Who the Hell's in It (2004)

It takes Peter Bogdanovich precisely six words before he drops Orson Welles' name in his new tome, Who the Hell's in It, a doorstop-size collection of essays on old film stars like Cary Grant, Jack Lemmon, and Dean Martin. But name-dropping is the book's conceit. Almost every one of these profiles — more like remembrances, really — is inspired by the veteran filmmaker's own encounters with the star in question. Whether the encounters are blinkingly brief (glimpsing Lillian Gish at a 1958 screening) or much more involved (a long Q&A with Jerry Lewis, circa 2000), they usually give Bogdanovich just enough material to make this volume worth a skim. Especially for the four people left on the planet who remember who Lillian Gish was.