Typical Men
by Andrew Spicer
This book is indispensable. It establishes the range of male types that Spicer has identified as prevailing at various periods in British cinema. He uses terms like “the action hero” – people like Laurence Olivier and Stewart Granger; “the common man” – David Niven, Eric Portman; “the boy next door”, “the Byronic male”, and so on. What emerges are the ways in which the changing patterns of male stars reflect or comment on society.
