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Esta resenha foi escrita no âmbito dos Primeiros Resenhistas do LibraryThing.
As is obvious by the cover's layout, this is a very National Enquirer-style compilation of Hollywood stories. Which can be fine if that's what you're looking for. I prefer a bit more substance.

I think the book would have benefited from a bit of editing, maybe somehow making the information flow in a more reader-friendly way.
 
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sheryll | outras 10 resenhas | Jan 21, 2011 |
Esta resenha foi escrita no âmbito dos Primeiros Resenhistas do LibraryThing.
This is a really good book. It gives you a lot of information in short, entertaining bursts of clever writing. A nice collection of juicy stories from the film world written by an obvious fan.
 
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asbooks | outras 10 resenhas | Jan 10, 2011 |
Esta resenha foi escrita no âmbito dos Primeiros Resenhistas do LibraryThing.
It is hard to know where to begin a comprehensive review on a book that is as disjointed as this one... Nearly everything about Movie Confidential appears to have been thrown together haphazardly in an inept and slapdash manner to meet a looming deadline. Indeed, there is no introduction, no conclusion, or even an index to be found. (The non-existent Index is the most annoying omission, since if you want to read about certain people in particular, you have to slog through the whole thing again to find the person you actually want to read about. While there is indeed a Table of Contents, it does not help much since not all the people he discusses are named there either.) The overall result being that once the reader turns past the glossy National Enquirer-like cover, one is thrown head-first into the Fatty Arbuckle scandal with no preface or prologue. Just a taste of the long journey ahead.

At this point in my reading, I actually backed up and retraced my steps to see if I had missed the introduction, or if by-chance some of the pages had stuck together. ("Really?", I wondered to myself, "No introduction? Not even a paragraph?"). Nope. I checked twice. Alright, I rationalized here and gave the author the benefit of the doubt. Since this is obviously a VERY EARLY ARC copy, pre-publication, it seems they missed a couple of steps and will include them when/if it gets published, etc. So I turn the book over to re-read the descriptory blurb on the back cover, to get a sense of structure of the book and everything contained within. Scanning the list of movie star names and the "dirty deeds" done by them the book promises to reveal, labelled as "True Crime"; my gaze drops down to the ISBN and the outrageous dollar price next to it. Now, if I hadn't been an ARC/ER junkie for the last 6 or so years, I probably wouldn't even have noticed it. But, due to my many years of experience reviewing books, the price tag set off warning bells in my head. Why is there a price tag on an ARC uncorrected proof? Hmm, that's a big mistake, someone might think this is a first edition... What's that phrase again for something that is labelled as one thing when really it's another? Oh yeah, false advertising. That's right. Kinda like how the subject is "True Crime" but none of the sources are cited?

Yup, just like that, actually. Flipping back to the verso page, underneath the author's own copyright (ironically enough) and where it is clearly stated as a "First Edition, First Printing"; there is about a paragraph-sized neatly annotated list of where each and every picture used is from, which page it appears on, and that it "appears courtesy of" the original source stated. Interesting. They took the time to give credit to the photographers for the pictures, (although even the pictures contained are mostly out of sync with the written parts. For example: a huge mug-shot of John Dillinger on page 27 in a chapter about Clark Gable.) but not the sources of the written material. So, basically that makes them liable for the words and not the pictures. Which means theoretically, that if this book is indeed "True Crime", that the author Andrew Schanie wrote ALL of it himself, that every word of it is in fact true, and that he used NO outside sources whatsoever (including any magazine articles or internet sites). Well for the author's sake, and the company that actually had the balls to publish this unsubstantiated drivel, I hope it is true. But, since I am not a copy-editor or even an editor; I do not wish to spend anymore time expounding on Copyright, Plagiarism and Libel Laws. That would have been knowledge they should have applied themselves. Now all they need is a good lawyer. They can use the money they didn't spend on hiring a proof-reader, or a copy-editor. Perhaps the author could take his own advice while nit-picking errors made by others on page 202 and, "Get a fact-checker or something."

Do my readers now think that I am the one nit-picking? Have I spent so much time expounding on the glaring mistakes of the Editor and Publishers and not addressing any of the actual content included? Fear not, gentle readers! Take a stroll with me through the rest of my review and I will expostulate further on the matter and topic...

Mainly, the distinctive pleasure that we, the public, take in the microscopic unveiling of the outlandish and sordid details of the famous. The German word for it is "schadenfreude", or a malicious joy experienced at another's suffering or misfortune. A most human trait that has been with us since the dawn of time. One could compare it to the first amphitheatres, the Roman Coliseums with their blood sports, where thousands of men and animals were slaughtered for the crowd's entertainment. Ah yes, modern society likes to think it has evolved past that awful state, but we haven't, not really. The public still laps up greedily all of the grisly, garish spectacles of other's suffering. We just have a new medium of satisfying that pleasure.

