An informative study of the lives and contributions to the movie business of the many, and sometimes distinguished, writers who stood out of the limelight in Hollywood and rarely received fair credit. Amongst them were Scott Fitzgerald, William Faulkner, Aldous Huxley and Nathaniel West. Promising a new view of movie history--through the eyes of its screenwriters--Hamilton instead has produced a pastiche of tales: about successful screenwriters (Anita Loos, Dalton Trumbo), successful novelists who failed as screenwriters (Fitzgerald, Faulkner), blacklisted writers (the Hollywood Ten), and frustrated screenwriters (Ben Hecht, Herman J. Mankiewicz). Anyone who has perused a smattering of film histories will be familiar with most of this material, and even though the author attempts to sort out several writer controversies, e.g., who wrote Citizen Kane , there's not much focus and precious little new insight here. -Thomas Wiener, formerly with "American Film," Washington, D.C. Copyright 1990 Reed Business Information, Inc.