An Open Book

"Far superior to the endless run of books by and about movie people, Mr. Huston shows a master screenwriter's skill in setting a scene and delineating a character with a few words."--New York Times Book Review

In An Open Book, this veteran of five marriages, innumerable friendships, practical jokes, horses, love affairs, and intellectual obsessions tells his own story in his own way. It is direct, unadorned, complete-and wonderful reading. Here is Huston on stage for the first time at age three, dressed in an Uncle Sam suit; in the ring at eighteen, boxing for small purses; selling his first short story to H.L. Mencken; down and out in London; acting in Greenwich Village; going to Hollywood to work for Jack Warner as a writer; directing his first picture, The Maltese Falcon; filming dangerous combat scenes in the Aleutians and in Italy; and making over forty years worth of movies, from Key Largo to The Man Who Would Be King. And the stories behind those movies are often as exciting as the movies themselves, featuring such notables as Hemingway, Selznick, Sartre, Hepburn, Monroe, Flynn, Welles, Gable, Bogart, Clift, and Brando. An Open Book is alive with John Huston's presence: his boldness and daring, his candor and style, and the spontaneity with which he followed his dreams to their ultimate destination, the well-deserved acclaim of a world enchanted by his work.

Binding Type: Paperback
Publisher: Da Capo Press
Published: 04/01/1994
ISBN: 9780306805738
Pages: 448
Weight: 1.54lbs
Size: 8.94h x 5.88w x 1.14d

Review Citations: Library Journal 06/01/1994 pg. 172