Otto Preminger was one of Hollywood's first truly independent producer-directors. He sought to address the major social, political, and historical questions of his time in films designed to appeal to a wide public. Blazing a trail in the examination of controversial issues such as drug addiction (
The Man with the Golden Arm
) and homosexuality (
Advise & Consent
) and in the frank, sophisticated treatment of adult material (
Anatomy of a Murder
), Preminger broke the censorship of the Hollywood Production Code and the blacklist. He also made some of Hollywood's most enduring film noir classics, including
Laura
and
Fallen Angel
. More than anyone else, Preminger represented the transition from the Hollywood of the studios to the decentralized, wheeling-and-dealing New Hollywood of today. Chris Fujiwara's "studious, informative, often astutely argued" (Gerald Peary,
The Phoenix
) biography follows Preminger throughout his varied career, penetrating his carefully constructed public persona and revealing the many layers of his work.