This book isn't about everything bad that Ingrid did, even though that's the impression the title gives. This is a well and thoroughly researched and very readable biography. Donald Spoto speaks about Ingrid with respect, and although he mentions her weaknesses and failings, I don't feel he's doing it to spread dirt around. If it happened it happened, but he doesn't spend half the book talking about it.

Except where it concerns Rossellini, and that is perfectly understandable, because everyone who knows about Ingrid knows that was a real and terrible time in her life. I think it's sad that she went through all that and the marriage ended up falling apart anyway.

Anyway, basically he speaks of her work. She went crazy without it, and really as I think about it her life was work. That's what I remember froming reading this.

It is a very good book, and like everything I have read by Spoto, is well-written and highly interesting. I recommend it very much.

Is this a creative review or what? I seem to be suffering some sort of blank as far as reviews are concerned this morning.

I was a young adult when Ingrid died and I was not aware of her fame and reputation as a film star. I saw her occasionally in old movies and was fascinated by her glowing beauty and talent. I was appalled by her appearance in her role as Golda Meir; she had changed so much, but now I know why. Spoto's biography about Ingrid revealed her intimately -- from her childhood to her death, throughout her marriages and affairs, the successes of her career, and relationships with friends and family. I didn't know that she had been banned from America for her "sins", and I didn't know she had other children besides Isabella Rosselini. In spite of her foibles, Ingrid still seems like a great woman, thanks to the passionate -- and compassionate -- telling of her life story by Spoto. The audio version of the book was completely compelling to listen to, enhanced by the reader, C.M. Herbert, whose voice had a quality similar to Ingrid's, and therefore made Ingrid come even more to life.

Spellbound, Notorious, Anastasia & many other films come to mind when one thinks of Bergman.

This is a detail packed book covering her personal & professional life.

If you want to learn about her relationships, romantic & professional, how she developed & utilized her talent as an actress, & why people the world over admired, loved her & for a brief time despised her, then this is the book for you.

A wonderful collection of photographs is included, as well as an excellent Bibliography & collection of notes.

This is the story of an actress whose performances on screen & her life off the screen changed peoples ideas of what it was to be a woman, & is a must read for Movie fans.

This is an excellent book that towers on the other biographies because this book doesn't dwell on tawdry scandal, but simply concentrate on the most important aspect of Diana: her charity work. No other book has covered her good deeds so well. The only problem with the book, and it is small problem is the somwhat heavy-handed use of poems.

While Andrew Morton's "Diana Her True Story" and "Diana Her New Life" chronicled the Princess's unhappy life in the Royal Family prior to her 1996 divorce from Dumbo Ears (sorry, Prince Charles), Donald Spoto's account describes her life post divorce until her tragic and untimely death. In the process he highlights all the aspects of her character, both good and bad, that caused the world to fall in love with her forever. This is a great tribute to you, dear Diana. May you rest eternally in peace.

A good accounting of Diana's last year as she was spinning out of control. When you read about all of her comings and goings you wonder if she had any idea of how it would turn out? Did she know it would soon end?

One of my favorite books about her. I wonder about the Royal Family and how they manage to keep going. Is a puzzlement.

This book should be approached with caution. Some of his speculations are ludicrous. His interpretation of what Hitchcock "meant" by The Wrong Man is stretching plausibility to the breaking point. Likewise he goes a little too far with Vertigo. Some of the chapters have merit, but he has quite the imagination, and doesn't substantiate it oftentimes. It's an okay read, but read some other texts on Hitch and his art to get a balanced (and more cool-headed) view.

We got this book from the library and it's definitely one I want to own someday. Donald Spoto writes about almost every Hitchcock film individually from the 30's onward - he also has a chapter discussing the earlier films. He gives a synopsis as well as delves into the deeper meanings, symbolism, and significance of the films. There are portions of dialogue in several of the chapters, as well as many black and white photos from the films. I found the write-ups for almost all of the films to be very good and informative.

You definitely should read this book. It's not hard to read at all. I'd also recommend Mr Spoto's biography of Ingrid Bergman, "Notorious". In relation more directly to Hitchcock, I would recommend "Hitchcock's Notebooks" by Dan Auiler as the second best Hitchcock book I've read.

Everything you always wanted to know about the films of Alfred Hitchcock, but were afraid to ask; this book is a must. Hitchcock biographer Donald Spoto (The Dark Side of Genius) reviews everyone of this film giants movies, from his silent films made and produced in his native England, to his final feature released in 1976. Filled with great insight and behind-the-scenes details, this is a wonderful read. Classic films get major treatment as you might expect, but so-called minor Hitchcock movies like Stage Fright, I Confess, and Marnie are thoroughly covered as well. This book just goes to prove that minor Hitchcock is better than most other directors' best work. Filled with wonderful movie stills, this book also features some interesting on-set photos, as well as personal family portraits of Hitchcock at various stages of his life. No other film director is so much a part of American popular culture. It's hard to imagine what American cinema would be like without him. A great reference for movie buffs, I've read and reread this book many, many times and gained new insight with each reading.

