Spiegel: The Man Behind the Pictures - Hardcover

Gottfried Reinhardt called him a congenital crook, John Houseman said he parlayed a pack of lies into a motion picture and Arthur Schlesinger eulogized him as the last of the giants. The author of this brisk biography provides plenty of evidence to indicate that all three descriptions of Sam Spiegel may be valid. With criminal convictions in Europe and Mexican authorities on his trail, Spiegel entered the United States as an illegal alien in 1939 and went on to win three Academy Awards for producing such movies as The African Queen, On the Waterfront, The Bridge on the River Kwai and Lawrence of Arabia. Sinclair doesn't dwell so much on moviemaking per se as on Spiegel as the ultimate Hollywood hustler; devious, clever and charming, he was "a loyal friend, a hard master and a terrible enemy." A thoroughly enjoyable work by the author of Adventures in the Skin Trade. Photos.
Copyright 1987 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Producer Sam Spiegel's life neatly divides into three acts. Act One takes him through a colorful series of adventures in his native Poland, Palestine, Mexico, and finally Hollywood, where he began work in the 1920s as a script reader. Act Two covers 1950-62, when he reeled off an extraordinary series of triumphs: The African Queen, On the Waterfront, The Bridge on the River Kwai, and Lawrence of Arabia . Act Three finds him producing lesser films but still living royally on his famous yacht. Spiegel may have known everyone, but as Sinclair notes, no one really knew him , and this is really an extended sketch. It is, however, the first full-length volume on Spiegel and as such deserves a place in most collections. Thomas Wiener, formerly with "American Film"
Copyright 1988 Reed Business Information, Inc.