Unlike some other reproductions of classic texts (1) We have not used OCR(Optical Character Recognition), as this leads to bad quality books with introduced typos. (2) In books where there are images such as portraits, maps, sketches etc We have endeavoured to keep the quality of these images, so they represent accurately the original artefact. Although occasionally there may be certain imperfections with these old texts, we feel they deserve to be made available for future generations to enjoy.

To the American public, she will always be remembered as the woman who had a grapefruit ground into her face by James Cagney in the 1931 film classic Public Enemy. In fact, in an acting career that spanned nearly four decades, Mae Clarke appeared in nearly 100 feature films and logged in nearly as many television appearances. During the two years before she died at the age of 82, Mae Clarke spent many hours reliving those years. In a series of candid and often poignant interviews, she talks about her years in Hollywood, her failed marriage, and her health problems.

In 1938, Warner Brothers production chief Hal Wallis grudgingly described David Lewis one of his six "supervisors" and a veteran of 15 feature films to director Michael Curtiz: "That Lewis is a genius at getting scripts out of people who can't write " Wallis knew that writing ultimately defined the job of the creative producer and that David Lewis had an uncanny talent for coaxing the best filmic material from the screenwriters he supervised. In this memoir, Lewis describes his development as a production executive and how the associate producer helped make the famed studio system work. It was the producer (or "supervisor," at Warners) who saw the script budgeted, cast the film, helped choose the director, and gently influenced the filming itself. Once shooting was complete, it was the producer who stayed with the project through editing and previews. David Lewis (1903-1987) was an associate producer at RKO and later at MGM. He hit his stride at Warner Bros., where, between 1937 and 1942, he produced twelve films with such popular stars as James Cagney (Each Dawn I Die), Humphrey Bogart (It All Came True), Bette Davis (Dark Victory), Ronald Reagan (Kings Row), Errol Flynn (Four's a Crowd), and Charles Boyer (All This and Heaven Too). His films were nominated for a total of 15 Academy Awards, including three for Best Picture. Some of Lewis's films have rightfully become classics; all reflect an unerring instinct for character and structure, part of the filmmaking process he describes in The Creative Producer.

Tommy Mutch is a working-class lad from the slums of West London, eager to escape the mean streets of Notting Dale. Boxing is in its 1930s heyday and, like many in his position, Tommy sees it as an escape route from poverty.

When Shorty Mathews leaves prison after two years he goes to visit 'nice little bit' Alice, only to find that she has been strangled. Shorty panics and goes on the run, leaving the city behind and hitching rides with lorry drivers, going through various adventures before returning to London.

'The Gilt Kid' focuses on a convicted burglar and Communist sympathiser, freshly released from prison. Instead of going on the straight and narrow, he wastes little time in plunging back into the London underworld.