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I Thought We Were Making Movies, Not History by Walter Mirisch, 449 pages. The University of Wisconsin Press, $29.95
To the public mind, Hollywood producers are for the most part nondescript characters, accountant types who wear business suits and thickframed glasses. One rarely sees them except when they go on stage to receive an Academy Award. But the stereotype belies the fact that the ordeal of producing a movie can be every bit as dramatic as the movie plot itself.
In his new memoir, / Thought We Were Making Movies, Not History, award-winning producer Walter Mirisch offers a rare producer's-eyeview behind the scenes at the making of some of Hollywood's most famous films during one of Hollywood's golden eras. Mirisch produced such classics as In the Heat of the Night, West Side Story, Fiddler on the Roof, The Magnificent Seven, The Pink Panther, and Some Like it hot. That he survived the stress to reach his present 86 years is a tribute to a hardy nature.
From his first successful series, Bomba the Jungle Boy (produced from 1949 to 1955 for Monogram Pictures, a provider of such...