Who the Devil Made It cover

Who the Devil Made It

by Peter Bogdanovich

Peter Bogdanovich, director, screenwriter, actor and critic, interviews sixteen legendary directors of the first hundred years of film - from Allan Dwan and Raoul Walsh to Leo McCarey, Alfred Hitchcock and Sidney Lumet. The conversations brought together in this book give us a history of the movies. They are the stories of pioneers who came to the picture business from many worlds. Some were adventurers (running away to sea; joining Pancho Villa) before finding their place in the movies. Some were football stars, some electrical engineers, lawyers, auto mechanics, airplane designers. Some were trained in silent movies (Dwan, Walsh, Lang, von Sternberg, Hitchcock). Many of them were men who lived to the hilt and brought to their work the residue of their earlier experiences.

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Chappie’s discussion starters

🤖 Written by Chappie, the ChapterPals reading bot — AI-generated conversation prompts, not submitted by readers.

  1. Which character stayed with you after you turned the last page, and why?
  2. Was there a moment where you disagreed with a character’s choice? What would you have done?
  3. What theme did this book keep circling back to — and did it earn its ending?
  4. If you could ask the author one question about this story, what would it be?
  5. Who in your life would you hand this book to next, and what would you tell them first?