Frankenstein: “It’s Alive!”On September 9, 1823 Mary Shelley wrote a letter to her friend and confident, the writer Leigh Hunt, in which she enthusiastically proclaimed, “But lo & behold! I found myself famous! Frankenstein had prodigious success as a drama & was to be repeated for the 23rd night at the English opera house.” Mary Shelley was referring to a play she had just watched titled Presumption; or, the Fate of Frankenstein by Richard Brinsley Peake. It was based on her original novel, Frankenstein; or The Modern Prometheus, which was only moderately successful until Peake decided to adapt it for the stage. Mary’s letter to Hunt continued with, “The story is not well managed – but Cooke (the actor playing the nameless creature) played ___’s part extremely well – his seeking as it were for support – his trying to grasp at the sounds he heard – all indeed he does was well managed & executed.” While watching the latest stage adaptation of Frankenstein written by playwright Nick Dear and directed by the Oscar winning filmmaker Danny Boyle, I couldn’t help thinking of Mary’s letter and the initial excitement she must have felt while watching her creation brought to life. Like the doctor in her novel, I imagine that Mary Shelley must have been both proud of her accomplishment and somewhat surprised when she realized how little control she had over her own book. Frankenstein had become what it proposed. A wild and willful beast bound to no one and destined to haunt the memory of its creator, as well as audiences, for centuries. An Interview with Dave Kehr
It’s taken as long as the caravan journey in The Big Trail, but we finally have a collection of film criticism from Dave Kehr, who currently writes the essential DVD and Blu-Ray column at the NY Times. When Movies Mattered (University of Chicago Press) gathers his work from his period at the Chicago Reader, from 1974 – 1986. For years I’ve consulted his capsule reviews to guide my viewing habits, still available at the Reader website, but his long-form pieces have long been out of circulation. So this is a cause for celebration, although the resulting party would drive other critics to drink out of jealousy rather than selflessness. His prose is patient and lucid, laying bare stylistic and thematic mechanisms with the graceful invisible style of one of his favored Hollywood auteurs. I was able to sit down with Mr. Kehr to talk about some of his favorite directors, as well as those not given much critical attention. So we range from Raoul Walsh to Godard and from Eastwood to Paul W.S. Anderson. Something for everyone! And it should be noted that the University of Chicago Press is doing an incredible job, releasing not just Kehr’s book, but also the most recent writings of Jonathan Rosenbaum and David Bordwell & Kristin Thompson. J. Hoberman’s An Army of PhantomsUnder siege. John Ford’s Fort Apache established one of the major Cold War film archetypes, as J. Hoberman explains in An Army of Phantoms, his breathless, careening cultural history of the period (which the New Press released today). Covering the initial years of the political frost, from the mid-1940s through 1956, it’s the prequel to his 2003 The Dream Life, which ranged from 1960 to the release of Blow Out in 1981. He is preparing a third volume, Found Illusions: The Romance of the Remake and the Triumph of Reaganocracy, that will cover the rest of the 80s and the end of the Cold War. His stated inspiration is Siegfried Kracauer’s From Caligari to Hitler, and Hoberman’s less deterministic project will likely cozy up to it on film reference shelves in the coming decades as an essential and idiosyncratic work of cultural studies. John Barrymore: Gene Fowler’s Sweet Prince, Part 1
This poetically insightful passage is from Gene Fowler’s biography of his friend John Barrymore, Good Night, Sweet Prince. A few months ago, I found a copy of this 1944 biography in a used bookstore, and it has become my new favorite celebrity bio. As indicated by the accompanying photo, this copy of Good Night, Sweet Prince has seen better days. The pages are yellowed, the jacket is in pieces, and it looks as though the previous owner’s pet chewed off the corner of the cover. You could say the book has a lot of charm and character—much like the author and the subject. Life on Mars
