'Film Journal': new review of "Three Hollywood Stalwarts in Literature"

We are pleased to announce that Three Hollywood Stalwarts in Literature by Henryk Hoffmann has been reviewed by Roman Kopytko and published in the ''Film Journal' (Online) 11 | 2025:

[…] Clearly, both the scope of the project and the amount of the collected and examined data is impressive. Hoffmann offers a convincing contextual interpretation and explanation of the reasons for the uses of the movie references in modern literature. At the same time, he proposes a specific method of investigating the interrelations between film and literature based on the study of film-and-actor references in the works of modern writers. Three Hollywood Stalwarts in Literature is addressed to a wide range of readers, such as average filmgoers, movie buffs, film students, film historians and literary scholars. […] A good read with indisputable educational values, the book should also encourage readers to reach for some of the films and literary works discussed in it. […]

[Extract from book review on the 'Film Journal' (Online) 11 | 2025. Reviewer: Roman Kopytko. https://doi.org/10.4000/15gwj]

Find out more about the book and order your copy here: Three Hollywood Stalwarts in Literature

This book focuses on the perception of the names, personae, performances and films of three Hollywood megastars, Gregory Peck, Robert Mitchum and William Holden, as presented in the references and allusions encountered in American and foreign literature. Its secondary aim is to establish the ‘impact factor’ of the three actors and their major films and provide extensive data for further studies on the complex and bilateral relationships between film and literature.

The pertinent quotations in ‘Three Hollywood Stalwarts in Literature: A Study in Film Perception Through References to Peck, Mitchum and Holden’ have been extracted from nearly 220 works by about 140 authors. The majority of the works were written by acclaimed authors; amongst them are some well-known American mainstream writers such as John Updike, John Irving, Fannie Flagg and Anne Tyler; some leaders of the mystery genre include Martha Grimes, Stuart Kaminsky, Elmore Leonard, Sara Paretsky; and a few masters of other popular genres, such as Stephen King and Dean Koontz. The global flavor of the citations is provided by international authors (e.g., Julio Cortázar, Elizabeth Hay, Henri Charrière, Sebastien Japrisot) and authors born to first-generation U.S. immigrants (e.g., Oscar Hijuelos). Almost seventy films referenced in world literature are discussed in the book, and those mentioned in the biggest number of works include ‘Sunset Boulevard’, ‘The Wild Bunch’, ‘To Kill a Mockingbird’, ‘Roman Holiday’, ‘Spellbound’, ‘The Guns of Navarone’, and ‘Duel in the Sun’, among others.

This book will appeal to college professors and students interested in film studies, specifically film analysis and criticism, film perception, and film genres. It will also hold interest for the general reader interested in biographies of movie personalities and the careers of the three actors, movie and stage actors, and fans of the western, film noir, and war genres.

Title Three Hollywood Stalwarts in Literature [Hardback]
Subtitle A Study in Film Perception Through References to Peck, Mitchum and Holden
Edition 1st
ISBN 978-1-64889-288-2
Published in March 2022