Galaxies

Program director of the National Film Theatre of Great Britain, Ken Wlaschin sets out in this book to establish "The 400" of filmdom. Quite literally. For it is, as he writes, "a book of opinions. It is an attempt to select the 400 most important movie stars of all times and countries, show the reasons for their importance when they made their reputations, discuss their value for us as movie enthusiasts today and list their ten best films."

The result is, as the title suggests, encyclopedic. From Theda Bara and Rudolph Valentino to Woody Allen and John Travolta, from as far back as 1900 to as recently as yesterday, the big, brilliant names are all here — Chaplin, Keaton, Shearer, Garbo, Gable, Bogart, Dietrich, Hepburn, Monroe, Tracy, Wayne. But so are the lesser luminaries. Remember Thelma Ritter, Conrad Veidt, Deanna Durbin, Mary Astor? Wlaschin casts a wide net.

But for all his inclusiveness, Wlaschin also had to exclude; only the stars make it into his pantheon. And, "for purposes of this book," he explains, "stars are considered as myths" compounded of three qualities: screen personality ("close reflections of their creators' inner selves"), image ("the public's perception and assessment of that star"), and persona ("the most mythical part because it is the basis of what a star means"). It is persona that Wlaschin stresses, for an actor's persona emerges, he explains, neither from press agentry nor, entirely, from type-casting. It is, rather, the result of how audiences apprehend their stars, a reflection of "the needs, desires and interests of audiences." As such, it tells us something about our collective selves as well as about movie stars; it has elements of cultural as well as film history.

The profiles are succinct, taut, sometimes trenchant — no soft soap, no sentimental awe, no oohs and aahs. Laurels go to the stars who deserve them, but there is an occasional garland of poison ivy, too. The photographs, well over 400 of them, are superb. They were assembled by Wlaschin's wife, Maureen Kennedy Martin, "whose creative picture research," he acknowledges in the introduction, has "brought together what may be the finest collection of movie star photographs ever assembled." Amen!

If you're under 35, say, read this for history, if you will. But if you're over 35, I'll bet the price of a ticket to the Nugget (a not inconsiderable sum now that movies have become films) that you can't read it without repeated suffusions of nostalgia. Along with the photographs, Wlaschin's refreshingly unsolemn, commonsensical attitude makes this, as he puts it, "a non- serious book which believes that movies can be, have been, and will continue to be great fun as well as great art."

ILLUSTRATED ENCYCLOPEDIA OFTHE WORLD'S GREAT MOVIE STARSAND THEIR FILMSBy Ken Wlaschin '56Harmony, 1979. 233 pp. $9.95