Films, Cinema

Having entered the world in 1896 as a poverty-stricken child named Naftaly (Nathan) Birnbaum, George Burns rose from New York's Lower East Side ...

Throughout the 1930s, 40s and 50s, several independent film production companies (referred to a poverty row studios) turned out hundreds of B movie...

This reference work provides production company-written plot synopses or, when a synopsis was not available, trade paper reviews of 476 films ab...

Pity the extras. Mostly overlooked and forgotten. Especially those in the major Hollywood films 1913 to 1945--right through the dream factory's ...

Film history is merged with psychiatric history seamlessly, to show how and why bad depictions of mind doctors (especially hypnotists) occur in ...

With his rugged features and earthy sex appeal, Victor Mature ushered in a new breed of postwar Hollywood actor, far removed from the debonair m...

   Much has been written (and rewritten) about classic horror and science fiction films like Nosferatu and Metropolis, as well as not-so-classic pi...

In 1975, after his two Godfather epics, Francis Ford Coppola went to the Philippines to film Apocalypse Now. He scrapped much of the original scrip...

American dancer, singer and actress Gwen Verdon (1925-2000) won four Tony awards for her work on Broadway and also appeared in films and on tele...

The films of the New French Extremity have been reviled by critics but adored by fans and filmmakers. Known for graphically brutal depictions of se...

A number of thrillers made in the 1920s and 1930s have become available again thanks to new technology. There are a few, however, that remain el...

Proposing a fresh theoretical approach to the study of cinematic portrayals of the Middle Ages, this book uses both semiotics and historiography...

From his earliest shorts to his recent feature lms The Departed and Shutter Island, this book offers an in-depth analysis of the deepest archety...

This is the first study of the life and art of Sydney Chaplin, Charlie Chaplin's brother, a person notable not only for his importance in establ...

This critical survey examines the historical and thematic relationships between two of the cinema's most popular genres: horror and film noir. T...

A surge of immigration in the United States in the 1920s coincided with burgeoning developments in entertainment--including cinema. Movie houses...

The author invites readers to spend time in the pleasure of Harpo's cinematic company while comparing him to tricksters from folklore, myth and ...

Named Television's First Lady by Walter Ames of the Los Angeles Times, actress Beverly Garland (1926-2008) is also regarded as a Western and sci...

While many fans remember The Lone Ranger, Ace Drummond and others, fewer focus on the facts that serials had their roots in silent film and that...

Ridiculous' is a relative term, what is nonsense for one can be an important guideline for another. It is not about laying down the law. For each o...

Nearly 130 years after the introduction of Sherlock Holmes to readers, the Great Detective's identity is being questioned, deconstructed, and recon...

For many years, movie audiences have carried on a love affair with the American West, believing Westerns are escapist entertainment of the best ...

From atomic bombs to zealous zombies, this cinephile s guidebook reviews 1000 of the wickedest, weirdest and most terrifying films from every age o...

Though intimacy has been a wide concern in the humanities, it has received little critical attention in film studies. This collection of new ess...

The media vampire has roots throughout the world, far beyond the shores of the usual Dracula-inspired Anglo-American archetypes. Depending on text ...

In 1933, Margaret Sullavan made her film debut and was an overnight sensation. For the next three decades, she enchanted audiences and critics i...

As baby boomers gray, cinematic depictions of aging and the aged are on the rise. In the horror genre, fears of growing old take on fantastic pr...

After a meteoric ascent on Broadway that began with Ziegfelds 1910 Follies, Lillian Lorraine went on to become one of the most famous entertainers ...

On December 31, 1939, nationwide radio audiences listened as 17-year-old Josephine Owaissa Cottle, a Texas schoolgirl, won Gateway to Hollywood'...

Fictional war narratives often employ haunted battlefields, super-soldiers, time travel, the undead and other imaginative elements of science fi...

Anne Bancroft (1931-2005) was an American film, television and stage actress, stage producer and film director. Respected for her acting prowess...

Prior to the collapse of communism, Romanian historical movies were political, encouraging nationalistic feelings and devotion to the state. Vla...

Roy Rogers' golden palomino, Trigger, was the perhaps the most famous horse in film--more popular than the man himself among certain fans. In it...

Clear all moorings, one-half impulse power and set course for a mare incognitum... A popular culture artifact of the New Frontier/Space Race ...

The western genre touched on ideals of honor, conquest, and freedom of spirit, and its stories packed cinemas of the early sound era. This volum...

British author and essayist George Orwell shot to fame with two iconic novels:the anti-Stalinist satire Animal Farm and the dystopian masterpiec...

One of the top-grossing independent films of all time, The Evil Dead (1981) sparked a worldwide cult following, resulting in sequels, remakes, m...

Tony Scott was a thrill seeker who lived and loved life to the fullest... He was also one of the more cutting edge filmmakers of an entire generati...

Henry Neil Soapy Castles grew up in Charlotte, North Carolina, and became involved in its pioneering auto racing scene at an early age. Graduati...

A hit television show about a fictitious rock band, The Monkees (1966-1968) earned two Emmys-Best Comedy Series and Best Director. Capitalizing on ...

As the British watched their empire crumble and the United States became the dominant world power, many British films warned of the dangers pose...

Wonder women, G.I. Janes, and vampire slayers increasingly populate the American cultural landscape. What do these figures mean in the American cul...

Mexican cinema has largely been overlooked by international film scholars because of a lack of English-language information and the fact that Sp...

Martial arts have appeared in American movies since the days of Mr. Moto and Charlie Chan, but English-language martial arts films as a genre di...