premeture death, left us all the poorer.
I can't help but wonder what he would have made of today's sit-coms. All in all a great read .

THANKS so much to the Author for doing a book on one of the GREATEST people to grace the TELEVISION Screen! CAR 54, Where Are You? Is one of the BEST written and Expertly crafted TV Sitcoms to ever make it to the screen. I really feel sorry for people who have time to proof read sample pages on the internet and criticize mis-spelled words? From a GREAT book! Buy it!

Too much Lambert: i.e., creaky, stilted, and boring.

His "outing" of the late Nicholas Ray is offensive and exploitive. Moreover, I find it difficult to believe that the explosively talented, sophisticated Ray took Lambert as a lover.

Director and critic Lindsay Anderson was one of the makers of modern British cinema so this memoir "mainly about" him by his school chum and life-long friend Gavin Lambert is necessary reading for all serious students of film. But it is equally compelling an addition to the "literature of creativity" and so of interest to anyone concerned with the phenomenon of artistic production. Anderson had a vivid personality, warm and generous but often combative and sometimes hysterical, a character Lambert renders in telling detail. Anderson's world of theatre and film from the 1950's through the '90s is also drawn in fascinating if hardly encouraging terms.

British filmmaker Anderson's films were witty social commentaries for the late 20th century, while his documentaries were revealing and educational. Mainly About Lindsay Anderson provides a biographical review of his life and an assessment of his career and achievements, from his early days as a movie-goer to his later influential creations within the industry. Any studying modern film history will find this a fine study.

Gavin Lambert has written many books about the motion picure business, both fictional and non, but this is far and away the most remarkable. A tribute to a great filmmaker and a through examination of world he lived in, it's also a partial autobiography -- with Lambert's digressions on his affair with Nicholas Ray sharply constrating with Anderson's difficulties in having the lover he longed for. Anderson was capable of producing some of the most indelible homoerotic images in the history of the cinema, yet his own life suffered from sexual and emotional constraint.

No one who wants to know about the British cinema, or one of the most remarkable creative talents Great Britain has ever produced, can afford to pass up this book.

This was an excellent biography, written like a novel that covers him from his childhood to his tragic death at forty five. It's beautifully written and reveals him to be a fascinating, self made man. He dreamed a fantasy of himself as a polished, classy individual, a real dandy really, smelling of money like Fitzgerald used to say, and that's what he made himself. But that was only one side of him, the other could still be shockingly coarse, rude and obscene thus adding to the many layers of this complex individual. I also think he was an excellent actor who often rose above his material. Anne Sinai obviously knew him well and painted a rich picture of him. Thanks to her talent, we can all know him now, warts and all, and still be haunted and fascinated by this ultimately tragic actor.

I first came across Laurence Harvey in the early '90s, when my seventh grade history class was shown John Wayne's "The Alamo". He was playing Col. William Barret Travis, and I remember thinking, "Wow! He's pretty good." It was some years later that I encountered "The Manchurian Candidate". Again, I was struck by how well Harvey handled the role, this time of a brainwashed assassin. He now seems to be almost a one-hit wonder (he was nominated for an Oscar only once, for "Room at the Top").

This biography by Anne Sinai, Harvey's sister-in-law, reveals a great deal about his brief but unquestionably "colorful" life. While it is interesting to see how he rose up from an obscurity in a Jewish community in South Africa, it is also easy to see why many people who worked with him ended up severely disliking him. His personality (especially in his early life) was a mixture of cut-throat ambition and downright arrogance, and he was known for leading a very extravagant lifestyle. But on the flip side, he also could be funny, generous, and caring. And there's no denying he had talent. The irony lies in the fact that, despite striving for the top, he never really managed to stake his claim there.

The book is fairly long and isn't a light read, but it is very well researched and written. I would have liked more information about his experiences working on a few films--namely "The Alamo"; Col. Travis will always remain my favorite of his roles--but Sinai provides a good chunck of information nonetheless. For those who are interested in the olden days of Hollywood stars, or (like me) are interested in an actor the world seems to have forgotten, then this book is worth your while.

