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Admit One: My Life in Film

Emmett James
FizzyPop Productions (2010)
ISBN 9780984258109
Reviewed by Ron Standerfer for Reader Views (01/10)

Most memoirs are organized around a series of dates and places that provide a framework upon which the
author can describe in detail how his or her life unfolded. In fact, it is not all that uncommon for a writer to
title each chapter of his memoir with the date and place, and nothing else, e.g. “North Africa, 1940.” But
“Admit One: My Life in Film” by Emmett James is a different story; mainly because James is totally
obsessed with movies and has been since childhood. The result is a delightful, witty, and totally engaging
book in which each chapter begins appropriately with the title of a well-known film, the year it was released,
the name of the director, and a brief synopsis of the story. If you are a lover of old movies this book is
definitely going to work for you.

Emmett James spent his childhood and adolescent years in Croydon, South London. While his friends
endured those difficult years in the manner children normally do, he chose to escape the pains of adolescence
by going to the cinema. It was there in the darkness of the theater that he was able draw into his own private
world, sometimes with aloof indifference to what was happening on the screen and other times coalescing
with the movie itself. It was while at the movies that he learned some of life’s more distressing lessons. For
example, one afternoon he took a seemingly shy classmate there and ensconced her in the darkest corner of
the theater with the express purpose of “making out.” But before he could execute his well thought-out plan,
a gang of rowdy young men sat down nearby and began to tease and taunt them. What ensued was a melee of
shouting and screaming that ended when the “shy girl” bloodied the nose of one of the intruders and then
stormed out of the theater telling James that she would never speak to him again---and she didn’t. Ah the joys
of adolescent love!

James always believed that film has a correlation to our past and so it was no surprise that in a case of life
imitating art he eventually realizes that his calling is to be on the silver screen, not sitting in front of it. That’s
when he travelled to the United States and eventually to Los Angeles. Like most aspiring young actors his
career took off slowly; and along the way he takes us on a humorous journey of adventures from forgery to
pornography to crashing the Academy Awards under the alias of a nominated screen writer. Eventually he
stumbles into acting in the highest grossing movie of all times, Titanic.

The narrative of “Admit One” by Emmett James reflects a smooth writing style laced with wry, self-
deprecating humor and observation that makes it eminently readable. I enjoyed the book immensely and
suspect you will too.