Leonard Maltin's Movie Encyclopedia: Career Profiles of More Than 2,000 Actors and Filmmakers, Past and Present
Author: Leonard Maltin, Spencer Green, Luke Sader, Cathleen Anderson
List Price: $23.00
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ISBN: 0452270588
Publisher: Plume (November, 1995)
Sales Rank: 43,570
Average Customer Rating: 3 out of 5
Customer Reviews
Rating: 4 out of 5
A Very Useful Book to Own
Like all "so-called" movie encyclopedias, this is really a biographical dictionary, as stated (in different words) on the cover. Maltin's encyclopedia does not have the range or depth of Ephraim Katz' "The Film Encyclopedia," but that also works to its advantage. If you wish a short and sweet bio of an actor, director, producer, screenwriter, cameraman, etc., and a short list of what films by this individual to see first, this is the place to go. I usually find myself turning to this book before I examine any other. On the negative side, the material in this book is now more than a decade old. A decade is a generation in cinema. Thus, the book is in need of updating. Also, many important figures (like director Sam Woods) are left out, and some very minor figures (like mostly-TV actress Kirstie Alley) are included. Hopefully, Mr. Maltin will fix these defects in the second edition of this book. Until he does, the present edition will please most people.
Rating: 5 out of 5
Great info on the stars
Leonard has done a great job on this. Tasty tidbits on the stars of yesterday and today. I have only one complaint, there are many of the old stars he did not include. Too bad.
Rating: 4 out of 5
Not perfect, but indispensable
Initially about a year ago I made the mistake of following the other reviews which panned the book, and did not buy it. I then gradually realized that some of my favorite short bios on IMDB.com were excerpted from Maltin's Encyclopedia. Of course at that point I bought it. There are few, if any, other volumes that quickly give you the sum-up and low-down on 2,000 movie industry people. To say the book has errors and omissions is to me ridiculous...a perfect book would cost a few thousand dollars. Meanwhile, IMDB.com is available as a backstop for searching out hundreds of thousands of details, which wouldn't fit in a reasonably sized volume anyway. Generally speaking, I've gone wrong far more often in rejecting something based on a review or an opinion about a book, movie, etc., than in consuming something recommended -- you can always bail out if a recommender was wrong.
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