This volume provides a history of American cinema from the first of the "talkies" to the decline of the studio system. The largest section of the text covers the giants of American film direction including Welles, Hitchcock, Ford and Hawks, with a film-by-film breakdown of the career of each.

Andrew Sarris has long been one of America's most celebrated writers on film. In this new masterwork he offers a sweeping - and highly personal - history of American film, from the birth of the talkies to the decline of the studio system. Celebrating the work of the great American film directors, offering glowing portraits of major stars, and revealing how each of the studios left its own particular stamp on film, this book represents Sarris's definitive statement on the Hollywood film. Including a fascinating look at film genres - the musical, the screwball comedy, the horror picture, the gangster film, and the western - this book will be recognized as the basic history of American film in the Hollywood studio period.

This book I cannot put down. It is informative, controversial, exciting. Andrew Sarris leads the way in the field of American cinema. He makes you rediscover films you already knew and, best of all, guides you to new discoveries in the treasure trove of the movies' Golden Age. I continue to admire his unique vision.