Drawing in to read: Books this past week…
by Rob Smith, Jr. on Jan.13, 2022, under What's New?
Last weekend took a few days tidying home untidiness from the holiday times and flying through pages to get some reading in.
Finished the soon-to-be-published, disastrous ‘Billy Wilder: Dancing on the Edge’ that started as a smart biography the first half and midway shifted to the author’s emotional view of the director written as if we all would accept his view. A lot of this was from the narrow perspective of early 21st century American political views, than the more world-view the book started with.
Gladly finishing that, I jumped into “It’s the Pictures that got Small” of Wilder and his first major co-writer, Charles Brackett. Almost mid-way through that and finding the volume of mostly Brackett diary entries very enjoyable. Especially the parts with Brackett commenting of time with his old Algonquin Round Table pals, Alec Woollcott, Edna Ferber, Marc Connelly and Dorthy Parker (Have you read this, Agata Stanford ?).
As I read of Brackett’s work on the 1936 film ‘Piccadilly Jim’, I thought I’d seen the film. I hadn’t! It’s a film of a cartoonist! A Great film about a cartoonist! Wodehouse writes a character that, with one line, keenly demolishes our worth on the planet. The character may be right. 🙂
This had me wondering if the Wodehouse book I hadn’t read was also about a cartoonist. It isn’t. The book is much more outrageous and much fun.
I also read an advanced copy of ‘Soaring in Style: How Amelia Earhart Became a Fashion Icon’. The short volume is fashioned for children and botches Earhart’s history terribly to remodel for the title. Artwork is fine, but the P.C. reworking fits poorly for the 1920s. Reading some Wodehouse and those of that era would’ve helped straighten the head of the writer.
Here are links to the books recommended:
‘It’s the Pictures that got Small : Charles Brackett on Billy Wilder and Hollywood’s Golden Age’, edited by Anthony Slide and, Brackett’s grandson, Jim Moore :
https://amzn.to/3GrcrOk
The book: ‘Piccadilly Jim’ by P.G. Wodehouse:
https://amzn.to/3zXbnzc
The film: ‘Piccadilly Jim’ starring Robert Montgomery:
https://amzn.to/3qomFJS
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