Retakes: Behind the Scenes of 500 Classic Movies

by John Eastman

Discover the details, enjoy the anecdotes, listen to the personal recollections, and travel behind the scenes of 500 cinema classics - all available on videocassette. Retakes spans the decades from the most memorable motion pictures of the 1930s to the present day. Every entry includes the director, primary cast members, year of release, and shooting locations.

Genres: Media Tie In, Nonfiction

Mass Market Paperback

First published June 14, 1989

Reviews

[Surreysmum]

[These notes were made in 1989:]. With its shortish entries and alphabetical arrangement, this looks like a reference book but really isn't - it's a browser. The definition of "classic" is somewhat up for grabs - all the expected Hollywood biggies: GWTW, Lawrence of Arabia, Citizen Kane, Singin' in the Rain, together with more recent smash hits like Star Wars, Raiders, and E.T. (the most recent entry is Rain Man). There's a decent sprinkling of Bergman, Fellini and Kurosawa, but no German or French entries at all (that I recall) and no silent films of any country. Westerns are well-represented, as is anything Dustin Hoffman appeared in. Astaire and Kelly are reasonably well represented, but coverage of musicals outside of them is spotty -lots of Judy Garland, plus West Side Story, Sound of Music, Poppins and a couple of Fosse films. The inclusion of what I would consider lesser, tho' doubtless expensive, films like The Poseidon Adventure and Jaws is doubtless due to the easy availability of "making of" anecdotes. The anecdotes are fun, and Eastman does not stint us of his personal opinions. The filming locations (provided for each movie) are interesting; there's an occasional mention of further reading, but one could wish for more on that score. The entries also often have "watch-for-so-and-so-in-an-early-role" notes, and contain useful information about source books and remakes. I'm glad to have it on my shelf.

[Geoff Sebesta]

One of those weird books that has just followed me around for years, despite my best attempts to get rid of it.

This book was dated when it came out (though it is representative of what I was reading in 1989) and the classics that it describes are not at all the classics of today. For example if it was by Hitchcock, this book thinks it's a classic.

[TrumanCoyote]

A fun idea. However, the guy's rather waspish opinions and attitudes did have a tendency to interfere with all that "delightfulness."