So You Wanna be a Director?

Book excerpt: Yorkshire-born Ken Annakin is one of the greatest international film directors. The last of the English directors to make it in the international arena (others included Hitchcock and Lean), this autobiography traces Annakin's career from his early British films through to Hollywood. He has directed, written and produced over 50 feature films in Africa, India, Malaysia, Scandinavia, China, Europe and the United States. His films include: Swiss Family Robinson, The Longest Day, Battle of the Bulge, and Those Magnificent Men in their Flying Machines. Annakin's autobiography includes personal and revealing insights into many film personalities, including: Claudette Colbert; Edward G. Robinson; David Niven; Raquel Welch; Rod Steiger; Tony Curtis; Henry Fonda; Olivia de Havilland; Robert Ryan; Charlton Heston; Julie Christie; Robert Wagner; Charles Bronson; Peter Sellers; Peter Ustinov; Darryl Zanuck; Walt Disney and Terry Thomas. This book is forthright and pulls no punches. It will soon become a classic among director's autobiographies. Detailing his own frustrations with sex-mad producers, drug-addicted actors, and unions which sabotaged multi-million dollar feature films. Annakin details a career of dizzying highs and bleak lows. This master of family entertainment also sounds a clarion call for a return to motion pictures which are fun for the whole family. So You Wanna Be A Director? is an entertaining and witty travelogue, as well as an important document of film history.