Important Books by People I Know

Jeanine Basinger's new book The Star Machine is being released later this month. It is likely to be essential for anyone interested in the mechanisms of the classical Hollywood star system.

That's certainly great news, but not quite as exciting as the fact that her Anthony Mann book is back in print as of November. As far as I can tell, it's the definitive Mann monograph, period. A welcome return for a terrific book on a true master.

In a more specialized aesthetic vein, Scott Higgins' book Harnessing the Technicolor Rainbow: Color Design in the 1930s will available Dec 1. For someone (like me) who is interested in the development of the use of color by Hollywood's top filmmakers, I can only imagine that this book is essential (I've studied many of the films in question with Scott, but have read only small bits of his writing on the subject).

Scott's next book will be Blood and Thunder: Form and History of the American Action Film, which I am looking forward to, but his next next book is the one I'm truly awaiting: "a book-length auteur centered study of "colorist" directors with chapters on Sirk, Minnelli, Jacques Demy, Yosujiro Ozu and Wong Kar Wai."


Finally, Lisa Dombrowski (whom I ran into at the Man from London screening this past weekend) is completing her Sam Fuller book as we speak (literally - she left me so she could work on the index). There's a surprising lack of good writing on Fuller, but I expect Lisa's book to help change that when it comes out in 2008. Unless the title has changed, it'll be called If You Die, I’ll Kill You! Samuel Fuller In and Out of the Studio System - which is both a quote from Steel Helmet, and quite possibly the best book title ever.