For years.Many film history books have tried to give some insight into the creation,development and the successful appeal of Laurel & Hardy's film work.With the exception of Leonard Maltin's"Movie Comedy Teams"and"The Great Movie Comedians!".No book seemed to show the readers how these classic comedies came about.Until now.Film historian,radio interviewer and musical entertainer:Randy Skrevedt's book"Laurel & Hardy:The Magic Behind The Movies!"finally gives us all a chance to see how these two great performers created and presented their cinematic clowning on screen and onstage.With the use of extensive research,interviews with the boys colleages,family members,friends and with staffers from The Hal Roach,MGM,Fox Studios and With Mr.Hal Roach Himself.The book shows us the creation of the team's films from their first effort:"Lucky Dog"to their earliest films at Roach to their glory days at:"The Lot Of Fun!".The book also tells us the true story of what finally lead to the duo's departure from Roach and the unsuccessful efforts to give the boys creative freedom at MGM & Fox.Where they made alot of forgetable films.And additionial info.L&H were slated to make ten features at Fox.Not six as many film history books have stated over the years.There is also some insight into the boys stage performances overseas in Music halls and cabrets during the late 1940's and into the early to mid 1950's.And a large collections of Photos from private collections.Plus in the updated second paperback edition.Info about the recently discovered spanish verison of"Chickens Come Home".Which features some never before seen footage(The newly found footage has little or bearing on the film's storyline.But it's interesting to read about it).These features plus some insight into the boys lives(Which does not get ugly)makes this a fun and informative manuscript and one that's long overdue.Bravo Randy! Kevin S.Butler.

To me, the Laurel and Hardy (L&H) team was easily the best comedy team of the first half of the 20th century. I realize others may have other favorites (Three Stooges, Our Gang, W.C. Fields (another of my personal favorites), Abbott and Costello (not one of my favorites), Marx Brothers, etc.) But the L&H team was beyond these other comedy teams. Randy Skretvet did these men proud with this book that traces them from the very beginning to their eventual demise. If one appreciates L&H and the comedy of the early 1900s they should appreciate this book.

Randy Skretvedt has written what is arguably the single best book on Laurel and Hardy and their movies. Carefully researched and just plain fun to read, this revised edition includes details on recent discoveries, such as a silent Charley Chase comedy in which the boys appear, and some of the Spanish language "remakes" that were made in the early 1930's for the foreign market. An absolutely indepensable book for comedy buffs and L&H fans, and a essential companion piece to LAUREL OR HARDY and FROM THE FORTIES FORWARD.

This translation of Platero and I is the only "complete" translation into English of the Spanish Classic. It is also the most Spanish! This refers to the paperback edition.

This is a beautiful little book by a Nobel Prize Winner of Literature that is too often neglected, Juan Ramon Jimenez.

Only Jimenez could make the blood of a leach in a stream of water into beautiful imagery. Children read this book as part of their curriculum in Argentina, however, this book can be equally enjoyed and appreciated by adults.

The story is a simple one: it is a first person (semi-autobiographical) account of a poet and his donkey in the mountains of Spain, appreciating, almost Zen-like, the simple beauties of life. The elements, children playing, leaches bleeding in a pool, everything seems beautiful in this book, and the descriptions are exquisite.

This is probably the best introduction to Jimenez, a book not to be missed!

Platero y yo es un libro tierno y sencillo que cuenta la relacion de un borrico y su amo. Yo lo recomiendo a todo aquel que quiera aprender espanol con esta pequena historia llena de poesia.

Get out of the way Joe, Nancy is here. This book has to be one of the best. In this book, Nancy Drew and the Hardy Boys act like pros. That is untill Joe let's his personal feelings in the way. He actually hated Nancy!!! Read this book to see what I'm talking about. I recommend this book to anybody who loves a good mystery.

Hi! I think everyone will love this book but to bad it didn't really have any of that Nancy/Frank stuff but thats ok because Nancy and Joe really don't like each other but i won't tell you anymore then that.

My favorite part is when Joe does the polygraph test. (thats to see if someone is lieing or not)you should see what Nancy askes Joe but I'm not going to tell you but if you want to find out more about the book e-mail me at onavy100@aol.com

I loved this book!!It was neat how joe was the one behind the leaks!!I was disappointed that their was nothing between Frank and Nancy , though. Nancy and joe were fighting

(cool!) and Frank was probably ready to through his hands in the air with despair !!Good job , Miss Keene !!

