Applause Books

Britcoms FAQ is a sweeping survey of the very best in British television comedy, from the early days of 1950s television, and the rise of Tony Hancock, through the golden age of Monty Python, Are You Being Served?, and Steptoe and Son – featuring the madcap comic geniuses of the 1980s – to the modern age of Absolutely Fabulous, Coupling, Red Dwarf, and more.

For more than a century, directors from both sides of the border have chosen Mexico as the location to create their cinematic art, leaving an indelible imprint on the imaginations of moviegoers and filmmakers worldwide. Now, for the first time, Made in Mexico: Hollywood South of the Border presents a comprehensive examination of more than one hundred Hollywood theatrical feature films made in Mexico between 1914 and the present day.

Looking for a comprehensive chronicle of the films of legendary director, screenwriter, and producer John Hughes? You’re holding it in your hands. Covering the entirety of Hughes's career, from his earliest features through to his mainstream box-office successes, John Hughes FAQ explores the key factors that contributed to his legendary status in the world of cinema.

Oh Hai! The Room: The Definitive Guide is the ultimate key to the biggest pop culture phenomenon of the 21st century, Tommy Wiseau's The Room. Arguably the worst film of all time and certainly one of the most beguiling, the masterpiece of so-bad-it's-good filmmaking has grown since its release in 2003 to become one of the most popular theatrical releases of all time, with an extremely loyal and vocal fan base.

After scores of books and commentaries on film noir and its classic period, experts Alain Silver and James Ursini turn their full attention to neo-noir, the self-conscious, mannered, sometimes ersatz, and often surprising genre that sprang from the original movement. This volume surveys the full breath of American neo-noir, its style and substance, its evolution over succeeding generations of filmmakers, from activist through postmodern to millennial and on, with extensive illustrations in black-and-white and full-color that capture the genre's dramatic and visual essence.

Ni! Peng! Nee-wom! Applause Theatre & Cinema Books, revered and august publisher of weighty tomes on all things histrionic, is proud to present Monty Python FAQ: All That's Left to Know About Spam, Grails, Spam, Nudging, Bruces, and Spam, the only 127% unauthorized guide to the greatest comedy troupe to ever feature Graham Chapman, John Cleese, Terry Gilliam, Eric Idle, Terry Jones, and Michael Palin, to what is doubtlessly an astute and discerning global audience! Written in Applause's popular FAQ format, this behemoth pack a broad range of historical trivia, trivial history, illicit paraphernalia, and sophomoric overeducation into a tastefully apportioned ranged of eminently readable, silly-walk-accessible chapters sure to delight Python newcomers and veterans alike.

Sellers' fluidity as an actor made for a terrifying madness that grew like a slow metastasizing cancer throughout his adult life. The story of Peter Sellers concludes with his premature death at the age of 54, “sick at heart and alone in those sunless hotel rooms ” so recoiled from intimacy that no one really knew him anymore.

This startling, intimate biography of James Stewart frankly reveals with new facts and discovers a fully dimensional view of this revered figure and consummate American icon. Shrewd, self-protective, financially astute, the James Stewart that Mr. Quirk uncovers was no bumbling naive Mr. Smith, but a Man of the World.

Based on his own experience and the teachings of his celebrated but distant father, Lee, Strasberg defines the talent of becoming real in a role. He surveys the traditional partition between life and theatre and urges us to make it a dynamic living membrane through which vital elements may pass. John Strasberg has written his own intensely personal story about his father's work and the Strasberg dynasty. It is a painful odyssey during which he relives the often demanding role he played as son to a man who was the central father figure to a generation of American actors.

If Elvis Presley had not wanted to be a movie star, he would never have single-handedly revolutionized popular culture. Yet this aspect of his phenomenal career has been much maligned and misunderstood – partly because the King himself once referred to his 33 movies as a rut he had got stuck in just off Hollywood Boulevard. Elvis Films FAQ explores his best and worst moments as an actor, analyzes the bizarre autobiographical detail that runs through so many of his films, and reflects on what it must be like to be idolized by millions around the world yet have to make a living singing about dogs, chambers of commerce, and fatally naive shrimps.

No doubt about it, New York City is the pop culture capital of the world. And for good reason. Movies, TV shows, iconic photographs, works of literature, landmark buildings, amazing sculptures, and historic cultural events – they all happen here. While other NYC guidebooks can get you to Central Park, they won't tell you where in the park to find the exact spots where over a hundred of your favorite movies were filmed or dozens of famous album covers were shot. That's why every pop-culture-loving explorer needs a copy of this one-of-a-kind treasure map to all the famous places you've heard or read about over the years.

Over the last eighty years, Marlon Brando has become such an object of fascination, buried under so many accreted layers of mythos and half-truth, that it is all but impossible to see the man behind the icon. As we approach the centennial of this undisputed American legend, Marlon Brando: Hollywood Rebel isa revelatory biography that tells its story the same way the man himself approached a role: from the inside.