Description
Book SynopsisLeading film studies scholars explore the astonishing range of Michael Curtiz, the most prolific director of studio-era Hollywood, whose nearly one hundred films include Casablanca, White Christmas, and Mildred Pierce.
Trade Review2018 brings an aptly titled essay collection,
The Many Cinemas of Michael Curtiz. . . Perhaps pointedly, none of the essayists focus on
Casablanca (1942). Instead,
The Many Cinemas examine genres Curtiz worked in, his handling of political messages and his relations with actors. * Shepherd Express *
The Many Cinemas of Michael Curtiz goes a long way to explaining and clarifying how and why the uncanny medium of cinema makes it a fair claim that filmmakers such as Michael Curtiz were actually painters with light and sound. It’s just that their paintings spoke and moved like living things, because that’s what they were: darkly shining reflections from behind the mirror. * Critics at Large *
The twenty essays here amply demonstrate how rich and productive readings of a director's work can be when due attention is paid to easing out the complex webs of collaboration, studio/commercial pressures, external factors (such as censorship), and cultural discourse that contribute to the shaping of film content and reception. * Western Historical Quarterly *
Table of Contents
- Acknowledgments
- Introduction. The Many Cinemas of Michael Curtiz (R. Barton Palmer and Murray Pomerance)
- 1. Bending It Like Curtiz: Gender and Genre in The Scarlet Hour and The Helen Morgan Story (Rebecca Bell-Metereau)
- 2. Making a Life with Father (David Desser)
- 3. The Jewish Jazz Singer Remakes His Voice: Michael Curtiz's Update of the Warner Bros. Classic (Seth Friedman)
- 4. "Don't Fence Me In": The Making of Night and Day (Mark Glancy)
- 5. Long Love the Queen: Bette Davis, Curtiz, and Female Melodrama (David Greven)
- 6. Double-Time in America: Yankee Doodle Dandy (Julie Grossman )
- 7. Mildred Pierce: From Script to Screen (Kristen Hatch)
- 8. Curtiz at Sea: Captain Blood, The Sea Hawk, The Sea Wolf, and The Breaking Point (Nathan Holmes)
- 9. Curtiz in the White House (Bill Krohn)
- 10. The Spectacle of the Ages: Noah's Ark (Katharina Loew )
- 11. Jazz Me Blues: Lo-Fi, Fantasy, Audiovisuality in Young Man with a Horn (Robert Miklitsch)
- 12. A Setting Sun: The Egyptian (Deron Overpeck)
- 13. King Creole: Michael Curtiz and the Great Elvis Presley Industry (Landon Palmer)
- 14. Michael Curtiz's Political Cinema of Sorts (R. Barton Palmer)
- 15. Curtiz's New Western Aesthetic (Homer B. Pettey)
- 16. Michael Curtiz's Gamble for Christmas (Murray Pomerance)
- 17. Film Performance before and after the Code: Mandalay and Stolen Holiday (Steven Rybin)
- 18. "A Mass of Contradictions": Michael Curtiz and the Women's Film (Michele Schreiber)
- 19. Devil-May-Care: Curtiz and Flynn in Hollywood (Constantine Verevis)
- 20. Uncanny Effigies: Early Sound Cinema and Mystery of the Wax Museum (Colin Williamson)
- Michael Curtiz Filmography
- Contributors
- Index