Au contraire, the book is extremely detailed and makes use of all the letters that Lawrence Harvey wrote his family. Anne Sinai reads between the lines and shows us that Harvey was indeed pretended to have been known as "Larushka" as a child, but he dared not sign letters to his family with that endearing diminutive, because he made it all up, God knows why.

His ambition and his sexual predilections made him frantic to be loved, and the early part of the book, where he leaves SA and goes to London to find work is quite moving in its clear-eyed case study of a young man on the make. No wonder he did so well, later on, playing Joe Lapmton in ROOM AT THE TOP. Joe's ambition and lying ways could have been patterned on Harvey's life. He seems to have been attracted to a, cute guys, b, older rich guys, and then c, older women who were fair and severe with him, just as his mother was. His marriage to Margaret Leighton is finally explained in several incisive Sinai chapters here, as well as his long term love affair with the much older soubrette Hermione Baddeley. When he became an international star with ROOM AT THE TOP, he just seemed to live more frantically, perhaps because he was under increased scrutiny and could now only rarely have a "night out with the boys."

James Woolf, the bouyant film producer who took Harvey under his wing and made him a huge success by careful placement, flying him to Hollywood over and over again until Warner took an option, winds up as the hero of the book, the one man who never let his boy down, and whose death spelled the end of Harvey's brief stardom. Sinai tells us innumerable anecdotes about the stars Harvey was involved with, but even more tantalizing are her accounts of the movies he wound up abandoning, including one which would have cast him as the man torn between Lana Turner (!) and Jennifer Jones (!!!!), a hot seat if ever there was one.

Highly recommended even though, once he becomes a star, Sinai rushes through the remainder of his career as though the house was on fire and she had to finish the book quickly to get a pail of water. He was so great--or so bad--that he deserves a slower pace, something more Mediterranean, not this Coney Island roller coaster of a climax.

I was very happy to see a book about one of my favorite movie actors.

It was maddening that it was written by his siter-in-law, who obviously has an ax-to grind.

You might get the facts, but not the truth from this "Biography"

See his movies instead of paying for this junk, as I have.

Room at the Top, Manchurian Candidate, Summer and Smoke etc.

It is odd that she does not reveal the nature of her relationship to LH in the narritive----

I suggest reading it if you would like to know names dates etc., but do not expect a balanced insightful portrayal of an artist, that this author probably was resentful of.

After the rave reviews, I was expecting a decent book.. very disappointed

I can't understand how anyone has written a bad review of this book. It is filled with historical information on the women who pioneered the medium and who continue to create ground breaking work in film. My favorite thing about the book is that it does not promote just "the stars" but the important people behind the camera too - the directors, cinematographers, stunt women, and others who have built a lush history of women in film. Applause for Ally Acker for presenting such crucial information in an orderly and friendly manner. The books is equally filled with relevant facts, photos, and anecdotes. This book should be mandatory reading for every first year film student.

Comprehensive to say the least! I've just discovered this amazing book...Seems like the only one like it on the shelves, and it's already out of print. Why? Female directors, producers, editors, writers, technicians, all pioneered the craft of filmmaking since it's inception in 1896. I'm a graduate of film school and not even my women professors offered this information. What is women's history always deemed obsolete or "out of print" or unimportant? An imperitive resource for anyone truly interested in film.

As a graphic design intern I had the supreme pleasure of working with Ally Acker on the video version of this book. Ally's undying, unflinching commitment to bringing the story of women in cinema to the general public is one of the finest works I've ever read, and is a resource for information and inspiration for my own fledgling forays into the world of film. Everyone, regardless of their interest or occupation, should read this book to update their knowledge of our country's history, and particularly of the pioneering women of the world of film.

I really regret buying this book. It is real porly written and has hardly any chapters. The whole book contains four big pieces of text. It has not even been structured within the text it just moves on and on.
Even the topic of the book is of very little interest. There is a whole lot of weight on some statistical analys from his movies that is really bad.
I don't understand how the other reviewers can write such good stuff about this book.

