I have enjoyed reading this book. It has good reviews of each of the brothers' films (together and solo) as well as behind the scenes information about the films. In addition there are interesting items such as shelfed projects, live shows, wigs, etc. It does suffer from not having biographies of the individual Marxes (although there are multiple informative biographies of supporting players). Also some type of summary table of contents would have been helpful; something that would have grouped the types of entries such as biographies, references to costumes, etc.

I received this & the Three Stooges Encyclopedia at the same time. The Marxes encyclopedia is the way it SHOULD be done.

This was a wonderful book, I liked it so much I even read it. First of all it is wonderfully organized. The A-Z system works very well. Second it has alot of interesting infomation andd little known facts. Anyone who wants to know about (or knows about!) the Marx Brothers will love this book!

A well-crafted collection of photos, facts and tall tales about the comedy team. One of the top books ever on the subject, this volume suffers only in a few areas: 1) It is in encyclopedic A-Z order, but there is no index, per se. 2) It does offer dozens of photos, some very rare, of all stages of the careers of each, but does not have a specific bio on each individual brother. 3) It suffers somewhat from the editorial bias of the author, who includes subject headings you may not really care about, such as "shoes." (?) Other than those minuses, though, it is a really great book, filled with lots of interesting facts and memories. It is like having a Marx Brothers convention in a book!

This book is only for Disney fans (like me)!!
It has all the features, shorts, live action and true life adventure films described. Written in chronological order it is a nice reference book to look into time and again.

I like the book very much because all the Disney films are mentioned. I am still busy reading it and I find everytime new things. Also you can read how the film was received during release and re-releases. The first part of the book is very detailed of every movie until Disney's death. Every movie is a chapter. Than the writer starts to make a chapter per period. Also the Disneyclub TV series, Disney shorts and Disney TV-cartoons are in there. I think that Leonard Maltin should write seperate books about the Disney shorts and the Disney TV-cartoons.

Leonard Maltin's trademark pairing of impeccable research with genuine passion makes this both a superb reference source and delightful read. For definitive Disney, this is it.

Eddie Cantor is truly a great comedian! The two new autobiographies that were just released; you hear Eddie's story about how he got in to show business, his sucess's and also failures. This is a wonderful book and I would advise it to any Cantor fan.

Eddie Cantor was a larger-than-life musical comedian in the first half of the twentieth century who made a splash on Broadway and in the Goldwyn Musicals of the 1930's. If you want to hear about old-time showbiz straight from the mouth of someone who lived it, seasoned with intimate memoirs, you've got to check these books out. What's more, you get two for the price of one!

It's a non-technical look (well, as non-technical as you can get on a topic as complicated as restoring films) at the world of film preservation and restoration, tracing its short history (films weren't always deemed important enough to save), focusing on some of the key personalities, key films and key organizations. Film buff's will love it.

There are some very interesting and surprising anecdotes concerning the restoration of some of our favorite films: the restoration of the "snails and oysters" scene in SPARTACUS, needed to be re-recorded since the original dialogue track was lost. Tony Curtis recorded his lines in Los Angeles, while Anthony Hopkins recorded the late Lawrence Olivier's lines in London! Stanley Kubrick re-directed the scene by fax! The actions that had to be taken to restore the soundtrack of LAWRENCE OF ARABIA are even more fascinating.

A perfect book for those fascinated with both archaeology and film!

Our Movie Heritage is one of the best books I've ever read and I can't say enough good things about it. If you have any intrest in movies, this book is a must. Our Movie Heritage contains many beautiful pictures and is very well written. It was so wonderful and informative, I couldn't put it down. The facts about preservation are so alarming and worrying, it makes you feel like you should give all your money to the cause. If the authors read this sort of thing, I just want to say thank you. You have changed my life. I'm in high school and after reading this book, I know what career I'm going into, film preservation. So thank you, and everyone needs to buy this book, its worth the price and much much more.

Its been said once I will say it again. Any film buff must buy this book, and more works by Leonard Maltin.
You can tell when Leonard Maltin starts talking about a movie he knows just what he his talking about and has the words to perfectly explain himself.

Sometimes however I feel he could be more insiteful when it comes to movies he hates.
But then on the other hand theirs only a few million movies list her.

I picked up my very first copy of this invaluable resource (1993 edition) at a yard sale several years ago. Now, of course, I buy one annually and pass the old version along to favored friends and relatives. My two adult sons refuse, however, to be recipients ("we'd rather call and ask YOU for the information!") I refer to my guide daily at the very least (can you tell I love movies?), usually far more often on the weekends. I keep a copy in the living room and one next to my bedside. But really, I AM a relatively normal person with a full life --- honest!!

Leonard Maltin is possibly my favorite critic. His taste is the best of all the thick film guidebooks. I also have the Mick Martin and Marsha Porter guide, they give films like Speed 5 out of 5 stars...pathetic. I have read maybe 20 off track reviews in Maltin's book...out of thousands. He's great, he's awesome, he's the most trustworthy...BUY THIS BOOK IF YOU RESPECT FILM!

An entertaining, albeit fatuous, peon to American radio. The research is superficial and many of the facts wrong or incomplete.

If you're an old time radio fan, you'll love this book. Not a 'hard hitter' (McCarthyism destroyed quite a few radio careers, for example, this isn't even mentioned) but an affection tribute.

I thoroughly enjoyed this book about old time radio, lots of stories from the old days. The other reviews on this page echo my views (or mine theirs), so I will just say I recommend Maltin's book highly!

