About this item
He was the consummate designer of film architecture on a grand scale, influenced by German expressionism and the work of the great European directors. He was known for his visual flair and timeless innovation, a man who meticulously preplanned the color and design of each film through a series of continuity sketches that made clear camera angles, lighting, and the actors positions for each scene, translating dramatic conventions of the stage to the new capabilities of film. Here is the long-awaited book on William Cameron Menzies, Hollywoods first and greatest production designer, a job title David O. Selznick invented for Menzies extraordinary, all-encompassing, Academy Awardwinning work on Gone With the Wind which he effectively co-directed. It was Menzieswinner of the first-ever Academy Award for Art Direction, jointly for The Dove 1927 and Tempest 1928, and who was as well a director fourteen pictures and a producer twelve pictureswho changed the way movies were and still are made, in a career that spanned four decades, from the 1920s through the 1950s.
About the Author
James Curtis is the author of "W.C. Fields: A Biography", which was awarded the Special Jury Prize by the Theatre Library Association and named one of the Notable Books of the Year by the New York Times. He is also the author of "William Cameron Menzies: The Shape of Films to Come," "Spencer Tracy: A Biography," "James Whale: A New World of Gods and Monsters," and "Between Flops," an acclaimed biography of writer-director Preston Sturges. He is married and lives in Brea, California.
