True Hollywood Noir: Filmland Mysteries and Murders
by Dina Di Mambro
Copyright: 2013
Pages: 229
Rating: 3.5/5
Read: Oct. 16 – Oct. 22, 2013
Challenge: No challenge
Yearly count: 44
Format: Print
Source: The Cadence Group
Blurb: In a tantalizing, suspenseful, and entertaining mixture of classic Hollywood nostalgia and true crime, explore some of the most fascinating scandals, mysteries and murders in Filmland history – true Hollywood noir lived by the players behind the scenes. Viewers were captivated by the drama of the black and white masterpieces of the silver screen … the noir films with swirling cigarette smoke; high balls on ice; murky, rain-soaked nights; and ill-fated plots between gangsters and grifters, hard-boiled detectives, and duplicitous gorgeous women – which paled in comparison to what was going on behind the scenes.
Uncover the true stories in a dozen different chapters featuring William Desmond Taylor, Thomas Ince, Jean Harlow, Thelma Todd, Joan Bennett, Lana Turner, George Reeves, Gig Young, Bob Crane, Natalie Wood, Robert Blake, and Mickey Cohen. Included in the cast of characters of this book are Johnny Stompanato, William Randolph Hearst, Marion Davies, and Charlie Chaplin. And find never before told mob stories about Ben “Bugsy” Siegel, and Virginia Hill. Get the theories behind each case in this page-turner – then draw your own conclusions as to the truth behind some of the most prominent Hollywood mysteries.
Review: I received this book in exchange for an honest review from Rebecca at The Cadence Group.
I was immediately intrigued by the blurb of this book. I used to be a huge true crime junkie. Over the years I’ve gotten out of the habit of reading true crime (but I still have a stack of those books on my shelves!). So I really jumped at the opportunity to read this book.
When I first got this one in the mail, I flipped through it. I realized that I could easily jump around with the chapters. And that’s exactly what I did. I started out with the chapters on the people who I was not familiar with and moved on to the ones that I was more familiar with. I felt like this was a really good way for me to enjoy this book.
I remember very well watching the Robert Blake trial on CourtTV, so I was really interested in seeing what the author had to say in that chapter. I also highly enjoyed the Natalie Woods chapter because it’s a case that I knew the bare bones about, but it really sparked my interest when it was back in the news more recently.
But the one chapter that I felt was a little off from the others was the Mickey Cohen one. I finally got to watch the movie Gangster Squad earlier this year, so I only really had that to go on in reference to what I knew of Cohen. But I was a little surprised as to how this particular chapter was approached. It was almost two times as longer as any other chapter in the entire book, and it was almost glowing … definitely not something that I expected in regards to Cohen. But then the author ends with something that really made me wonder if it wasn’t glaringly obvious as to who the young girl she references was….
Overall I am very glad that I was given the opportunity to read this book and I would definitely recommend it to anyone interested in true crime or short biographies.
Tales of a Book Addict 