I have been a serious Marilyn collector for Years.Donald Spoto's book is the closest thing to finding the "real" Marilyn.He tells it like it was.I have long been sick with all the bull that's been written about Marilyn. Here the ending makes sense.Donald Spoto researched unbelievable amount of material,including Marilyn's spychiatrist's private papers.This book is very accurate as i have many, many pictures collaborating this biography.Don't waste your time with the outrageous claims of socalled Marilyn friends. The worst of them being that Robert Slatzer! I have THOUSANDS of Marilyn Pictures and he is only in 2 of them.And they look like tourist photographs, taking at Niagara Falls in '52. In all my books,NOBODY close in her Life EVER mentioned this man.I think the guy is full of .... myself.Get this BOOK!

PS: I have a complaint about the review from "READER FROM USA" on January 8, 1999 - Get a grip! It is people like you that keep this rediculous stuff about murder going. Reading your review i realized u don't know what u are talking about."Donald Spoto just adds his own facts?", excuse me but did u see the amount of material this guy was into? AND THERE'S NEVER BEEN ONE IODA OF PROOF OF MURDER BY ANYBODY.

Donald Spoto bases this book on the facts...not speculations and unseen sources. This is a very detailed account of Marilyn's Life,from the early years spent as a starlet thru her marriages...relationships with famous photographers and acting coaches thru ordinary people...
Marilyn's last days are realistically brought back to Life with a plausible explanation of what really happened the night she died.
One of the best parts of the book is the last chapter "Aftermath: the great deception", where Donald Spoto adresses all the tabloid biographies that sensationalize marilyn's death...the theories and speculations about her involvement with the Kennedys and the mafia and so called "best friends"....
Such as Robert Slatzer and jeanne carmen, to name the worst offenders among them.
I have read all the mayor Biographies on Marilyn and this one for me comes closest to what the truth might be about what happened to marilyn.

Donald Spoto must have done a lot of hard work to uncover all this information about Marilyn. In this extensive biography (the best I've read) we learn things that maybe we'd never heard about before.

And, by interviewing people close to Marilyn such as Milton H. Greene and Inez Nelson (?), by reading papers from Marilyn to Lee/Paula Strasberg, Pat Newcomb, and others influential in her life, DS gives us further insight into the life of this beautiful but misunderstood immortal screen goddess.

We also learn the truth about her death. No, Marilyn was not killed by the Kennedys. (Both Bobby and John had alibis, and the information DS presents show no reason why they would want to assassinate her anyway.) And from what DS says, Marilyn was planning to remarry Joe DiMaggio and to her friends it didn't seem that she was planning to kill herself.

His hypothesis is that her suicide may have been accidental, after being fed all those barbituates by different people through all the years, and Dr. Ralph Greenson and her housekeeper, Eunice Murray, may have had a hand in it.

I thoroughly enjoyed this book and learned so much from it!

This biography - of a craftsman I assume, in writing biographies at least - puts me time and time again on a weak foot.
The arrangement of the chapters in years the expectation evokes the expectation that those are important for the biographer and for the life of Francis. Alas, Spoto jumbles a lot with data and years. He does so with Francis' companions too: which friars visit Francis in the Middle East? When does Peter Cattani becomes minister of the fraternity? in which year the so-called 'first version of the Letter to the faithful' was written? and so on...
By his assessment of some protagonists Spoto shows a writer of a biography of Francis should be a craftsman in franciscanology, too, or he should at least devote more time to study and write than Spoto has done. To give only one example, it is not done to use the judgment of Brother Elias of Omer Englebert. There is too much research done since then!
Anyway, there are enough good and reliable biographies of Francis on the market. You would better choose another.

In Donald Spoto?s latest biography, we meet the fascinating and engaging character of one of the great Christian saints. Indeed, he is probably one of the most well-known saints, and the impression he made on the church is still extremely palpable. The memory of St. Francis is served well by this thoughtful but realistic biography.

It is hard to know much about Francis, for so much of his story is hidden with post historical fantasy. Spoto does a good job of presenting these sources and letting the reader know what he considers reality and what he considers fiction. What we do know is that Francis was born in the town of Assisi, in present day Italy. The color and culture of the town in the area is described very well, as we can tell much from St. Francis? origins. Born to well to do parents, Francis quickly gained a reputation as a lazy playboy, living off his parent?s profits. He showed little interest in his fathers merchant business, his only real motivation was his own enjoyment. However, as he grew older, something really changed. Of course, as later observers, we can only guess at the spiritual catalyst for Francis? conversion, but the results are so very exciting. Spoto does a great job of describing this amazing change of heart, as Francis quickly leaves his comfortable lifestyle in the pursuit of ?true Christianity?. Although some of the mystical elements of Francis are stripped away, such as his alleged stigmata, Francis does emerge from this book as a very admirable person, selflessly dedicated to the health of others. His story should be inspirational to Christians and non-Christians alike.

