Charlie Chaplin was a skilled comedian, filmmaker and composer, and the mission of this book is to educate readers on the wide variety of Chaplin’s artistry: the subtlety of his mimetic satire, the sophistication of his film direction, and his prodigious musical skill that resulted in some of film’s greatest orchestral arrangements. This encyclopedia also emphasizes the singular nature of Chaplin’s biography: his unprecedented renown, the wide list of notables in art and culture with whom he fraternized, and the controversies that seemed to dog each stage of his life, perhaps most notably in his run-ins with the FBI and the House UnAmerican Activities Committee, both of whom suspected him of communist leanings. Charlie Chaplin: A Reference Guide to His Life and Works captures his life, and legacy. It features a chronology, an introduction that offers a brief account of his life, and a dictionary section listing entries on Chaplin’s childhood, career, family, and associates. The bibliography is one of the largest available of works concerning Chaplin.
Charlie Chaplin's remarkable life and comedic talent have been the focus of countless popular and scholarly studies. In this groundbreaking work, Chaplin's often underrated skills as a film director take center stage. Highlighting the screen icon's significance as a filmmaker, this study focuses on the heart of Chaplin's cinema--his silent works starring his alter-ego, Charlie--and examines both his great silent film features like The Kid, The Gold Rush and Modern Times, and his shorter, earlier films like The Immigrant, The Pawn Shop, The Pilgrim and A Dog's Life. An analysis of the formal properties of Chaplin's filmmaking reveals the merit of his cinema, the depth of its emotion and the extent of its meaning. Chaplin is among the great artists of any medium, in any time, with an ability to touch on very subtle aspects of the human condition.
It was sung at Ronald Reagan's funeral, and adopted with new lyrics by labor radicals. John Updike quoted it in the title of one of his novels, and George W. Bush had it performed at the memorial service in the National Cathedral for victims of September 11, 2001. Perhaps no other song has held such a profoundly significant--and contradictory--place in America's history and cultural memory than the "The Battle Hymn of the Republic." In this sweeping study, John Stauffer and Benjamin Soskis show how this Civil War tune has become an anthem for cause after radically different cause. The song originated in antebellum revivalism, with the melody of the camp-meeting favorite, "Say Brothers, Will You Meet Us." Union soldiers in the Civil War then turned it into "John Brown's Body." Julia Ward Howe, uncomfortable with Brown's violence and militancy, wrote the words we know today. Using intense apocalyptic and millenarian imagery, she captured the popular enthusiasm of the time, the sense of a climactic battle between good and evil; yet she made no reference to a particular time or place, allowing it to be exported or adapted to new conflicts, including Reconstruction, sectional reconciliation, imperialism, progressive reform, labor radicalism, civil rights movements, and social conservatism. And yet the memory of the song's original role in bloody and divisive Civil War scuttled an attempt to make it the national anthem. The Daughters of the Confederacy held a contest for new lyrics, but admitted that none of the entries measured up to the power of the original. "The Battle Hymn" has long helped to express what we mean when we talk about sacrifice, about the importance of fighting--in battles both real and allegorical--for the values America represents. It conjures up and confirms some of our most profound conceptions of national identity and purpose. And yet, as Stauffer and Soskis note, the popularity of the song has not relieved it of the tensions present at its birth--tensions between unity and discord, and between the glories and the perils of righteous enthusiasm. If anything, those tensions became more profound. By following this thread through the tapestry of American history, The Battle Hymn of the Republic illuminates the fractures and contradictions that underlie the story of our nation.
