Carl Laemmle

Fairly straightforward documentary about a film visionary and morally good person (extraordinarily so if you're going by Hollywood exec standards). It also taught me stuff I didn't know, namely that Edison was not such a morally good person (i.e. Litigious, monopolistic old cob, wasn't he?) and that weather was not the only reason studios moved from East to West coast (i.e. They wanted to physically separate from Edison's grip and the appeals court in California was anti trust). A few quibbles. I would have liked to know more about the less sterling qualities of Laemmle like his associations with the Jewish mafia and why he promoted his feckless son's ineptitude in business to the point where Universal was run into the ground. And there are some odd omissions, like listing every single creative force behind "All Quiet" but leaving out Lew Ayres. And I could have done without Bogdanovich using Laemmle's story to promote a not very good film of his ("Nickelodeon"). But these are fairly minor niggles in what is an informative and entertaining film. Give it a B.