By no means a social or cultural history of the period, LaSalle nevertheless offers an engaging and often-affectionate...
An overdue tribute to the myriad of strong and independent women film stars of pre-Code Hollywood (1929–34).
LaSalle provides a detailed summary of an important five-year period in Hollywood history—the interval that preceded the strict censorship of films by the Production Code Administration under the leadership of Joseph Breen. Typically, the "Code" era is remembered in film histories as an age of production that was bound by the suppression of nudity and the proscription of obscene language. LaSalle argues cogently that the Code more dangerously demanded an adherence to conservative and rigid gender roles. Pre-Code films, he points out, were filled with self-reliant, intelligent, and sexually independent women. This was a period dominated by powerful female stars—Mae West, Greta Garbo, Norma Shearer, Joan Crawford, Bette Davis, Myrna Loy, Claudette Colbert, Jean Harlow—whose power and talent were undermined by a Code that made impossible all but the most chaste and wifely female roles. LaSalle, the regular film critic for the San Francisco Chronicle, provides reviews of the films from pre- and post-Code Hollywood with loving detail; photos accompany the reviews and there is a helpful index of film stars and a filmography of the period. LaSalle, however, fails to unite his excellent reviewing skills with a much-needed social analysis of the era. The Code that consigned women actors to the sidelines appears as if out of nowhere, and LaSalle accuses Breen of single-handedly knocking Hollywood to its knees. Also, LaSalle has a none-too-subtle preoccupation with Norma Shearer—a powerhouse from the pre-Code days who, unlike West or Garbo, has remained unappreciated in the film annals of today—and he risks, at times, slipping into unmitigated Shearer adoration.
By no means a social or cultural history of the period, LaSalle nevertheless offers an engaging and often-affectionate account of the strong women who dominated the films of this pre-Code Hollywood.Pub Date: Sept. 1, 2000
ISBN: 0-312-25207-2
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Dunne/St. Martin's
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2000
BOOK REVIEW
This is not the Nutcracker sweet, as passed on by Tchaikovsky and Marius Petipa. No, this is the original Hoffmann tale of 1816, in which the froth of Christmas revelry occasionally parts to let the dark underside of childhood fantasies and fears peek through. The boundaries between dream and reality fade, just as Godfather Drosselmeier, the Nutcracker's creator, is seen as alternately sinister and jolly. And Italian artist Roberto Innocenti gives an errily realistic air to Marie's dreams, in richly detailed illustrations touched by a mysterious light. A beautiful version of this classic tale, which will captivate adults and children alike. (Nutcracker; $35.00; Oct. 28, 1996; 136 pp.; 0-15-100227-4)
Pub Date: Oct. 28, 1996
ISBN: 0-15-100227-4
Page Count: 136
Publisher: Harcourt
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 1996
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
An extravaganza in Bemelmans' inimitable vein, but written almost dead pan, with sly, amusing, sometimes biting undertones, breaking through. For Bemelmans was "the man who came to cocktails". And his hostess was Lady Mendl (Elsie de Wolfe), arbiter of American decorating taste over a generation. Lady Mendl was an incredible person,- self-made in proper American tradition on the one hand, for she had been haunted by the poverty of her childhood, and the years of struggle up from its ugliness,- until she became synonymous with the exotic, exquisite, worshipper at beauty's whrine. Bemelmans draws a portrait in extremes, through apt descriptions, through hilarious anecdote, through surprisingly sympathetic and understanding bits of appreciation. The scene shifts from Hollywood to the home she loved the best in Versailles. One meets in passing a vast roster of famous figures of the international and artistic set. And always one feels Bemelmans, slightly offstage, observing, recording, commenting, illustrated.
Pub Date: Feb. 23, 1955
ISBN: 0670717797
Page Count: -
Publisher: Viking
Review Posted Online: Oct. 25, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 1955
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