GODFREY DANIEL! MOTHer of pearl! Simon Louvish wants to set the record straight on the life of W. C. Fields. In Man on the Flying Trapeze (564 pages. Norton. $29.95), Fields's latest biographer starts ...

On my week off last month, I fulfilled a longtime wish by visiting two repertory movie houses in L.A., both of them owned by Quentin Tarantino: the New Beverly in the Fairfax District and the Vista ...