John Stanley, thirty-three-year veteran entertainment writer for the San Francisco Chronicle, stalks the environs of Hollywood and San Francisco to profile male and female stars of yesteryear who blasted their way through movies and TV series with high-powered handguns, curvaceous, slinky bodies, and other weapons of excessive destruction, all for decent box office. Savor four classic Clint Eastwood encounters: Two "Dirty Harry" moments with actor Clint and two Iwo Jima moments with director Clint. Can hard-hitting martial arts star Chuck Norris survive three showdowns with Stanley? James Stewart survived two Stanley encounters: one about his hard-boiled Westerns, the other about his Hitchcock classics. Meet Robert and John Mitchum, ornery fighting brothers whom Stanley knew intimately, and learn the full truth behind Robert's 1948 arrest for marijuana use, never before revealed. Karl Malden faces Stanley in five showdowns on the streets of San Francisco. The book also includes text and imagery material that will shake up any motion picture lover.

John Stanley, graduate of San Francisco State College, spent thirty-three years covering the world of movies and TV for the San Francisco Chronicle's Sunday "Pink" section. He is also the author of the six-edition Creature Features Movie Guide series, having hosted Creature Features in the San Francisco Bay Area from 1979 to 1984. His autobiography, I Was a TV Horror Host, was distributed by BookMasters in 2007-2008. He has made an estimated 2,000 crossword puzzles for magazines, and since 1995 has made thousands of appearances teaching entertainment courses for Bay Area Classic Learning, at one time the most heavily attended Elderhostel in America. His novels include World War III (Avon 1976) and Bogart '48 (Dell 1980). His newest effort, The Gang That Shot Up Hollywood, is the first in a trilogy based on his newspaper experiences covering Hollywood and the entertainment world.