This book features beautiful and captivating photographs of some of the biggest movie stars of the 1940's. The book's focus is primarily the 1940's, but there are several photographs from 1939 and a few from 1950. Some of the many stars include Hedy Lamarr, Rita Hayworth, Gene Tierney, Joan Crawford, Victor Mature, Alan Ladd, Gary Cooper, Lucille Ball, Merle Oberon, Lana Turner and many others. Each of the photographs exudes an air of elegance and dramatic artistry that is no longer seen today. This would make a great gift for fans of Hollywood's golden age as well as photographers and art lovers, but the photographs are so clear and the stars so alluring that anyone who looks at this book will surely fall under it's spell. Highly recommended! Also recommended is "Hollywood Glamor Portraits, 145 Photos of Stars 1926-1949" also by John Kobal (editor).

This collection of photographs of movie stars taken during the 1940's era is ever thought provoking. There seems a deliberate attempt to challenge the reader/viewer to discern the real life personality from the screen persona from the photographs chosen for this book. The result is a somewhat enigmatic experience leaving one with an euphoric feeling of melancholy. I think this is an important book for anyone who loves films from that era. The meticulous quality of this book allows you to stare into the eyes of these people stimulating your own imagination into your soul. It challenges you to find an answer to your own attraction to these immortal icons of a Hollywood long past and hopefully not forgotten.

This book will delight anyone who is a fan of movies from the 1940s. It contains 163 photographs of 106 stars, taken by 34 photographers. The reproduction quality is quite good, and the compositions are often superb. The acting skills of the stars add to the allure of these images.

In the book's introduction, Mr. Kobal talks about how these were the "years of Old Hollywood's last stand." The images are "dreams reflected in the bathroom mirrors of their generation." He also talks about the role of the clothes designers and hairdressers in creating these glamorous, moody images.

Here are my favorites in the book:

By A.L. Schafer: Rita Hayworth, 1940; Olivia de Haviland, 1941; Loretta Young, 1940; Alan Ladd, 1942.

By Frank Powolny: Betty Grable, 1941; Marilyn Monroe, 1950.

By Robert Coburn: Gene Tierney, 1941.

By Scotty Welbourne: Ida Lupino, 1940; Humphrey Bogart, 1941; Lauren Bacall, 1946

By Clarence Sinclair Bell: Hedy Lamarr, 1941; Greta Garbo, 1941.

By William Walling: Fred MacMurray, 1940.

By Edward Cronenweth: Lena Horne, 1943.

By Ernest A. Bachrach: Dorothy McGuire, 1945; Claire Trevor, 1944; Jane Russell, 1946; Barbara Hale, 1946.

By Eric Carpenter: Ava Gardner, 1944.

By John Engstead: Lauren Bacall, 1951; Ingred Bergman, 1946; Marlon Brando, 1950.

By Laszlo Willinger: Susan Hayward, 1948.

By Bud Fraker: Gary Cooper, 1947.

As you can see, the book is dominated by the glamorous female stars. Most of these images are done in partial shadow to highlight the facial structure and emotions of the actress or actor. In some cases, sculptures are used to highlight certain physical features of the subject. In general, the reproduction quality is quite high. Studios did now allow photographers to make their own prints in those days, so it all depended on the studio darkroom artists how it turned out. You will occasionally see an image that needed to have more cropping, more or less light, or which is muddy, but most are at least good reproductions.

After you finish this book, imagine how you can help people understand your thoughts by how you hold yourself and what expression you use. Do you see any poses or expressions here that can help you be more communicative?

Use all the elements of yourself to share your most important thoughts and emotions!

Beautiful pictures of all the famous dancers, movies and singers. A lot of good history on the development of musicals. I kept going through it over and over again.

A wonderful book and collection of rare and thoughtful stills from Germany's GOLDEN AGE of silent film.
Hollywood had a golden age as did Germany, and Kobal presents these striking photos with informative texts as well. A must have.

Definitively one of the best book on Cooper - at least one of the best in an iconographic way. Many pictures, all b/w, clear and very well defined, from the early years to Friendly Persuasion. The Kobal Collection is superbly show here. We knew Cooper was handsome, but after this viewing, we know it better. Laila Valente

Although the title suggests an assassination, it actually refers to Clarence Sinclair Bull, who was MGM's chief portrait and glamour photographer from the studio's inception in 1924 to his retirement in 1961. He began photographing Garbo with her last silent film The Kiss in 1929, and after that she wanted no one else to photograph her. Bull would take over 4,000 individual studies of Garbo, devoting 2 days in his gallery for each of her films. She would pose in the character she was playing, since she saw the stills as part of the film-making process. The stills from The Kiss are particularly striking, "suffused with an elegaic softness and allure" writes Terence Pepper in the text. Bull enclosed Garbo's face in a black shadowy background, and, in contrast to her previous demure studies where she averted her eyes, he had her look directly into the camera and communicate directly with the viewer, "preserving her inner mood". A beret photograph is so potent that the studio used it for the film poster, and it prefigures her think-of-nothing final close-up from her later Queen Christina. Bull also transposed a vignette study of Garbo's face onto a photograph of the Cairo Sphinx, to create "The Swedish Sphinx". When he timorously showed her the result, he was surprised that instead of being offended, she howled with laughter, and approved it's release. It may have become the most widely distributed of her images, but it remains camp at best. Bull would say that she had no bad side and no bad angle, which made her the easiest of all the stars to photograph. Plus he thought she enjoyed their sessions, never tiring of posing for him. The images confirm MGM's agenda of creating flawless beauty, held up before the admiring throng as "nothing less than the Hope diamond in the flesh". Garbo's skin has a statue-esque perfection, her hair lit to be look soft and pliable. She never smiles but emotion is still evident. The one study in colour is for Two Faced Woman, which is less flattering than the black and white stills. Her hair has been pulled back slightly with a hidden ribbon, exposing her large forehead, and the hardness of her later Cecil Beaton studies emerges, her mouth almost in a sneer of disdain. Perhaps she knew making the film would be a mistake and an end to her film career. We also have a study of Chris, Garbo's stand-in, who apparently was even more mysterious than the one she doubled for. After Garbo retired, perhaps it is only the studies of Cary Grant and Katharine Hepburn that can match the iconoclastic grandness of Bull's work with Garbo, which proves that no matter how talented the photographer, the subject is everything. This kind of portraiture would decline with the collapse of the studios, and when you see the later studies of less arresting faces, perhaps this was for the best. Garbo flourished in a period where the ideals of beauty she radiated were desperately needed, but she always a reluctant star. When the world became indifferent, so did she.

