A friend bought a little present for me this week, a paperback reference book he purchased for $2 at a used-book sale. It's a first edition (albeit the 13th printing) of Leonard Maltin's "TV Movies," initially published in late 1969. (And it's in pristine condition.)
To most people, $2 might seem like too much to pay for an out-of-date informational guide. After all, it doesn't have nearly as many capsule movie reviews as Maltin's more recent editions - and, of course, there are no movies less than 30 years old.But for me, it's a real prize.
And it's been fun to compare Maltin's first collection of reviews with the 1999 edition - which, coincidentally, hit the stands this week.
It is now titled "Leonard Maltin's 1999 Movie & Video Guide" (Signet, $7.99). But 30 years ago, it was simply "TV Movies," with this small-print byline: "Edited by Leonard Maltin."
This first effort has only 8,000 movie capsules on 535 pages. (And it notes that Maltin was just 18 when he pulled them together.)
The 1999 edition has more than 19,000 reviews and 1,632 pages. And the new capsules aren't written exclusively by Maltin anymore. Such "editors" as USA Today critic Mike Clark help out.
In addition, there are added features - actor and director indexes, Maltin's own 100 family film recommendations and mail-order video sources for those hard-to-find flicks.
After his first "TV Movies," it was five years before Maltin followed up the 1969 book with a second edition - and another four years before the third showed up. Then it came out every other year, until 1986 when it became an annual publication.
Magazine ads for the 1999 edition boast that it's bigger and better than ever, with "400 more movies." (The actual book cover reduces the number to 350.)
What the ads don't say is that Maltin makes room for new reviews by deleting as many old reviews - and maybe more, since he typically removes shorter capsules of old B-movies or made-for-TV flicks. (Maybe he should publish a companion volume of TV movies and miniseries, as there is no up-to-date reference work on that subject.)
In truth, the size of the tome has stayed roughly the same for several years. And how could it get much bigger without becoming unwieldy?
Maltin was not the first to compile capsule movie reviews in paperback form. Steven H. Scheuer did his version, "Movies on TV," about a decade earlier - but Maltin took the idea and improved upon it. For many years the two were in competition, but by the time Scheuer's book abruptly ceased publication (with the 1993-94 edition), Maltin had long eclipsed him.
In the meantime, Mick Martin and Marsha Porter began publishing their annual "Video Movie Guide," which is similar, except that it's aimed directly at video renters (and offers expanded, useful indexes of actors and directors).
While Maltin's book includes a vast number of movies that have never been on video (good for cable and satellite fans), Martin and Porter's collection is strictly video releases. (If you want recent made-for-video movies that Maltin doesn't include, "Video Movie Guide" is a better choice.)
These days, several other movie-and-video collections are also published annually, most notably "VideoHound's Golden Movie Retriever" (an oversized $20 volume, with even bigger indexes, including screenwriters, composers, etc.).
For many years, all of these books went on sale in September or October. But the past few editions of Maltin's book have been in stores by August to beat the rush.
This means that late summer movies (from the end of June forward) must be left out. You won't find "Saving Private Ryan," "The X-Files," "Armageddon," "Dr. Dolittle," "Lethal Weapon 4," etc. But you will find "Deep Impact," "Mulan," "The Horse Whisperer" and "The Truman Show."
Still, Maltin is king of the hill. So it's worth noting the 30th anniversary - if not the 30th edition - of his "Movie & Video Guide."
And after all this time (and success with myriad other books and his "Entertainment Tonight" TV appearances), it's nice to see that he's not resting on his laurels. He still strives each year to make his movie guide the best available.