You ain't heard nothin' yet: the american talking film, history & memory, 1927-1949

Abstract

Andrew Sarris, one of our premier film critics, here presents a sweeping, insightful, and personal history of American motion pictures, from the birth of the “talkies” to the decline of the studio system. At once intelligent and irreverent, “You Ain’t Heard Nothin’ Yet” appraises the silver screen’s greatest directors (among them Ford, Hitchcock, Chaplin, Welles, and Hawks) and brightest stars (Garbo, Bogart, Cagney, Gable, Lombard, Hepburn, Tracy, and so forth). Valued as much for the grace of his prose as the gravity of his pronouncements, as much for his style as his substance, Sarris also offers rich, informative, and diverting meditations on the major studios (MGM, RKO, Paramount, 20th Century-Fox, Universal, and Warner Bros.), the main genres (including musicals, screwball comedies, horror pictures, gangster films, and westerns), and even a few self-confessed “guilty pleasures” of this remarkable era. Here is one critic’s definitive statement on the art and craft of cinema–a book that reflects a lifetime of watching and thinking about movies. No film buff will want to miss it. Book jacket.