CS Weekly Archive > Weekend Read > 01/11/08

Hollywood in Review

By peter clines

How to Succeed in Hollywood Without Really Trying (P.S. -- You Can't!)

Melville Shavelson

Despite the title, this book is much less a "how-to" guidebook and far more a set of author Mel Shavelson's (writer-director of Yours, Mine, and Ours, among many others) memoirs as he looks back on several decades of working in Hollywood. On the plus side, he's one of those classic film personas who really did pull himself up from the absolute bottom rung of the ladder (as the guy who worked for the guy who wrote jokes for a very young Bob Hope) to the point where he was directing some of the biggest cinematic names of the 20th century, including Yul Brenner, Sophia Loren, and John Wayne. The most interesting look into his writing process, oddly enough, comes when he reminisces about the projects that didn't make it to the screen. Shavelson talks at length about his own passion project, World in a Jug, and lavishes a long chapter on the many excised scenes and character moments from his 1979 epic miniseries, Ike: The War Years. If nothing else, the book is a fun read about how little getting a film made has changed over the years.

How To Succeed In Hollywood Without Really Trying

(P.S. -- You Can't!)
BearManor Media
237 pages
$24.95

Buy it now

Peter Clines has had a lifelong love affair with the movies. He grew up in New England, where he studied English literature and education, and now lives and writes somewhere in Southern California. If anyone knows exactly where, he would appreciate a few hints.

How To Succeed In Hollywood Without Really Trying (P.S. -- You Can't!) courtesy BearManor Media

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