John Connolly conjures the Golden Age of Hollywood in this moving, literary portrait of Laurel & Hardy--two men who found their true selves in a comedic partnership. "AMBITIOUS . . . EVOKES THE STYLE OF SAMUEL BECKETT." --NEW YORK TIMES "BRILLIANT." --SEATTLE BOOK REVIEW "EXTRAORDINARY." --LIBRARY JOURNAL (STARRED REVIEW) An unforgettable testament to the redemptive power of love, as experienced by one of the twentieth century's greatest performers. When Stan Laurel is paired with Oliver Hardy, affectionately known as Babe, the history of comedy--not to mention their personal and professional lives--is altered forever. Yet Laurel's simple screen persona masks a complex human being, one who endures rejection and intense loss; who struggles to build a character from the dying stages of vaudeville to the seedy and often volatile movie studios of Los Angeles in the early years of cinema; and who is haunted by the figure of another comic genius, the brilliant, driven, and cruel Charlie Chaplin. Eventually, Laurel becomes one of the greatest screen comedians the world has ever known: a man who enjoys both adoration and humiliation; who loves, and is loved in turn; who betrays, and is betrayed; who never seeks to cause pain to anyone else, yet leaves a trail of affairs and broken marriages in his wake. But Laurel's life is ultimately defined by one relationship of such astonishing tenderness and devotion that only death could sever this profound connection: his love for Babe.
Absorbing, scholarly study of the portrayal in nearly 200 movies and TV episodes of the least visible disabled group in American society. Includes the first filmography (annotated) of films designed for general audiences that deal with deafness or include a deaf character in a mator or pivotal role. For all film study collections. Annotation copyrighted by Book News, Inc., Portland, OR
This book takes a close look at a film that has heretofore been significantly undervalued by film scholars: Ernst Lubitsch’s The Student Prince in Old Heidelberg. In so doing, it not only advocates for the elevation of the film within the canon of Lubitsch’s films but also for an appreciation of the certain kind of filmmaking that it represents—one favored in the classical era of Hollywood which is characterized by aesthetics, meticulous structure, and delicate understatement over explicit content or social relevance. This book argues that The Student Prince in Old Heidelberg has perhaps been neglected because of the tendency in contemporary film criticism to devalue films that are not overtly “serious” in their subject matter. The Student Prince in Old Heidelberg represents a master class in classical Hollywood technique, a kind of filmmaking that is characterized by charm, beauty, and elegant form and which chooses not to express its ideas explicitly but to encase them in the substance, structure, and very experience of the film.
Three local experts reveal their favorite places to watch birds in Alberta, Manitoba, and Saskatchewan. In Best Places to Bird in the Prairies, three of Canada’s top birders reveal their favorite destinations for spotting local birds in Alberta, Manitoba, and Saskatchewan. They highlight thirty-six highly recommended sites, each of which has been expertly selected for the unique species that reside there. With exclusive lists of specialty birds, splendid color photography, and plenty of insider tips for finding and identifying birdlife year-round, the book is accessible and easy-to-use—an indispensable resource that will inspire both novice and seasoned birders to put on their walking shoes, grab their binoculars, and start exploring. The destinations they feature are as varied as the birds that are found there, ranging from rural to urban, easily accessible to remote. The authors provide clear maps, detailed directions, and alternative routes wherever possible to ensure the experience is satisfying for first-time visitors and experienced birders alike.
(Screen World). John Willis' Screen World has become the definitive reference for any film library. Each volume includes every significant U.S. and international film released during that year as well as complete filmographies, capsule plot summaries, cast and characters, credits, production company, month released, rating, and running time. You'll also find biographical entries a prices reference for over 2,000 living stars, including real name, school, place and date of birth. A comprehensive index makes this the finest film publication that any film lover could own.
Between 1942 and 1958, J. Edgar Hoover's Federal Bureau of Investigation conducted a sweeping and sustained investigation of the motion picture industry to expose Hollywood's alleged subversion of "the American Way" through its depiction of social problems, class differences, and alternative political ideologies. FBI informants (their names still redacted today) reported to Hoover's G-men on screenplays and screenings of such films as Frank Capra's It's a Wonderful Life (1946), noting that "this picture deliberately maligned the upper class attempting to show that people who had money were mean and despicable characters." The FBI's anxiety over this film was not unique; it extended to a wide range of popular and critical successes, including The Grapes of Wrath (1940), The Best Years of Our Lives (1946), Crossfire (1947) and On the Waterfront (1954). In J. Edgar Hoover Goes to the Movies, John Sbardellati provides a new consideration of Hollywood's history and the post-World War II Red Scare. In addition to governmental intrusion into the creative process, he details the efforts of left-wing filmmakers to use the medium to bring social problems to light and the campaigns of their colleagues on the political right, through such organizations as the Motion Picture Alliance for the Preservation of American Ideals, to prevent dissemination of "un-American" ideas and beliefs. Sbardellati argues that the attack on Hollywood drew its motivation from a sincerely held fear that film content endangered national security by fostering a culture that would be at best apathetic to the Cold War struggle at best, or, at its worst, conducive to communism at home. Those who took part in Hollywood's Cold War struggle, whether on the left or right, shared one common trait: a belief that the movies could serve as engines for social change. This strongly held assumption explains why the stakes were so high and, ultimately, why Hollywood became one of the most important ideological battlegrounds of the Cold War.
