Halliwell's Who's Who in the Movies, 15e : The 15th Edition of the Bestselling Encyclopedia of Film, Actors, Directors, Producers, and Writers

Rating:
Summary: The Essential Movie Book
Review: If you were to have only one book on the movies, this would be it. It has almost everything and everyone connected to movies. About the only changes I'd recommend would be larger type and sections on writers, directors, photographers, stunt men, etc.

Rating:
Summary: NOT the companion
Review: Though advertised as a continuation (i.e. 14th Edition)of the "Filmgoers companion" it is only a list of people in the movies. Gone are Halliwell's definitions of movie tradecraft and lists of themes, individual classics and personal notes. A fine actor like Lee J. Cobb gets a single line, while Jayne Mansfield, known more for her off screen antics, gets many more. The quotes from the movie personalities is a nice touch, but when I look up somebodies filmography I do not want to see etc. at the end of an incomplete list.

Rating:
Summary: A Dissapointment
Review: Unlike the excellent yearly "Halliwell's Film and Video Guide" "Halliwell's Who's Who in the Movies" is a serious disappointment. True, there are more than 12,000 bios, but practically all of the biographical entries are taken up by a list of films with little actual biographical information.

For a director as important as François Truffaut the entire article consists solely of (1) the dates of birth and death; (2) the statement: "French 'new wave' director, former critic. Died of a brain tumour."; (3) the titles of his supposed autobiography and his book on Hitchcock; (4) the film list (UK titles only); and (5) two short quotes by Truffaut. I write "supposed autobiography" because the cited work is, in fact, not an autobiography at all but a collection of Truffaut's early film criticism. This makes one suspicious of other information in "Halliwell's Who's Who."

This inaccurate and stingy bio of Truffaut in "Halliwell's Who's Who" should be compared with the detailed bio in Ephraim Katz' "The Film Encyclopedia," where approximately 1000 words are devoted to his biography in addition to the complete list of his films (with both the US and French titles). Katz has had to limit the number of bios (about 7000 compared to Halliwell's 12,000) in order to be able to offer really useful information. I think his trade-off has been well judged.

For some film makers the biography in "Halliwell's" (apart from the film list) may be limited to two words, such as "American director." Eric Rohmer's bio is limited to a single smug and mildly insulting remark: "French director of rarefied conversation pieces." Robert Bresson fares little better. At the same time, UK directors like Ken Loach or Lindsay Anderson, worthy men indeed but whose importance is certainly far less than Truffaut's, receive extensive bios and a great many quotes.

There are about 120 pages of appendices in "Halliwell's Who's Who," many of which are both useful and unique to that publication. If you already own Ephraim Katz' "The Encyclopedia of Film" there is little reason to purchase "Halliwell's Who's Who in Film," except maybe for some of these appendices, an expensive purchase. On the other hand, if you already own "Halliwell's Who's Who in the Movies," there is every reason to purchase Katz' encyclopedia.