12 APRIL 1940, Page 30

Hollywood is the Place ! By Charles Landery. (Dent. los.

ed.)

MR. LANDERY'S book is not about the reigning kings and queens of Los Angeles, but chiefly about the humbler studio employees—small-part actors, stand-ins, electricians, and so on —whose lives are for the most part a horrible mixture of suspense and boredom. It is a good book, informative, humorous and well-balanced—unlikely to encourage cinema ambitions in any but the most optimistic, for Mr. Landery describes the working lives of the unsuccessful and the partially successful with grim truthfulness. He is interesting, too, about the social habits of the place—particularly the frantic pursuit of eccentric religious cults. In short, a book which most people would enjoy.