People Will Talk

Kobal's new book should be embraced as enthusiastically as The Art of the Great Hollywood Portrait Photographers and his other bestsellers on aspects of film. Here are interviews with 42 people who represent the movies' golden, influential agethe 1920s through the 1940sand who express personal, sometimes arguable opinions on life in the sternly run studios. Oddly enough, the collection includes the thoughts of only one male star, Joel McCrea, but his anecdotes tell of intriguing dimensions in other memorable leading men of his time. The spotlight remains, for the most part, on the women immortalized on the screen. The book's plentiful photos remind one of the famous words uttered by Kobal's first subject, Gloria Swanson: ""We had faces then.'' Joan Crawford, Katharine Hepburn, Louise Brooks, Joan Blondell, Barbara Stanwyck and many other unforgettables speak their minds on their work and their relations with each other. So do eminent directors, choreographers, scriptwriters and costume designers. The result is an unusually appealing, informative volume by an author whose articulate and stylish writing frequently reveals more than do the accounts of his glamorous respondents. January 30