Customer Reviews:
A Warm Survey of an Amazing Story.......2006-10-26
As a Casablanca lover (words don't do it justice), I ate this book up. Harmetz writes with warmth about nearly everyone involved in the film except Jack Warner, about whom she writes with a deserved respect. The stories of the bit players, most refugees, expanded the Casablanca context tremendously for me. The suspense, and the tale of how this gem could have been different in so many ways (or not produced at all), made me appreciate this cultural icon even more. I haven't seen the film since reading this book, but you bet when I do I'm going to turn off the phone.
Great book on the best film of the 1940s.......2003-09-25
Aljean Harmetz's "Round Up the Usual Suspects" is one of the best books on the making of what is probably the best film of the 1940s (and possibly of all time). Harmetz explains almost every aspect of the story--often sounding more like fiction than fact--of the making of this all-time winner. These aspects include who was behind the camera, the actors, and the writers. She provides many details about life behind the WB shield--which collaborates the view of Jack Warner as a jerk seen in a fine book,"Hollywood Be Thy Name"--the fights on who wrote the screenplay, and how they all meshed together to create an enduring classic. She also explains how the film escaped the propanganda machine of later 1940 films. If you love this film, you should read this book! Let us hope that it returns to print witht he release of the special DVD edition of "Casablanca".
A Great Read on the Making and Success of Casablanca.......2003-01-07
This book is a great read. Although heavily documented, the "characters" come alive throughout--the characters being actual actors, the Warner brothers of Warner Bros., the director, writers, even the lighting director and sound men on the set.
It wonderfully describes the studio system, the differences between the studios and how "properties" were loaned out, and how WW II affected everybody in the movie business.
Two quotes had me laughing until I was in tears. It is a great book. Additionally, the hardcover with translucent dustjacket is most gorgeous. This is a winner and a keeper for movie history buffs.
The best MAKING OF A MOVIE book I have ever read!.......1998-08-28
"Round Up the Usual Suspects" provided many behind-the-scenes tidbits about CASABLANCA that I've never heard before - Murray Burnett's lawsuits against Howard Koch, the feud between Jack Warner and Hal Wallis and a precise picture of the Warner Brother house style. Ms. Harmetz provided an excellent and detailed account of Hollywood moviemaking in the early 40s. After reading this and her books on GONE WITH THE WIND and THE WIZARD OF OZ, she just may well be one of the foremost historians of Hollywood's Golden Age.
A Miracle of Accidents.......1998-07-29
"Casablanca" is quite simply my favorite film. Its history encompasses the studio system at its finest, the political movements of World War II (the famous Casablanca conference provided invaluable free publicity for the film), and some of the best casting in film history (my favorite character was always Claude Rains' Louis Renault).
In "Round Up the Usual Suspects," Aljean Harmetz has brought the history of this film to glorious life, exploring its origins and dispelling its myths. (How seriously was Ronald Reagan considered for the lead? Did Ingrid Bergman know the ending?)
Her attention to detail would have been sufficient to make this a great book, but Harmetz does much more. Her greatest achievement (and it's great indeed) is to present the film as a miracle of accidents, the almost coincidental meeting of the forces of Hollywood with the forces of history.
"Round Up the Usual Suspects" is essential reading for anyone interes! ted in the story of how a great film is made.
Book Description
The author of the perennial best-seller, Catholicism and Fundamentalism, presents here, not so much a sequel, as a supplement to the first groundbreaking work. In the first book, Keating gave a panoramic view of the attack on "Romanism" by "Bible Christians", highlighting prominent anti-Catholic individuals and organizations and discussing at length controverted doctrines. Here he presents snapshots, individualized portraits—some larger, some smaller—of arguments and people opposed to the Catholic faith.
Customer Reviews:
Good information.......2007-04-26
What makes this book particularly valuable is the chapter on page 275 entitled "Three against one." The book shows how devious evangelicals are. In addressing the debate between Walter Martin and Father Pacwa on the John Ankerberg show, the book notes that the debate was severely edited beyond recognition. This wasn't Walter Martin's fault, it was John Ankerberg's fault. Ankerberg never let the true debate leave the editing room. Without this chapter, the book merits only three stars.
