But then the great bulk of the book, 300 pages, is taken up with very detailed – some might say eyeglazingly so – investigations into the lives and careers of ten stars who didn’t conform to the system in one way or another, either because they got sick of their own stupid movies and quit (Deanna Durbin) or because they became ungovernable and wayward (Erroll Flynn, Lana Turner) or because they were never that jazzed with being a star in the first place (Charles Boyer). It begins with 100 (large) pages on the studio star-making machinery itself, the system which could take 13 year old Frances Gumm and turned her into Judy Garland.

For less fixated film fans it will be TOO MUCH. For those obsessives this will be like heaven. (Both Lana Turner and Errol Flynn, for instance, were involved in notorious court cases.) In her trenchantly observed conclusion, she explains what has become of the star machine and why the studios’ practice of “making” stars is no longer relevant.ĭeeply engrossing, full of energy, wit, and wisdom, The Star Machine is destined to become an invaluable part of the film canon.įans of golden age Hollywood (30s to 50s) who can reel off names like Loretta Young, Irene Dunne, Charles Boyer and Jean Arthur AND name three movies each one starred in will probably already have a copy of this massive beast of a book. She anatomizes their careers, showing how their fame happened, and what happened to them as a result. She gives us the “human factor,” case studies focusing on big stars groomed into the system: the “awesomely beautiful” (and disillusioned) Tyrone Power the seductive, disobedient Lana Turner and a dazzling cast of others-Loretta Young, Errol Flynn, Irene Dunne, Deanna Durbin. With revelatory insights and delightful asides, she shows us how the machine worked when it worked, how it failed when it didn’t, and how irrelevant it could sometimes be.

Jeanine Basinger gives us an immensely entertaining look into the “star machine,” examining how, at the height of the studio system, from the 1930s to the 1950s, the studios worked to manufacture star actors and actresses. From one of our leading film authorities, a rich, penetrating, amusing plum pudding of a book about the golden age of movies, full of Hollywood lore, anecdotes, and analysis.

The star machine jeanine basinger