Out of print for more than 30 years, now available for the first time as an eBook, this is the controversial story of John Wooden's first 25 years and first 8 NCAA Championships as UCLA Head Basketball Coach. This is the only book that gives a true picture of the character of John Wooden and the influence of his assistant, Jerry Norman, whose contributions Wooden  ignored and tried to bury.

Compiled with more than 40 hours of interviews with Coach Wooden, learn about the man behind the coach. The players tell their stories in their own words.

Click the book to read the first chapter and for ordering information. Also available on Kindle.

Thumbnails Oct 18

by Tony Medley

Love, Gilda (9/10): A fascinating portrait of Gilda Radner who rose to the heights from nowhere, it starts with her as a little girl, progresses through her days with Second City in Chicago and then the big break with Lorne Michaels and SNL. Told with archival clips and interviews with lots of contemporaries and people who were influenced by her, like Chevy Chase, Michaels, Laraine Newman, Paul Shafer, former boyfriend Martin Short, Melissa McCarthy, and many more, including archival footage of her second husband, the late Gene Wilder. The only negative is that there is only one short clip of her hilarious Roseanne Roseannadanna character. Even so, it’s a terrific documentary.

Making Montgomery Clift (9/10): Montgomery Clift was an impossibly handsome man who was a terrific actor but whose life was turned upside down by his dealing with the fact that he was gay. Despite that, he was a single-minded person who knew what he wanted and didn’t make compromises, as this film shows with archival films and interviews with a few, mostly Jack Larson who played Jimmy Olsen in the laughable Superman TV series that ran from 1952-58. This is a fascinating look at an enigmatic Hollywood character who turns out to have been a lot more complex than one might have imagined.

White Boy Rick (9/10): Grabbing me from the outset, although filmed in Cleveland, cinematographer Tat Radcliffe and Production Designer Stefania Cella brilliantly reproduced the stagnating atmosphere of Detroit in the 1980s. This unique ambience is an essential character in the movie about a young FBI informant turned drug dealer. This film clearly has a POV; however I am not convinced. It is undisputed that after he was an informant he became a big time drug dealer. The movie, which takes the position that he was railroaded and left out to dry by his law enforcement handlers, pretty much glosses over that fact.

The Children Act (8/10): Contrasting Emma Thompson's certitude as a Judge with her indecisiveness in her personal life, and bolstered by outstanding performances by Thompson, Fionn Whitehead, and Stanley Tucci, the movie never lags.

Colette (8/10): This is a biopic of the French writer Collette (Keira Knightley) whose quality is more than a sum of its parts. For me, the best of it is the cinematography (Giles Nuttgens). The locales are so beautifully framed and shot that many of the scenes could stand as magnificent oil paintings. The story and acting are excellent, but the visual values blew me away.

The Guilty (8/10): Danish police officer Asger Holm (Jakob Decergren) has been demoted to work as an emergency dispatcher. Then he gets a frantic call from a woman who has been kidnapped. Confined to the police station and anchored to his desk and earphones, Asger tries to help her through calls to and from her and other police bureaus, including his partner. Brilliantly directed with fine pace and tension by Gustav Moller, this is a spellbinding thriller that never leaves Asger’s desk. Asger has problems of his own, too. It’s hard to believe that watching a man speak on the phone for 84 minutes could be this entrancing. In Danish.

Moynihan (7/10): Daniel Patrick Moynihan was the only politician who answered questions “yes” and “no.” No equivocating. He said what he believed and torpedoes be dammed. I liked him even though I rarely agreed with his positions. This documentary captures him well (although not showing his candor in interviews) and shows that he was right on some major issues.

Peppermint (5/10): This is a revenge action genre movie and action genres apparently have rules, one of which is: make it absurd. They followed the rules.

The Sisters Brothers (5/10): Despite good acting, locations, and cinematography, this over-long, talky western with a title that is too cute by half is yet another movie that aggrandizes and minimizes brutal violence that desensitizes impressionable viewers to what should be avert-your-eyes scenes, while making it a huge part of the movie.

The House With a Clock in its Walls (3/10): Warlock/witch fantasy nonsense.