Sailors fighting in the dance hall In a 1997 interview David Bowie was asked what his song “Life On Mars” was about and he said, “A sensitive young girl’s reaction to the media. I think she finds herself disappointed with reality … although she’s living in the doldrums of reality, she’s being told that there’s a far greater life somewhere, and she’s bitterly disappointed that she doesn’t have access to it.” Confidentially
Writer-Director Russell Rouse (D.O.A., The Thief, Wicked Woman, The Fastest Gun Alive), made New York Confidential (1955), an admittedly seedy, but quite entertaining film, inspired by the Kefauver hearings in Congress on organized crime in 1950-51. This was a period when the FBI, led by J. Edgar Hoover, was studiously ignoring the existence of a criminal network while eagerly looking under beds for Commie sympathizers. The movie, written by Rouse and Clarence Greene, was “suggested” by the best-selling book written by those truth-telling twins of tabloid journalism, Jack Lait and Lee Mortimer. The pair made a cottage industry out of these books in the ’40s and ’50s, cranking out some hard facts, as well as lots of squirrelly, often right wing sensationalism in one hot seller after another, U.S.A.: Confidential, Chicago: Confidential, and Washington: Confidential–all of them promising to rip the veil of respectability from various civic cesspools. Not to make anyone on the planet feel left out, Around the World Confidential and Women: Confidential were penned by Mortimer after Jack Lait transferred to the big city room in the sky in 1954.* Thanks to Kit Parker Films (a company that specializes in unearthing “orphan films”), this long out-of-circulation Edward Small production was restored and released earlier this year on DVD by VCI Entertainment. Two of the dark angels from the Film Noir Foundation, writer and film historian Alan K. Rode and author Kim Morgan provide an informative and lively commentary on the DVD of the movie, discussing the actors, story, filmmakers and quirks of this often slyly amusing film, which was clearly made on a shoestring–though the top drawer cast and acting never lets the viewer down. Visually it is not impressive, with flat, almost claustrophobic sets and no extended scenes set in the great outdoors, but the top notch cast, led by Broderick Crawford, Richard Conte, J. Carrol Naish, Anne Bancroft and Marilyn Maxwell expands the film’s B movie soul beyond the limits of the sometimes uneven script. Ann Harding: A Q & A with Biographer Scott O’Brien
“Looking at [Ann] Harding,” wrote film historian Mick LaSalle in his book, Complicated Women (St. Martin’s, 2001), “is like looking into clear, deep water. Nothing stands in the way. No stylization, no attitude, no posing. In fact, little about her technique could date her as a thirties actress.” These are some of the words that inspired Scott O’Brien, author of Ann Harding – Cinema’s Gallant Lady (BearManor) in his research into the career and life of actress Ann Harding (1902-1981). For those who met her during the height of her Hollywood career, she left starkly different impressions. Laurence Olivier called her “an angel.” Henry Hathaway said that she “was an absolute bitch.” Myrna Loy found her “a very private person, a wonderful actress completely without star temperament, but withdrawn.” With the publication earlier this year of Scott O’Brien’s beautifully illustrated and well written biography, a balanced portrait of a skilled actress emerges, as well as some sense of the publicly guarded but privately intense woman behind her fame. Recently, I had a chance to ask the author of this meticulously researched and long overdue biography of Ann Harding about his interest in this unique, transitional figure in American film. Perhaps after reading this post a few more people who have yet to discover her work will pause next time one of her rarely seen films, such as Devotion (1931), The Animal Kingdom (1932), Double Harness (1933), When Ladies Meet (1933), The Flame Within (1935) or Peter Ibbetson (1935) emerges from the movie vault. This often surprisingly modern actress may intrigue and touch you with her presence. You might find yourself unexpectedly enthralled. From the Archive of Hammer Films
