Notorious

Chronicles the life of the much admired international screen legend, from her childhood in Sweden to her role as the star of such films as Casablanca, The Bell's of St. Mary's, and Notorious. 60,000 first printing. $40,000 ad/promo. Tour.

Spoto, who has established himself as one of the premier celebrity biographers, turns his attention to Ingrid Bergman; his title refers both to the name of one of her best movies and to the scandal that surrounded her for becoming pregnant out of wedlock in the 1950s. Spoto's work is greatly enhanced by personal interviews with Bergman (conducted when Spoto was working on his life of Alfred Hitchcock) as well as interviews with her first and third husbands and conversations with Bergman's oldest daughter, Pia Lindstrom. Still, it is Spoto's writing that sets this book apart from the usual Hollywood bio. His perceptions about Bergman personally and professionally are keen, and the narrative reads like a full-bodied story, not just a listing of professional credits and personal landmarks. He occasionally becomes a bit effusive in his praise of Bergman, but his affection for his subject is humanizing rather than annoying, bringing Spoto himself into the work in a nonintrusive way. This is a major show-biz biography, and, like most of Spoto's work, belongs in most public libraries. Ilene Cooper

The title of this biography has a double meaning: it's the name of one of Bergman's greatest films, the 1946 collaboration with costar Cary Grant and director Alfred Hitchcock, and it also refers to her adulterous affair with director Roberto Rossellini and resulting exile from Hollywood during the early 1950s. Bergman is also notable for winning the Academy Award for best actress for Gas Light (1944) and again for Anastasia (1956) and is perhaps most remembered for her role opposite Humphrey Bogart in Casablanca (1943). Spoto, a prolific celebrity biographer who won a Baker & Taylor/FOLUSA Award at this year's ALA meeting, has produced a very readable and mostly laudable portrait of one of Hollywood's most charismatic figures. He's on more solid ground when he sticks to the facts of the Swedish-born Bergman's (1915-82) life; his psychoanalysis, while generally sympathetic, is more open to question. Though a worthy portrait, it is hardly complete; Bergman's first 35 years are covered in 300 pages, while the next 32 slide by in under 150. For larger public libraries where celebrity biographies are popular.?Thomas J. Wiener, "Satellite DIRECT"
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