Spoto also provides an intriguing look at the religious politics of the time. While conventional Catholicism was growing in power and political influence, it was losing its connection to the laity, quickly. Many clergy members were corrupt and amoral, with little actual understanding of the gospels themselves. Rome grew more powerful under the reign of various politically astute Popes, but many, including Francis, felt the Church was losing its spiritual mission. This became even more apparent as war after war was waged against the Muslims and various native heretics. The Church was becoming just another nation state, a fate people like Francis were determined to change. Through a mix of strategy and church reluctance to crack down on such an unimposing and pious figure, Francis managed to create an extremely prevalent order that survives and thrives to this day.

While it was a little too short, Spoto provides the reader with a readable and concise biography of a great man.

This is a definitive biography of St. Francis, placing his life in context of his cultural and religio-political times as few have done before. Spotto takes advantage of the most recent work of Franciscan scholars to piece together a wonderful, complex, historically accurate image of St. Francis and his radical gospel charism.

However many Francis biographies you may have read, this one will offer you insights and facts you haven't come across before...unless you're one of those Franciscan scholars listed in Spotto's excellent bibliography -- or have worked your way through all three of those fat volumes of the new "Omnibus." As a Secular Franciscan, I've read dozens of Francis books over the past thirty-plus years, but I couldn't put this one down.

If Franciscans had a required reading list (unthinkably un-Franciscan!), this book should be at the very top of it.

The reviewer who wrote: "There is just enough information to really get to know the characters without getting bogged down with too much detail" pretty much sums it up. How do you get to know people and still avoid details? Thus the flaw in this type of trash. Save your money. If you want to get to know Queen Mary, read Anne Edward's biography.

Donald Spoto is an American. By that I mean that he approaches a subject - royalty - with a skeptical eye, never forgetting that he is a citizen of a country whose entire political system was designed to prevent a monarchy from being established. This attitude stands in refreshing contrast to the bulk of American writing on the Windsors, who seem to stimulate some atavistic longing for royalty on the part of writers who should know better (see the review immediately below for a fairly typical complaint obviously rooted in Windsor-worship). Kitty Kelly's recent THE ROYALS is similar in its irreverence for the superhuman panoply of royalty. Spoto, however, is a far better writer than Kelly. As several other reviewers have commented, Spoto's previous works have been biographies of Hollywood celebrities, and this book extends and refines Spoto's musings on the history and implications of modern society's obsession with media-generated fame. The overarching theme of this book is celebrity as an intrusive phenomenon that is slowly stripping the Windsors of their ancient royal mystique, a glamour which requires distance from the masses to remain viable. Spoto generates a certain amount of sympathy in the reader for the tribulations of what one realizes, after all, are a very ordinary (perhaps even downright mediocre) group of human beings who have done little to merit the attention so relentlessly thrust upon them by the media and their (it must be said) fans and followers. That said, Spoto, with his gift for creating vivid impressions of personalities with a few concise phrases, leaves the reader with a very unpleasant picture of a family gone seriously awry psychologically and dominated by a line of mean, selfish and grasping women who keep their weak male relatives on a very tight leash (all of which may be hallmarks of dynasties in decadence). The most heartbreaking sections of the book deal with the present Queen mother's repulsive treatment of the Duke and Duchess of Windsor, and will certainly make the reader think twice when he or she sees the next photograph of the smiling, befrilled, Dowager Queen Mary, for an iron heart lies behind that mask of "sweet little old lady." Equally affecting is Spoto's history of the "Diana years." He depicts a family ruthlessly using a teenage girl as a brood mare, then becoming vindictive when she refused to do exactly what they told her to do. In fact, the activities of the entire clan in recent years, as reported by Spoto, cast serious doubt on their fitness for the role their birth has expected them to play. I was unable to avoid a certain feeling of contempt for these people and their ridiculous courtiers. Spoto's book enables us to see the Windsors for what they really are - the living exemplars of feudalism, still undead as we enter the 21st century. As such, they are a useless anachronism and deserve to go. Kudos to Spoto for daring to write a sharp, well-documented book that pulls no punches!

I have read several House of Windsor histories but few make as much sense of Edward VIII and George VI as this one. I'd recommend this book to others because it is a good explanation why the present royal family is what it is today.

