An Update on The Fractured Mirror, My Upcoming Book

I have devoted a good chunk of the last seven year and a half years of my career to an exhaustive deep dive into the fascinating, revelatory world of movies about the film industry for The Fractured Mirror. 

The Fractured Mirror began life as a TCM Backlot column back in 2015, when the world was a more innocent place and the idea that Donald Trump would soon become the most powerful man in the world was still inconceivable. It moved to Nathan Rabin’s Happy Place last year.

Last year I also decided to make The Fractured Mirror my ninth book. So I have spent the last eight months or so binging as many movies about movies as possible, generally after my wife has fallen asleep or my children are away. 

I recently reached a milestone in the wildly ambitious project when I watched and wrote up my two hundredth film so I figured I would give you an update on a massive tome that represents a huge part of my 2023 plans. 

When I was conceptualizing The Fractured Mirror I saw it as an opportunity to delve deep into one of my long-standing obsessions. I’ve always loved movies about the film industry because of what they say about how Hollywood sees itself and its endless, alternating currents of self-aggrandizement and self-deprecation.

But movies about the film industry are also inherently about the horrors and wonders of capitalism, the eternal war between art and commerce and the wonderful, ridiculous city of Los Angeles and its residents.

I went in seeing this rich sub-genre as an ongoing reflection of the movie world’s bottomless self-obsession that spawned some masterpieces but also a lot of self-indulgent, narcissistic hogwash. 

While this field is certainly not devoid of navel-gazing nonsense it’s far richer, deeper and more honest than I could have imagined. 

I came to bury these films. Instead I find myself praising them. 

Even when the movies I’ve been watching and writing about the for the book, my site’s Patreon account and the people who have pre-ordered The Fractured Mirror through Backerkit or Kickstarter have been less than stellar the stories behind them have been fascinating. 

I get to share these crazy, terrible, amazing, revealing movies with you through the book and the column but also, just as importantly, the stories behind them as well. 

For example, I’m currently in a Jean Harlow/Howard Hughes side-quest that’s way crazier and more compelling than I anticipated. I learned, for example, that two Jean Harlow biopics both named Harlow were released a mere five weeks apart. 

The splashier and more entertaining of the two is a big-budget, handsomely mounted Joseph E. Levine-produced Technicolor extravaganza starring Carroll Baker, who just a year earlier starred as a Jean Harlow-like movie star in The Carpetbaggers, another Jospeh E. Levine extravaganza, this one an adaptation of Harold Robbins Roman a clef about Harlow’s star-maker Howard Hughes and, to a much lesser extent, Learjet founder Bill Lear. 

That means that in the space of fifteen months three separate films were released about Jean Harlow, two of which were produced by Joseph Levine and starred Carroll Baker as Jean Harlow and featured characters based on Howard Hughes played by George Peppard and Leslie Nielsen. 

Carol Lynley plays Jean Harlow in the third movie about her from the mid-1960s, which is notable primarily for its relationship with Levine’s classier but still sleazy take on the material and for being shot in the doomed, maddening format of Electronovision.

In Electronovision, a project was shot on high end videotaped and then transferred to film via a Kinescope, to give it the migraine-inducing look of an early black and white live television broadcast. 

These movies are fascinating to me for the many, many ways in which they overlap and reflect each other at odd angles but also for their rancid misogyny and fierce hatred and fear of Jean Harlow and any woman who is boldly, unapologetically sexual in a society that hates and fears sexually aggressive women and always has. 

I’m going to be writing up either three hundred or three hundred and fifty films for The Fractured Mirror. I had originally planned to write up 300 movies because that seemed like a nice, large, round number but I suspect that when I approach that goal there will still be movies left for me to write about for the book.

That’s partially because they never stop releasing new movies about the movie business, including big new ones like The Fabelmans, Blonde and Babylon but also because OVER a CENTURY of movies about movies is a lot of ground to cover. 

My original goal was to write up pretty much every American movie about the film business but that’s going to be impossible so my new goal is to offer an exhaustive exploration of the field. 

I’m very happy with what I have so far and where I’m headed and I’m feeling very confident about being about to publish The Fractured Mirror in July or August of 2023 so I invite you to join the ride by pledging to the site’s Patreon, where I am posting all of the new entries I’m writing up for the book or by pre-ordering it through Backerkit. 