Reading this book made me want to see Peckinpah's movies again (and some for the first time). When I finished it, I rented some videos and appreciated them even more than I did before.

The book is filled with great details, yet the author doesn't lose sight of the big picture. Enjoyable to read, with very good photos from the movies, SAM PECKINPAH'S FEATURE FILMS helped me admire and understand both the content of Peckinpah's movies and his directing technique.

Reading this book is as if you are there in the cutting room with Peckinpah himself! A must for professionals, and students of film history and filmmaking.

This book tells in great detail the relationship of violence in Sam Peckinpaugh's films and it's predecessors today. While I would recommend it to Peckingpaugh fans, critically-minded and socially-aware Hollywood types, and for academic purposes, this book is a little lengthy and tedious for those seeking a quick and easy read. Thought-provoking and meticulous.

Savage Cinema surprised me. Usually, books on Peckinpah focus on his relationship with the Western genre and put The Wild Bunch as his chief accomplishment.

Savage Cinema, however, looks at Peckinpah's relationship with violence and focuses instead on Straw Dogs, Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid, and Bring Me the Head of Alfredo Garcia. Ride the High Country and Major Dundee are barely mentioned, and Stephen Prince viewed The Wild Bunch as something that Peckinpah had grown past in these three later films.

The result was a book that viewed Peckinpah through a fresh set of eyes, instead of one that plowed over the same ground. I found the book very fascinating and convincing. The reason I gave it four stars instead of five is that Prince's chapter on the use of montage became hard for me to follow. But apart from that, this is a very interesting book that shows how Peckinpah was a major filmmaker and different from the "ultraviolence" of today's cinema.

Prince doesn't get the fifth star only because the book is a little underwritten in parts (like the conclusion), and because I feel his analysis of "Straw Dogs", while well-intentioned and mostly solid, seems a little unbalanced with regard to David Sumner (Hoffman). Nevertheless, this is a a MUST-HAVE for students of Peckinpah and/or cinematic violence. Particularly fascinating is Prince's unique view of "Peckinpah's great trilogy on the toxic nature of violence" (re: "Straw Dogs", "Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid", and "Bring Me the Head of Alfredo Garcia"), which represents a significant breakthrough in the literature. The freshness and clarity of 90 percent of this book make it worthwhile, and the other 10 percent is still readable. Don't expect Vonnegut, after all this is a critical volume. Highly recommended to students and cinephiles.

Prince's book is a rich, deep study of Peckinpah's own serious and humanitarian concerns with violence, and how his films were a personal crusade against Man's inhumanity to Man. The author convincingly argues the director grew away from the catharsis philosophy and developed a more uncompromising style. A masterpiece, and a must!

I very much enjoyed this book. Why?

Lots of detail: the writer unearthed old documents and interviewed aging witnesses to put together a portrait of Roddenberry which starts from before his birth to the moment of his death.

Is it hagiographic? No. Why?

The author clearly, and repeatedly, reveals Roddenberry's tendency to be a womanizer and does not directly excuse him for this. He merely reports it.
The writer also reveals at least one episode of outright gratuitous cruelty on the part of Roddenberry.

Is it fully satisfying? Not quite. Why?

I wish there was more material on Roddenberry's home life with his first wife and their children. I also wish there were more material about Roddenberry's non-professional interests, hobbies, if any, etc. However, I forgive this lack because I know that a larger and longer book might not have been economically viable. And, after all, it is Roddenberry's role as the creator of Star Trek that we care about.

What about the controversies regarding other peoples' contributions to Star Trek?

This book, and indeed every other book I have ever read about Star Trek over the past 30 years including interviews with Roddenberry, make it very clear that MANY people contributed to Star Trek. But, the concept was Roddenberry's and he was the necessary and unique filter through which everybody else's ideas had to pass. This has been obvious to me for decades and I was happy to see that this book touched on this as well. There is really no basis for controversy.

