The title of the book and the cover photograph of the four Warner brothers is misleading, as this is not a history of Warner Bros. Instead, it’s a movie critic’s reprise of the movies produced by Warners over the years and gossip and opinion about the actors and directors involved in them.Many movie buffs may enjoy this series of film riffs, as at points author David Thomson has witty observations. For example, referring to Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall in The Big Sleep, he writes, “It does

It is too scattered as others have said. Is it a biography? Is it a history of movie making? Is it a series of movie reviews? I lost patience waiting to get to the parts about the brothers.

An interesting approach to biography writing. The author tells the story of the Warner Brothers through the themes in the movies produced by their studio - sibling rivalry through East of Eden, Jack Warner's business dealings through gangster movies, the Second World War though Casablanca etc. The cartoons receive only a "passing nod." Unfortunately, this approach leaves out a lot of biographical detail. For example, the brothers' three surviving sisters are introduced in a single sentence, dism...

As others have pointed out, the book (which clocks in at a mere 180 pages of text), is an odd amalgam of biography, film history and Hollywood gossip. Rather than a linear narrative, the chapters each center around a key WB film and its impact on the studio and major stars. A bit disjointed to read, and I wanted more about the brothers themselves, but Thomson's style is always engaging and if the book doesn't actually make it to a four in my über-subjective and ever-changing ratings system, it's...

I really enjoyed this book as I knew nothing about the start of Warner Bros. I thought it had a lot of really interesting facts and was very worth reading.

As both a movie fanatic and Burbank resident, I found this deep dive into the origins, beginnings and growing pains of Warner Bros., that "studio down the street and around the corner," to be absolutely fascinating, sweet catnip for someone like me. I went into this knowing nothing about the brothers behind the logo. I had no idea there were four of them, and that three of the four were born in Poland while the youngest, Jack, was Canadian born. David Thomson is a film critic and scholar whom I'...

This book is not quite what it says on the box, but it uses the concept of a family/studio biography as a chance to riff on families, studios, "the pictures," movie stars, movie stars who also happened to be actors, the messiness of collaboration, and the glorious messiness of the world that all these things try to distract us from. Thomson is a great movie fan, with a cheerful insolence about the thing he loves most. Reading this book was like having many stiff drinks with a smart, garrulous fr...

Bought based on NYT book review - which is hit and miss. This one was a miss. Some of the stories on Boggie and Bette were good. But too quick. And you didn’t even get to see a biography of the WARNER Bros. It was like someone said do a short summary of everything - which is what this was. Not a good read.

Not really a biography.It is a psychiatric examination of the Warner movies from 1920 to 1954b by a film critic.Did the movies shape the American phyche or vice-versa.Why do we love gangster movies???

Is this a biography of four brothers (this is the Jewish lives series), the story of a great movie studio, or a work of film criticism that helps us understand what has defined the Warner brand throughout the years? David Thomson can't really make up his mind, and I guess that's why I liked this book so much. Thomson just writes about whatever he finds interesting and hopes we will too.

Thomson is always interesting and has a lot of backstory here on the beginnings of the Warner Brothers studio. Interesting for anyone looking for Hollywood history.

It's interesting to know how these brothers built a great company. They were from polish decent and immigrated to united state. They did not have formal education and at some point they were fostered by their aunties. It was a easy read. The book was focused more on how the brand was made as the title says. 180 pages should not be enough for this story. There were so many characters.

Eh.

I wanted this to be something it was not. It's not a linear narrative on the history of a studio but rather a series of critical essays. Worth knowing this before diving in. I particularly enjoyed the chapter on Bette Davis.My full review here: http://www.outofthepastblog.com/2017/...

In the first few pages I learned a lot about the Warner Brothers themselves. The youth, parents and first productions. The book goes into the stars of the studio. There are specifics but not many. I don’t know why John Wayne avoided Jack Warner. The Jimmy Cagney issues come up. I didn’t know Bette Davis had some fights with the Warners. Bugs Bunny gets a few pages.

Rather than a history of the four brothers Warner and the film studio bearing their name, this slim volume reads more like a valentine to a time (the 1930’s and 1940’s) and a place. It is quite entertaining and a quick read and is highly recommended.

Unfortunately, I was not a fan of Warner Bros: The Making of an American Movie Studio by David Thomson. First, Thomson did not introduce any of the brothers individually; he just jumped right in with talking about the studio. Second, he had to list everyone's ethnicity or nationality before saying anything else about them. Third, he spoiled the entire plot of movies (with no warning) that I had planned on seeing someday. Fourth, he did not go in chronological order - he jumped around from decade...

More of a general overall summation of the Warner Bros history that felt kind of disjointed rather than a specific detailed biography of the brothers proper. Also David Thomson is great i'm sure, but really wish someone else had read this. His tone is slow and dry throated and you can hear him turn pages which is distracting.

This book may have more impact to someone growing up in the 20's and 30's but I found it difficult to get through. While I know Hollywood is VERY Democratic in its politics, it was still very revealing to see the author include Donald Trump's name negatively throughout several chapters in this book. Not sure what that has to do with the Warner Brothers story - but it still seemed rather far afield. There was definitely family history here, but other than detailing many of the Warner Brothers big...

Although I was very interested in reading this book, as some of my favorite films/actors worked for the Warner Bros., I just could not read this book!I barely finished reading the "Introduction," and only because I started to skim the pages; then, I started to skim the pages of the first chapter and finally gave up.What could have been a very interesting story was completely ruined by the author's boring style of writing. He also must have had the option to include many more pictures of the acto...