Book Review: Leonard Maltin's Classic Movie Guide (2nd Edition)

This week I received my copy of the 2nd Edition of Leonard Maltin's CLASSIC MOVIE GUIDE. As I posted a few days ago, the book's publication date was moved up from spring to the end of January.

The 1st Edition was published five years ago. This new edition changes the book's cutoff date from 1960 to 1965, which I think is a wise decision. There are a number of times I have started to look up an early '60s movie in the CLASSIC GUIDE and then realized that although I thought of it as an "old" movie, it was released after the book's cutoff date. Movies changed greatly starting in the mid-'60s, when the modern ratings system was introduced, and I think having films from the first half of the '60s included with the "classic" listings makes a great deal of sense.

The book contains approximately 1500 new entries. Of that number, roughly 1200 are titles made between 1961 and 1965 which were moved over from Maltin's annual MOVIE GUIDE.

Additionally, there are approximately 300 brand-new reviews which have never before appeared in one of Mr. Maltin's guides.

I wanted to get a better sense of the new additions so I took the time to research a number of relatively lesser-known titles which I have either seen or recorded over the last couple years. None of these titles had a listing in the 1st Edition of the CLASSIC MOVIE GUIDE.

I looked up 21 titles; of those titles, 9 now have reviews in the new GUIDE. Just under 50% is a nice improvement, although I would have liked to see even more! Perhaps next time around...

To give fellow classic film fans an idea of the kinds of movies now included and not yet in the book, here is the list of films I researched:

Newly Reviewed Titles:

AIR HOSTESS, THE AMAZING MR. WILLIAMS, HULLABALOO, LOVERS COURAGEOUS, MARY STEVENS M.D., MEN ARE SUCH FOOLS, STRAIGHT IS THE WAY, THEIR OWN DESIRE, WASHINGTON MELODRAMA

Titles Not Yet Included:

THE AFFAIRS OF MARTHA, AND SO THEY WERE MARRIED, AS THE EARTH TURNS, DANGEROUS BLONDES, FOUR GIRLS IN WHITE, HOLD THAT KISS, I'LL WAIT FOR YOU, MR. DODD TAKES THE AIR, SORORITY HOUSE, TEAR GAS SQUAD, TWO ALONE, WALKING ON AIR

Thanks to the library at Turner Classic Movies, I've seen and reviewed all but four of the above titles here at Laura's Miscellaneous Musings. The other four were recorded for future viewing.

While I may greedily wish for even more titles to be included or sometimes quibble with Mr. Maltin's ratings (he rated the awful HULLABALOO higher than Robert Montgomery and Madge Evans in the moving LOVERS COURAGEOUS?!), I have relied on Maltin's rating books for quick reference since I was a teenager.

Maltin's work is absolutely indispensable, and this new edition of the CLASSIC MOVIE GUIDE is most highly recommended.

September 2015 Update: Please visit my review of the 3rd (and Final) Edition of LEONARD MALTIN'S CLASSIC MOVIE GUIDE.

As a postscript, three more titles from the above list were inclued in the 3rd Edition: THE AFFAIRS OF MARTHA, AND SO THEY WERE MARRIED, and TEAR GAS SQUAD.