The last words of the book, "at last there was stillness," exemplify Spoto's ability to capture the chaos of this genius's life. Although the book is somewhat fast paced and races over portions of Williamss life, it is meticulously researched and digs up every facet of Tennessee Williams. Spoto reveals the glory days of the pulitzer prize winning playwright and the nightmare of his last two decades in which he watched success wane as fastidious critics, ignorantly demanding that Williams continue to deliver plays in the vein of Glass Menagerie and Streetcar Named desire, beat him literally to death. One must have emotions of steel to get through the book's later chapters, in which Williams suffers a miserable descent into drug addiction and madness. Despite Williams's wealth and fame, the man lived a terribly difficult life. From his chaotic childhood to his drugged, alcoholic and lonely end, Williams's life was perhaps his greatest drama, as Spoto reveals.

Yes, Tennesee Williams signed some of his letters as "10." That's just one of the many things you'll learn from reading Spoto's 1985 biography of this famous American playwright. More complete, thorough and sympathetic biographies have been issued since this one, but Spoto's is still worth reading. It has the virtue of concision (it runs about 400 pages, which for a crowded life like Williams had isn't long), at least. I don't argue with Spoto's view that Williams lived a largely miserable life, sank into rampant substance abuse, and hurt most of the people who cared for him. By the time he died, he couldn't get a good review for any new play he wrote. No one in the theater world liked him. It took his death for his career to start to recover, but at this point the late plays are getting better-reviewed productions, and the scope of his entire achievement (including his work in fiction and poetry) is finally being assimilated. From this distance, the only American playwright of the 20th century who might be put into the same class is O'Neill. I would vote for Williams. Anyone who reads this book will have to be willing to take Spoto's unsympathetic reading of Williams's life. At times he lectures the dead subject of the book like a prim schoolmarm (he did the same in his Hitchcock biography). The book is still a gripping portrait of one of the greatest, and saddest, literary giants America has produced. I believe the tragedy of his genius rivals Poe's.

I really enjoyed this book by Donald Spoto. He went extremely in-depth regarding the life of Elizabeth Taylor. He tells about her childhood to her many marriages and movies. If you would like to get a good look into the life of Elizabeth Taylor, this biography is a excellent choice.

Being very good at what he does, Donald Spoto, manages to provide readers with an accurate, in depth, and yet entertaining look at the life of Elizabeth Taylor, both on and off screen. Naturally, he starts with the early childhood, because at the age of nine Taylor was already bona fide child-actor. Then, as a heroine, i.e. Talyor, grows up, the discussion focuses mainly on men in her life, her first love (Monty Cliff) and her first marriage...and then, another marriage... and then another marriage, and another... It is hard to keep track at times! However, Spoto also shows Taylor's ability to stay true to her friends, inspite of many-many traumas and ugly gossips that have always surrounded her public persona. The only downside of this book is that narration stops somehere in a "Taylor/Jackson" period. Since Spoto already opened up a candid discussion of Taylor's health and other life problems, I think readers would like to know more about the on-going life battles, that their favorite female star presently has to fight. Also, it would be nice, if he mentioned Taylor's contribution to the fight with AIDS more extensively. In other words, Spoto should be planning on another revised edition of this otherwise lovely book.

I found this book an enjoyable and informative read, though at times presented romantically and subjectively. The author does a fine job presenting Dietrich from many angles, truly fleshing her out (Spoto is irritatingly fond of the word "plump" to describe Dietrich's early adulthood)... Spoto seems to approach his subject with celestial reverence, as though trying to conceal his own crush behind a web of historical voyeurism (the discussion of debauched 1920s Berlin is particularly gratifying and grounding). Sometimes he speculates too much on possible motivations instead of simply offering the facts, but he also makes good use of others' reminiscences of Dietrich to back up some of his insightful conjectures. In short, a charming book, though not riveting.

Yeah... I got this book as kind of a last resort, because the actual book about Dean that I wanted, wasn't available. Near the beginning of the book, when they are talking about his childhood, there are at least 5 pages about the times in which Dean grew up. I didn't buy this book to read about the History of Indiana.

Supports info on why James Dean did the things he did. And what his emotions were like, and why he was bisexual. I don't want to spoil it though. I'll just say that of the four bio's I read on James Dean (the others being "Boulivard of Broken Dreams," "The Death of James Dean," & "James Dean: a biography by Val Holly") this is the best one so far.

This is the best book out there on the life of James Byron Dean. It is not only concerned with the things that he did, but whom he affected personally, and the psychological reasoning behind the actions of this tortured genious. This book leaves no loose-ends untied in it's deconstruction of an icon, so that we can better understand Jimmy the man. This wonderfull book makes you feel as though you know James Dean for who he really was, and not for "whatever people wanted him to be". James B. Dean was complicated, tortured, conflicted and was a bottomless well for everyone's love. This James Dean is both more heroic and tragic than the Studios made him out to be, he is a confused, self-conscious boy. This is the real James Dean. Other attempts at recollecting his life are either glorified, or romanticized. Read this book, if you are a real fan of James Dean the person, not James Dean the legend.