It's not surprising that this splendid book is visually sumptuous, filled as it is with splendidly-reproduced illustrations; from the beginning, Harryhausen seems to have appreciated the value of, and carefully stored, every sketch, model, still photo, poster and significant piece of paperwork from his remarkable sixty-year career.

No, what's notable about AN ANIMATED LIFE is the literary quality of the densely-packed text, which most such books treat as an afterthought, like extended captions for the photos. Harryhausen, and co-author Tony Dalton, have managed the nearly impossible: a chronicle of Harryhausen's life in words that manage to speak in the voice of the softspoken, humble, unfailingly kind man whom I've had the privilege of meeting on numerous occasions, and that give a clear sense of the ambitions, dreams, sensibilities and occasional failures that form the mileposts in any life.

That said, I do have to add, a bit wistfully, if not sadly, a caveat as to this wonderful volume's single failing: THERE IS NO INDEX -- a matter of greater significance than one might believe at first glance. AN ANIMATED LIFE is, and deserves to be, THE definitive reference work on the subject of stop-motion animation, and one of the core works in the wider field of special effects -- a history of disappearing hand-craftsmanship in this entirely too-digital age. That value as a reference book is severely hampered, however, by lack of an index, because it makes finding individual subjects within the text, and charting their evolutions and inevitable interrelationships, all but impossible, even when one has read the book cover-to-cover.

I strongly recommend that buyers of the book contact the publishers (there are two, British and U.S., whose names can be found on the inside of the flyleaf; their e-mail addresses can be located through Google) and request that they compile an index, which can then easily be made available on the publishers' websites, or in the form of e-mail attachments to all who request a copy.

Still, let this caveat not dissuade you from purchasing what will be one of the more cherished volumes in your personal library -- or on your coffee table.

I wasn't at the Battle of the Bulge, the last great battle of World War II whose little-known and unknown byways form the locale of this true-life story, but SILENT NIGHT is, in its way, as evocative and illuminating of this momentous event in history as its far-better-known counterpart, the 1949 front-line combat film, BATTLEGROUND.

Rather than concentrating on the fierce, frozen struggle that the Bulge certainly was -- leaving as it did, thousands of Americans and Germans dead in the dark, snowy Huertgen Forest during that brutal winter of 1944-'45 -- SILENT NIGHT deals with the intertwined universality of soldiers' longing for home, a war-weary German mother's longing for peace in her own home, and her little boy's desperate need for a sign that the world he'll inherit might be filled by something other than the hollow, ranted slogans of the Hitler Youth.

The performances, especially those of Linda Hamilton, as the frightened, yet determined, Frau Vincken, and the young men who play the GI's and Wehrmacht infantrymen, convincingly convey the snow-blanched weariness and wariness that surely contributed to the real participants' touch-and-go attempt to lay aside their arms for one last wartime Christmas, as a sign that their world may have tired of its madness.

Also utterly convincing, by the way, is the film's depiction of the snowbound German landscape -- photographed, as I understand it, in Quebec in the height of summer!

THE PRIVATE LIFE OF SHERLOCK HOLMES is often called a "comedy-drama"; it's not, no more than Billy Wilder's other great films -- DOUBLE INDEMINTY, THE LOST WEEKEND, ACE IN THE HOLE, SUNSET BOULEVARD, and the little-known FIVE GRAVES TO CAIRO -- are. Like most of the scripts crafted by Wilder and his major writer-collaborators -- most notably, Charles Brackett, Raymond Chandler, and I.A.L. Diamond -- THE PRIVATE LIFE OF SHERLOCK HOLMES is simply a drama with trenchant humor that only serves to bring forth the sad, dark, bitter aspects of human nature which Wilder's work inevitably explores.

Holmes afficionados generally disdain Wilder's film, partly because they think Wilder and Diamond are mocking their heroes -- which couldn't be further from the truth (imbuing Holmes with such biting wit only magnifies his brilliance), and also because, in the perplexing case that Wilder and Diamond have fashioned, Holmes is, ultimately, outwitted by his adversary.

Even this statement is misleading, though. Holmes, to all intents and purposes, allows himself to be outwitted; indeed, he knows that he's allowing his personal feelings for a woman, of all things, to get in the way of his deductive reasoning, knows that this decision to pursue the case in the face of this inevitable defeat will ultimately breach the intellectual armour he's cultivated and fashioned over a lifetime in such a way that it can never be fully mended.

That's why Watson failed to chronicle this particular adventure in the pages of the Strand Magazine, as he had the Great Detective's other cases: not merely because it was of "a personal nature," but because of Watson's regard for the very feelings and humanity that Holmes has always taken such great pains to hide.

It is rather ironic that the Baker Street Irregulars -- those most rabid of Holmes afficionados -- refuse to accept that the Great Detective is not flesh-and-blood, but merely the product of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's fertile imagination, since they also reject Wilder and Diamond's view of him as fully human, complete with flaws, faults, and failings. It's also a great pity, for in THE PRIVATE LIFE OF SHERLOCK HOLMES they would at last meet their hero face to face.

Silva's 2-CD set of "The Essential Miklos Rozsa" treads no new ground, loaded up, as it is, with the old warhorses such as selections from "BEN-HUR," "JULIUS CAESAR" and "KING OF KINGS."

Silva's primary activity in recent years seems to have been repackaging old sountrack albums, throwing in a withheld track or two to make it seem "new" or to force the hand of completists (such as myself, I must admit, when it comes to the music of Miklos Rozsa) who absolutely must have every recording from their favorites, whether it deserves purchase on purely artistic merit or not.

This set is merely an expansion of Silva's "Epic Film Music of Miklos Rozsa" CD issued about three years ago. That disc had the virtue of including a selection from the composer's "GOLDEN VOYAGE OF SINBAD", properly instrumented for the fisrt time (unlike the original soundtrack), and one from the Main Title, and exceptionally moving Finale, from "BEAU BRUMMELL" (music Rozsa characteristically "ghost-wrote"to replace rejected parts of the score by the original composer, Richard Addinsell), previously unavailable commercially. They are included on this 2-disc set, though most of the other selections are available elsewhere, and in superior performances.

As always, Nic Raine and Kenneth Alwyn, with the City of Prague Philharmonic, deliver adequate but uninspired performances of Rozsa's music which, admittedly, is among the more difficult to perform among the works of major film composers.

In the final analysis, potential buyers or long-time afficianoados would be advised to spend their money on the splendid 2-CD set "Miklos Rozsa at M-G-M (Rhino), or the forthcoming 2-CD "KING OF KINGS," due this Easter from Rhino." Each is more expensive, but the former contains extended suites edited from the films' original soundtracks, many never before released commercially, all under the spirited baton of the maestro, himself, Miklos Rozsa, while the latter is a long-awaited definitive version of one of the composer's most challenging assignments and uplifting scores.