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Steven Bingen
Lyons Press

The 50 MGM Films That Transformed Hollywood: Triumphs, Blockbusters, and Fiascos

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AuthorSteven Bingen
PublisherLyons Press
PublishedOct 28 2022
Book FormatHardcover
ISBN-139781493067008
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Weight-
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CategoriesPerforming Arts > Film - History & Criticism
LanguageEnglish

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Book Description

Movies don't exist in a vacuum. Each MGM movie is a tiny piece of a large, colorful (although often black & white) quilt, with threads tying it into all of the rest of that studio's product, going forward, yes, but also backwards, and horizontally and three dimensionally across its entire landscape. Not necessarily a best of compilation, this book discusses the films that for one reason or another (and not all of them good ones) changed the trajectory of MGM and the film industry in general, from the revolutionary use of Cinerama in 1962's How the West Was Won to Director Alfred Hitchcock's near extortion of the profits from the 1959 hit thriller North by Northwest. And there aere the studio's on-screen self-shoutouts to its own past, or stars, in films like Party Girl (1958), the That's Entertainment series, Garbo Talks (1984) Rain Man (1955) and De-Lovely (2004), or the studio's acquisition of other successful franchises such as James Bond. But fear not, what we consider MGM's classic films all get their due here, often with a touch of irony or fascinating anecdote. Singin in the Rain (1952), for example, was in its day neither a financial blockbuster nor crtitically acclaimed but rather an excuse the studio to reuse some old songs which the studio already owned. The Wizard of Oz (1939) cost almost as much to make as Gone With the Wind (also 1939) took ten years to recoup its costs. But still, the MGM mystique endures. Like the popular Netflix series The Movies that Made Us, this is a fascinating look behind the scenes of the greatest--and at times notorious--films ever made.

Author Bio

Steven Bingen has long worked within the motion picture industry, both in production and as a writer and historian. He held a staff position at Warner Bros. Corporate Archive - aiding in the preservation and management of the studios legend and legacy.

He is an author of "MGM: Hollywood's Greatest Backlot," "Warner Bros: Hollywood's Ultimate Backlot," "Paramount: City of Dreams," "Warner Bros. The Stuff That Dreams Are Made Of," (Photos by Greg Dyro and text and captions by Steve Bingen) "Hollywood's Lost Backlot: 40 Acres of Glamor and Mystery," and "Easy Rider: 50 Years Looking for America," and has contributed to many books and documentaries.

His numerous essays and magazine articles include recent pieces for "Filmfax," "Mondo Cult," "Cinema Retro" and "Perspective." "The Ghastly Love of Johnny X" for which he wrote the screenplay for director Paul Bunnell, was released in 2012.

Source: Lyons Press

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The 50 MGM Films That Transformed Hollywood: Triumphs, Blockbusters, and Fiascos

Performing Arts

Film - History & Criticism

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