I see Roddenberry as a loving and creative man who allowed himself a great deal af latitude in matters of sex (hardly a capital crime, and hardly unique), did abuse substances to some extent (which probably contributed to his death, but again, hardly unique especially in the culture of Hollywood), and occasionally was involved in wrangles about creative priorities, responsibilities and credit (again, very garden-variety stuff in the business culture he was a part of). It would be nice if he could have risen completely above such things, but I feel he did the best he could while, at the same time, producing something of lasting humanitarian and entertainment value to the world. Only he could have done it in that way with that degree of success.

Without putting him on a pedestal, he is a heroic figure. And one the world sorely needs again.

Offers a different treatment of Star Trek. Contains many documents Roddenberry wrote to promote the idea of ST. Gives interesting insight of Gene's early life with the Los Angeles Police Department and his conversion to TV. There are many ups and downs. I know him better due to this book. ST is the biggest thing in TV, the hottest property, an expansive franchise, and it almost didn't happen at all. Not many TV shows reach from 1966 to beyond our lifetimes. Star Trek will.

The other reviewer was overly harsh. This book was a wonderful telling of Gene Rodenburry's life. Was it perfect? No, but I do feel that I have a greater appreciation for the man and his life. I have a much better understanding of what motivated him and his ideas. This book is so cheap that you can't lose.

1) This is a hagiography written by a friend, not an objective biography. Roddenberry's character flaws (and there were many) are barely touched upon or completely glossed over. (The one-sided, multi-page attempt to discredit detractor David Gerrold is embarrassingly silly, for example.)

2) For a book written by someone who was supposedly Robbenberry's friend, precious little of the story comes from the man himself. Nearly half the book (and almost all of the latter sections) consists of transcripts of memos and letters written by Roddenberry.

3) The editing is sloppy; typos abound, most frequently in people's names. Usually they're just annoying, but when you see uncorrected misspellings such as "Harland Ellison" and "Leslie Nielson," you have to wonder just how well the author knew the details of what he was writing about, and whether he was simply parroting material given to him by others.

I'd recommend sticking with Joel Engel's biography of Roddenberry as an antidote. It too has its slant, but it's nonetheless a far more rounded effort than this volume.

I came by this book by accident, and enjoyed it immensely. I have not even known before that my favorite movies had Burton in common.

It covers everything you could possibly wish to know about the films, and even provides a summary of one I'd never even heard of - Luau. This isn't even listed on the IMDB, and no other books on Burton mention it, but they've got an interview with Rick Heinrichs (the guy who designed Sleepy Hollow and worked on Luau) about it, so it must be for real!

It's really well written too, and pretty amusing in places - the level of research is amazing - they even give notes showing where they got all their info from, so you can check it out for yourself. The stuff they got from Martin Landau and the two guys who wrote Ed Wood is incredibly interesting - a load of stuff I'd never heard about that film - some that isn't even included on the DVD's commentary.

Basically, this book's great. I'd read Burton on Burton (which is very good), that Pocket Essentials one (which is pretty good), that biography (which is really poor), and the "CHild's Garden of Nightmares" one (which is interesting, but doesn't cover nearly as much detail as this). NOne of these other books on Burton come close to this one.

I'd recommend this book to anyone.
It is a great analysis of each of Tim Burton's movies. It is written clearly and has information which I haven't read in any other Burton book.
I'm not just becoming a Burton fan, I have every other book on Tim Burton and I believe this one to be the best and most informative.

The book may not have the authors comments, but it is written in so much detail about each Burton movie that it doesn't matter.
If you want to find out more about Burton then this is the book you should get.
The book also includes quotes from people who have worked with Burton and from the man himself.
The length of this book proves that much time and effort went in to write this, and I think it was worth it.
I have found out some new things about some of his movies from reading this book.

So in my opinion I think this book is really worth buying!

As a hardcore, die-hard Tim Burton fan I was very excited to get my hands on this book and start reading. The more I can learn about my favorite film maker -as an artist and person, the better. After reading Ken Hanke's unauthorized biography on Mr. Burton, I had learned so much about the man and his films. Hanke did an amazing job with the book.

