*What movie paired Fred Astaire with Rita Hayworth? *What Western found Jimmy Stewart lassoed and dragged through a campfire? *In what classic does one woman's cigarette set another woman's hat on fire? You may think you know classic movies, but John DiLeo's memory-bending quiz book is about to make you think again. The 200 quizzes in And You Thought You Knew Classic Movies will test your recall of every aspect of Hollywood's Golden Age (1930-70). None of these tests is easy, but their match-'em format makes them as irresistible as crossword puzzles--and the toughest ones will make even lifelong buffs quiver. Are you crazy for "Gun Crazy"? Can't help loving "The Girl Can't Help It"? Or is "Breakfast at Tiffany's" more your cup of tea? Whatever your taste, And You Thought You Knew Classic Movies will send you reeling to the video store in ecstasy.

And You Thought You Knew Classic Movies: 200 Quizzes for Golden Age Movie Lovers

Humor & Entertainment

John DiLeo

Movies

St. Martin's: Griffin

From Lillian Gish in Way Down East (1920) to Renée Zellweger in Nurse Betty (2000), DiLeo takes movie fans on an unpredictable ride through 80 years of film history, showcasing a variety of genres and performing styles, and providing fresh spins on the careers of Hollywood's top stars. In this collection of short, informal essays, the author bypasses mainstream cinema and pays tribute to overlooked performances while bringing a necessary dose of renewed attention to those once-heralded and now forgotten.

100 Great Film Performances You Should Remember: But Probably Don't (Limelight)

Reference

Limelight

John DiLeo's Tennessee Williams and Company: His Essential Screen Actors examines the films based on the works Tennessee Williams. The focus is on the eleven actors who appear in more than one of the Williams movies, an unofficial stock company of repeat players. Several of these names, such as Marlon Brando and Geraldine Page, should come as no surprise, since they had performed roles by Williams on the stage. Others, such as Anna Magnani and Vivien Leigh, both foreign-born, could hardly have been foreseeable as brilliant interpreters of such a distinctly American writer. Also included are the two most famous screen-acting couples of Williams Hollywood heyday: Paul Newman and Joanne Woodward, and Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton. This critical look at these eleven actors, bonded by their sustained artistic and professional association with Williams. The results include some of the more remarkable performances in movie history, from Anna Magnani in The Rose Tattoo (1955) to Geraldine Page in Sweet Bird of Youth (1962). Everyone remembers how magnificent Marlon Brando and Vivien Leigh are in A Streetcar Named Desire (1951), but what about their second Williams appearances, Brando s in The Fugitive Kind (1960) and Leigh s in The Roman Spring of Mrs. Stone (1961)? Richard Burton is brilliant in The Night of the Iguana (1964), yet wretched in Boom (1968), while Elizabeth Taylor scores in Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (1958) but is just as awful in Boom as Burton is.

Tennessee Williams and Company: His Essential Screen Actors

Literature & Fiction

Dramas & Plays

Hansen Publishing Group, LLC

Katharine Hepburn stars in what play at the climax of Stage Door? Can you name the classic in which a cigarette is put out in a jar of cold cream? What star (not Alan Ladd) is the top-billed male in This Gun for Hire? If you think you know classic movies, well, prepare to be challenged as never before. Die-hard film buffs won't be able to resist the cleverness, imagination, and pleasure of John DiLeo's 200 memory-teasing quizzes on all facets of the Golden Age of Hollywood. Upon the book's initial publication, legendary film critic Pauline Kael said, "It's like a Christmas stocking full of surprises. This is the smartest movie quiz book I've ever seen."

And You Thought You Knew Classic Movies: 200 Quizzes for Golden Age Movies Lovers

Puzzles & Games

Hansen Publishing Group

From the advent of the talkies to the emergence of the ratings system, Ten Movies at a Time covers four decades of American movies, notably the glory days of the studio system, or, as it is more glamorously tagged, the Golden Age of Hollywood.
Through reviews of 350 representative films, author John DiLeo tells an alternative, idiosyncratic history of the movies, focusing on the trends, the sub-genres, the cultural and historical shifts, offering, in the process, the parallel story of America itself.
The 1930s include the birth (and near-death) of the movie musical, the wave of anti-war films for peacetime, the pre-Production Code looseness followed by an abrupt transition to "respectability," and depictions of Depression America both realistic and escapist.
The 1940s show Hollywood in full war-effort mode, in battle and on the home front, followed by a post-war cinema consisting of groundbreaking realism as well as a spate of fantasy films, plus the new and exciting "film noir," not to mention portraits of Cold War panic and the domestic bliss of suburbia.
The 1950s saw longtime stars like James Stewart admirably stretching their talents, with comparable maturity and depth brought to musical biopics and westerns, just as original movie musicals peaked and subsided, while television was being challenged by wider screens and colorful remakes of '30s classics.
The 1960s courted audiences with soapy spectacles, macho epics, titillating sex farces, and mammoth Broadway-musical adaptations, but, as black and white was fading away, and as movies were getting more bloated, Hollywood was heading toward a new permissiveness and an uncharted landscape.
As Ten Movies at a Time moves with the times, DiLeo presents a vibrant vision of just how the movies traveled from 1930 to 1970, enhanced by his lively and piercing perceptions of the 350 movies highlighted. Whether they are wonderful or terrible, beloved or forgotten, significant or routine, each one contributes something worthy to the conversation about our film legacy.

Ten Movies at a Time: A 350-Film Journey Through Hollywood and America 1930-1970

Boris Karloff will forever be Frankenstein's Monster, but is that any reason for us to overlook his later great horror film Isle of the Dead (1945)? An Oscar was George Clooney's reward for Syriana (2005), but isn't the underrated war film Three Kings (1999) still his best movie? Woman of the Year (1942) introduced the team of Tracy and Hepburn, yet didn't their later Pat and Mike (1952) resoundingly surpass it? Jeff Bridges has long been one of our best actors, so why didn't anyone take notice of his sleeper Bad Company (1972)? The lasting impact of Psycho (1960) unfairly overshadows Anthony Perkins's great work in the darkly comic thriller Pretty Poison (1968), while Stanley Kubrick's later work keeps his terrific caper The Killing (1956) from attaining classic status. Can you really say you love Audrey Hepburn if you haven't seen her at her most radiant in Stanley Donen's gem Two for the Road (1967)?  Screen Savers: 40 Remarkable Movies Awaiting Rediscovery puts the spotlight on these and other superb yet underappreciated movies spanning the twentieth century. Essential stars and directors are represented here, not for their undisputed marvels but for other equally wonderful films that warrant overdue or renewed recognition: Cover Girl, They Came to Cordura, Portrait of Jennie, The Seventh Cross, The Lusty Men, Hail the Conquering Hero, Rambling Rose, Time after Time, and many others.  Author John DiLeo offers full-bodied appraisals of each of his selections, breezily combining scholarly acumen with a film fanatic's passion. DiLeo utilizes his lively, accessible style and sharp, insightful critical eye, venturing beyond obvious choices and whetting our appetites to see these vital movies. Be they underseen, dismissed, or taken-for-granted in their day, the films in Screen Savers deserve a place of honor in our film heritage.

Screen Savers: 40 Remarkable Movies Awaiting Rediscovery

Arts & Photography

Photography & Video

Screen Savers II: My Grab Bag of Classic Movies

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Books by John DiLeo