Movie Books from the Basement

The other day, I went downstairs into our basement library (a room filled with bookshelves of old looking books that my father hasn't read in years - "I'll read it in my old age," he claims). I was actually in search of my calculator (I've affectionately named it Dexter) because I had some disgusting summer math to do. But let's talk about something more pleasant...

My father has his own little collection of film books - though I may be beginning to challenge him in my own extensive collection! Anyhow, besides the hardbound copies of "Hollywood's Best Musicals," and biographies of Montgomery Clift, Humphrey Bogart, etc., that sat on the shelf, crammed away in another corner amongst some of my mom's old Mills & Boones 25 cent romance novels were a few old, yellowing - though not exactly tattered - paperbacks on movies.

Here's what I found:

From left to right:

Singin in the Rain - From the MGM Library of Film Scripts, Trivia Mania: Movies Volume II by Xavier Einstien, Hitchcock's Films by Robin Wood

The first, "Singin in the Rain", is pretty cool - it is the complete script of the movie. 

I really love that movie, so it's going to be fun just to skim through it and look over the lines I love and remember.

Yep - the whole script!

They're also a introduction to the script that discusses the movie and its successes, so that should make an interesting read, as well.

Next, I found the "Movie Trivia" by Xavier Einstien. As you can tell, it's got no cover -

But, the rest of it is in pretty good shape.

"In what movie did Elizabeth Taylor and Eddie Fisher appear together?"

Easy - Butterfield 8!

It's written in the 80's so we avoid any trivia questions about modern films, mostly. (I love the 80's, so I can take it). They vary in difficulty... I knew what Sydney Poitier movie introduced Lulu to the United States ("To Sir, With Love"), but despite the Cary Grant fan I am, I'm puzzled about who discovered him. (Perhaps because I've yet to read his biography...)

It seems like a good little book to test your movie trivia. I'm glad the questions vary throughout decades and difficulty - I may be quite sharp on a 1940's movie question while I'll stumble over the 70's. (I love the 70's, too, but I've yet to see many films from that decade). I guess this book will help sharpen me up on my movie trivia for the next time I play Trivial Pursuit against my dad (Did I mention I LOVE that game??).

And lastly, a critical analysis of Hitch's films in a book entitled "Hitchcock's Films" by Robin Wood.

This looks pretty interesting. It's supposed to be in depth look at, appropriately, Hitchock's films. I have yet to read a book about Hitch's films, but I love him as a director and I love his movies so this out to be a very interesting read.

Books like this aren't around much anymore - movie trivia books are filled with little tidbits about current films, which I really couldn't care less about... it's not often when you'd find a full movie script, and a classic movie at that, and I guess reading "Hitchcock's Films" will give me a good dose of those 80's bio writers that I've heard so much about. 

Also on the topic of books, I'm going to have a huge book haul of new movie books coming my way. In the mail I have biographies of Vivien Leigh and Jean Arthur coming... also, "Goodbye Natalie, Goodbye Splendour", which is written (I think) from the prospective of the skipper who was on the Splendour the night Natalie died. (I've got a shortage of Natalie books so I'm excited for this)... and, "The Lucille Ball FAQ." NOT to mention I just bought Lauren Bacall's autobiography (I've been holding out for this for a while), so I'm going to have tons and tons of reading to do (not to mention some boringly awful summer reading books for school... ew). I've also ordered in two box sets - The Natalie Wood Collection (originally like $50, but I got it for about $30 so I'm happy about that) and the Lucille Ball Collection.

And lastly, through the blog Via Margutta 51 I had found this really funny "Audrey Airlines" clip on Youtube, made by this group called PunchyPlayers. Through that, I found more parodies and impersonations of Old Hollywood stars made by the same people. Here's one of my personal favorites --

My favorites: "Audrey Hepburn" "Hayley Mills" "Vivien Leigh" "Bette Davis" "Julie Andrews"

Though their Lucille Ball is a little off!

Ciao!