When I picked up this book today, and saw that it also contained a foreword by Martin Landau, and an afterword by Rick Heinrichs, I really was excited. Also, after reading on a Tim Burton fan site that this book was the best auto-biography to have been published so far, I was expecting A LOT. Unfortunately, it did not live up to the hype.

Not that Smith and Matthews did not put any effort into the book -I believe they put a lazy effort in cause it just does not deliver. The book is divided into chapters on each Burton film, yet it does not go the traditional route. Each chapter is broken up into categories that the authors feel each Burton film contains: Tagline/Trailer, Title Sequence, Story, Source Material, References, Production, Casting, Burton Regulars, Critics, Music, Cinematography, Plot Problems, Death, Children and Families, Clowns and The Circus, Dogs, Love Triangles, Checks, Stripes, Dots, Autobiography, Just Plain Weird, Dialogue To Skip For/Skip Past, Afterlife, Awards, Expert Witness, Trivia, Analysis, Availability, The Bottom Line.

Are you bored yet? I certaintly was after the first few chapters. Not only did it feel like I was reading a 3rd grade book report -only on films, but every other sentence was a recycled Burton quote from past articles, or quotes from actors involved in the project. This would have been fine if mixed in with a great in-depth analysis of Burton and his films written in an intelligent and thought provoking manner with the authors' individual opinions and analysis (like Ken Hanke did). Not to say that Smith and Matthews are not intelligent writers, they just never display it in this book. They basically let the recycled quotes write the book for them -only occasionally throwing in some in depth analysis.
Yes, Hanke's book was full of Burton quotes from interviews as well, but it was mixed in with great information and analysis of the man and the films, and really got deep into what may or may not have been going on in the artist's life, etc. It had personality behind it -this book does not.

What also bothered me about this book is that there are a few typos -one that especially bothered me is the spelling of the late and great production designer Anton Furst's name. When first discussed, the authors introduce the designer as Anton FIRST, then in the next sentence call him by the correct spelling of FURST.

Also, most of the trivia -like all the information given in the book, is nothing new to the die-hard Burton fans. For example -if they really wanted to impress me they would have talked about the scene in "Batman" where Bruce Wayne is watching The Joker and his henchmen cause chaos in front of City Hall. After The Joker does his "The Pen is truly mightier than the sword" speech and stabs an official with his pen, gun fire takes place. There is a shot of Bruce Wayne walking closer and closer to The Joker and Wayne is hit with a bullet. You see in the frame the bullet-hole appear on Wayne's coat, yet he is not affected and continues walking. This has always bothered/confused me in the film but Smith and Matthews don't even address it even though they have a category for Triva and Plot Problems. This would have been a perfect place to talk about it.

One thing I like about this book is the availability category - that basically vents out at the studios for not putting out special edition DVDs for certain Burton films. Maybe it will wake some of these studios up and make them realize there is a hunger out there for extra features and commentary on many of these Burton classics. Touchstone finally realized it and will finally release the brilliant "Ed Wood" on DVD (with features) in August. Hopefully something good will come out of this book and getting Special Edition DVDs released of Burton films will be it.

Though I believe this book is a total waste of time for a die-hard Burton fan, it is not a total waste if is picked up by someone who is just starting to get into Burton and his films. To me this is like the cliff notes to Ken Hanke's book. This is for someone who has seen every Burton film yet does not know much about the man behind the camera and is slowly becoming a fan or simply wants to know a little bit more about the filmmaker. It will give you a BRIEF glimpse of the man and his art, but will not go into DEEP detail.

So in conclusion, as a die-hard Burton fan I was very disappointed with this read. To me Hanke's book, besides "Burton on Burton" of course, is the best book to read if you really want to dig deep into the mind of Burton and analyze the deeper meanings in his films. So if you're a die-hard like me, don't bother -you won't learn anything new about the man. Just read Hanke's book again, and listen to all of Burton's commentaries on the DVDs -they'll give you more insight into Burton's work and life than this book will.