Hollywood Gold

John Howard Reid has written three books dealing specifically with American movies of the 1940s. The other two are titled Memorable Films of the Forties and Popular Pictures of the Hollywood 1940s. However I consider this book to be the best of the three. Admittedly I’m a little prejudiced because I contributed a few items myself such as additional comments on that colorful Maria Montez vehicle White Savage on the Tyrone Power lend-lease to A Yank in the R.A.F. on the Bing Crosby song-fest Top o’ the Morning on the Spencer Tracy-Katharine Hepburn partnership in State of the Union on the mediocre Charlie Chan The Shanghai Chest on Fritz Lang’s must-see thriller Secret Beyond the Door on Fred Astaire’s Second Chorus on Michael Curtiz’s wonderful absolutely delightful Rosalind Russell vehicle Roughly Speaking on that classic film noir The Postman Always Rings Twice and the truly nightmarish Tyrone Power Nightmare Alley on the Anatole Litvak-Henry Fonda The Long Night and on what is possibly the best movie of the whole decade namely Letter from an Unknown Woman. I also have some remarks on that Marilyn Monroe early venture in “Ladies of the Chorus” on Bette Davis’ Beyond the Forest and Ernest Hemingway’s The Killers; plus five or six lesser titles such as Humphrey Bogart’s The Big Shot and Val Lewton’s The Leopard Man. While my contributions are comparatively few the real meat of the book lies in the extensive cast and camera credits plus the background information and reviews provided on each of the 150 or so titles covered in the book’s 260 large-format pages. For easy reference the movies are alphabetically arranged from The Admiral Was a Lady and The Adventures of Mark Twain through to You Were Never Lovelier. One of the most enjoyable of the many highlights you’ll find in all John Howard Reid’s books are the exclusive comments often provided by the stars and the directors themselves. Reid didn’t waste his time in Hollywood. On You Were Never Lovelier for instance he provides brief comments by both Rita Hayworth and Fred Astaire. You won’t find information like this anywhere else.