Wide-Eyed In Babylon

by Ray Milland

Wide-Eyed in An Autobiography.

Genres: Nonfiction, Biography, Film, Memoir, Media Tie In, Autobiography

264 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1974

Reviews

[Rob Christopher · Rating 2 out of 5]

No one grimaces like Ray Milland. Ray Milland invented the grimace. When he reacts to something going badly, or some fool saying something idiotic, he looks as if a brand new ulcer had suddenly sprouted in his stomach. So ... you know how Milland spent the final 30 years of his career playing cranky, sarcastic characters? Turns out he wasn't acting. It's fantastic to see up on the screen, much less so in a book. Gripe, gripe, gripe. Throw in a handful of casually homophobic remarks and you wind up with an autobiography that's generally unpleasant and also not very illuminating. I love him as an actor, and he even directed a few pretty good movies, including PANIC IN YEAR ZERO ... but this book is for the birds.

[Yourfiendmrjones · Rating 3 out of 5]

It’s interesting but...


... it careens wildly back and forth between a memoir by a judgmental, rich, older white guy who’s homophobic, sexist and intolerant of liberals and the younger generation... and a Welsh kid who is literally what the title says “Wide-Eyed in Babylon.”

His amazement at his own good luck, the way he dives into acting because it’s fascinating to him- even if he’d never done it before his early twenties and his delight upon entering Hollywood, that guy I can engage with. The guy who’s not much different from the character he plays in “Love Story” is, frankly, a dick.

And what blows me away is on the very last page, he alludes to bouts of what appears to be a pretty severe suicidal depression... if he’d only mentioned it earlier? Maybe I wouldn’t be kind of non plussed when he brings it up LITERALLY IN THE LAST THREE PARAGRAPHS.

I’ll just watch him in old movies and Columbo episodes.

[Liedzeit Liedzeit · Rating 4 out of 5]

Milland is my favorite actor. And connected with this book is the only occasion when I could believe in a benevolent God. I was in London and I found this book on the shelf of the apartment I was staying in. And for once in my life I was really tempted to steal this book. I resisted. And the very next day I found this book literally on the street, where a guy was selling books. Amazing. And it is a great joy to read.

[amanda · Rating 4 out of 5]

I didn't even know he wrote an autobiography, but I stumbled upon it at my local library. It was a great read and quite funny. He talks about his childhood in the English countryside, going to military school and then making it into the film business. I would highly recommend it!

[Lisa · Rating 2 out of 5]

I have to say I was disappointed in this 1974 memoir by Academy-award winning actor Ray Milland. He comes across as the stereotypical old man who comes out of his house and yells at the neighborhood kids to be quiet. A product of the times in which it was published, he complains at length in several areas of the book about those unwashed, disgusting hippies. Obviously he was one of those men who thought that young men who had long hair were pinko commies.

He offers surprisingly little about the major movies he was in, except for his Oscar-winning picture, "The Lost Weekend". He claims that he just coasted along in movies on his good looks and didn't really have any acting talent until this picture came along. He mentions almost nothing about the making of the Alfred Hitchcock movie "Dial M For Murder" except in a passing comment about Hitchcock later in life. (Rumor has it that he had an affair with Grace Kelly during the making of the film, so this might be the reason, although he certainly hints around that he was unfaithful to his wife on occasion. Otherwise, he complains about the "abominable" food at the hotel in this country or that one, and seems like he was, unfortunately, an unpleasant person.

**#36 of 100 books pledged to read/review in 2015**

[Josh Duggan · Rating 1 out of 5]

Ray Milland = Doucher.

Originally reviewed at http://inconsiderateprick.blogspot.co...

[Sarah · Rating 5 out of 5]

I enjoyed Ray's autobiography so much, especially his childhood days in his village in Wales, his relationship with his parents, and the stories about his aunt, who loved him like a son rather than a nephew. I found the story of how he got his only tattoo and his time serving in the Household Cavalry of the British Army particularly interesting. It's a great read, one of the best autobiographies I've ever read!

[Koo · Rating 4 out of 5]

Funny! I loved this book. A fast read.