BIG BOSOMS AND SQUARE JAWS - Jimmy McDonough
Jonathan Cape

As mentioned in our review of The Very Breast of Russ Meyer, biographies of the director are coming thick and fast since his death. This hefty volume, clocking in at 463 pages, can claim to be the most exhaustive, and is certainly the only one which I'd suggest is essential.
McDonough - who had previously bio'd zero budget sleaze hack Andy Milligan - offers not only a solid look at Meyer's entire career - including his more obscure, lost titles - but also goes into detail of his background, family life, various love affairs and slow demise. It's interesting that, given his high profile, Meyer's private life was generally unexplored by writers before, and all this information - backed up with interviews with everyone from old army buddies to cast and crew - is fascinating.
Those of you strictly interested in the movies will find plenty of meat to get your teeth into here - each movie is covered in detail, with intriguing anecdotes and humorous tales from those involved. Meyer certainly sounds a hard taskmaster from these stories, and McDonough - although an enthusiastic fan - never shies away from criticising films he thinks are not up to scratch.
The story of Meyer's decline through Alzheimer's is predictably depressing, and McDonough - although staying even handed - makes it clear that his business has been hijacked by a bunch of chancers with no interest in his legacy or his work. The fact that old friends and lovers were slowly removed from his life by RM Films staff - who were effectively running Meyer's whole existence by that point - is tragic. These people put their arguments in the book, but the fact that Meyer's work is so badly represented (in terms of quality and quantity) in the USÑspeaks volumes. Given his obsessive eye for quality and detail, one can only imagine that Meyer is spinning in his grave at the way his work has been treated.
If you are a Meyer fan, this book is a must. If you are a curious beginner, it's a gripping, entertaining autobiography of one of the true mavericks of American cinema.

DAVID FLINT

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