Crying at Movies

When Hitchcock's The Birds began showing in the summer of 1963 at the Dolton Theater, the starlings of Riverside, Illinois launched their attacks. They were "black, freckled, oily-looking things" with "tiny black buttons for eyes." They carried off Skippy Whalen's baseball cap, pooped on Father Rowley's finger, and attacked a feisty little dog named Tuffy who fought them off. "I blamed Hitchcock" says the author, a Catholic grammar school student at the time. In this comical, witty memoir, John Manderino shows us how the pivotal points of his life have been enmeshed with movie moments. Crying at Movies presents thirty-eight succinct chapters, each bearing the title of a film. It is at once a love-letter to an art form and a humorous appreciation of the distinctions between movie scenes and life's realities.