Impossibly Funky, Fresh and Dope
Mike White started writing about film in the 1990s while self-publishing his own small press movie magazine (or zine) devoted to cult films and Hollywood hits called Cashiers du Cinemart, which was a creative play on the title of the respected French film magazine Cahiers du Cinema. The book compiles many of the best articles from Cashiers du Cinemart, but it also contains some new material and updates for the book release. Contributors include Mike Thompson, Leon Chase, Chris Cummins, Skizz Cyzyk, Andrew Grant, Rich Osmond, and Mike White’s wife, Andrea White but a large portion of the book highlights Mike’s own writing and personal insights. The book also features a great forward written by film director Herschell Gordon Lewis (Blood Feast; 1963, Two Thousand Maniacs!; 1964, She-Devils on Wheels; 1967, The Wizard of Gore; 1970, etc.) and a funny introduction from author Chris Gore (Film Threat, The Ultimate Film Festival Guide, The 50 Greatest Movies Never Made, etc.) Toby Peters: Detective to the Stars
Kaminsky was more than a mystery novelist. He was also a screenwriter and a professor of film. I was fortunate enough to be one of his graduate students when he taught at Northwestern University. During my first year in the program, my classmates and I were intrigued with our mystery-writing professor and eagerly devoured his first few Toby Peters novels. While I enjoyed the interaction of a fictional private eye with real-life movie stars, relishing the nostalgia, I didn’t realize just how clever they were. Sadly, Stuart Kaminsky died in October 2009, and, though he was 75, I was shocked to hear the news, in part because it made me realize that my years at Northwestern had been so long ago and that time takes no prisoners. His death prompted me to revisit the Toby Peters mysteries, and I discovered that no book series could be more irresistible to movie lovers of all types, from the film historian to the star-struck fan. |
Archives
This mag sound so fun! I think I saw... - Jenni
Featured Sites
Popular terms
3-D
Action Films
Actors
Actors' Endorsements
animal stars
Animation
Anime
Anthology Films
Autobiography
Awards
B-movies
Best of the Year lists
Biography
Biopics
Blu-Ray
Books on Film
Boxing films
British Cinema
Canadian Cinema
Character Actors
Chicago Film History
Cinematography
Classic Films
College Life on Film
Comedy
Comic Book Movies
Czech Film
Dance on Film
Digital Cinema
Directors
Disaster Films
Documentary
Drama
DVD
Early Talkies
Editing
Educational Films
European Influence on American Cinema
Experimental
Exploitation
Fairy Tales on Film
Faith or Christian-based Films
Family Films
Film Composers
film festivals
Film History in Florida
Film Noir
Film Scholars
Film titles
Filmmaking Techniques
Food in Film
Foreign Film
French Film
Gangster films
Genre
Genre spoofs
Guest Programmers
HD & Blu-Ray
Holiday Movies
Hollywood lifestyles
Horror
Horror Movies
Icons
independent film
Italian Film
Japanese Film
Korean Film
Leadership
Literary Adaptations
Martial Arts
Melodramas
Method Acting
Mexican Cinema
Moguls
Monster Movies
Movie Books
Movie Costumes
Movie locations
Movie lovers
Movie Reviewers
Movie settings
Movie Stars
Music in Film
Musicals
New Releases
Outdoor Cinema
Paranoid Thrillers
Parenting on film
Polish film industry
political thrillers
Politics in Film
Pornography
Pre-Code
Producers
Race in American Film
Remakes
Road Movies
Romance
Romantic Comedies
Russian Film Industry
Satire
Scandals
Science Fiction
Screenwriters
Semi-documentaries
Serials
Short Films
Silent Film
silent films
Social Problem Film
Sports
Sports on Film
Stereotypes
Straight-to-DVD
Studio Politics
Suspense thriller
Swashbucklers
TCM Classic Film Festival
Television
The British in Hollywood
The Germans in Hollywood
The Hungarians in Hollywood
The Irish in Hollywood
The Russians in Hollywood
Theaters
Trains in movies
Underground Cinema
VOD
War film
Westerns
Women in the Film Industry
Women's Weepies |