"Thanks to Netflix and cable television, classic films are more accessible than ever. Now co-branded with Turner Classic Movies, Leonard Maltin's Classic Movie Guide covers films from Hollywood and around the world, from the silent era through 1965, and from The Maltese Falcon to Singin' in the Rain and Godzilla, King of the Monsters! Thoroughly revised and updated, and featuring expanded indexes, a list of Maltin's personal recommendations, and more than two hundred new entries - including many offbeat and obscure films - this new edition is a must-have companion for every movie lover."--Pengin Books website.

"In Hooked on Hollywood, Maltin opens up his personal archive to take readers on a fascinating journey through film history. He first interviewed greats of Hollywood as a precocious teenager in 1960s New York City. Early Maltin interviews had literally been stored in his garage for more than 40 years until GoodKnight Books brought them to light for the first time in this volume to entertain readers and inform future film scholars. In addition, key feature articles from Maltin's newsletter Movie Crazy are published here for the first time, providing new perspectives on the Warner Bros. classics Casablanca and Gold Diggers of 1933 as well as many other masterpieces--and bombs--from Hollywood history. Finally, Maltin looks back at what he considers Hollywood's "overlooked" studio, RKO Radio Pictures, which gave us such classics as King Kong and the many dance musicals of Astaire and Rogers. In Leonard's unique and witty style, he looks at dozens of obscure RKO features from the 1930s, including saucy pre-Codes, musicals, comedies, and mysteries. Leonard Maltin's love of movies and vast knowledge about their history shines through from the first page to the last in this unique volume, which includes 150 rare photos and a comprehensive index."--

Memo to: Filmmakers, Dealmakers, Scribes, Stars, Suits, and Readers Who killed Hollywood? Who's responsible for studios hellbent on assembly-line "event" pictures? Why are production costs so high that no one can take artistic risks? Who decided that the studios should be a development arm of them parks? What happened to putting actual stories with characters onscreen? And while we're at it, what happened to taste? Where are the believable human characters buried? Are all the execs out of control? How does so much money get spent for so little? Who Killed Hollywood? is a passionate love/hate letter to the film industry. In it, Peter Bart pulls together his best columns form Variety and GQ. He groups them, juxtaposes them, and interprets them, outlining in detail the history and inner workings of Hollywood. This could only be done by someone powerful enough to phone an star or head of studio and have his calls taken on the first ring. In story after story, Bart shows how the major studios have diverted their energies away from production of the shrewdly crafted pictures that once made the industry powerful. There isn't, for example, much range or innovation in the movies. There is only a handful of salable subjects-natural disasters, aliens, dinosaurs, ghosts, monsters, or any combination thereof. All the subjects easily parlayed into theme-park environments, action figures, video games, and clothing lines. Similarly, since Jaws twenty years ago, there's been a very short list of acceptable settings. The 1998 Academy Award nominations for best picture all went to films set in Elizabethan times or during World War II. A few years ago it looked as though Pulp Fiction and other independent films were going to save showbiz. Now independent producers like Miramax and New Line have been acquired by conglomerates. Who and what will resurrect Hollywood? Peter Bart has the answers.

