![]() However, after learning first hand of favorable reactions to the galleys of McGilligan’s new book on Welles from critics such as Joseph McBride and Jonathan Rosenbaum as well as the enthusiastic approval of Chris Feder Welles and finishing the nearly 800 page book yesterday, I must add my contribution to the positive voices that have acclaimed this study so far. ![]() ![]() Even Alfred Hitchcock: A Life in Darkness and Light (2003) has received detailed criticism by Australian Hitchcock expert Ken Mogg on his valuable Web Page “The Macguffin” and one can question whether stories about an aged director’s use of hookers or another’s alleged home movie recording of sexual exploits add much to understanding person and work. His explorations of the work of Fritz Lang (2013), Clint Eastwood (2002), and Nicholas Ray (2011) often leave much to be desired since his critical insights often lack the rigor of his otherwise unbiased journalism when he does not succumb to negative subjectivity. McGilligan is at his best when he sympathizes with his subject matter. ![]() ![]() Although the author has edited excellent interviews with blacklist victims and screenwriters from Hollywood’s Golden Age to the 1990s, his biographies have sometimes tended to go into National Enquirer territory distracting from a more objective consideration of artistic achievement. I must admit that I approached this book with hesitation. ![]()
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