Book review - "Rosalind Russell"

Ros Russell was one of those actors who seemed to get to the top by sheer dint of hard work - never quite really pretty or talented or charismatic, she nonetheless kept at it and ended up having a marvellous career. Much of the quality of her material is variable - every time she appeared in a classic (eg His Girl Friday, Auntie Mame), she'd follow it up with a series of bland concoctions, esp in the 40s when she was forever featuring in career girl comedies, or in the 60s when she was perhaps along with Kate Hepburn the oldest female star who was a genuine box office draw outside of horror movies but could never seem to get the ingredients right. This is a decent enough bio, focusing on her career rather than her personality, which waffles a bit in places(eg putting in the bios of people Russell worked with a bit too often -and the bios are normally more credit listings than pithy encapsulations) but gets better as it goes on and is particularly strong on her 50s and 60s work esp Mame and her Broadway acting.