David Thomson’s Sleeping With Strangers explores the evolution of sex in movies. He describes the approaches to sex in the movies of Peston Sturgers, Howard Hawks, George Cukor, Ernst Lubitsch, and Alfred Hitchcock among others. Later, Thomson analyzes the on-screen and off-screen relationships of Katharine Hepburn, Spencer Tracy, Natalie Wood, Grace Kelly, Joan Fontaine, Cary Grant, Rosalind Russell, John Wayne, and dozens of actors and actresses.
The result of all this entertaining knowledge is that I want to go back and rewatch a dozen or so films from the 1940s and 1950s that David Thomson admires. He claims His Girl Friday may be the best movie ever made. It’s been decades since I saw it so I can’t render an opinion. If you’re a movie fan, you’ll find Sleeping With Strangers provocative and stimulating! GRADE: A
TABLE OF CONTENTS:
Introduction: Naked at the window — 3
The iceman cometh — 15
A powder-puff? — 29
Is this allowed? — 46
Hideaway — 58
Codes and codebreakers — 76
The Goddamn monster — 91
Gable and Cukor — 102
Tracy and Hepburn — 122
Buddies and cowboys — 141
“The cat’s in the bag, the bag’s in the river” — 157
Dead attractive: Cary Grant — 185
Indecency, gross, or mass market? — 198
The male gaze — 218
Perverse — 340
Burning man — 255
Gigolo — 268
Doing it, saying it — 285
An open door — 301
Acknowledgments — 329
Index — 333
Thomson wrote a great novel a long time back called Suspects. Each chapter is told from the viewpoint of a fictional movie character. I just hope in this that he doesn’t buy into the Hepburn/Tracy “romance”. It didn’t exist.
Steve, Thomson offers up some information about Tracy and Hepburn that I didn’t know. I liked Thomson’s story about interviewing Hepburn on the side of the road while her chauffeur changed a blown-out tire.
I think I read Suspects! As for this handy tome I have the interest but not the time!
Bob, you would love SLEEPING WITH STRANGERS. Well worth your time!
Gotta get this one.
Patti, I’m pretty sure you’ll have the same reaction to SLEEPING WITH STRANGERS that I had: you’ll want to rewatch many of these classic movies again!
Sounds good. I liked HIS GIRL FRIDAY, but like you haven’t seen it in decades.
Jeff, I have HIS GIRL FIRDAY on order. David Thomson’s knowledge of movies and Hollywood blows my mind!
It is, with a few slight bobbles, one of the best comedies I’ve seen, a definite improvement on THE FRONT PAGE, and the occasional serious moments pierce. And then it goes back to its comic cadence.
One wrongheaded reviewer once referred to the supposed childishness of the other reporters, mistaken farce for childishness.
Todd, I have a copy of MY GIRL FRIDAY and hope to watch it this week. I’ll be reviewing it on this blog sometime next week!
I’m a big fan of Thomson and fully intend to read this. It’s just a matter of getting to it. I can open Thomson’s “New Biographical Dictionary of Film” almost anywhere and get lost for an hour or more. This certainly makes me want to see “His Girl Friday” for the first time in ages, but I’m really not sure it’s even Howard Hawks best.
Michael, same here. I’ve read several of David Thomason’s books and learned plenty. SLEEPING WITH STRANGERS rambles a bit, but Thomson always rambles into very interesting subjects. I have HIS GIRL FIRDAY on order. It’s been decades since I’ve watched it.