In the original dustsheet. Black cloth binding with gilt title on the spine.

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Tony Curtis is famous for his roles in films such as “Sweet Smell of Success”, “Some Like It Hot” and “The Boston Strangler”. He is also renowned for saying that kissing Marilyn Monroe was “like kissing Hitler”. In this autobiography, the reader can follow his fortunes from life in a New York street gang in the 1930s to the bath scene with Olivier in “Spartacus”, from marriage to Janet Leigh, to his descent into alcohol and cocaine addiction in the 1970s. It contains many previously unpublished film stills, production shots and personal snaps.

Review: I saw Tony Curtis in an interview with Pamela Stephenson in her profession as a psychologist. I was spellbound by him and by his physique, as I remembered him as the handsome actor I’d watched in films and on TV years before. As with Rock Hudson the eyes never belie the person however old you get. I wanted to read his full story. It takes a bit of getting used to the style of writing, but what comes through is what an amazing and real person he is. For all his faults you just can’t help loving him just as we love our fallible friends and relations (and selves!). My daughter bought me the newer edition in hardback because I’d praised this so highly. Recommended reading.

Review: What a courageously written book this is. I don’t necessarily agree with all of Mr. Curtis’s candidly expressed opinions, but I’ve never read a movie memoir that was so openly honest. It’s very difficult in our society to transcend social strictures against open vanity, regardless of how well deserved. It’s also open about sexuality in surprising ways. Mr. Curtis speaks as freely about his foibles and problems as he does about his extraordinarily handsome face, which Edward G. Robinson, quoted in the book, called his sonne punim in Yiddish (beautiful face). I grew up watching TC’s films and have an original lobby card from “The Great Imposter” on my movie wall. His “Houdini” was among my favorite films when I first began going to them alone, as were his swashbucklers and later, his dramatic roles. I still think he’s one of the most underrated actors of his era. He deserved the Oscar for “Sweet Smell of Success.” I think eventually this book will be recognized as a unique classic among movie memoirs. It’s remarkable for its fidelity to the truth as TC saw it as opposed to the fictions penned by so many others. It’s long past time to give this man some sort of major industry award. Just a note: his more recent autobiography changes his attitude toward some previous statements and events related in this version: most particularly, his relationship with Marilyn Monroe, in which he says kissing her was wonderful, not “like kissing Hitler,” an offhand remark he made not long after “Some Like it Hot” was made.