A film hit or miss often forms two sides of the same coin, notes veteran entertainment observer Parish (The Hollywood Book of Scandals
) in this gleefully readable, well-researched study of hubris in Hollywood. Parish's 15 choice box-office busts since 1963's Cleopatra
demonstrate how "the combination of ill-matched personalities and tangled situations can result in chaos during the making of a must-succeed, extremely costly Hollywood feature." Parish's criteria in choosing his stinkers include the toppling of major stars (such as Arnold Schwarzenegger in 1993's frenzied Last Action Hero
); wild overspending and lavish promotion that don't translate into a noteworthy product (Paramount's extravagant 1969 Paint Your Wagon
); and a shaky idea that would never have taken off if not for the overweening enthusiasm of a big name, e.g., Warren Beatty's protracted albatross, Town and Country
(2001). Occasionally, Parish's insider snooping lends some intriguing tidbits, such as the literary history behind the making of Merchant Ivory's 1975 The Wild Party
(starring Raquel Welch) and director Elaine May's costly detail obsession as evidenced by the bulldozing of Moroccan sand dunes for the Beatty-Hoffman loser Ishtar
(1987). While most of these film disasters have been well documented elsewhere, Parish depicts an industry in harrowing transition. Agent, Stuart Bernstein. (Jan.)
