Showman: The Life of David O. Selznick - Hardcover

Thomson, David

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0394568338 ISBN 13: 9780394568331

Publisher: Knopf, 1992

Synopsis

Drawing on Selznick's personal papers, this biography of the Hollywood legend describes Selznick's integral role in the history of Hollywood film, his private life, and the colorful characters of the movie industry

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Reviews

David Selznick (1902-1965) was 20 when his father, a high-rolling silent film producer/distributor, went bankrupt. Bent on fame, wealth and publicity, the precocious son who had served his domineering father as a sorcerer's apprentice would actually surpass his father. In his entertaining, prodigiously researched biography, Thomson characterizes Selznick as an arrogant manipulator, a megalomaniac hooked on Benzedrine, a brash charmer who believed he was pursuing perfection as a noble aim neglected by Hollywood. A walking contradiction, the highly sexed mogul made a pass at nearly every woman he employed but shied away from the erotic on screen. The self-educated high-school dropout produced Anna Karenina, David Copperfield, Dinner at Eight, Gone with the Wind and King Kong. Thomson, a novelist and author of A Biographical Dictionary of Film, has written a scintillating bio that includes glimpses of Garbo, Hepburn, Gable, Olivier, Dietrich, Graham Greene, Alfred Hitchcock and dozens of others. The book follows Selznick's trajectory from expansive creator to suspicious negotiator preoccupied with a fear of failure. Photos. BOMC alternate.
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Selznick, producer of such notable films as Gone with the Wind (1939) and A Star Is Born (1937) , was a protean and complex man. Much about this self-destructive yet brilliant egotist can be discovered in his (in)famous memos, from which author Thomson quotes generously. Thomson also had access to many of the people who knew Selznick intimately. It is perhaps this personal contact which engendered the seeming dislike of his subject that permeates this work, including the open editorializing about Selznick's numerous shortcomings. Thomson presents many facts (in sometimes rambling fashion) but does not quite succeed in the admittedly formidable task of capturing the man. Still, this is a useful adjunct to such works as Memo from David O. Selznick (Viking, 1973) and Hitchcock & Selznick (Weidenfeld and Nicolson, 1987).
- Roy Liebman, California State Univ. Lib., Los Angeles
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Edition details

• Publisher: Knopf
• Publication date: 1992
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0394568338
• ISBN 13: 9780394568331
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 792