The weakness of the book is that it doesn't properly criticize evangelicals. It fails to address the Fabian origin of evangelicalism and fails to note that the Southern Baptist convention, along with Free Methodist and Anglicanism and so on are controlled by Freemasons. (The fabians published the Scofield reference bible at Oxford). It fails to pinpoint the Christian zionism of the evangelicals and modern protestant churches. These issues are at the heart of why protestantism is in theological error and, for that matter, political error.
Much ado and little substance.......2003-06-08
I approach Mr. Keating's books with great hopes, but always come away disappointed. The book does address many of the standard attacks against the Catholic faith, but too many of the "opponents" are presented as straw-men. The book has too much of the spit and polish of professional debaters and too little of the humilty and understanding that should be present in books of religious discourse. Mr. Keating presents many of his arguments as if he were arguing which pizza topping was better, green peppers or mushrooms. The book is useful in providing good footnotes for original sources.
educational and funny.......2003-04-16
this is the best apologetics book I have read in years. the content is very educational and eye opening. the humor was much appreciated and the language was very precise. I can't wait to read it again.
Good overview.......2002-05-08
This latest book is a good overview of the different attacks made on the Faith, from the reasonably intellectual to the unreasonably ridiculous. I agree that there needs to be a more cogent and prominent "counter apologetics" and am glad to see that slowly that counter apologetic is being raised. This book is a good way to see what the "opposition" is up to.
Great Catholic Review!.......2001-12-07
This is a great book for "Cradle Catholics" and anyone who wants to know the Catholic response to attacks on their faith. Karl Keating has me more interested in my faith than ever!!!
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Counter Collection I: The Usual Suspects (Sword Sorcery (Paperback))
Todd Secord
Manufacturer: Fiery Dragon
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ASIN: 1588461726 |
Customer Reviews:
I cannot recommend.......2007-09-09
I bought these things a while ago to use for a couple of different campaigns because we had no miniatures.
Frankly, they suck. They are little pieces of cardboard (with admittedly very good artwork), but they don't function well in place of miniatures, and that is quite literally what they are intended for.
The breeze from a nearby shutting door will scatter these flimsy little things. If they had plastic stands, they'd be fine. I even tried hardened chewing gum, but nothing worked.
Don't waste your money; instead, just buy the plastic pre-painted mini's (which weren't available when I bought this).
Book Description
A heist thriller with a dazzling twist in the tail, The Usual Suspects captivated audiences when it appeared in 1995. Directed by Bryan Singer, the film won Academy Awards for Best Original Screenplay (Christian MacQuarrie) and Best Supporting Actor (Kevin Spacey). Co-starring with Gabriel Byrne, Stephen Baldwin, Chazz Palminteri, and Pete Postlethwaite, Spacey plays Verbal Kint, one of a group of talented thieves whose high-stakes operation puts them in confrontation with a mastermind personification of evil--Kyser Soze.
Time has seen The Usual Suspects' reputation grow and it's now a major cult movie. But critical views were mixed when the film was first released. Ernest Larsen takes this critical resistance as his starting-point. In a wide-ranging study, Larsen examines the film's sophisticated narrative structure and the new spin it puts on older genre conventions and themes. The upshot is a fascinating account of a film whose technical accomplishment and fine ensemble acting have made it an undisputed modern classic of American cinema.
Customer Reviews:
The Usual Suspects.......2006-01-04
I must have interpreted the descriptive info wrong. I was expecting a novel, it wasnt. I would call this a ' film review '
Not what i was looking for.
Take a Look Beyond...........2002-07-21
Larsen's enjoyable and thorough criticism is a must have for any fan of the film. It does, however, read at times like a prepared speech for a film festival, complete with Power point images. Larsen dwells a bit too much on the homoeroticism of the dialogue perhaps, but it's great bathroom reading.
