Description: From one of America's most celebrated writers on film comes a sweeping -- and highly personal -- history of American film, ranging from the birth of the talkies to the decline of the studio system. Here, Andrew Sarris celebrates the work of the great American film directors, examining film by film giants such as John Ford, Alfred Hitchcock, Charlie Chaplin, and Orson Welles. He also offers glowing portraits of major stars, from Garbo and Bogart to Ingrid Bergman, Spencer Tracy, and Katharine Hepburn. There is a tour of the studios -- Metro, Paramount, RKO, Warner Brothers, 20th Century Fox, Universal -- revealing how each left its own particular stamp on film. And we are treated to an informative look at film genres -- the musical, the screwball comedy, the horror picture, the gangster film, and the western. A lifetime of watching and thinking about cinema has gone into this book. It is the history that film buffs have been waiting for.

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