Take One (Jul 1978)

BOOKS personalities, it is because of its pretentiousness. Amid the sentence fragments, clichés, contrived similies and vulgarities of her fan-magazine prose, Tornabene likes to drop such affected pronouncements as, ‘‘To know the early life and times of Clark Gable is to ponder, again, what Churchill called ‘Divine Discontent.’’’ Actually, a book like Long Live the King should never have been published in hard cover at all; it properly belongs among the paperbacks sold in drugstores and supermarkets. Tornabene shows us all too little of Gable at work on classic films such as Mutiny on the Bounty, It Happened One Night and Gone With the Wind. Instead, as one might have expected in a biography of the screen’s dominant male sex symbol, she concentrates on the record of Gable’s sexual prowess—five marriages and unnumbered random couplings. Though she identifies herself as a feminist, Tornabene never resolves her own attitude toward Gable as a sex symbol. She is openly hostile to Gable’s father—a wildcatter, roughneck, drinker and ladies man—for fostering a ‘‘chauvinistic male image’ in his son, yet she never questions the validity of the same image which Gable projected in all his roles. No press agent could be more zealous than Tornabene is in assuring the public that in real life Gable was as tough and virile as on the screen. Tornabene does not have a novelist’s talent for making a consistently interesting story out of the life of someone like Gable who, behind the glamour, took pride in being just an ordinary guy. In Tornabene’s hands even Gable’s third wife, Carole Lombard—a luminous, madcap comedienne on screen and a certified eccentric in real life—comes across like an ordinary housewife managing the Gable household. Gable understood perfectly well the difference between a celebrity’s glamorous image and the rather humdrum business of living. As Gable explained to a reporter: ‘You know, this King stuff is pure bullshit. I eat and sleep and go to the bathroom just like everyone else. There’s no special light that shines on me and makes me a star. I’m just a lucky slob from Ohio.’’ To bring the King and the lucky slob together into a lively portrait of Gable is a task for which Tornabene is not equipped. Joel Thingvall is a freelance writer living in Minneapolis. From Jules Verne to Star Trek by Jeff Rovin. Drake. 1977. 147 pages. $6.95 paper. (In Canada: General, $8.50). An entertaining compendium of almost all the memorable Golden Age of films—along with the more recent ones—is offered by Jeff Rovin’s From Jules Verne to StarTrek. Ostensibly a‘‘Top 100’’ catalogue, its contents expectedly run from the good (Andromeda Strain, Forbidden Planet) to the bad (Invaders from Mars, Omega Man) to the ugly (Soylent Green, Logan's Run). Originally titled From Jules Verne to Star Trek to Odd John (and subsequently trimmed when George Pal’s inwork production of Olaf Stapledon’s novel was sidetracked), the book just missed the Star Wars craze, is inexplicably lacking films like A Boy and His Dog and Dark Star, but is on an even and reliable keel otherwise. Most of the films included are noteworthy in one sense or another, and Rovin admits the inclusion of pictures like Logan’s Rum was a hedge against such timeliness. (‘‘It is the only irrevocably ad movie included in this volume.’’) The structure of intro / synopsis / minireview makes for a good quick reference source, and Rovin’s editorializing with certain films is refreshingly contemporary. There is an abbreviated TV-sf section giving ‘“‘Outer Limits’’ and ‘‘Star Trek’’ their respective bows, including some nice photos from the former. David Schow David Schow ts a film / TV columnist for Mountain NewsReal and a cartoonist and graphic designer. BOOKS ON FILM: A CHECKLIST New books dealing in whole or in part with the motion picture and issued, for the most part, in the English language by North American publishers; also new editions of out-of-print titles, and novels the significance of which transcends their fictional format. Canadian agents and prices (where differing from US publisher and price) are noted in brackets. America, Why | Love Her. By John Wayne with Billy Liebert and John Mitchum. Simon & Shuster, 1977. 144 pp. $8.95 (H).