My next interview book tentatively titled Talking Sixties Drive-In Movies will be my first for Bear Manor Media. I purchased two books to get a feel of their quality and both lived up to my expectations. I liked both immensely so thought I would give a brief shout out to them.
I truly enjoyed and learned a few things from Mark Thomas McGee’s book Katzman, Nicholson, Corman: Shaping Hollywood’s Future. This book was right up my alley as all 3 filmmakers made movies geared to teenagers in the 50s and 60s. I really bought this for the Sam Katzman chapter because not much has been written about him lately. The entire book did not disappoint. Thoroughly researched with wonderful well-produced photos that are very crisp. Each chapter has a narrative and then a focus on key movies in the filmmaker’s career. At the end of the chapter is a select filmography with more interesting comments and behind-the-scenes tidbits. It was nice to see James Nicholson paid homage since everyone in Hollywood knew that Jim was the creative force and Sam Arkoff the businessman behind American International Pictures. However, that all changed once Jim died in the mid-70s and Sam alone began to change history in interview after interview. This book helps set the record straight.
I was looking forward to the Roger Corman chapter least since so much has been written about him in the past. I was wrong. McGhee had wrote a book about Corman previously (that the director did not like). He interviewed him many times after that and even worked for him. He brings a new perspective to Corman’s career based on his interactions with him. This chapter was my favorite.
Finally, I always get a kick seeing my name in the footnotes for quotes actors gave me from one of my books. And unlike a recent book about Elvis, kudos to Mark for spelling my last name correctly.
*****
My taste in movies and actors/actresses has always left me in the minority. For someone whose favorite movie of all-time is The Poseidon Adventure 
and fave actresses of all-time include Carol Lynley, Pamela Tiffin, Julie Newmar, Anjanette Comer, and Yvette Mimieux, I have become used to the grief I get. However, the most I receive is when I tell friends that I prefer Jaws 2 over Jaws. Don’t get me wrong, I loved Jaws but found it too talky in spots. Jaws 2 was sort of like Beach Blanket Shark Attack with the town’s catamaran-sailing teenagers being stalked by the Great White as he devoured a few of them (but not enough). So image my surprise and delight to discover the book Jaws 2: The Making of the Hollywood Sequel by Louis R. Pisano and Michael A. Smith.
This book is fantastic and I cannot say enough good things about it. First I had no idea that the movie began with a different director and a lot more actors cast as teenagers. After learning to sail for a month in Florida and about a month of filming in Martha’s Vineyard, the director and his screenwriter wife were fired, production was halted, and a new director brought in. Half the cast was let go (including a very young Ricky Schroeder) or had to re-audition and the script was overhauled. The authors present an excellent meticulously researched account of what happened by interviewing practically everybody connected with the movie from fired actors, to the ones who survived to star in the movie, to crew members, to townspeople who were there on location. The book is loaded with behind-the scenes never-before-seen photos. My only quibble with the book is that some of the photos are sort of on the muddy side but that could be from the quality of the original, and a few grammatical/spelling errors sneaked by the copy editors.
I learned so much about this movie (one of my all-time faves) from this book. However, two things stand out. 1) Roy Scheider was a dick. 2) The reason that there were not as many teenage deaths as I thought there should be was because of a threatened R-rating. Scenes were shot of the actors surviving and then getting eaten. Even they did not know what was going to be used in the final cut.
I love reading books about the behind-the-scenes making of films and this is one of the best!