Playing the Third String: Weeding in the Garden of Cinematic Delights

by David Ehrenstein, Bill Reed (Introduction)

David Ehrenstein's writing career began in 1965 with an Andy Warhol interview, published in  "Film Comment" in 1966. He soon began contributing to other publications such as "Film Culture," "December" magazine and the "Village Voice." In 1976 he moved to Los Angeles and began work as a film critic and entertainment journalist for the Los Angeles Herald-Examiner. During this period he also contributed to "Film Comment" and "Film Quarterly." The Herald was one of the few newspapers in the U.S. with THREE movie critics. (Thus this book's "Third String" title.) His decade-long association with that paper resulted in many hundreds of film reviews. Many tended to be of the offbeat, "B," sleeper and Foreign variety. In addition, he wrote many interviews and profiles for the paper. Among those included in "Third String" are Christine Keeler, Richard Pryor, Erté, and John Cleese. He has also published a number of books on film including "Open Gay Hollywood 1928-2000," and critical studies of such as Martin Scorsese and Roman Polanski.

208 pages, Paperback

Published March 10, 2017

About the author

David Ehrenstein was an American critic who focused primarily on gay issues in cinema.