The illustrated who's who of Hollywood directors

Farrar, Straus and Giroux

1995

530 p.

Includes indexes

0374174520

Incomplete contents: v. 1. The sound era.

With a style and format reminiscent of David Shipman's The Great Movie Stars (1970), Barson's book engagingly analyzes the work of 197 important directors whose directorial careers began before 1975. Two- to eight-page essays on 151 men and two women (Dorothy Arzner and Ida Lupino) are supplemented by briefer summaries of 44 others. George Sherman seems to be the only prolific director omitted. A few Brits are included: Hitchcock, John Schlesinger, and John Boorman but not, surprisingly, J. Lee Thompson. Alongside great filmmakers like John Ford and Howard Hawks are genre and low-budget impresarios Jack Arnold, Roger Corman, and William Castle, as well as Disney's live-action expert Robert Stevenson. Portraits, candid on-set shots, and posters highlight the text. Though not filmographies per se, the well-written articles cite, describe, or evaluate every film each director helmed. Numerous books on directors exist, some of them mere lists and others, like John Wakeman's World Film Directors (LJ 4/15/88), definitive but expensive. Barson's is a worthwhile acquisition for libraries on a budget.

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