The late film star's son describes his father's personal and professional life, as well as their relationship

Budd Boetticher (1916-2001) was a bullfighter, a pleasant madman and a talented journeyman filmmaker who could--with the right material and drive--create a minor Western film classic as easily as he could kill a bull. Yet pain and passion naturally mixed in both endeavors. Drawing on studio archives and featuring insightful interviews with Boetticher and those who worked with him, this retrospective looks at each of his 33 films in detail, covering his cinematic career from his days as an assistant's assistant on the set of Hal Roach comedies to his last documentary some 45 years later.

Reclusive American actor Randolph Scott, known for his subtle, dignified performances in almost 60 westerns, has been called the "most genuine Westerner." His career began in 1928 with the first of several bit parts; his first starring role was 1932's Heritage of the Desert. He fought in World War I, studying horsemanship, shooting, and bayoneting, and acted in a variety of films in every genre from musical to swashbuckler. His final film was Ride the High Country (1962). Chronologically arranged from his birth in 1898 to his death in 1987, this book covers every film in which Randolph Scott acted. Each section begins with a biographical chapter and then lists Scott's films from that period: each film's entry has filmographic information, a synopsis, and detailed commentary, discussing such topics as the financial aspects, production details, acting, other participants, anecdotes, and critical responses. Quotes from interviews with figures in the industry and published reviews bolster the entries. A bibliographical essay completes the work, which is heavily illustrated with stills and promotional materials.

A definitive new account of the professional and personal life of one of Hollywood's most unforgettable, influential stars. Archie Leach was a poorly educated, working-class boy from a troubled family living in the backstreets of Bristol. Cary Grant was Hollywood's most debonair film star--the embodiment of worldly sophistication. Cary Grant: The Making of a Hollywood Legend tells the incredible story of how a sad, neglected boy became the suave, glamorous star many know and idolize. The first biography to be based on Grant's own personal papers, this book takes us on a fascinating journey from the actor's difficult childhood through years of struggle in music halls and vaudeville, a hit-and-miss career in Broadway musicals, and three decades of film stardom during Hollywood's golden age. Leaving no stone unturned, Cary Grant delves into all aspects of Grant's life, from the bitter realities of his impoverished childhood to his trailblazing role in Hollywood as a film star who defied the studio system and took control of his own career. Highlighting Grant's genius as an actor and a filmmaker, author Mark Glancy examines the crucial contributions Grant made to such classic films as Bringing Up Baby (1938), The Philadelphia Story (1940), Notorious (1946), An Affair to Remember (1957), North by Northwest (1959), Charade (1963) and Father Goose (1964). Glancy also explores Grant's private life with new candor and insight throughout the book's nine sections, illuminating how Grant's search for happiness and fulfillment lead him to having his first child at the age of 62 and embarking on his fifth marriage at the age of 77. With this biography--complete with a chronological filmography of the actor's work--Glancy provides a definitive account of the professional and personal life of one of Hollywood's most unforgettable, influential stars.

The wholesome image of America propagated by Hollywood in the 1940s, '50s and '60s is one of the most persistent in popular culture: loving wives, smiling children. But off the set, many of the actors who helped create this image were secretly leading very wild lives, and one man in particular was helping them: Scotty Bowers. At a time when sex outside of marriage was taboo, Scotty built up a reputation as the guy who could discreetly fix you up. Scotty slept with many stars himself, and connected others with his friends. Here, he tells his story for the first time. Scotty came to Hollywood after serving in the Marines in World War II, and began working at a gas station on Hollywood Boulevard. One day, he was approached and picked up by actor Walter Pidgeon, who whisked him off to a friend's villa for the first of many encounters with Hollywood's rich and famous. He developed long-term friendships with stars like Katharine Hepburn and Noel Coward, but he always kept it quiet--until he now provides a lost chapter in the history of the sexual revolution.--From publisher description.

The only book-length account of the life of Wendell Scott, the one-time moonshine runner who broke the color barrier in stock-car racing in 1952 and, against all odds, competed for more than 20 years in a sport dominated by Southern whites. Hard Driving is the story of one man's determination to live the life he loved, and to compete at the highest level of his sport. When Wendell Scott became NASCAR's version of Jackie Robinson in the segregated 1950s, some speedways refused to let him race. Scott appealed directly to the sport's founder, NASCAR czar Bill France Sr., who promised that NASCAR would treat him without prejudice. For the next two decades, Scott chased a dream whose fulfillment depended on France backing up that promise. France reneged on his pledge, but Scott did receive inspiring support from white drivers who admired his skill and tenacity, such as NASCAR champions Ned Jarrett and Richard Petty.

By the end of the 1960s, the Hollywood West of Tom Mix, Randolph Scott, and even John Wayne was passé—or so the story goes. Many film historians and critics have argued that movies portraying a mythic American West gave way to revisionist films that influential filmmakers such as Sam Peckinpah and Robert Altman made as violent critiques of the Western’s “golden years.” Yet rumors surrounding the death of the Western have been greatly exaggerated, says film historian Andrew Patrick Nelson. Even as the Wild Bunch and John McCabe rode forth, John Wayne remained the Western’s number one box office draw. How, then, could there have been a revisionist reckoning at a time when the Duke was still in the saddle? In Still in the Saddle, Nelson offers readers a new history of the Hollywood Western in the 1970s, a time when filmmakers tried to revive the genre by appealing to a diverse audience that included a new generation of socially conscious viewers. Nelson considers a comprehensive filmography of releases from 1969 to 1980 in light of the visual tropes and narratives developed and reworked in the genre from the 1930s to the present. In so doing, he reveals the complexity of what is probably the most interesting period in Western movie history. His incisive reevaluations of such celebrated (or infamous) films as The Wild Bunch and Heaven’s Gate and examinations of dozens of forgotten and neglected Westerns, including the final films of John Wayne, demonstrate that there was more to the 1970s Western than simple revision. Instead, we see not only important connections between canonical and lesser-known films of the period, but also continuities between these and older Westerns. Nelson believes an ongoing, cyclical process of regeneration thus transcends established divisions in the genre’s history. Among the books currently challenging the prevailing “evolutionary” account of the Western, Still in the Saddle thoroughly revises our understanding of this exciting and misunderstood period in the Western’s history and adds innovatively and substantially to our knowledge of the genre as a whole.