Anyone trapped in a movie house with a horrible three-hour spectacular as his only distraction has wondered more than once. "How did they ever make such an awful picture?" Some of the answers can be found in this fascinating study of the motion-picture business as recorded by John Gregory Dunne, who spent a year amid the infernal regions of Twentieth Century-Fox.

Not all of ["The Studio"] is consistently interesting, for Dunne wandered around awhile before he found his denouement, the fate of the multimillion-dollar "Dr. Dolittle." But even his meanderings are fruitful. Instead of fixing on a single film, Dunne treats us to an unhurried tour of the entire studio at work … always zeroing in on the decision-making process that shapes these products and on the men in control. (pp. 110, 112)

Much of [the information in the book] is familiar to anyone who has followed Hollywood since its disastrous...