You can spend hours browsing trough this encyclopedia. Of course you will recognize many of the classic. Yet you may be surprised at the multitude of great films that you missed. There are better descriptions and stills than you find in most of the genre magazines.

Contents:

THE EARLY YEARS: Innocent Beginnings (1895-1919)
THE TWENTIES: Dark Visions and Brash Adventure
THE THIRTIES: Mad Scientists and Comic Book Heroes
THE FORTIES: Science Fiction Eclipsed

THE FIFTIES: Science Fiction Reborn
THE SISTIES: Science Fiction Respectable
THE SEVENTIES: Big Budgets and Big Bucks
THE EIGHTIES: Science Fiction Triumphant

I am not going to bore you with the list of my favorites but I challenge you not to fine one of yours.

This really has to be recognised as a monumental reference work. The sheer breadth of material found and reviewed by Hardy is extraordinary. I will be using this book for years to come.

A treasure chest that covers all sf movies from 1895 to the present. If it's not in here, it probably wasn't made--everything from Mexican quickies starring popular Mexican wrestling champions to Hungarian space-vampires to the late 1950's "The Colussus of New York" (a film I had been trying to find the name of for 30 years). And it's stuffed with pictures--about 450 b&w and color.

I read this wonderful book 10 years ago while planning to become an innkeeper. Now that I am a successful innkeeper, I refer to it constantly and am incredibly grateful to the authors. I credit the information learned in this book as a reason for our success. It helped us ask the right questions, particularly about whether or not we had the personalities to make it in this diffficult business. Also, it was invaluable in creating our business plan. Don't open a B & B before reading this.

Submitted by the author of: "I'm Living Your Dream Life: The Story of a Northwoods Resort Owner."

You betcha!!! My middle name is Innes (no joke!!!!!) but it might as well be "inns"(!!!!!), that's how much I wanted to be an innkeeper, and Mary Davies' book is "inn" (!!!!!!) the right place "inn" (!!!) my bookshelf. No, but seriously, with my sense of humour and my wife Marjorie's overly solicitous manner and ability to project her prurient judgmentalism and dissaproval wordlessly, we had a headstart in that we were the perfect couple to run a Bed-and-Breakfast. Even the best need a hand though, and this book is a must-read for those who don't want to make a dog's dinner of this rewarding career.

As an accountant, I really appreciated the financial planning section of the book. It has helped us to realistically assess different properties in making our investment decision. This book is a must for anyone seriously considering a bed and breakfast or a small inn. Being able to estimate costs and revenues up front is imperative for success.

A great book. Starting with the dissapearance of Irene's father, it goes to New Mexico with the boys in hot pursuit of the great scientist. This puts or rather takes them to Antarctica where the cold there to bury the boys anytime !

The book is a very intresting one.Frank and Joe have shown their talents in solving puzzling cases.They risked their own life to help Irene to find her father.He had been officialy declared dead but Irene had a strong belief of him being alive.The Hardy boys risked a trip to Antartica to find themselves in trouble.Find out yourselves on how Frank and Joe Hardy solve one of the most challenging cases they ever came across.

This is a great book. Its full of action. The guys must find a person, who just may not want to be found.

I just started reading The Hardy Boys--before, I read Nancy Drew and The Hardy Boys--but I think this was really good since Nancy Drew got kinda annoying after a while. It was interesting and it kept me reading--in fact, I pretty much read it in one sitting! Good characters and good plot.

Holy, man! I've read almost every single Casefile there is and I can list them all in order off the top of my head. I love their books and I think that they're great! The Casefiles are so much more interesting than the blue books. You know that there's always going to be danger and excitment in each book, but you also know that Frank is going to be teasing Joe and Joe is going to do something funny too. That's why I like all of their books.

I really love these new "Casefiles collector's editions" I've bought them all, and I think that this one is the best so far. In "Beyond The Law," Frank and Joe must help their old friend/enemy Ezra Collig, and clear him of extortion. In "Spiked!" they get involved in a case of murder in Southern Callifornia, and in "Open Season," the boys fight for their lives while on a cross country ski trip in the Colorado Rockies. I really enjoyed all three stories, and would recommend them to anyone.

