High Society

March 29, 2010
In bringing noted film historian Spoto's biography of the late actress and monarch to life, George K. Wilson takes a natural, understated, unfussy approach in keeping with Kelly's own performing technique. Given Spoto's background, it comes as no surprise that the material focuses largely on Kelly's professional career, downplaying salacious elements of her celebrity. Wilson, therefore, must confine his displays of emotional fire to a few key points along the journey. Noteworthy characterizations include the legendary director Alfred Hitchcock—who viewed Kelly as his muse—in all of his gruff eccentricity and the brilliant but notoriously tyrannical filmmaker John Ford. Wilson also scores in his portrayal of Kelly's demanding parents, who discouraged her interest in show business. A Harmony hardcover (Reviews, July 13).

July 13, 2009
Noted film biographer Spoto (Spellbound by Beauty
) gives readers a previously unseen glimpse into the life of Grace Kelly (1929–1982), who went from Academy Award–winning actress to princess of Monaco. Drawing on hours of personal interviews with Kelly as well as with her numerous co-stars including Cary Grant and James Stewart, Spoto traces the star's life from her childhood in a wealthy Philadelphia neighborhood through her brief but noteworthy career in Hollywood to her years as the wife of Monaco's Prince Rainer. Kelly attended the American Academy of Dramatic Arts in Manhattan, where she developed a love of theater, nurtured by her uncle, the actor and playwright George Kelly. Though she spent less than seven years in Hollywood, Kelly became an icon of the era. Spoto, as an expert in the films of Alfred Hitchcock and one of the late director's few confidantes, spends considerable time revisiting the trio of films Kelly made with the master of suspense: Dial M for Murder
(1953), Rear Window
(1954) and To Catch a Thief
(1955). Though she admitted to missing acting, Kelly settled into her life as a royal, raising three children until her death in a car crash. Cinephiles will love Spoto's insider look at Hollywood in the 1950s, and even those unfamiliar with Kelly's films will be drawn to the author's warm and generous portrayal of a woman who was more than a pretty face.