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Auteur-ed states…

HITCHOLOGY

★★★★★ So much has already been written about Alfred Hitchcock’s oeuvre – so why do we need, as author Neil Alcock asks himself, another book on the subject? Focused on making the Master of Suspense’s work accessible to the masses, Alcock explores recurring themes, signature cameos and everything in between. Starting with the Essential 10 – those considered Hitch’s most important – the book proceeds to cheerily dissect all 52 films. Conversational in tone yet brimming with knowledge, it’s a quality read for both fans and neophytes.

QUENTIN TARANTINO: AGRAPHIC BIOGRAPHY

★★★★★ Hot on the heels of a similar tome by Amazing Améziane (see last issue), Michele Botton’s book offers a biography in the form of a graphic novel. Unfortunately, it lacks the vitality of QT’s voice: in a non-linear series of imagined conversations between Tarantino and key players (Grier, Pitt, Travolta, etc), it never feels like we’re hearing from the man himself. Meanwhile, the colour palette is oddly muted for an auteur responsible for such iconic, eyepopping imagery.

JAMES BOND: DR. NO

★★★★★ PAUL DUNCAN TASCHEN

Only a lucky few get to hang out on the set of a James Bond film. But if you’ve ever been curious about the meticulous minutiae that go into the making of one, this companion volume will answer all your questions and more. In the most recent edition of The James Bond Archives (an earlier Taschen title that Screen reviewed in 2021), a mere 30 pages were devoted to Dr. No. Here, by contrast, you get close to 500, with more than half given over to a day-by-day account of the first Bond’s shooting in Jamaica and Pinewood.

If you’re the kind of completist who loves scrutinising internal memos, daily continuity reports and typewritten correspondences, you’ll be as thrilled as audiences were in 1962 when Ursula Andress walked out of the ocean in (to quote Berkely Mather’s original draft script) ‘a wisp of homemade bikini’. Yet there’s plenty, too, for the less obsessive fan. Author Paul Duncan’s detailed text is illustrated throughout by a gallery’s worth of images from the likes of Bunny Yeager, Bert Cann and Bradley Smith.

The latter’s on-set photos include a joke snap of a sleeping Sean Connery surrounded by empty beer bottles. Indeed, if there is one takeaway here, it’s that the actor was clearly having a ball on his first star vehicle: something that, according to reports, would sadly be supplanted by disillusionment on the 007s that came after.

THE BLUES BROTHERS ★★★★★

DANIEL DE VISÉ WHITE RABBIT

‘A big, noisy, noir valentine to the city of Chicago’ is how de Visé describes John Landis’ madcap mix of SNL (Dan Aykroyd, John Belushi), R&B (Aretha Franklin, James Brown, Ray Charles) and demolitionderby-style vehicular mayhem. This thoroughly researched and engagingly written account situates the film in its cinematic and sociocultural context, exploring how it captured the American zeitgeist in 1980, despite the negative reviews it drew on original release.

WHAT HAVE WE HERE? ★★★★★

BILLY DEE WILLIAMS HODDER & STOUGHTON

Thanks to roles in Brian’s Song, Lady Sings the Blues and Mahogany, Billy Dee Williams was being hailed as ‘the Black Clark Gable’ long before his Lando Calrissian debut in The Empire Strikes Back. Yet Hollywood never quite knew how to exploit his debonair charm fully, leaving it to George Lucas (and later J.J. Abrams) to ink his name in celluloid posterity. This memoir finds the octogenarian star on genial, reflective form as he tackles everything from typecasting to (of course) capes.

DANEBANK, FABER & FABER, FRANCIS LINCOLN, HODDER & STOUGHTON, WHITE RABBIT, DR NO © 1962 METRO-GOLDWYN-MAYER STUDIOS INC. AND DANJAQ, LLC.

NOT YOUR CHINA DOLL ★★★★★

KATIE GEE SALISBURY FABER & FABER

Notching up a four-decade career, actor Anna May Wong (The Thief of Bagdad) rose to fame as the industry’s first Chinese-American movie star; she was also a vocal critic of the racism and typecasting she found in 1920s Hollywood. Author Salisbury tells the trailblazer’s tale in this definitive biography, packed with sizzling stories from film sets and decadent parties. Set against a backdrop of jazz-era Los Angeles, the result is a frank and sprightly account of the star’s life and legacy.