The Tell-All books, the flashy biographies and, the filthiest of them all: The Tabloid Magazines. The ones the supermarkets neatly stock and display right next to the other "Three C's" of guilty pleasure impulse buys: Candy, Chocolate and Caffeine. All readily available to meet your most primal, basic needs when you are at your weakest state; namely, the Check-Out stand. Yes, it is here that we are at our most vulnerable. Arriving finally at the Check-Out stand, having hunted and gathered all of our essentials and ready to pay for and take them home, we are tired, weary and nearly defenseless to the seduction facing us now. The people in front of us in line are taking forever, or the Clerk made some kind of a mistake and the Manager is being called... and so humans do what we always do when forced to wait. We look for something to do in the meantime, while we wait. A headline or two catches our eye (ironically enough called screamers, or scareheads in journalism terms) and before you know it, you are hooked. The Cardinal Sin of the Check-out Stand, the Crap Rags, have lured you in. The tell-all headlining captions that mercilessly grab our attention and provide that entertainment we need while we wait. All the scandal splashes before our faces as the newest debauchery of Movie Stars or Rock Stars is mercilessly laid bare for us in plain sight. "Shocking Scandals!!! Sex, Crime, Drugs!!! You'll Never Believe what This Star was Caught Doing!!! READ ALL ABOUT IT!!!"

But, (and here's the catch) DO you actually BELIEVE it??? Knowing that it's a scandal-mag, hack journalists out to make a quick buck, the Paparazzi at their best/worst exposing and humiliating the famous for pure profit? Surely not. Not all of it (if any of it) can be believed. After all it's unsubstantiated, fabricated fluff and innuendos. Entertainment, in its most vulgar form.This is where we find sayings like, "Today's News Stories lining tomorrow's wastepaper baskets". And why is that? Because it is, in a word: Trash. Baseless, demeaning, mind-numbing garbage. But still, garbage that is plainly marketed garbage. If you actually dole out the cash for it, you know what you are paying for: A cheap thrill. Truth in packaging, dear readers. You get what you pay for.

Which leads me to my closing observation. This book (while marketed as being "True Crime", falsely leading people to believe it falls under the non-fiction heading), would be better yet classed amongst its talentless and inept brethren where it belongs: With the other trash.
… (mais)
½
2 vote
Marcado
PandorasRequiem | outras 10 resenhas | Sep 19, 2010 |
Esta resenha foi escrita no âmbito dos Primeiros Resenhistas do LibraryThing.
I am a self-avowed Hollywood junkie. I love all things Hollywood, most particularly classic Hollywood, and I hoped that Movie Confidential would provide me with new or previously undisclosed information. While I found the book enjoyable reading, I was a bit let down by the expectation of discovering new tidbits.

That's not to say that Movie Confidential is a bad book - - far from it. I was delighted to find chapters on such past (and less recognized) Hollywood greats as Roscoe Arbuckle and Olive Thomas, although I do wish their chapters had been a bit more substantive. Also granted an entire chapter (and rightfully so) was Clark Gable, whose extramarital dalliances and alleged illegitimate daughter were detailed by Mr. Schanie, along with the tragic loss of his beloved wife, Carole Lombard. Not included? The longstanding rumor of Gable's involvement with director George Cukor and the rumor that Gable committed manslaughter while driving intoxicated. I don't know if either tale has any merit but it made the chapter feel somewhat incomplete. (Although I do understand this wasn't a book solely on Gable but on a motley variety of Hollywood-ites).

Also worthy reading were the chapters on Charlie Chaplin and the Red scare, Paul Bern's sudden death and Judy Garland's taperecorded, drug-induced ramblings.

Which leads me to my biggest gripe about Movie Confidential . . . how Mr. Schanie chose the subjects and topics that were highlighted. Entire chapters were devoted to stars who died too young, as well as those who chose to leave this world by their own hand - - sadly, there were and are many of each. I felt many who should have been included were missing. Perhaps this was due to my excessive reading on the subject, perhaps my standards in this area are too high. It certainly could fill an entire book alone.

I also felt that Mr. Schanie missed an opportunity including stars who had been charged with serious crimes (again, a sadly lengthy list) as well as those to whom murderous tragedy befell. What Hollywood tell-all book a la Hollywood Babylon is complete without discussion of the murder of Sharon Tate? Or the O.J. Simpson case? And from the classic Hollywood angle, the first true murder of the Hollywood set, the William Desmond Taylor case? (For the record, the Taylor case was mentioned but only in a two brief paragraphs).

I would have preferred lengthier chapters on the early deaths, with more inclusions, or a new chapter on Hollywood murders, to the tale of LSD on the set of Titanic and Peter Jackson eating vomit.

Again, Movie Confidential is not a bad book. It's a fun, entertainig look at the movie industry through the decades, a veritable meringue of a book . . . light and fluffy but without a lot of substenance. Think of it as you would a 3 week excursion to every country in Europe, where you get just enough taste of each country to help you decide where you want to return for another visit. Movie Confidential may whet your appetite for Clark Gable or Jean Harlow, to name but a few, sending you to seek out biographies on them and watch their movies, but for the experienced Hollywood-ite, it won't shed any new light on the shadows lurking around the HOLLYWOOD sign.
… (mais)
1 vote
Marcado
LoriHedgpeth | outras 10 resenhas | Sep 16, 2010 |

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