Directors: Barry Levinson (Bugsy), Oliver Stone (JFK), Barbra Streisand (The Prince of Tides), Clint Eastwood (Unforgiven), Neil Jordan (The Crying Game), Rob Reiner (A Few Good Men), Andrew Davis (The Fugitive), Frank Darabont (The Shawshank Redemption), Mike Newell (Four Weddings and a Funeral), Quentin Tarantino (Pulp Fiction), Robert Zemeckis (Forrest Gump), Mel Gibson (Braveheart), Michael Radford (Il Postino), Cameron Crowe (Jerry Maguire), Scott Hicks (Shine), Mike Leigh (Secrets & Lies), Anthony Minghella (The English Patient), Steven Spielberg (Amistad), James L. Brooks (As Good As It Gets), James Cameron (Titanic), Curtis Hanson (L.A. Confidential), Gus Van Sant (Good Will Hunting), Roberto Benigni (Life Is Beautiful), John Madden (Shakespeare in Love), Steven Spielberg (Saving Private Ryan), Peter Weir (The Truman Show), Frank Darabont (The Green Mile), Spike Jonze (Being John Malkovich), Michael Mann (The Insider), Sam Mendes (American Beauty), M. Night Shyamalan (The Sixth Sense), Ang Lee (Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon), Steven Soderbergh (Erin Brockovich and Traffic), Ron Howard (A Beautiful Mind), Peter Jackson (The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring), Baz Luhrmann (Moulin Rouge), Christopher Nolan (Memento), Ridley Scott (Black Hawk Down), Stephen Daldry (The Hours), Peter Jackson (The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers), Rob Marshall (Chicago), Roman Polanski (The Pianist), Martin Scorsese (Gangs of New York), Sofia Coppola (Lost in Translation), Clint Eastwood (Mystic River), Peter Jackson (The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King), Gary Ross (Seabiscuit), Peter Weir (Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World), Clint Eastwood (Million Dollar Baby), Marc Forster (Finding Neverland), Taylor Hackford (Ray), Alexander Payne (Sideways), Martin Scorsese (The Aviator).

"As a child in 1950s Brooklyn, Kenneth Turan often turned to television programs like "Million Dollar Movie" on WOR-TV. Featuring a much-loved theme song from Gone with the Wind, "Million Dollar Movie" would run one feature film twice a day, every day, all week. It was there that he developed a life-long love of the world of the movies. One of the most discerning critics writing today, Kenneth Turan offers insights that are sure to delight and inspire movie-lovers of all kinds in his latest book, Unforgettable. As sophisticated and illuminating as the films they discuss, Turan's sketches are a blend of cultural analysis, historical anecdote and sordid Hollywood controversy, astute critical appraisals, all suffused with his abiding love for the silver screen. Turan's favorite films range across all genres, low and high. From All About Eve to Seven Samurai to Spirited Away, these are now timeless films--classic and contemporary, familiar and obscure, with big budgets and small--each as interesting as the lives of the authors and actors that made the usually two-or-so-hour-long cinematic experience itself"--

Manny Farber, one of the most important critics in movie history, championed the American action film-the bravado of Howard Hawks, the art brut styling of Samuel Fuller, the crafty, sordid entertainments of Don Siegel-at a time when other critics dismissed the genre. His witty, incisive criticism later worked exacting language into an exploration of the feelings and strategies that went into low-budget and radical films as diverse as Michael Snow's Wavelength, Werner Herzog's Fata Morgana, and Chantal Akerman's Jeanne Dielman. Expanded with an in-depth interview and seven essays written with his wife, artist Patricia Patterson, Negative Space gathers Farber's most influential writings, making this an indispensable collection for all lovers of film". --Publisher.

Movies are a passion shared by people of all ages and backgrounds. Maurice Rapf, the first director of the Film Studies Program at Dartmouth College, recognizes that most people who profess a love of the movies have not spent much time learning about them. He has written this text as an attempt to fill in some of the information that movie-lovers should have but usually don't. The information contained in the book has been gleaned from courses that he has taught at Dartmouth over the past thirty years. From 30 years of experience, Rapf assembles the essential information every movie lover should know. It begins with a brief history, followed by a description of the movie-making process, broken down into five components-literary, administrative, shooting, editing and post-production, and marketing. Drawing from his own experience as a magazine film critic, Rapf then outlines how critics work and how studios woo their favor. He also touches on some of the forms movies have taken-as animation, documentary, avant-garde, and as promotion and education. Not to be read as an all-inclusive guide, this work can be seen instead as a launching-point for a deeper appreciation of the movies.

Single mother Elizabeth Carstairs had no illusions about getting married. Tying the knot the second time around wouldn't be about love and romance. It would be about friendship and compatibility and making a home for her family. Then she met her sons' sexy baseball coach.... Will Hollingswood liked his life as a footloose bachelor. That was before his matchmaking cousin introduced him to Elizabeth...before the Widow Carstairs and her lively twin boys started him dreaming about white picket fences and forever after. Could he convince Elizabeth to say "I do" to a lifetime of love?