William Cameron Menzies: The Shape of Films to Come Hardcover – Deckle Edge, November 17, 2015

Menzies is the guy that was like the first real Chief Operating Officer of what grabs and holds the interest of the public in theater or film.

I am using this book for research - for one of my own publications about special visual effects. It arrived packaged to resist a zombie holocaust, which I appreciated.

This is a book about an influential pioneer film stylist whose name isn't as well known as the films he helped to art direct - the technique of production design. The most famous of these was the GONE WITH THE WIND (Selznick 1939) and it was William Cameron Menzies who made that film into an early example of a movie experience by adding color visual techniques that gave audiences the feeling of grandeur in a way that other films couldn't match, particularly during the pre-1953 period before films were made in widescreen. Much of this was combined with special effects. His trademark look often involved montage, or tracking shots - often using actors in silhouette against dawn or dusk, fire or storm. This book is the first full length account of his life and of the films to which he added his considerable talents. When you watch these films today it becomes clear that modern film directors have seen them, and not only that have emulated his style.

What a shot in the arm this bio is! Especially since WCM and I have ancestors from the same village near Castle Menzies. I was born at the wrong time, I should have worked in the film industry in the 20's and 30's when it was all still so new and everything you did was inventive and hands on. Now we are all mouse-clickers and digital artists, which in itself is an art form. But physical creation, physical involvement, is a thing of the past in movies, unless you are working in production on set.Anyway, this is a great bio. I've always wanted to know more about this Menzies, what made him tick, what gave him drive, and Curtis has pretty much fleshed him out. What a genius!

The beginning and ending of the book are very well written and interesting. The middle tends to bog down when Menzies was working on 2nd rate projects and not doing much. His story is very sad and ultimately depressing….Hollywood didn't really know what to do with him and his drinking and ego often caused him to make bad career decisions. Menzies was a designer and artist, not a director. There are a lot of interesting photos (smaller reproductions) and excellent detail about his life, but the middle of the book drags on too long. The author has an old fashioned writing style that is sometimes cumbersome.

The book is in good condition and was worth the price. Thank you,

This biography of the great William Cameron Menzies is a must-read for anyone interested in the heyday of Hollywood history. James Curtis writes a taut biography full of drama about a man who, apart from his movie work, led a fairly quiet life. I couldn't put this one down! Superbly illustrated too. (There were a few times I would have wished for running dates at the bottom of the page, but the interested reader will find precise production data for the many films on which Menzies worked in an appendix to the book.)

Excellent description of the skills of a production director and changed my perspective on looking at classic movies and their art and production design. Epic GWTW wouldn't have existed without Menzies perspective and I couldn't believe the amount of expertise (and luck) that went into filming the Atlanta fire. I will never watch the film in the same way again.

An excellent biography of William Cameron Menzies - the man who brought the graphic arts to American film.It was Menzies who brought visual coherence and continuity to the turbulent, fractured production of Gone with the Wind, and Menzies who delivered the wonderful ‘umbrellas’ set piece in Hitchcock’s Foreign Correspondent and the visualised the magnificent 1920s Thief of Baghdad. His meticulous skills in graphic design worked just as well for the intense, soapy drama of King’s Row.GWTW was directed by at least four men, but nearly all of it was designed by Menzies - the sets, the costumes, the thematic use of colour, and the composition of individual shots. What could have been a visual mess, is in fact elegant and of a piece: a challenge made all the more difficult by producer David O Selznick's constant changes of mind.As a director he struggled - he excelled at creating atmosphere, but he was not a confident or enthusiastic director of actors and his best films were collaborations with others.This is a fluent, enjoyable book that explains Menzies huge contribution to a wide range of Hollywood classics, and the minor noirs and Sci Fi potboilers that he lifted from dross into something approaching spun gold. His real legacy is Gone with the Wind, and the myriad of subsequent movies that have been inspired by his mastery of sets, colour and composition.A great book for enthusiasts for Hollywood’s first great period.

This was a fantastic find, and a genuine bargain at the price it was listed. A thoroughly well-researched book that is, at the same time, immensely readable and enjoyable. Highly recommended.

Un estudio serio sobre la vida (y en parte la obra) de William Cameron Menzies, escrito con la facilidad que tienen algunos autores anglosajones para hacer lograr que hasta lo más cotidiano sea ameno.