Eighty prize-winning films of the 1930s are discussed in detail, with complete cast and technical credits, background notes, etc. Movies covered include "Gone With The Wind," "The Wizard of Oz," "Garden of Allah," "The Hurricane," "San Francisco," "In Old Chicago," "Lost Horizon," "It Happened One Night," "Sweethearts," "The Broadway Melody," "The Adventures of Robin Hood," "Tabu," "Wings," "Stagecoach," "Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde" (both Fredric March and Spencer Tracy versions), "Cimarron," "Cleopatra," "Grand Hotel.
Laughing Matters takes an analytic approach to film, television and radio comedy and provides an accessible overview of its forms and contexts. The introduction explains the value of studying comedy, concisely outlines the approach taken and summarises the relevant theories. The subsequent chapters are divided into two parts. The first part examines the specific forms comedy has taken as a constant and key element in film and broadcast comedy from their origins to the present. The second part shows how the genre gravitates towards contentious issues in British and American culture as it finds humour in the boundaries of class, gender, sexuality, race and logic. The authors cover silent cinema comedy including Chaplin, Lloyd and Keaton, sound film comedies including the Marx Brothers and Laurel and Hardy, Romantic film comedy, radio, television situation and sketch comedy, comedy and genre (including parody and spoof), animations from cartoons to CGI, issues of gender and sexuality from drag comedy to queer reading, issues of taste and humour from Carry On to contemporary 'gross-out' , and issues of race and ethnicity including a case study of African-American screen comedy. Numerous opportunities for following up are highlighted and advice on further reading, writing academically about comedy and an extensive bibliography add to the value of this textbook.
Unlike their American colleagues, British suppliers were extremely slow to release their country's superb libraries of classic films for movie fans to purchase on either VHS tapes or DVD discs. In 2004, little over 100 titles were available. But now there are around 700, with promises of many more to come. This book details some of the best. Over 400 movies in all are described in either minute detail or in summary form! The quality (or lack of quality) in the DVD transfer is fearlessly indicated. The author's emphasis is on movies made before 1970, especially those with popular stars such as Glynis Johns, Gracie Fields, George Formby, Margaret Lockwood, Arthur Askey, Anna Neagle, James Mason, Patricia Roc, Stewart Granger, Vivien Leigh, Laurence Olivier, Will Hay, Tommy Trinder, Alec Guinness, Michael Wilding, Peter Finch, Christopher Lee, Peter Sellers, David Niven, Kenneth More, Kay Kendall, John Gregson, etc.
Once by far Hollywood's largest category of popular movies, Westerns are now out of fashion with the movie-going public, but they still hold a commanding presence on DVD. Until recently, Westerns were one of the most popular DVD categories, third only to action and science fiction. Many, many titles from the 1930s and 1940s were made by small, independent companies that no longer exist. A huge number of westerns are therefore in the public domain and are now available on DVD from outlets like Alpha and Grapevine. In fact, there are currently so many titles on DVD, that guides like "World's Worst Westerns" are not a luxury or an addenda, but an absolute necessity for collectors who wish to spend their money wisely by buying titles they will enjoy! In fact, for western fans like myself, a book like "World's Worst Westerns" is not just a novelty, but an absolute necessity!