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- George Chapman has the best chance of being Jack the Ripper!
- Armchair Ripperology is not good Historical Research
- Not a Solution but still reccomended
- GEROGE CHAPMAN = THE RIPPER !!! WELL, MAYBE...
- George the Ripper
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Alias Jack the Ripper: Beyond the Usual Whitechapel Suspects
R. Michael Gordon
Manufacturer: McFarland & Company
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
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Book Description
Over a century ago, a depraved killer skillfully moved through the dark and filthy slums of London's East End. Despite the increasingly watchful eyes of investigators, the serial murderer-known as "Jack the Ripper" from a signature on a piece of correspondence that has been attributed to him-was never certainly identified. R. Michael Gordon provides a comprehensive look at the crimes and the case evidence, and then discusses the life of the man he believes was the actual killer, detailing the reasons why this person may have been driven to kill. Beginning with an overview of the terror created in the East End of 1888, the book describes the five major periods of the Ripper's deadly career: early life and schooling; a step-by-step view of the murders, including the Thames Torso Murders that authorities attempted to cover up; the Ripper's American connection; a return to London where his final victims were subjected to poison; and the capture and execution of the probable-but never proven-Ripper. To most people who worked closely on the Ripper and poisoning cases, justice was finally served.
Customer Reviews:
George Chapman has the best chance of being Jack the Ripper!.......2003-04-02
Warning: There are a lot of really bad books out there on Jack the Ripper, and there are some really good ones. I suggest a great starting place would be - The Complete History of Jack the Ripper by Philip Sugden. When I finished reading Sugden's book, I thought wow no one will be able to top this. Sugden's book tells the story perfectly, and alerts the reader to all the myth's, and made up stories that have been told in book and newspaper's form since 1888, he sticks to the facts. Now, at the end of his book, he list possible supects and goes into great detail. If you read the section on George Chapman in Sugden's book, and you come to the belief that he is by far the best suspect, then you should for sure buy "Alias Jack the Ripper" - I think you will come away from this book really thinking there is a better chance for him to be the Ripper than anyone. He was always at the right place, at the right time. The main reason people do not believe he is the Ripper is because- he was convicted of poisoning 3 wifes, and a serial killer would not change modes from a knife to poison. Don't believe me, believe the best authority - " A man who could watch his wifes being slowly tortured to death by poison, as he did. was capable of anything..." Inspector Frederick Abberline, 1903
Armchair Ripperology is not good Historical Research.......2003-01-30
I can't believe how bad this book is. It's chock full of facts (times, dates, people, places), but there is never any evidence that Severin Klosowski AKA George Chapman is the real Jack the Ripper. The author simply assumes that this is the case, and proceeds to explain his theory. There are many places where conclusions come before any explanation is given. I knew going in that this book was biased towards one suspect, but I at least expected to be presented with facts, followed by evidence that Klosowski was the culprit. Instead, I am bombarded with wild claims and speculation.
This book would have gotten at least two stars if the information had been structured well. For example, every chapter is peppered with statements about "typical" serial killers. Why not put all these statements into a chapter about serial killers instead of wasting my time with filler? Also, I got sick of sentences like, "For him, killing was a business, and business was good." That's just plain dumb. And for goodness sake! Don't just stick a newspaper excerpt in the middle of a chapter without any warning!!!
In conclusion, don't read this book. I heard there are other good ones by Sudgen and Rumbelow.
Not a Solution but still reccomended.......2002-09-28
George Chapman (Severin Klosowski) is certainly a plausibe suspect and has always been one of my favorites. Nonetheless, I have never been completely convinced that he was the Ripper and this book did not change my opinion despite the author's assertion that Chapman had to be the Killer.
The central argument is that Chapman was in the area for all the killings (including the so called American Ripper killing of 'Old Shakespeare' and the Torso murders) and that this, added to fact that he was hanged for three murders, clearly establishes his guilt. Clearly (and perhaps unfortunately), it does not...
