Secret Lives of Great Filmmakers What Your Teachers Never Told You about the World's Greatest Directors

On the heels of Secret Lives of Great Authors , Great Artists , and Great Composers comes Secret Lives of Great Filmmakers an uncensored look at screen legends ranging from D. W. Griffith and Frank Capra to Martin Scorsese and the Coen Brothers. Readers will discover that Charlie Chaplin's corpse was stolen and held for a 400,000 ransom. Akira Kurosawa dreamed of making the ultimate Godzilla film. Alfred Hitchcock 'lost' his belly button during abdominal surgery and often shocked his leading ladies by flashing his curiously smooth tummy. David Lynch won't allow cooking in his home; the odor of heated food disturbs him. With outrageous anecdotes ranging from the weird to the bizarre, Secret Lives of Great Filmmakers is a hilarious behind-the-scenes look at the making of movies.

Robert Schnakenberg is the author of Secret Lives of Great Authors (Quirk, 2008) and Secret Lives of the Supreme Court (Quirk, 2009). He lives in Brooklyn.