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LEONARD MALTIN'S 2006 MOVIE GUIDE
by Leonard Maltin
Plume, August 2005
1664 pages
$20.00
ISBN: 0452286999


Buy in the UK | Buy in Canada

When Barbara and I were writing our book, MILLER'S MOVIE COLLECTIBLES, we relied on a number of sources for release dates, plots, casts, names of directors, and so on. The imdb (www.imdb.com) was invaluable of course as were Ephraim Katz's FILM ENCYCLOPEDIA and the various books by the late Leslie Halliwell. But the one work we kept by our side and referred to most often was Leonard Maltin's MOVIE GUIDE. Updated annually, this huge (1500+ pages) work not only contains information on 16,000 movies but its accuracy is amazing.

Mr Maltin is not just an expert on films old and new, he is drenched in a cinematic brew that seems to have penetrated his every pore. His love of movies, especially early comedy shorts and animated films, shows through in every entry and his comments on each film are a joy to read.

Even when he is forced to give half a star (or even his lowest rating BOMB), he finds something positive to say about a particular actor or scene or line of dialogue. I've always felt that he agrees with me that there are really no bad movies, just some bad editing that left out all the really good parts.

Aside from the thousands upon thousands of capsule reviews, the book has a few other interesting features. One my favorites is the directory of movie stars that lists the titles of all the films that are mentioned in the book. There is a similar index for directors, an addition dear to the heart of this unreconstructed auteurist.

One quirky page that I expect to disappear from every new addition is the Widescreen Glossary. The two columns of tiny type lists over 100 different formats and their exact ratio. I have the feeling that Mr Maltin has stubbornly resisted the removal of this example of foofish* arcana. It proudly serves as the frontispiece to the first page of capsule reviews in this current edition.

*FOOF (archaic): Friend Of Old Film; term was popular in the 1960s, but an apt description of Mr Maltin

Reviewed by Rudy Franchi, September 2005

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Contact: Yvonne Klein (ymk@reviewingtheevidence.com)


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