The author does acknowledge that the evidence is insufficient to result in a conviction, but he asserts without reservation that Chapman was the Ripper all along. To my mind, although the available evidence makes a great case for the *possibility* of this, there is absolutely no direct evidence of his actual involvment.
Having said this, I still reccomend this book as an essential for a serious collector of Ripperology. It provides good food for thought and (perhaps) avenues for further research.
GEROGE CHAPMAN = THE RIPPER !!! WELL, MAYBE..........2002-02-09
TAking a further step following the lead revealed by author Philip Sudgen in THE COMPLETE HISTORY OF JACK THE RIPPER, Gordon works his case upon George Chapman, the poisoner of wives, being Jack the Ripper. Of course he can't say definitely the Chapman was the Ripper, because his name neveer entered the Whitechapel's investigators reports before 1903, when Chapman was executed. Anyway, a very good book.
George the Ripper.......2001-04-22
Severin Klosowski, also known as George Chapman (1865-1903), was a Polish junior surgeon who emigrated to Britain in 1887, where, save for a period in New Jersey 1890-91, he worked as a hairdresser, mostly in and around London, including in the Whitechapel area of the East End. Between 1895 and 1901 he murdered through poisoning three common-law wives, being convicted and hanged in 1903. He has long been suspected by some of being the notorious "Jack the Ripper", who murdered and usually mutilated a number of prostitutes in the Whitechapel and Spitalfields area of London in 1888 and possibly subsequently. This book is a biography of Chapman predicated on the theory that he was the Whitechapel Murderer, and weaving together details of his life with accounts of the Whitechapel killings and several other murders for which, the author speculates, he might also have been responsible.
This is the first extensive, integrated treatment of the life of George Chapman, and in this regard it appears to be well researched and is well written. On "Jack the Ripper" and the Whitechapel murders there has been a plethora of earlier books, but again the work is written in a captivating style which makes it one of the more readable accounts. Other murders, not generally reckoned as part of the "Jack the Ripper" series, are treated in extenso for the first time, especially the "Thames Torso Murders" of 1888-89, a series of killings of women whose bodies were disected and dumped in pieces in out-of-the-way places or in the Thames river. The police at the time did not consider these to be a single series, or to be connected with "Jack the Ripper", but Gordon poses the perfectly reasonable question "just how many sexual serial killers were working in the East End of London in 1888-89?" (p. 124). We may note that: (1) In the late 19th century the police were unused to handling cases of serial murder and probably thought that such a killer would not much vary his methods, whereas more recent cases show that radical variations by a single hand do in fact happen. (2) Though most of the cut-up victims remained unidentified (which probably accounts for the comparative lack of interest in these killings compared with the Whitechapel Murders, both at the time and now), one who was identified was Elizabeth Jackson, parts of whose body were found floating in the Thames in June 1889. Like the Ripper victims she was a prostitute, and clothing in which her remains were wrapped was tagged with the name "L.E. Fisher"; Elizabeth Fisher was the sister of Ripper-victim Catherine Eddowes, and the name "Lizzie Fisher" had also been given in one press report as the name of the Ripper's victim in Miller's Court, later identified as Mary Jane Kelly. (3) Just over three months after the murder of prostitute Carrie Brown in a New York hotel room (recounted on pp. 226 ff.), there was the discovery of another murder. Though not included in Gordon's account, it was reported in The Morning Journal of 3rd August 1891, under the headline "Is It Jack's Work". The body of the victim, a prostitute, was found floating in the East River; it had been mutilated in a way similar to that of Carrie Brown. This suggests to me that if the New York murders are to be attributed to "Jack the Ripper", whether he was Chapman or not, the dumping of a body in the river was a modus operandi of that individual.
How appropriately the various series of murders can be linked together in this biography depends, of course, on whether one accepts Chapman as a plausible candidate for "Jack the Ripper" - and as the Thames Torso Murderer, as the New York City murderer, and as responsible for a number of other killings. Gordon does not say that he did commit all of the murders he describes, just that he could have. But if Chapman were not responsible at least for the majority of the murders in Whitechapel, a main thesis of the book would fall.
