Wide-Eyed In Babylon

Ray Milland was a charismatic Paramount leading man during Hollywood's golden age. His film career spanned from the 1930s up until his death in 1986. He never retired. This autobography, published in 1974, certainly had a lot of ground to cover. Unfortunately...it misses a lot. Anyone familliar with Ray Milland's career will be left feeling like they bought a defective copy of his autobiography. It feels like several chapters are missing from the middle. What I liked about the book: there is nothing like an autobiography to give a reader the feeling you are in the presence of a famous figure, while they spin tales about their life. Having seen Ray Milland perform in many films, it was very easy to "hear" the words in this book being spoken with his subtle British accent, and perfect actor's elocution. Where it fell short: I wish Mr. Milland were still with us today so that we could ask him what the heck happened with this manuscript (!!) At this late remove we will probably never know for sure. It seems he started the book by providing great detail on his earliest years...only to realize he had a very short timeframe left to wrap his life story up. What is left is a large section regarding his childhood and his early films of the 1930s. Then, all of a sudden, we jump to his Oscar winning performance in 1945. From there, the greatest leap of all...clear past the 1950s and into his lower-budget films of the late 1960s and 1970s! So much is missing from this autobiography it is astounding. There is no mention of his starring role in the classic 1944 ghost feature "The Uninvited" (one of the handful of films for which he is now best remembered). There is no mention of what it was like working with Hitchcock and Grace Kelly in "Dial M for Murder" (another classic film in which he was the star). Most glaringly...there is no mention of the TWO 1950s CBS television series that he starred in! The Ray Milland Show ran for three seasons, while his noir-style detective series Markham (which Ray Milland owned outright, as well as starred in) ran for two seasons. These major omissions will leave the reader a bit dumbfounded. I can only think it was the product of a time constraint during the writing of the book. But as far as it goes, this autobiography is a lively, well-written and engaging first-hand account of one of early Hollywood's most prolific stars.