Originally published in 1954, this was the first factual history of comedy films and the men and women who had since 1894 kept us laughing in the cinema. It traces the beginning of comic motion pictures and the pioneer work of Paul, Gaumont, Hepworth, Pathe and Zecca. Then comes the picture palace craze and the success of the early Italian and French comedies and trick films. The work of Al Christie and Mack Sennett in America, and the rise of American films, is fully described, as knockabout gives way to slapstick, and salaries and box-office receipts soar. Now come Chaplin, Harold Lloyd and all the other bright figures of the Roaring Twenties, with favourites like Buster Keaton and Will Rogers to the fore. The development of sound and its effect on the comedians is explained, and the story comes up to date through the thirties and forties to 1954. Some of the hundreds of names to whom tribute is paid include Mabel Normand, Larry Semon, Roscoe Arbuckle, Monty Banks, Max Linder, Harry Langdon, Will Hay, the Marx Brothers, Bob Hope, Fernandel and Alec Guinness. These are only a few of the many whose careers are traced. The book is illustrated by a number of carefully selected photographs, many of which are unique. This edition, first published in 1968 has been revised but the period it covers remains the same, 1894-1954, sixty years of film humour.
Lizards and snakes (squamate reptiles) are the most diverse vertebrate group in Australia, with approximately 1000 described species, representing about 10% of the global squamate diversity. Squamates are a vital part of the Australian ecosystem, but their conservation has been hindered by a lack of knowledge of their diversity, distribution, biology and key threats. The Action Plan for Australian Lizards and Snakes 2017 provides the first comprehensive assessment of the conservation status of Australian squamates in 25 years. Conservation assessments are provided for 986 species of Australian lizards and snakes (including sea snakes). Over the past 25 years there has been a substantial increase in the number of species and families recognised within Australia. There has also been an increase in the range and magnitude of threatening processes with the potential to impact squamates. This has resulted in an increase in the proportion of the Australian squamate fauna that is considered Threatened. Notably over this period, the first known extinction (post-European settlement) of an Australian reptile species occurred – an indication of the increasingly urgent need for better knowledge and management of this fauna. Six key recommendations are presented to improve the conservation management and plight of Australian squamates. This Action Plan represents an essential resource for research scientists, conservation biologists, conservation managers, environmental consultants, policy makers from Commonwealth and State/Territory governments, and the herpetological community.
When most people think of movie musicals, films like "Singin' in the Rain", "Sound of Music", "The Red Shoes", "On the Town", "White Christmas", "Ziegfeld Follies", "Top Hat", "Funny Face" and "Funny Girl" immediately come to mind. Such films are included in this book, as are many of the works of major stars, including Fred Astaire, Bing Crosby, Gene Kelly, Betty Grable, Shirley Temple, Julie Andrews, Elvis Presley, Lucille Ball, Alice Faye, Jeanette MacDonald, Maurice Chevalier, Nelson Eddy, Doris Day, Dick Powell, Betty Hutton, Eleanor Powell, and Al Jolson. But attention is also drawn to less lavishly produced but very pleasant musical offerings from both major and minor studios (including perhaps the finest "B" musical ever made). In all, 125 pictures are reviewed and detailed with full cast and technical credits, plus songs and musical numbers, awards, release dates and other essential background information.
Belligerent and evasive, Josef von Sternberg chose to ignore his illegitimate birth in Austria, deprived New York childhood, abusive father, and lack of education. The director who strutted onto the set in a turban, riding breeches, or a silk robe embraced his new persona as a world traveller, collected modern art, drove a Rolls Royce, and earned three times as much as the president. Von Sternberg traces the choices that carried the unique director from poverty in Vienna to power in Hollywood, including his eventual ostracism in Japan. Historian John Baxter reveals an artist few people knew: the aesthete who transformed Marlene Dietrich into an international star whose ambivalent sexuality and contradictory allure on-screen reflected an off-screen romance with the director. In his classic films The Blue Angel (1930), Morocco (1930), and Blonde Venus (1932), von Sternberg showcased his trademark visual style and revolutionary representations of sexuality. Drawing on firsthand conversations with von Sternberg and his son, Von Sternberg breaks past the classic Hollywood caricature to demystify and humanize this legendary director.
