Leonard Maltin's Classic Movie Guide: From the Silent Era Through 1965, Second Edition

Very pleased with this book. Gives details of director and actors and a brief description of movie - however, wish he would keep is comments on whether it was good, bad or silly movie to himself - everyone has different tastes. Have discovered that some movies in this period may not be in this book, but can sometime shows up in his other book up to current date. This can be disappointing as you need to have both books. Also instead of realeasing a new book from 1966 onwards he tends to add next five years to existing book and you have to then re-purshase(This book was originally up to 1960, but in 2011 he added another five years). My advise - wait for a few years and when it gets to 1980 then buy it.

Very nice. indispensable. Note that Maltin's crew of critics rate movies too harshly.

Nearly indispensable guide to older movies, that for example display on Turner Classic Movies (although TCM shows some newer movies also). Reviews of such movies are hard to find elsewhere, and are often absent even from Maltin's annual product. I say "Nearly" indispensable because these same reviews are often provided by TCM with its comprehensive listings at its website. New readers should note that Maltin uses his own system of alphabetizing, unique as far as I know to him. It's not hard to grasp but a problem for anyone unaware of it, who could easily miss some reviews on this account.

This book is praised as head and shoulders above the rest... it's a very good guide, but for this type of book, there simply isn't any other book in it's class. If you love old movies, there is simply no other comparable reference. I love old movies, and if you like the ones on TCM, this book is made for you. Still, I wish there were more reviews of older cheezy sci-fi movies from the 50's. There are simply some old sci-fi movies I watched as a kid that I can't find any more. If you are like me and want to archive hundreds of older movies, this guide is a cheap investment.

This is a great help when one wants to learn more about a film that is coming up on TV or when one had just seen it. It is very useful when one wants to identify an actor in a film one has seen. I still find some films I wish to know more about aren't listed, but this does cover a tremendous array of films, including some foreign classics.

11/29/2013 1:44pm Leonard's Classic Movie Guide Leonard Maltin has moved a lot of films over to this edition from the Leonard Maltin's Movie Guide, the main book and the primary movie guide. I've been buying his Movie Guide for 40 years, so I had to have this as a companion to the Main Movie Guide. I wish he wouldn't duplicate films from both books, this book is for older films, which I prefer, I was born in the wrong era. Anyone who has Maltin's Movie Guide should also have this one.

Maltin's guide is a must for any classic film buff. After all, the reviews in this book are being used for the films shown on the Turner Classic Movie channel. I have the first edition of this guide and have used it faithfully to decide what to watch on TCM. It is a bit dog-eared now, so I am pleased to have the updated version, especially since it includes about a thousand more film reviews than its predecessor. This is the guide that deserves to be within hand's reach from the television chair.

Back in 2005 when Leonard Maltin published the first edition of his "Classic Movie Guide", he noted in the foreward that it contained over 1,000 new reviews of pre-1960 films that had begun to show up on DVD and cable channels like Turner Classic Movies, Fox Movie Channel and (Encore) Westerns. He especially trumpeted the addition of many B Westerns, including the complete filmographies of Roy Rogers, Gene Autry, and Hopalong Cassidy. Sure enough, glancing through the book, I noticed that it was heavily weighted toward the "sagebrush sagas" of the 1930's and 1940's, while missing some key "A" titles from the same decades. But Mr. Maltin promised that this fledgling effort would be freshened and updated in five years time; accordingly, I simply took him at his word, was grateful for the first edition, and began eagerly awaiting 2010 and the arrival of the second edition. Well, it's here. But unfortunately, it definitely was not worth the wait. Sure it covers over 1,500 more films than the first edition - but according to Mr. Maltin himself, over 1,200 of the so-called "new" entries are the result of films from 1961 through 1965 being transferred to this book from his annual "Movie Guide". Just over 300 of the reviews in this second edition are genuinely new material that was previously unavailable elsewhere. Divided into five years, that only comes out to 5 fresh reviews a month - which is only a problem because there are dozens and dozens of older films resurfacing on DVD, cable, and the new DVD-R "manufactured on demand" programs like the Warner Archives, the MGM / Amazon exclusives, and the newly announced Universal MOD series. At best, this second incarnation of Maltin's "Classic Movie Guide" isn't keeping up with the market. Among the missing are such titles as "The Locked Door", Barbara Stanwyck's first talkie which has been rotating fairly frequently on TCM's schedule; "The Ruling Voice", a fascinating Warner's crime drama starring Walter Huston and Loretta Young; early films currently available from The Warner Archives such as "The Flying Fleet", "Let Us Be Gay", and "Son of the Gods"; "The Perfect Clue", one of many "lost" films now found and available on DVD from companies like Alpha Video ... the casualty list goes on and on. Of course, not every title can or should be included in a reasonably sized and priced volume like the "Classic Movie Guide". But still, one is left to wonder ... are more readers going to be looking for information about "A Ship Comes In", for which Louise Dresser was nominated for the first Best Actress Oscar, and is not included - or for "Hear Me Good", a 1957 turkey that is included? The bottom line - if you have the "Classic Movie Guide", first edition, think twice before you "upgrade". If you don't have a copy of the original, then go ahead and pick up the 2010 version. It's obviously not perfect, but depite its flaws, it's still the best mass market single-volume guide to the classics that's currently available. I give it **1/2 stars.