To me Chapman stands as a quite plausible "Jack the Ripper", when compared with the myriad of other suspects that have been put forward since the murders, if only because, from an age when serial killers were still quite rare, we do know, at least, that he was one. Nor, in the light of subsequent cases, should the change from street-killer and mutilator of prostitutes to wife-poisoner necessarily seem incredible. Chapman has been taken seriously as a possible "Jack the Ripper" ever since the historian Philip Sugden favoured him in his methodically researched book The Complete History of Jack the Ripper. As Sugden there stated, however, the evidence against Chapman, though better than for other leading suspects, was not strong.
On the whole I feel that the account by Gordon makes the case against Chapman the more likely, though far from proved. Though he fails to connect him directly with any of the Ripper or other narrated murders, or even to demonstrate that he was definitely always close to the scene, he has shown that he could have been. Occasionally the time-line is, admittedly, a little tight, and the argument requires some special pleading, as with the case of Chapman's arrival in the U.S. in time to murder Carrie Brown.
There are also occasional examples of startling under-research, as, for example, the suggestion that George Chapman's common-law wife Annie Georgina Chapman, from whom he took his Anglo-Saxon name, was the daughter of Ripper-victim Annie Chapman, whom he may have met while attending his victim's funeral. A little genealogical research would have clarified whether such an identification were a possibility or not.
Nevertheless, the arguments are on the whole reasonable and sound, and even for those who cannot accept Chapman as the Ripper, the book will for some time remain the best biography of wife-poisoner George Chapman and a very readable account of the Whitechapel and other murders.
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Large Print: Usual Suspects And Cliche
Betty Kirkpatrick
Manufacturer: A&C Black
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
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Round up the usual suspects: Nicky Kelly & the Cosgrave Coalition
Derek Dunne
Manufacturer: Distributed in the UK by Turnaround Distributors
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ASIN: 0950765929 |
Book Description
Music in Latin American Culture: Regional Traditions presents chapters that focus on specific musical cultures including: Mexico, Central American, Brazil, Chile, Columbia, Peru and more. Each chapter is written by an expert in the field and includes specific examples from the contributor's fieldwork.
Customer Reviews:
Music in Latin American Culture.......2000-07-02
There has long been a need for a scholarly, comprehensive, affordable english language text addressing Latin American music. "Music in Latin American Culture Regional Traditions" provides a schoarly look at the diverse musical cultures of Mexico, Central America, South America and the Caribbean. Each chapter is written by an expert in the field who has first hand experiences with the culture they are discussing. The text covers music rituals, instrument manufacturing, improvisation techniques and culural/social history of the topic under discussion. The bibliography/discography at the end of each chapter is extensive. This text is geared towards the undergraduate student and is similar in context to Jeff Todd Titon's "Worlds of Music: An Introduction to the Music of the World's Peoples" by the same publisher. My only criticism of the book that the Cuban and Puerto Rican contributions to Latin American Music are not covered as thoroughly as they deserve. I believe that although each is mentioned in the text that they, too, deserve an entired chapter in the text.....maybe in the next edition. With the exception of this perceived oversight, the "Music in Latin American Culture Regional Traditions" is an excellent book, filling a much needed gap in scholarly writing on Latin American Music and is a wonderful introduction for those seeking to study the musics of Latin America.
Books:
- Screen World Volume 55: 2004: Hardcover (Screen World)
- Shepperton Babylon: The Lost Worlds of British Cinema
- Shock Value: A Tasteful Book About Bad Taste
- Sly Moves: My Proven Program to Lose Weight, Build Strength, Gain Will Power, and Live your Dream
- Smile When the Raindrops Fall
- Special Effects: The History and Technique
- Talking to the Piano Player
- Tara Road (Oprah's Book Club)
- The American Cinema: Directors and Directions 1929-1968
- The Art of Monsters, Inc.
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