Meredith Willson marched into the hearts of American music lovers with productions such as the "The Music Man" and "The Unsinkable Molly Brown," and unforgettable show tunes like "76 Trombones." It is the amazing story of how a youngster with talent and tenacity, possessed with what he would later call a streak of "Iowa stubborn", rose to become one of America's most famous musicians. It is the story of a remarkable career in which Willson: helped scientist Lee deForest in experiments that developed sound for motion pictures, wrote the music for Charlie Chaplin's first "talkie," wrote a song recorded by the Beatles, and won the first Grammy award ever presented. John C. Skipper is a newspaper journalist whose 35-year career has produced thousands of newspaper columns and five books. John and his wife, Sandi, live in Mason City, Iowa, just a stone's throw from Willson's famous footbridge. They have three grown daughters and one grandchild.
Thanks to DVD, a great number of silent films and early talkies are now available for home viewing. In fact, so many of these wonderful movies can now be purchased, rented or borrowed by classic motion picture fans that an up-to-date reference work to the best (and the middling and the worst) has become essential. In this comprehensive guide, fans and enthusiasts will find not only familiar titles like Lon Chaney's "Phantom of the Opera" or Douglas Fairbanks' "Thief of Bagdad" or Harold Lloyd's "Safety Last"; but the less familiar "Down to the Sea in Ships" (starring a young Clara Bow), "Evangeline" (Dolores Del Rio), "Stella Dallas" (Belle Bennett), "Monsieur Beaucaire" (Rudolph Valentino), Ford Sterling's "The Show-Off," and Al Jolson's "Big Boy," to mention just a few of the many hundreds of titles detailed in this massive book. 440 pages of insightful text! Over 110 wonderful photos!
Almost all the CLASSIC HOLLYWOOD MOVIES discussed in this book are currently available on DVD. Many are sold by specialist stores such as Oldies. And now that vintage titles are being pressed on demand, theoretically they will never go out of print! However, an attempt has been made to include some of the classics that are not so well-known, as well as those that are more frequently aired on TV or are prominently featured in retail and mail order stores. Here, for example, are a few of the movie titles that begin with the letter "S" Seven Keys to Baldpate (1917), Seven Keys to Baldpate (1947), She Goes To War (1929), the Shining Adventure (1925), the Ship of Lost Men (1929), Show-Off (1926), Silent Enemy (1930), Sky Bride (1932), Sky High (1922), Slums of New York (1932), the Smart Set (1928), Son of the Gods (1930), Speedway (1929), Spite Marriage (1929), the Squall (1929), Square Shoulders (1929), Stranger in Town (1932), Strictly Unconventional (1930), Sunset Trail (1932), Svengali (1931).
Although we tend to accord our highest praise to films with strong messages, Hollywood is resolutely unserious in its goals, and closer perhaps to music than to literature in this regard. Thus, in order to appreciate Hollywood's classic movies, we have to understand them as the result of a style of filmmaking that justifies itself through the grace and beauty of its form. This beauty, when seen, challenges our notion of film as the poorer cousin of the high arts, or as worthwhile only when it serves a social purpose. The Hidden Art of Hollywood draws from a huge fund of recorded interviews with the directors, writers, cinematographers, set designers, producers, and actors who were a part of the studio process, in order to give the filmmakers themselves the chance to explain a very elusive phenomenon: the glancing beauty of the Hollywood film. While the greatness of the classic Hollywood film is, for many of us, settled business, there are also a great number who have difficulty understanding why these films—which can often seem dated and unrealistic compared to modern fare—are taken as seriously as they are. Although we tend to accord our highest praise to films with strong and often didactic messages, Hollywood is resolutely unserious in its goals, and closer perhaps to music than to literature in this regard. Thus, in order to appreciate classic American movies, we have to understand them as the result of a style of filmmaking that justifies itself not through ideas or social relevance, but through the grace and beauty of its form. The beauty of the Hollywood film challenges our notion of film as the poorer cousin of the high arts, or as worthwhile only when it serves a social purpose. In his effort to answer the many questions that classic American cinema suggests, author John Fawell considers previous criticism of Hollywood, but also draws from a huge fund of recorded interviews with the directors, writers, cinematographers, set designers, producers, and actors who were a part of the studio process, in order to give the filmmakers themselves the chance to explain a very elusive phenomenon: the glancing beauty of the Hollywood film. The films of certain great auteurs, including Charlie Chaplin, Ernst Lubitsch, Preston Sturges, Alfred Hitchcock, Billy Wilder, John Ford, and Orson Welles, receive particular attention here, but this book is organized by ideas rather than films or artists, and it draws from a wide array of Hollywood films, both successes and failures, to make its points.