We'd know a lot less about American movies if not for a few English movie buffs who crossed the pond to produce some of the best books on the topic. John Kobal was prominent in this group, having been smitten with American films early on. His vast collection of photos yielded several books on its own and is a standard source for illustrating Hollywood's past. "People Will Talk" is not a photo book. In its 700-plus pages appear 41 interviews Kobal collected between 1964 and the mid-l980's. The subjects are Hollywood veterans from various phases of the business. Appearing are directors such as Howard Hawks, dance directors such as Hermes Pan, writers (Anita Loos), photographers (e.g., John Engstead, Hurrell). And of course plenty of actresses - and Joel McCrea, the only actor appearing. When interviewed, most of the subjects were at the end of their movie careers, and this, plus Kobal's insightful questioning, resulted in objective, candid appraisals of their lives and the situations and people involved. While the interviewer was not so rude as to question his subjects' recollections during conversation, footnotes here and there in the text correct what may have been lapses of memory. Each interview is prefaced by a photo of the subject, plus Kobal's summary and evaluation of the subject's career. Although I've read every interview in this volume several times, writing this review was slowed considerably by my inability to stop reading them again and turn to the typewriter. This is just the book for movie fans who like to hear how it happened from the lips of those who made it happen.

Where to start? This is almost a wordless book filled with 145 glamour shots from the "Golden Age" of Hollywood. I would say that the book is a work of "art" and contains the work of many masters of still photography of the era. Some of the photos are truly stunning an deserve to be shown in the top Museums in world. The book uses high quality, acid-free paper and strong binding that enhances the book as a collectable. It would make a nice piece to anyone's collection of art books and you will page through it every so often. The reason that I did not give the book a higher rating is because it is quite short, it's a paperback and does contain many average works (in my opinion).

My personal favs were: Carole Lombard, Jean Harlow and Louise Brooks.

thank you for your time, David

Here is a beautiful book with some breathtaking photos of some the hottest Hollywood film stars of the golden era. The quality of the first and oldest photos are not the best, but one can see an improvement as the years go by. What makes these photos so special are the talented actors who can portray just about any emotion the photographer calls for and his ability to capture it on film. The best ones at this is Joan Crawford and Marlene Dietrich.

My favorite is one of Catrole Lombard on page 40. It will knock your socks off. I too wish these books came in hardcover, but then it wouldn't be as affordable. A wonderful addition to your library and for anyone who loves the old movie stars.

I am glad I have this book and it's a must-have. The collection of photos are wonderfully dramatic. I only wish it was a hardbound book.

This is another collection of celebrity photographs from the John Kobal collection. This time the focus is on the stars of the 1950's. Marilyn Monroe, James Dean, Doris Day, Gina Lollobrigida, Rock Hudson, Elizabeth Taylor, Marlon Brando and Sophia Loren are just a few included in this collection. Also included are stars that were primarily from the 1930's and 1940's that managed to maintain their star status. They include Marlene Dietrich, Vivien Leigh, Cary Grant, Barbara Stanwyck, Clark Gable, Gary Cooper, Rita Hayworth and Gene Tierney. There are also a few pictures from 1949 as well as from 1960. While the photographs are nice, the elegance, sophistication and glamour that were trademarks of 1930's and 1940's Hollywood photography is clearly missing. That's not to say the photographers that photographed these stars didn't produce high quality work, it's just that Hollywood and the country as a whole were changing and becoming more casual and these photographs reflect that. If you're more interested in photographs from Hollywood's earlier decades I highly recommend "Hollywood Glamor Portraits: 150 Photos of Stars, 1926-1949" and "Movie Star Portraits of the Forties: 163 Glamour Photos" both are by John Kobal and feature Hollywood glamour photography at it's very best!

When I first saw this book I was relunctant because I figured it would be almost entirely made up of Marilyn Monroe pictures. After getting the companion book about the forties, I went for it and was pleasantly surprised. Of course there's Marilyn but there is also other stars from the 50s. Everyone from Ava to Liz to Rita. There's also Brando to Dean and Bogart & Gable. The only one I could think of is missing is Gene Kelly. The text though makes you wonder why the author did this book since the 50s is clearly not his favorite decade calling it dull. Besides that the photos are great! If you like the stars from the 50s go for this book!