We’re having a whole lot of fun and in some ways we’ve only just gotten started! If nothing else I still have more Hughes and Harlow to cover and they represent just a tiny fraction of the weird, wild and sometimes wonderful movies I’ll be covering. What else will I be writing up? I’m glad you asked. Here’s what I have so far. 

Movies I have written about for The Fractured Mirror 

  1. Abbott and Costello in Hollywood 

  2. Abbott and Costello Meet the Keystone Cops 

  3. Adaptation 

  4. Affairs of Annabel 

  5. An Alan Smithee Film! Burn, Hollywood Burn! 

  6. The Amateurs 

  7. American Movie 

  8. America’s Sweethearts 

  9. Annabel Takes a Tour 

  10. The Assistants 

  11. Baadassss! 

  12. The Bad and the Beautiful 

  13. Barton Fink 

  14. Be Kind Rewind

  15. Behind the Mask: The Rise of Leslie Vernon 

  16. Big Fat Liar 

  17. The Big Knife 

  18. The Big Picture 

  19. Blow Out 

  20. Bowinger 

  21. Brutal Massacre 

  22. The Bubble 

  23. The Buster Keaton Story 

  24. Bucky Larson: Born to be a Star 

  25. The Cameraman 

  26. The Canyons 

  27. The Carpetbaggers 

  28. Cats Don’t Dance 

  29. Cecil B. Demented 

  30. Chip N Dale: Rescue Rangers 

  31. Chump Change 

  32. Cold Souls 

  33. The Comeback Trail 

  34. The Comic 

  35. CQ 

  36. Confessions of an Action Star 

  37. Crazy House 

  38. Dangerous Game 

  39. Danny Roane: First Time Director 

  40. The Day of the Locust 

  41. The Deal 

  42. The Death of “Superman Lives” What Happened? 

  43. Destroyer 

  44. Directed by John Ford 

  45. Director’s Cut 

  46. The Disaster Artist 

  47. Dragon: The Bruce Lee Story 

  48. Ellie Parker 

  49. Entourage 

  50. The Errand Boy 

  51. The Fanatic 

  52. Fedora 

  53. Finding Bliss 

  54. Finishing the Game 

  55. For Your Consideration 

  56. Four Girls in Town 

  57. Free and Easy 

  58. Get Shorty 

  59. Gods and Monsters 

  60. The Goldwyn Follies 

  61. Hail Caesar! 

  62. The Hard Way 

  63. Harlow 

  64. Harlow

  65. The Hearts of the West 

  66. Hellzapoppin’ 

  67. He’s Way More Famous Than You 

  68. Hollywon’t 

  69. Hollywood & Wine 

  70. Hollywood Boulevard 

  71. Hollywood Cavalcade 

  72. Hollywood Ending 

  73. Hollywood Hotel 

  74. Hollywood or Bust 

  75. Hollywood Party 

  76. Hollywood Shuffle 

  77. The Hollywood Sign 

  78. Hollywood Story 

  79. Hooper 

  80. How to Make a Monster (1958) 

  81. Hurlyburly 

  82. I Love Your Work 

  83. In a Lonely Place 

  84. In the Soup 

  85. The Incident at Loch Ness 

  86. The Independent 

  87. Inside Daisy Clover 

  88. Inside Monkey Zetterland 

  89. Irreconcilable Differences 

  90. It’s a Great Feeling! 

  91. Jay and Silent Bob Reboot 

  92. Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back 

  93. Jim and Andy in the Great Beyond 

  94. Jiminy Glick in LaLaWood 

  95. Jodorowsky’s Dune 

  96. Just Write 

  97. The Kid & I

  98. The Kid Stays in the Picture 

  99. King Kong (1933) 

  100. Kiss Kiss Bang Bang 

  101. La La Land 

  102. The Last Movie Star 

  103. The Last of Sheila 

  104. The Last Producer 

  105. The Last Shot 

  106. The Last Tycoon 

  107. Living in Oblivion 

  108. Lobster Man from Mars 

  109. The Lonely Lady 

  110. Looney Tunes: Back in Action 

  111. Lord Love a Duck 

  112. Love Me or Leave Me 

  113. Love, Hollywood Style 

  114. The Man of a Thousand Faces 

  115. Mank 

  116. Matinee 

  117. Mistress 

  118. Modern Romance 

  119. Mommie Dearest 

  120. Movers & Shakers 

  121. Movie Crazy 

  122. The Muppet Movie 

  123. The Muse 

  124. My Tiny Universe 

  125. National Lampoon’s Another Dirty Movie 

  126. National Lampoon’s Dirty Movie 

  127. Never Give a Sucker an Even Break 

  128. Nobody Knows Anything 