For years.The comedy teams of the movies have rarely been acknowledge.Only L&H and "The Marx Brothers"have received any respect from film historians and writers.Until now.Leonard Maltin's"Movie Comedy Teams"finally gives respect to Abbott & Costello,"The Three Stooges",Wheeler & Woolsey,Clark And McCollogh,The Ritz Brothers,Thelma Todd/Zasu Pitts/Patsy Kelly etc.And the foremention Mr.Laurel/Mr.Hardy and The Marxes'.Although the book does not provide alot of accurate biographical details about the teams.It does give an indepth look into their work and their influences on the public and other performers and comedy craftspersons.It also features filmographies and photos of the performers at work.Plus a heartwarming tribute to these performers by Mr.Billy Gilbert.Who had been a well known and beloved foil for L&H,Wheeler and Woolsey,Clark And McCollough etc.Lenny Maltin's book is the first real attemp to gives these talented,creative but neglected clowns and comics their due.And we're all the better for it.Bravo Lenny! Kevin S.Butler.

In his book:"Movie Comedy Teams!".Lenny Maltin has finally given Abbott & Costello,"The Three Stooges","The Ritz Brothers",Thelma Tood/Zasu Pitts/Patsy Kelly and other comedy teams respect.As he points out their unique talents and their best cinematic works in his manuscript.Using info from many sources,interviews and photos from many private collections(Including the author's own pictures).Maltin shows his readers the brilliant witt of L&H,The Marx Brothers and Burns & Allen.He also shows us all the hilarious slapstick of The Stooges,The Ritz Brothers,Wheeler and Woolsey and Clark & McCollough.He also explains why some of these teams didn't become popular with the intelligensia and Why their work should be given a second look. There is some factual errors in regards to the biographical info on some of the performers.But this flaw does not interfer with the book's insight into the team's work.The book also lists the teams films credits.Including solo film performances never before recorded in print.Few books or for that matter? Few film historians would have given the cinematic efforts of Bud & Lou,"The Three Stooges" or even Clark & McCollough any praise in their literary tomes.But Lenny Maltin has and Thank God! "Movie Comedy Teams"gives these talented but unsung heroes of comedy film their due.Thanks Lenny! Kevin S.Butler.

The perfect harmony of photography and story has been the goal of professional cinematographers since Billy Bitzer first filmed the ideas of D.W. Griffith. The art of the cinematographer has often been submerged beneath fashionable theories of director as auteur or the star system. The Art of the Cinematographer brings the importance of the cameraman into perspective, focusing on cinematography in the history of film and offering candid interviews with five great exponents of the art. This expanded edition covers both the evolution of cinematographic techniques and the many distinctive personalities and anecdotes which form the history of this pivotal area in filmmaking. 105 photographs, over 50 new to this edition, portray the cameraman at work. In the early days filmmakers really made films-cranking the camera, developing the negatives, turning the projector. the possibilities in film photography attracted early attention in the work of Edwin S. Porter (The Great Train Robbery, 1903) and Bitzer, who anticipated many, if not most, of the tricks and innovations which seem so new today. Among the many who figured decisively in the development of cinematography were Chaplin's cameraman Rollie Totheroh, Keaton's man Elgin Lessley, Fritz Lang's favorite Karl Freund (who later shot the "I Love Lucy" series), Slavko Vorkapich, Ray Rennahan from Technicolor, Gregg Toland (Citizen Kane), Leon Shamroy, Charles B. Lang, and others. These men worked anonymously most of their lives; only recently has cinematography become a popular field for critics, award-givers, and film credit buffs; this is one of the first and most informative books devoted to the subject. Five men who broke the anonymity barrier speak about their careers, which collectively encompass the entire era of American films to date: Arthur Miller, "the Master" (How Green Was My Valley, Anna and the King of Siam), recalls the early years, John Ford, Fritz Lang, Cecil B. DeMille. Hal Mohr (The Jazz Singer, The Front Page, Captain Blood) remembers violating patent laws to make films in 1910, and the strange effects in A Midsummer Night's Dream which won, him the 1935 Academy Award. Hal Rosson (The Wizard of Oz, Singin' in the Rain) former chief glamour photographer for MGM, defends the studio system. Lucien Ballard (The Wild Bunch, True Grit) says, "You know, everybody talks about how little Easy Rider cost, and how much money it made. They should be upset that it cost as much as it did. I could- have made it in five days, and done it twice as good. You had amateurs doing it, and that's why it took four or five weeks." Conrad Hall (In Cold Blood, Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid) describes his years as a wildcat filmmaker and as a Disney: nature photographer. The quality common to each is his love for the business, and determination that cinematography will remain a sometimes invisible,'but always essential aspect in film. The Art of the Cinematographer provides a complete survey of that aspect.

You can never have enough photos of the Barrymores. Books like "Good Night Sweet Prince" are superb, but lack photos. This new coffee table book is almost entirely made up of photographs. It was made with the involvement of John Barrymore Jr, the spaced out hippy son of John Barrymore (and father of Drew.) There are lots of rare family photos, and a neat section on "Barrymoreabilia".

This book's strengths are its breadth, which is to say the sheer number of people interviewed, combined with Singer's ability to get his subjects talking. Its weaknesses are minor, but they add up. First, most of the interviews are too short to really get into the director's career, views, work philosophies, and so on, the way Bogdanovich does in "Who the Devil Made It." Second, a few of the interviews really seem like filler, wherein Singer spends way too much time with lightweights or second-rate film artists whose interviews here do nothing to dispel that label. And third, the book is rife with editing and transcription errors, typos, and other annoyances that are truly, truly distracting. But for the most part, the good outweighs the bad, and it's a worthwhile read.