HOLLYWOOD WIT

Tom Hanks once said he couldn’t give a speech to save his life. Bereft of the fed line, his confidence crumbled. As against that, the effusions in the book you’re now holding manifest a natural wit in most of the speakers. Indeed, if the lines in most of their films were half as good, they might have had even more thriving careers. One is reminded of Sydney Chaplin’s comment on The Countess From Hong Kong, ‘The film was dire but we had a great wrap party. Someone said we should dump the movie and release the party.”