”What’s With Baum?” by Woody Allen (published by Swift)
Urban angst in fiction and fact but who’s kvetching?
His film-making days seemingly at an enforced end, Woody Allen has added a first novel to the 51 films, three full-length plays, five volumes of funny articles and an autobiography already to his name. You can’t keep down a one-of-a-kind mind, and while the medium may have changed, the book shows that there’s only one Woody Allen, and we’re grateful.
“Making The Best Years of Our Lives, The Hollywood Classic That Inspired a Nation” by Alison Macor (published by University of Texas Press)
A perfect match of film and filmic study
As filming began on “The Best Years of Our Lives” in mid-April 1946, some in Hollywood worried that by the time it would be released six months later in November, cinemagoers might have begun to lose interest in this tale of the traumas faced ...
"The Beatles Fab But True" by Doug Wolfberg (published by Schiffer Publishing)
Still more to reveal about world’s greatest group
It must be difficult now for would-be writers to dig up "untold stories” or fresh facts about The Beatles more than half a century on from their domination of the 1960s musically and culturally. So far a Fab Four library would be up around ...
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"The Art of Classic Crime and Mystery Movies," Edited By Ed Hulse (published by Schiffer Publishing)
Classic films, great posters, great memories
This isn’t a pretty apple-pie world of happy families, loving couples, beautiful landscapes and stunning sunsets. Rather, here is a darker place, an underworld of hoods (gangsters), heists (robberies), gats (guns), stiffs (corpses) and molls (loose women). Fences aren’t the white picket variety around ...
"Béla Lugosi: The Man Behind the Cape” by Robert Cremer (to be published by Clover Press)
From Transylvania to Tinseltown for a full-blooded life
As of the latest count, by December 10, 2025, 409 backers have pledged USD 69,861 to help bring to life the book "Béla Lugosi: The Man Behind the Cape” by Robert Cremer. The initiative is taking place on Kickstarter, a crowd-funding platform that helps ...
"Hollywood in San Francisco, Location Shooting and the Aesthetics of Urban Decline" by Joshua Gleich (published by University of Texas Press)
Thirty years of good exposure became an uphill climb
Even if you haven’t been to San Francisco, it’s appeared so often on our screens, big and small, that it’s one of the world’s most recognisable cities. Humphrey Bogart in a cable car in "Dark Passage” (1947), James Stewart and Kim Novak by the ...
"Richard Manuel, His Life and Music, from The Hawks and Bob Dylan to The Band” by Stephen T. Lewis (Schiffer Publishing)
Life is a carnival but demons also ride the roundabout
With the death of Garth Hudson aged 87 on January 21, 2025, the fifth and final member of The Band departed. Robbie Robertson died aged 80 on August 9, 2023, Levon Helm died aged 71 on April 19, 2012 and Rick Danko died aged ...
“Basil Rathbone. His Life and His Films” by Michael B. Druxman (published by BearManor Media)
But better not to mention Mr. Sherlock Holmes
In Australia in the 1980s there were a golden two hours on television every Thursday night. English husband and wife John Alderton and Pauline Collins bumbled through a “Wodehouse Playhouse”, then came Monty Python’s Michael Palin in a hilarious “Ripping Yarn”. Finally, equally enjoyable ...
”The Many Cinemas of Michael Curtiz” Edited by R. Barton Palmer and Murray Pomerance (published by University of Texas Press)
Giving a jack-of-most-trades film-maker his due
It comes as some surprise to read that Kaminer Manó Kertész, born in Budapest in 1886, had already made the substantial number of 70 films for the nascent Hungarian and Austrian industries before being headhunted by Warner Bros. as a contract director, arriving in ...
“J. Arthur Rank, The Rise and Fall of a Film Empire” by Gareth Owen (published by BearManor Media)
Sunday school led on to silver screen and much more
The very first thing on the silver screen as the film begins is a roaring lion – that’s MGM. Or a pulsing radio tower sitting atop a spinning globe – that’s RKO. Or the goddess-like Torch Lady in a robe on a pedestal – ...
“The Drummond Affair” by Stephanie Matthews and Daniel Smith (published by Icon Books)
Renewed spotlight on British family murdered in France
It would seem open-and-shut. A family of three from Nottingham in England were slain while on a driving holiday in the south of France – Mum and Dad shot and their 10-year-old daughter beaten. A local farmer was convicted and faced the guillotine. Tragic ...
Most read articles Books
"The Beatles Fab But True" by Doug Wolfberg (published by Schiffer Publishing)
Still more to reveal about world’s greatest group
It must be difficult now for would-be writers to dig up "untold stories” or fresh facts about The Beatles more than half a century on from their domination of the 1960s musically and culturally. So far a Fab Four library would be up around ...
"The Art of Classic Crime and Mystery Movies," Edited By Ed Hulse (published by Schiffer Publishing)
Classic films, great posters, great memories
This isn’t a pretty apple-pie world of happy families, loving couples, beautiful landscapes and stunning sunsets. Rather, here is a darker place, an underworld of hoods (gangsters), heists (robberies), gats (guns), stiffs (corpses) and molls (loose women). Fences aren’t the white picket variety around ...
“Making The Best Years of Our Lives, The Hollywood Classic That Inspired a Nation” by Alison Macor (published by University of Texas Press)
A perfect match of film and filmic study
As filming began on “The Best Years of Our Lives” in mid-April 1946, some in Hollywood worried that by the time it would be released six months later in November, cinemagoers might have begun to lose interest in this tale of the traumas faced ...
Most commented articles Books
“A Promenade in Parc Munkácsy” by Alexander York (published by Austin Macauley)
Colourful characters twist and turn in crime caper
Debut novelist Alexander York has seemingly gone for filmic atmosphere rather than minor style issues such as crossing the “t”s and dotting the “i”s, and Hungarians can be along for the scenic ride as the action sets out from England and passes numerous Magyarország ...
“Greyhound” by C.S. Forester (published by Penguin Books)
Dogged by death in the deep
C.S. Forester died in 1966 and he is not forgotten in The Budapest Times office, where we have a nice little collection of 18 of his books. But they don’t include “Greyhound”, and in fact we were a bit puzzled when it was published ...
“Mr Hire’s Engagement” by Georges Simenon (published by Penguin Books)
When the mob is baying for blood
In its slim 152 pages, this early Simenon from 1933 manages to cover mob violence sparked by the insidious influence of unfounded rumours, social prejudice against someone who doesn’t conform to the norm, exhibitionism and voyeurism, and a good dash of sexual titillation. All ...
