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"Half of all marriages end in divorce--and then there are the really unhappy ones." --Joan Rivers Do you suppose that the person who first said "Life is stranger than fiction" might have had Hollywood marriages in mind? Why watch a romantic film starring a leading man and a leading lady when their real-life romances are so much more interesting? It seems that a celebrity's latest film can have a considerably longer life span in the theater than his or her marriage du jour. One would almost think that Tinseltown has come to embrace divorce as an accepted pastime. Some celebrities have seemingly collected spouses over the years, systematically adding notches in their belts of divorces. Cases i...
"The entire field of film historians awaits the AFI volumes with eagerness."--Eileen Bowser, Museum of Modern Art Film Department Comments on previous volumes: "The source of last resort for finding socially valuable . . . films that received such scant attention that they seem 'lost' until discovered in the AFI Catalog."--Thomas Cripps "Endlessly absorbing as an excursion into cultural history and national memory."--Arthur Schlesinger, Jr.
This is the first book on enduring Hollywood star Eleanor Parker, long underrated despite three best actress Academy Award nominations (Caged, 1950; Detective Story, 1951; Interrupted Melody, 1955). Parker was a beauty as well as a versatile actress, and her achievements approach those of more publicized colleagues Bette Davis and Katharine Hepburn. With Parker's blessing and her son Paul Clemens' cooperation, Doug McClelland has written one of the most thorough examinations of a film star's career. The book is valuable to librarians, academies, and film enthusiasts for its extensive documentation and analyses of all of Parker's work, for the bibliographies of her coverage in books and perio...
Those tales of old--King Arthur, Robin Hood, The Crusades, Marco Polo, Joan of Arc--have been told and retold, and the tradition of their telling has been gloriously upheld by filmmaking from its very inception. From the earliest of Georges Melies's films in 1897, to a 1996 animated Hunchback of Notre Dame, film has offered not just fantasy but exploration of these roles so vital to the modern psyche. St. Joan has undergone the transition from peasant girl to self-assured saint, and Camelot has transcended the soundstage to evoke the Kennedys in the White House. Here is the first comprehensive survey of more than 900 cinematic depictions of the European Middle Ages--date of production, country of origin, director, production company, cast, and a synopsis and commentary. A bibliography, index, and over 100 stills complete this remarkable work.
Gloria Swanson is most remembered today for her role as “Norma Desmond” in Billy Wilder’s noir sound classic Sunset Boulevard (1950), but Swanson during her heyday was heralded as filmdom’s leading fashion queen, as proclaimed by director Cecil B. DeMille in such silent motion pictures as Male and Female (1919), Why Change Your Husband (1921), and The Affairs of Anatol (1922). Throughout that decade and well into the 1930s, Swanson set fashion standards on and off the screen in creations designed by such illustrious couturieres as Mitchell Leisen, Paul Iribe, Norman Norell, Sonia Delaunay, Max Ree, Capt. Edward H. Molyneux, Coco Chanel, Rene Hubert, and later Edith Head. In the 1950s...
"In a study that is both scholarly and highly entertaining, Matthew Brown explores pop culture's appropriations of Debussy's music in everything from '30s swing tunes, '40s movie scores, '50s lounge/exotica, '70s rock and animation, '80s action films, and Muzak. The book, however, is far more than a compendium of fascinating borrowings. The author uses these musical transfers to tackle some of the most fundamental aesthetic issues relevant to the music of all composers, not just Debussy." David Grayson -- Book jacket.
"The acting career of legendary star Ida Lupino is well known, but there has been little analysis of her directorial career. She was one of the few female directors in Classical Hollywood and the only one with membership in the Directors Guild of America between 1948 and 1971. Like Orson Welles, her career was notable in transitioning from acting to directing first in film and then in television, in addition to helping to create and run the production company The Filmakers [sic]. Her films were notably about women navigating difficult positions in society, dealing with controversial issues such as rape and bigamy. Nevertheless, she was the first female director of a noir film, The Hitch-Hike...
From 1937 through 1945, Hollywood produced over 1,000 films relating to the war. This enormous and exhaustive reference work first analyzes the war films as sociopolitical documents. Part one, entitled "The Crisis Abroad, 1937-1941," focuses on movies that reflected America's increasing uneasiness. Part two, "Waging War, 1942-1945," reveals that many movies made from 1942 through 1945 included at least some allusion to World War II.
This collection of eleven essays details more than 75 films, from Edwin Porter's 1904 Parsifal to the animated Quest for Camelot in 1998. A variety of critical perspectives are provided. The medieval and modern worlds collide in The Fisher King and Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade; issues of femininity and depictions of Morgan Le Fay are analyzed in the 1931 Connecticut Yankee and in Excalibur; concerns of masculinity are examined in First Knight and Dragonheart. A comprehensive filmography, selective bibliography and over 40 film stills complete this critical appreciation of the rich and varied cinematic tradition of Arthur.
Ann Sheridan was much more than just Hollywood's glamorous and sexy "Oomph Girl." She was also a versatile actress who beguiled movie audiences with her vibrant personality and no-nonsense acting style opposite some of the biggest stars of the time like James Cagney, Bette Davis, Humphrey Bogart, Cary Grant, and Errol Flynn. She excelled in multiple genres, including drama, comedy, and musical, with ease and individual style. Several of her movies, like Angels with Dirty Faces, Kings Row, and I Was a Male War Bride endure today as classic films from Hollywood's Golden Age. In this first-ever full-length biography, Ann Sheridan's colorful life and 34-year career are examined in detail, including her long climb to motion picture stardom, the years as a top box-office draw, her three marriages, and other significant romantic relationships.