Just As You Wished

Book: As You Wish: Inconceivable Tales from the Making of The Princess Bride

Authors: Cary Elwes and Joe Layden
Recommended for:  Pie-in-the-sky romantics, adventurers, pirates, sots, and disaffected college students

If you're a reader of nonfiction books about movies and TV, you've likely run across the frequent disappointment (or delicious schadenfreude) of learning that a cast that thrilled us on the screen absolutely loathed one another off camera. It's a frequent enough tale that I approached this book - featuring one of my most-loved films - with a certain amount of trepidation. With a movie this delightful and a cast that seemed to have such fun together, it would be crushing to find out that it was only smoke and mirrors.

You'll be happy to hear, then, that all was well behind the scenes of "The Princess Bride". Mr. Elwes' retelling of his experiences in gaining the lead role of Westley through to the bittersweet final scene gives the distinct impression that filming the movie was every bit as fun as watching it. Indeed for the cast, paralleling the experiences of the characters, there were moments of danger (and injury), harrowing terror (comes from having an author on set), riotous laughter, travails of all kinds, unconscious giants, and falling in love.

I fear to say more would take away from your delight in hearing Mr. Elwes' stories for yourself. And you should. Without delay. Get it here.