Any theatre buff will think he or she has died and gone to hog heaven. It is virtually impossible to put this gorgeous book down. Put together by the archivists who work for the Shubert Organization, this book covers Broadway with the Shuberts for the past 100 years. Currently the Organization owns 17 Broadway houses. A history of each theatre and what has played there is covered on these pages. The photography and beautiful design make this one of the best coffee table size books I have ever seen. And I have quite a collection. You won't regret your purchase!

An amazing book that I couldn't put down. The Shuberts have compiled a great tribute to Broadway theater. It's worth the money if you are a theater history buff!

A letter is missing from the subtitle of this book: it should have been "100 Years of Great American Theaters." Yes, this gorgeously designed and printed volume offers numerous historic production stills, but Chach et al. reserved the real glamour for interior shots of Schubert-owned houses. They include no views of backstage areas, nor do they mention the true history of the Schuberts and their attempts to replace and repeat the syndicate's dominance over American theater. Readers will find reproductions of rare items from the Schubert Archive interesting, and the price is certainly a good value. Libraries with extensive theater collections may wish to acquire it, but the volume is a coffee-table book best suited for theater buffs.

I was reading this book for an assignment in English, and the images that it left in my mind will remain there for a long time. The story of Tess, a truly Pure woman, facing adversities that scare the soul out of me, is a thoughtful and saddening one.

The Norton Critical edition is particularily good, containing reviews and poems of and about Thomas Hardy, a major advantage when trying to understand the atmosphere that produced this novel.

Though the novel is heavy in description, the description is not out of place. In fact, it is essential to the storyline.

All in all, I enjoyed this book, and it made me think and reflect on the values that I believe are truly important.

Morality is subject to some rolling blackouts in this book. At the end, the law stepped in and made sure that the destruction was mutual. Law seems to be particularly inept in situations where a book is this hard on the reader, and those critics in the Norton Critical Edition who consider this novel almost a crime against literature have a point. If all the characters were being put on trial, instead of merely trying to live, the law would allow each of them to be tried separately because of the doctrine of mutually antagonistic defenses. There were parts of this book I enjoyed: Angel Clare sorting the cows for milking made a lovely theme. Hardy kept referring to the barnyard as a "barton," but I'm sure he wasn't directing that jibe at me, personally, because this book was written long before I was born. I've been to barnyards that were as full of "mulch" as the "barton" described in this book, and Hardy is putting things mildly. I liked the part when Alec had been reformed and Tess discovered him preaching to the Methodists without thinking that he was any better for all the things he was trying to say. Somehow Alec getting on the other side of things was still Alec, and he would have preferred to be happy than to preach all the time. For me, the plot revolved around Angel Clare's need to find a place where he could get money without shame. Alec had as much money as Tess would ever need, and he wanted to give it to her in his own way. There is an early baby problem that Tess didn't tell Alec about until they had more problems than any novelist could make disappear. D. H. Lawrence tried to understand this book in unfulfilled male and female principles, and aristocratic principles which isolated Tess and Alec d'Uberville. I'm glad this book has been appreciated so long that I finally read it. It was an involvement that went further than just feeling like a barnyard.

Thomas Hardy's novel makes a heroine out of a simple girl. Tess Durbeyfield, the daughter of a nearly extinct noble line, leads a life of heavy responsibility where her impoverished family is concerned. At the behest of her parents, she seeks assistance from the D'Urbervilles who are, supposedly, relatives. This assistance yields disastrous results and Tess feels compelled to find work as a milkmaid where she meets Angel Clare, the son of an evangelical pastor, who is gathering experience in order to become a farmer.

Hardy does a splendid job of illustrating Tess's strength as she goes from innocent girl to pure woman. Though she is not as educated as Angel, in terms of theory, her experience with Alec Stokes D'Urberville has given her a deeper knowledge of life and acceptance. Ironically, it is this experience which captivates and, predictably enough, repulses Angel.

Hardy's narrative is a powerful one in this particular tale. It is clear that this is Tess's story and we, as readers, witness her painful journey. Through his subtle and understated use of irony, we come to realize the hypocrisy of Angel and wonder about the diabolical nature of Alec.

What Hardy does emphasize in this novel is the unwavering hand of Justice which allows the novel to come to a bittersweet end and lets no one escape its strong, yet objective, sense of judgement.