1939: The Making of Six Great Films from Hollywood's Greatest Year

A celebration of cinema from the year 1939—a year film critics and historians are virtually unanimous in considering the greatest in the history of motion pictures—this work is the perfect combination of film history, artistic appreciation, historical insight, and gossip. Profiling of six of the greatest films of the year—Gone with the Wind, Stagecoach, Mr. Smith Goes to Washington, The Hound of the Baskervilles, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, and The Wizard of Oz—the book shows, in detail, how these stories came into being and how long they waited to find fame. It also describes the behind-the-scenes story of each film: how the stories were adapted to a film script; the writers, producers, directors, actors, and technicians who made the film; how the film was received by critics and the public; and the later careers of the people who made the film, with commentary on such legendary stars as Clark Gable, Jimmy Stewart, John Wayne, and Judy Garland. A must-have book that no movie fan should miss, this work captures 1930s Hollywood—an era which, in spite of being crass, commercial, restrictive, and frequently dysfunctional, produced immensely enjoyable films that are still watched with pleasure today.