NONFICTION - Nov. 18, 1990

PRODUCED AND ABANDONED: The Best Films You’ve Never Seen, Reviews by the National Society of Film Critics, edited by Michael Sragow (Mercury House: $9.95, paper; 369 pp.). The concept is terrific: a book guiding filmophiles to wonderful movies that somehow have remained obscure. But don’t let the title fool you, for many of the movies discussed here are in fact quite well known, and few were actually “abandoned” by their producers. Many of the critics contributing reviews to this collection are sure to have trouble explaining at their next cocktail party how movies like “Diner,” “Casualties of War” and “Something Wild” qualify as “never seen.” But in the end, one has to forgive a book that gives new life to classics and near-classics such as “The Stunt Man,” “Never Cry Wolf” and “Straight Time.” And in any case, it’s always fun to second-guess the experts . . . which is to say I’m at a loss to explain why “Bedazzled” and “Dr. Strangelove” failed to make anyone’s list.