Though I know some people dislike him as much as others love him, I have to say that, for myself personally, no film historian better captures the love and exhiliration that can be felt from watching a truly wonderful movie. In his writings, Danny Peary has always proven himself to be not only a student of films but also a fan. And yes, there is a huge difference! Peary came to prominence with his three Cult Film books. Cult Film Stars provides a great companion for those books and is a lot of fun on its own as well. Cult Film Stars is a thick compilation of entries, listing names from the expected (Pam Grier, Sonny Chiba, Klaus Kinski) to the unexpected (John Wayne, long though of so mainstream but Peary wonderfully shows how Wayne is almost as important as cult star as say Ed Wood's infamous friend Dudley Manlove). Along with listing each star's important films, Peary crams each entry full of interesting and often humorous facts and observations. This books works as a great introduction to films that many might otherwise have not heard of. I was still in high school when it first came out and just starting to discover how much I truly loved film. It was from this book that I first found out about such really cool (sorry if I sounded juvenile there but there's no better way to put it really) people like Pam Grier, Terrence Hill, and Toshiro Mifune. His entries on Kay Lenz, Meg Foster, and Karen Allen helped me to discover such unsung entertainments as Breezy, Ticket to Heaven, and The Wanderers respectively. A really great book for any film fanatic. However, keep in mind, the book was also published a decade ago. Some of the information will be dated but none the less interesting.