(Musson, $11.25). Flag-waving by an expert jingoist. And the Envelope, Please. By Richard Altman. Lippincott, 1978. 160 pp. $7.95 (H). $3.95 (P). (M & S, $4.75).A quiz book about the Academy Awards. The Annotated Frankenstein. Introduction and notes by Leonard Wolf. Potter / Crown, 1977. 356 pp. $14.95 (H). (General, $17.95). Mary Shelley’s classic story with extensive gloss. Fred Astaire. By Michael Freedland. Grosset & Dunlap, 1977. 183 pp. $7.95 (P). Audition. By Michael Shurtleff. Walker, 1978. 187 pp. $9.95 (H). (Beaverbooks, $12.50) Advice on how to get acting jobs in theater and film. The Beatles: A Hard Day’s Night. J. Phillip Di Franco, ed. Chelsea House, 1977. 297 pp. $12.50 (H). (Penguin, $6.25 (P)). Complete pictorial record of Lester's movie. Jack Benny. By Mary Livingstone Benny. Doubleday, 1978. 322 pp. $10.00 (H). ($11.95). A biography of the comedian by his widow. Big Bad Wolves. By Joan Mellen. Pantheon, 1978. 365 pp. $12.95 (H). (Random House, $15.95). A study of the male hero in American movies. Blood, Brains and Beer. By David Ogilvy. Atheneum, 1978. 181 pp. $7.95 (H). Autobiography of the advertising expert, incl. chapter on research for Hollywood film industry. The Cinema of John Huston. By Gerald Pratley. Barnes, 1977. 223 pp. $12.00 (H). (Burns & MacEachern, $11.75). The Classic American Novel and the vies. By Gerald Peary and Roger Shatzkin. Ungar, 1977. 356 pp. $12.50 (H). $4.95 (P). (Book Centre, $15.00 & $5.95). Classic Movie Monsters. By Donald F. Glut. Scarecrow Press, 1978. 442 pp. $15.00 (H). Close Up: The Hollywood Director. John Tuska, ed. Scarecrow Press, 1978. 454 pp. $17.50 (H). The careers of nine prominent directors. Cocktails for Two. By Sam Coslow. Arlington, 1977. 304 pp. $11.95 (H). (Dent, $14.95). Autobiography of the film and stage songwriter. Collecting Movie Memorabilia, by Sol Chaneles. Arco, 1977. 176 pp. $10.00 (H). (Musson, $12.50). The Compound Cinema. Lewis Jacobs, ed. Teachers College, 1977. 639 pp. $25.00 (H). (Guidance Centre, $27.50). The film writings of Harry Alan Potamkin. The Concept of Structuralism. By Philip Pettit. U. of California Press, 1977. 118 pp. $2.75 (P). A critical study of “sign-systems” applying inferentially to film. Francis Ford Coppola. By Robert K. Johnson. G.K. Hall, 1977. 199 pp. $8.50 (H.). A critical study of the director. Creating Special Effects for TV and Films. By Bernard Wilkie. Hastings House $8.95 (P). (Saunders, $17.25 & 7.95). Dear Me. By Peter Ustinov. Little Brown, 1977. 374 pp. $9.95 (H). The actor’s autobiography. The Detective in Hollywood. By Jon Tuska. Doubleday, 1978. 436 pp. $14.95 (H). ($17.50). A study of fictional private eyes and their creators. The Dogs Bark. By Truman Capote. New American Library, 1977. 419 pp. $4.95 (P). Profiles of film world figures and others. Doing it Yourself. By Julia Reichert. Ass’n of Independent Video & Filmmakers, 1977. 76 pp. $5.50 (P). Independent film distribution. The Doris Day Scrapbook. By Alan Gelb. Grosset & Dunlap, 1977. 159 pp. $5.95 (P). ($6.95). Doug and Mary. By Gary Carey. Dutton, 1977 248 pp. $8.95 (H). (Clarke Irwin, $9.50). A biography of Douglas Fairbanks and Mary Pickford. Dreams and Dead-Ends: The American Gangster /Crime Film. By Jack Shadoian. MIT Press, 1977. 366 pp. $15.00 (H). A study of the genre. Elvis. By Richard Mann. Bible Voice, 1977. 186 pp. $1.95 (P). The religious aspects of Presley’s life. The Elvis Presley Scrapbook 19351977. By James Robert Parish. Ballantine, 1977. 218 pp. $7.95 (P). ($8.95). Memorabilia from the late performer's collection. Esthetics Contemporary. Richard Kostelanetz, ed. Prometheus, 1978. 444 pp. $19.95 (H). $9.95 (P). Study of avant-garde’s aesthetic principles, incl. chapter on film by Paul Sharits. The Eternal Male. By Omar Sharif with Marie-Thérése Guinchard. Doubleday, 1977. 184 pp. $7.95 (H). Autobiography of the actor. Fabulous Years. By Lou Dufour with Irwin Kirby. Vantage. 1977. $9.95 (H). Memoirs of the showman and film producer. Famous People on Film By Carol A. Emmens. Scarecrow, 1977. 365 pp. $13.50 (H). An annotated catalogue of public personalities as they appear in non-theatrical films. Fassbinder. Tony Rayns, ed. BFI / New York Zoetrope, 1977. 62 pp. $2.80 (P). Essay on the German directors work. Faulkner and Film. By Bruce F. Kawin. Ungar, 1977. 194 pp. $10.00 49