Drawing on personal correspondence and interviews with more than 100 Hollywood icons, this biography chronicles Cukor's life, career, and cinematic achievements There appears to be a minirevival of interest in Cukor, who died in 1983. In addition to this worthwhile work, Patrick McGilligan's A Double Life (St. Martin's, 1991) is also available. These days, Cukor is probably best remembered for being fired during the production of Gone with the Wind (1939) and his unshakable reputation as a women's director. Levy makes a good case for placing him in the top echelon of studio directors; Cukor shone in several genres. Among his classic films were Dinner at Eight (1933), Camille (1936), The Philadelphia Story (1940), and the 1954 version of A Star Is Born. Levy has constructed a well-rounded biography that smoothly melds Cukor's long career with his discreet private life. This is a good addition to such other Cukoriana as Gene Phillips's George Cukor (Twayne, 1982. o.p.). - Roy Liebman, California State Univ. Lib., Los Angeles Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc. Although he directed more than 50 films--such classics as The Philadelphia Story , A Star Is Born , and My Fair Lady among them--during his half-century-long career, George Cukor was never an "above-the-title" director. Lacking a showy or recognizable visual style, Cukor's intelligent and elegant movies emphasized the actors; he directed such stars as Hepburn, Garbo, and Garland in what are widely considered their best performances. Levy traces Cukor's career from his triumphs during Hollywood's Golden Age through the greatest disappointment of his life--his dismissal from Gone with the Wind --to his latter-day struggles to launch projects. In addition to thoroughly assessing Cukor's work, Levy conveys his subject's wit and personal style; a member of what passed for the intelligentsia in Hollywood, he was known for the salons he conducted at his opulent home. One would-be Cukor biographer claimed "there's no story there." Perhaps, but by placing more emphasis on the director's films and less on his personal life, particularly his homosexuality, than did Patrick McGilligan in A Double Life (1991), Levy has, thanks also to smooth writing and thorough research, come up with an engrossing account. Gordon Flagg Levy (Film and Sociology/Arizona State Univ.) wrote 1987's overserious And the Winner Is: The History and Politics of the Oscar Award. His energized, studious Cukor biography differs from Patrick McGilligan's zestful George Cukor: A Double Life (1991) in several striking ways. While McGilligan stresses Cukor's double life as the only gay director of major rank in Hollywood and says that he spent his entire career fearful of a scandal that might cost him his high professional standing, Levy says Cukor's homosexuality was known by all and that people ``went out of their way not to damage him.'' When the vibrant Cukor arrived in Hollywood in the '30s, gay was okay but not great; then, in the uptight '40s and '50s, it became Bad News. Levy agrees with McGilligan that Cukor's emotional life was barren and that all his buoyancy was lavished on his films, his home decor, and his social gatherings. Nor did he like any open show of affection between men. His Hollywood labors began as dialogue director for Lewis Milestone's All Quiet on the Western Front, but he quickly built up steam, directing Bill of Divorcement, Dinner at Eight, Little Women, David Copperfield, Romeo and Juliet, and--most famously--Garbo's Camille. Cukor, who directed Jean Harlow, Ingrid Bergman, Anna Magnani, Sophia Loren, Elizabeth Taylor, plus Katharine Hepburn in ten films, Judy Garland in A Star Is Born, Audrey Hepburn in My Fair Lady, and Marilyn Monroe in two of her later but lesser works, acquired a reputation as a women's director, a label he dismissed. Levy also trashes the tale that Clark Gable got Cukor fired from Gone with the Wind for being a ``fairy'' and assigns the firing to a clash of vision between Cukor and producer David O. Selznick. Strong on actors, acting, and directing. Real film food. -- Copyright ©1994, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved. Emanuel Levy is a professor of film and sociology at Arizona State University. Used Book in Good Condition