Sleeping with Strangers: How the Movies Shaped Desire

I have read many books by the author and respect his opinion and his sensibility but this is a really crude piece of writing, recirculating prurient speculations and gossip about people in the movie industry to then either dismiss them or say the equivalent of 'so what'. Anything that relies on scurrilous sources like Scotty Bowers can hardly be given serious consideration. The 'revelation' about Spencer Tracy' is particularly tacky as are those about Jean Harlow and serve no purpose at all other than to ask 'Why?' But this can be said for much of this over intellectualised 'National Enquirer' muck raking. I struggle to know what the author is actually saying that really needed to be said or hasn't been said more eloquently elsewhere. In fact, the book leaves me feeling pained, the same as Clark Gable did after a visit to the aforementioned Ms Harlow.

I loved this book. Thomson gives powerful insights into film history in this look into the role of desire in shaping the movies and of the movies in shaping desire.

I have read all of Thomson's books and look forward to his next. He is the best writer on Hollywood period. I enjoyed his "The Whole Equation" three times. THAT SAID... this is atrocious celebrity tail-sniffing junk that I could not finish. Its thesis is literally Everyone in Hollywood was and is Gay... and if not, they should be... Nonsense of the first water. It is also punctuated with political rants (to a captive audience), a sure sign of a writer in decline. Sorry, David.

I loved this book so much. Thomson once again gives new insights into familiar classics. His essays about Katharine Hepburn and Cary Grant are so excellent. At times you think he may be stretching a point or two but then you think about it, and you know he isn't. His understanding of the studio system is second to none. Thomson has dedicated this book to his great friend Kieran Hickey. If there were a time machine, I would love to go back and join Kieran and Dave at the movies. What a delight that would have been. Dave, thanks for a wonderful read. You've done it again.