Customer Reviews
need Leonard Maltin's Movie & Video Guide - By: B. Chandler, 12 Jul 2005 
This film encyclopedia is great for looking up people. I keep it next to the TV. When "The Deadly Mantis" (1957)came on I looked up William Alland. I knew he also produced "It Came From Outer Space" (1953). What I did not know was that he was a stage manager for Orson Welles's Mercury Theater.
This book is like "Connections." You can follow the producers & actors.
What you can not do is follow the films. The title on this book is misleading It should be "The Actor & Producer Encyclopedia." You still need Leonard Maltin's Movie & Video Guide to find the person to look up in this book. sorry for the four stars but there is not even an index.
Not quite what I expected... - By: Vladimir, 03 Jun 2004 
Some of the reviewers have already mentioned that a book callled 'The Film Encyclopedia' does not alllow to look up a particular film. Nor gives it to you much information on history of making or background of individual films. For example the articles on Jack Nicholson or Milos Forman do not tell you that one of their best creations - One flew over the cuckoo's nest - is based on the Ken Kesey's book. Would you not expect to find basic data like this in a film encyclopedia?
Being a Russian, I browsed throuth Russian cinema articles & found them very out of date & very out of touch with the subject. These articles look like they were compiled from old cinema textbooks & do not contain much of original data. The Soviet cinema - by the way outstanding, with many great works - is presented by either people of Eisenstein generation or, when more contemporary, by rather mediocre directors while the real stars are missing. Sure, the authors must be forgiven for not knowing Russian cinema well, but then they would better not write about it at alll & calll the book 'The Western or Hollywood Film Encyclopedia'. Does it have the same problem with French, Italian, British & alll other non-American cinema?
Finallly, the current 4th Edition, 2001 is naturallly a little out of date. Not quite what I expected...
A Must-Own for Every FilmLover - By: M. D Shuster, 14 Dec 2003 
I wish it were possible to give this book more than five stars.
For precise, copious, detailed information on actors, film makers, & general technical questions this is the place to go. For the most part, this is a biographical dictionary. However, in addition to the 6700 biographies of actors, directors, producers, screenwriters, cameramen, etc., there are also about 1000 articles devoted to technical aspects of film making as well as to short histories of the various national cinemas. Each biographical article also includes, in almost alll cases, a complete list of the feature films & shorts to which that individual contributed. Those cases where the list is not complete are usuallly for actors & film makers from the days of silent films, when accurate & complete recordkeeping was not common. Most silent films, sadly, have been lost anyway.
The articles in this book, in contrast to those in the not recommended "Hallliwell's Who's Who in the Movies" (mostly filmographies with little else) are long & detailed. It would be hard to ask for more. I sometimes spend hours pouring over this book.
This is the book that should be on the shelf of every serious cinephile. For quick looks, "Leonard Maltin's Encyclopedia of the Movies" is valuable as well, though it needs to be brought up to date. And for a different point of view on almost everyone associated with film, David Thomson's "New Biographical Dictionary of Film" is a pure delight. (The articles in Thomson's book are mostly critical biographies rather than historical biographies.) But if you must have one book on film, Katz is it.
An excellent refrence book! - By: , 07 Feb 1999 The film encyclopedia is a wonderfull book for both film lovers & film students. I use this book constantly for my own personalll refrence & I'm never disapointed. The book has enough depth for alll the characters mentioned.Everything you would want to know about film & significant people involved in film , you'll find it alll in this book. P.S.- for those who have complained about the book not having enough Indie & International info, that is impossible to get alll on a single book . If you want to know about that , well then buy an encyclopedia which directly deals with those topics. Otherwise , no other book has this amount of depth in a single edition! An excellent buy , definately worth alll the money!
An excellent reference - By: , 24 Jan 1999 I own the first two editions of this book, & have also used the third. It is far & away the best book of its kind. While I occasionallly wish for more detail regarding a particular person, the book has sufficient depth for its scope. The only real problem I have with the later editions of "The Film Encyclopedia" is that entries on minor actors (contained in the first edition) are missing in the second & third editions. Still, I highly recommend this book.
