Gods & goddesses of the movies

by John Kobal

152 pages Crescent Books; 1St Edition edition (1974) English

152 pages, Hardcover

Published January 1, 1974

About the author

John Kobal was an Austrian-born British based film historian responsible for The Kobal Collection, a commercial photograph archive related to the film industry.

Reviews

[Jeff · Rating 2 out of 5]

NON-FICTION: As a big fan of the golden age of Hollywood I really thought I would enjoy this book a lot more than I actually did. The glamour shots and film stills are all wonderful to look at. There are lots of movie stars and films mentioned I had never heard of before. But Kobal seems to go all over the place. There doesn't seem to be much organization. Overall he seems to be trying to convey the lost sense of romance in movies and in movie stars in general. The book was published in 1970 so he does mention a few stars such as Robert Redford and Paul Newman whose careers were still in the early stages of publication. Definitely check the book out for the outstanding photos, but the text itself was not nearly as interesting as I hoped it would be. Not sure exactly what I was wanting to get from this book, but what I read was not it.

[Alexandra Freire · Rating 4 out of 5]

Un libro que me terminó gustando mucho más de lo que creía que me iba a gustar. Y es que encontré este libro (creo que ya descatalogado) en una de mis tantas búsquedas por libros del viejo Hollywood.
Un hermoso y conciso recopilatorio de una especie de ensayo de Kobal sobre las películas de romance de Hollywood. Desde sus actores y actrices, directores, inspiraciones y demás, vemos un resumen de todo ello desde el cine mudo, hasta los 60s, aunque cabe destacar que se acentúa más su redacción en películas de los años 20 y 30s, y un toquecito de los inicios de los 40s, mis épocas favoritas de Hollywood en general.
Y no podía faltar, unas bellísimas ilustraciones acompañantes.
P.D. Una sorpresa para mí que tuviera la decencia de mencionar aunque sea con unas cuantas palabras a mi amada Sylvia Sidney, al igual que una pequeña fotito de ella al final!