A guide to 178 classic Hollywood movies from the 1920s and early 1930s, now available on DVD releases from both major and independent USA companies. These films feature both stars like Mary Pickford, Douglas Fairbanks, Clara Bow, Lon Chaney, Louise Brooks, Charles Chaplin, Joan Crawford, Colleen Moore, Harold Lloyd, Gary Cooper, William Powell, Greta Garbo, Rudolph Valentino, Norma Shearer, Buster Keaton, Shirley Temple, Barbara Stanwyck, Ronald Colman, Lillian Gish, Marion Davies, and Wallace Beery, who are still top favorites with movie fans, as well as players like Laura La Plante, Charles Ray, Alice Terry, Pola Negri, Mary Miles Minter, Rod La Rocque, and Mabel Poulton who were also extraordinarily popular in their day. The book is illustrated with 105 well-chosen black-and-white photos from the author's private collection.
DiLeo ventures beyond the obvious, paying tribute to a collection of acting feats that made priceless but often unappreciated contributions to the art of screen acting. So, no Scarlett O'Hara, Michael Corleone or Margo Channing here. But you will find Vivien Leigh, Al Pacino, and Bette Davis in outstanding performances that have been overshadowed by their signature roles.
Screen Ages is a valuable guide for students exploring the complex and vibrant history of US cinema and showing how this film culture has grown, changed and developed. Covering key periods from across American cinema history, John Alberti explores the social, technological and political forces that have shaped cinematic output and the varied impacts cinema of on US society. Each chapter has a series of illuminating key features, including: ‘Now Playing’, focusing on films as cinematic events, from The Birth of a Nation to Gone with the Wind to Titanic, to place the reader in the social context of those viewing the films for the first time ‘In Development’, exploring changing genres, from the melodrama to the contemporary super hero movies, ‘The Names Above and Below the Title’, portraying the impact and legacy of central figures, including Florence Lawrence, Orson Welles and Wes Anderson Case studies, analyzing key elements of films in more depth Glossary terms featured throughout the text, to aid non-specialist students and expand the readers understanding of changing screen cultures. Screen Ages illustrates how the history of US cinema has always been and continues to be one of multiple screens, audiences, venues, and markets. It is an essential text for all those wanting to understand of power of American cinema throughout history and the challenges for its future. The book is also supported by a companion website, featuring additional case studies, an interactive blog, a quiz bank for each chapter and an online chapter, ‘Screen Ages Today’ that will be updated to discuss the latest developments in American cinema.
Capitalism and its Discontents presents a series of interpretative essays on a number of key modern and contemporary Latin American novels and films. The overarching theme in the essays is the relation between such textual materials and their regional contexts.
The Roots of Cane proposes a new way to read one of the most significant works of the New Negro Renaissance, Jean Toomer's Cane. John Young traces the many pieces of Cane that were dispersed across multiple modernist magazines from 1922 through 1923. Interweaving a periodical-studies approach to modernism with book history and critical race theory, Young resituates Toomer's uneasy place within Black modernism by asking how original readers would have encountered his work.
Spanning the era from the end of Reconstruction (1877) to 1920, the entries of this reference were chosen with attention to the people, events, inventions, political developments, organizations, and other forces that led to significant changes in the U.S. in that era. Seventeen initial stand-alone essays describe as many themes.
What a talented, wonderful, and complete writer."--Mel Brooks "By far the best thing about my stuff I've ever read."--Arthur Miller "These are wonderful portraits."--Edna O'Brien "The high-water mark of theatrical reportage. Exhilarating! Smart! Lahr gives as much thunderous pleasure as the great entertainers he writes about."--Richard Avedon "There's never been an American critic like John Lahr. His writing exalts, honors, and dignifies the profession and, more importantly, the art."--Tony Kushner
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