  129. Nope 

  130. Not Another Not Another Movie 

  131. Once Upon a Time in Hollywood 

  132. Orgazmo 

  133. The Oscar 

  134. The Other Side of the Wind 

  135. Overnight 

  136. Paparazzi 

  137. Paris When It Sizzles 

  138. The Party 

  139. Pauly Shore Is Dead 

  140. Pawparazzi

  141. Pick a Star 

  142. The Pickle 

  143. Pipe Dreams 

  144. Playing it Cool 

  145. Rented Lips 

  146. Return to Horror High 

  147. Room 237 

  148. Rules Don’t Apply 

  149. Scream, Queen: My Nightmare on Elm Street 

  150. Searching for Bobby D 

  151. See This Movie 

  152. Seed of Chucky 

  153. Shoot or Be Shot 

  154. Showgirl in Hollywood 

  155. Shut Up and Shoot! 

  156. Silent Movie 

  157. Silver Bullets 

  158. Simone 

  159. Singing in the Rain

  160. Slipstream  

  161. S.O.B.

  162. Southland Tales 

  163. Special Effects 

  164. The Star 

  165. Starry Eyes

  166. Starstruck 

  167. Star Spangled Rhythm 

  168. A Star Is Born (1937) 

  169. A Star is Born (1954) 

  170. The Stunt Man 

  171. Sullivan’s Travels 

  172. Sunset 

  173. Sunset Boulevard 

  174. Supporting Characters 

  175. Targets 

  176. Teen Titans Go! To the Movies! 

  177. Terror Eyes 

  178. That’s Adequate 

  179. Three Amigos 

  180. 3 Geezers 

  181. Three Holes and a Smoking Gun 

  182. Tinseltown 

  183. Tropic Thunder 

  184. Two Weeks in Another Town 

  185. The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent 

  186. Uncle Kent 2 

  187. Under the Rainbow 

  188. Urban Legends: The Final Cut 

  189. The Valley of the Dolls 

  190. Wag the Dog 

  191. W.C Fields and Me 

  192. Wes Craven’s New Nightmare 

  193. What Just Happened

  194. What Price Hollywood? 

  195. Who Framed Roger Rabbit 

  196. The Wild Party 

  197. The Wizard of Speed and Time 

  198. The Woman Chaser 

  199. Won Ton Ton, The Dog that Saved Hollywood  

  200. World’s Greatest Lover 

Actually, since I wrote this 5 days ago I’ve watched and written up five more movies for it, including Scream 3, Terror Firmer, the 2005 King Kong and Entropy.

What do you think NEEDS to also be covered? Bonus points for unexpected titles because I’m obviously going to be writing up stuff like Ed Wood, The Player, All About Eve and the rest of the usual suspects. 

Buy The Weird A-Coloring to Al: Cynical Movie Cash-In Extended Edition at https://www.nathanrabin.com/shop, signed, for just 10.75, shipping and handling included OR 23 dollars for FOUR signed copies AND a free pack of colored pencils, shipping and taxes included 

Pre-order The Fractured Mirror, the Happy Place’s next book, a 600 page magnum opus about American films about American films illustrated by the great Felipe Sobreiro over at https://the-fractured-mirror.backerkit.com/hosted_preorders

The Joy of Trash, the Happy Place’s first non-"Weird Al” Yankovic-themed book is out! And it’s only 12.00, shipping, handling and taxes included, 23 bucks for two books, domestic only at https://www.nathanrabin.com/shop

Buy The Joy of Trash, The Weird Accordion to Al and the The Weird Accordion to Al in both paperback and hardcover and The Weird A-Coloring to Al and The Weird A-Coloring to Al: Colored-In Special Edition signed from me personally (recommended) over at https://www.nathanrabin.com/shop

Or you can buy The Joy of Trash here and The Weird A-Coloring to Al  here and The Weird Accordion to Al  here

Help ensure a future for the Happy Place during an uncertain era AND get sweet merch by pledging to the site’s Patreon account at https://www.patreon.com/nathanrabinshappyplace 

Alternately you can buy The Weird Accordion to Al, signed, for just 18 dollars, tax and shipping included, at the https://www.nathanrabin.com/shop or for more, unsigned, from Amazon here.

The Big WhoopNathan Rabin