I am astounded that none of my Epinions colleagues has reviewed HALLIWELL'S WHO'S WHO IN THE MOVIES (14th Edition), formerly Halliwell's Filmgoer's Companion. I made the discovery of this lapse, as I often make such discoveries, while looking for something else. I shall forthwith rectify our collective oversight.
Now an entry in the reference guide he created, in 1965, Leslie Halliwell had been a theater manager, a writer, a film researcher and programmer for British Television channels. Then, at the age of 36, he combined his considerable passion for, and experience with, movies to publish the first Halliwell's Filmgoer's Companion (and a foreword by Alfred Hitchcock). Halliwell attempted to cover the entire field of Cinema from its beginnings up to the early 1960's, with an emphasis on his real love, the movies of the 1930's and 1940's.
It became a landmark work.
Over the years, constantly making the guide more comprehensive, Halliwell added and deleted features (i.e., movie synopses in . . . movie synopses out), evidently by trial and error, and he never refrained from including affectionate, ironic, sometimes cutting observations about directors, actors, films, etc. (Remembering one entry for Anton Walbrook [THE LIFE AND DEATH OF COLONEL BLIMP, The Archers, 1943], I can't help thinking personal animosity was sometimes involved.) For the most part, Halliwell's commentary added charm to the volumes and contributed to their readability and usefulness. (Because of their intimacy, I discard the earlier editions with extreme reluctance.) After Halliwell's death in 1989, Editor John Walker took over, streamlining, reorganizing and (most of all) bringing the book up to the moment -- eventually, last year, changing the reference title to HALLIWELL'S WHO'S WHO IN THE MOVIES.
The basic format of the reference book is alphabetical, with introductory notes before the main body, and following, half a dozen appendices devoted to movie remakes, series, themes and genres; movie studios and production companies; a movie glossary of terms; film industries of various nations of the World; Best Movies lists; movie awards; a selected bibliography of movie books and periodicals; movie guides on SD-ROM; movie resources on the Internet; and a timeline brief history of the movies.
The main body of HALLIWELL'S WHO'S WHO IN THE MOVIES follows its predecessors. It lists Directors, writers, stars, supporting actors, production designers, art and sound specialists, special effects creators, composers, studio heads, producers, influential subjects, etc. Each entry for a person gives birth (and death) dates, a real name (if appropriate), a brief identification, and (in many cases) additional information. Then the guide lists the movies with which the person was connected. The person's most significant or successful films are in italics. Interesting quotes by or about the person are sometimes appended.
For major personages -- a Charlie Chaplin, F.W. Murnau, Sergei Eisenstein, G.W. Pabst, William Cameron Menzies, John Ford, Clark Gable, Michael Curtiz, Orson Welles, John Huston, John Wayne, Katharine Hepburn, Laurence Olivier, Francois Truffaut, Akira Kurosawa, Alfred Hitchcock, Alec Guiness, Steven Spielberg, etc -- complete filmography's are given. For some of these artists, Halliwell awards a tiny badge of merit, with a citation, a representative movie title, quotes and sometimes a nice-to-know fact.
For instance:
Clint Eastwood (1930-- ). American leading man who after TV success made his big screen name in Italian Westerns, then returned to Hollywood and became one of the big action stars of the late 60s. From the 70s he also began to produce and direct. Married television reporter Diane Ruiz in 1996. [Biographies, filmography, TV series] * For being the cynical tough guy the 70s seemed to want. [Representative Movie]: DIRTY HARRY. [Quotes -- i.e., 'I always cry when I watch myself on the screen.' --C.E. or 'I've Never worked with a guy who was less conscious of his good image.' -- (Director) Don Siegel of C.E.]
Although Halliwell's sardonic style is being gradually weeded out of the entries, you occasionally may feel Halliwell is alive and well in the book (as, perhaps, in the above entry).
A special pleasure of dipping into Halliwell is that you can come up with odd, sometimes intriguing facts, such as that Actor Lawrence Fishburne started his career as an 11-year-old on TV's One Life to Live; or that Sir Anthony Hopkins swore he was through with acting in 1998.
I know about the IMDb and HSX and The Mining Company and many other informative www's, but there is nothing more quick and masterful than Halliwell beside you, used in conjunction with Maltin's Movie and Video Guide or a Videohound's Golden Movie Retriever.
At hand will be your command of the Movie World.
The 14th Edition of HALLIWELL'S WHO'S WHO IN THE MOVIES has a formal publication date of June 2001 (at $25), but I see it can be had (by way of Epinions) on the Internet right now at a substantial 60% discount. (Be sure it is the new edition.)
Very much recommended.
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UPDATE: February 9, 2004: Edition 15 has added 56 pages of entries to those in the edition discussed here.
Recommended:
