Lightning Flashes: a Cinephiliac History of Classic Hollywood
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LIGHTNING FLASHES: A CINEPHILIAC HISTORY OF CLASSIC HOLLYWOOD By RASHNA WADIA RICHARDS A DISSERTATION PRESENTED TO THE GRADUATE SCHOOL OF THE UNIVERSITY OF FLORIDA IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY UNIVERSITY OF FLORIDA 2006 Copyright 2006 by Rashna Wadia Richards ACKNOWLEDGMENTS For their guidance and support, I would like to acknowledge my dissertation committee members, Robert B. Ray, Greg Ulmer, Susan Hegeman, and Nora Alter. I thank Greg for helping me frame and articulate the critical issues engaged in this project. His constant and enthusiastic support, especially during the dissertation’s final stages, has meant a great deal to me. I thank Susan for teaching me to view my work more critically and to anticipate opposing points of view. Nora’s discerning critiques have enabled me to challenge my assumptions and broaden my perspective, and I appreciate her advice and approachability. Above all, I am grateful to Robert, whose influence on my work is immeasurable. During a graduate seminar in the fall of 2001, he introduced me to the role of cinephilia in film studies and taught me that experimentation and discipline can co- exist. Since then, he has been an enduring source of wise counsel, support, and inspiration. I feel truly honored to have spent the last five years under his mentorship. I would also like to thank my family for their warmth and encouragement. I am grateful to my parents and my in-laws for their countless kindnesses over the years. I owe my deepest gratitude to my husband, Jason Richards, whom I met at the University of Florida. His unwavering devotion and unfailing wit have been invaluable in navigating the challenges and joys of being an academic couple. I thank him for sharing my passion for the movies; for serving as a sounding board for all of my ideas; for being my biggest cheerleader and finest critic. Without him, nothing would be possible or worthwhile. iii TABLE OF CONTENTS page ACKNOWLEDGMENTS ................................................................................................. iii LIST OF FIGURES ........................................................................................................... vi ABSTRACT...................................................................................................................... vii CHAPTER 1 “LIKE WRITING HISTORY WITH LIGHTNING”: AN INTRODUCTION ...........1 A Hollywood Beginning...............................................................................................1 The Cinephiliac Turn..................................................................................................10 Cinephiliac History.....................................................................................................25 Notes...........................................................................................................................35 2 SHOW STOPPERS: THE CHANCE ENCOUNTER WITH CHIFFONS................38 A Funny Thing Happens . ........................................................................................38 “Two Unlikely Worlds Are Suddenly Joined” ...........................................................44 Refus[e]ing History ....................................................................................................52 Episodes in Chiffon ....................................................................................................58 “Hey, What’s the Big Idea Anyway?”........................................................................74 Notes...........................................................................................................................76 3 LOOSE ENDS: THE STUFF THAT MOVIES ARE MADE OF .............................80 A Telephone-Bell Rings in Darkness . ...................................................................80 “What Was the Nickel for?”.......................................................................................85 On a Walking Tour of Hollywood..............................................................................96 Trailing The Maltese Falcon ....................................................................................101 “Who Ever Heard of a Wrong Number?”.................................................................120 Notes.........................................................................................................................122 4 SIGNATURE CRIMES: THE STRANGE CASE OF THE LOST SCENES (AND THE STRANGER CASE OF THE MISSING AUTEUR) ......................................128 Whodunit?.................................................................................................................128 In the Name of the Author........................................................................................134 iv Surfacing Evidence...................................................................................................150 Naming Names .........................................................................................................162 “This is Orson Welles” .............................................................................................182 Notes.........................................................................................................................184 5 “THERE ARE MANY SUCH STORIES”: AN AFTERWORD.............................189 A Hollywood Ending................................................................................................189 The Experimental Turn.............................................................................................191 LIST OF REFERENCES.................................................................................................195 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH ...........................................................................................212 v LIST OF FIGURES Figure page 2-1 The unmotivated overhead shot of the fur coat falling ............................................39 2-2 J. B. Ball hurls the coat from the balcony ................................................................40 2-3 Mary Smith is suddenly hit by the fur coat ..............................................................41 3-1 A new case: “suppose you tell me about it from the very beginning” ...................102 3-2 The partner is shot: “Miles Archer dead?”.............................................................108 3-3 The detective becomes a suspect: “you fellows trying to rope me made me nervous” .................................................................................................................110 3-4 An odd delivery: “why couldn’t he have stayed alive long enough to tell us something?”............................................................................................................115 3-5 The falcon turns out fake: “the, uh, stuff that dreams are made of” ......................118 3-6 The telephone rings: all is lost................................................................................121 4-1 The Nazi mastermind signs his name.....................................................................129 4-2 Hitler drawing faulty swastikas..............................................................................182 5-1 Lights, wind, snow, steam: action!.........................................................................190 vi Abstract of Dissertation Presented to the Graduate School of the University of Florida in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements of the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy LIGHTNING FLASHES: A CINEPHILIAC HISTORY OF CLASSIC HOLLYWOOD By Rashna Wadia Richards August 2006 Chair: Robert B. Ray Major Department: English This project proposes an experimental mode of historicizing Classic Hollywood cinema by using moments of intense visual pleasure as prompts for cinematic research. During its classical phase (roughly 1945–1968), cinephiles focused mainly on recapturing euphoric visual moments—a peculiar detail, a curious gesture, an idiosyncratic trace—in writing. Film studies’ post-1968 investment in ideological critique discredited this discourse as quaint and irrelevant. However, following Susan Sontag’s lament that the distinctive love inspired by a century of cinema has ended, the last decade has seen a resurgence of interest in cinephilia, although most recent studies have either historicized the fetishistic discourse of classical cinephilia or theorized its transformation in today’s global film culture. This work differs: rather than seeing cinephilia as an uncritical buffism, I propose that cinephiliac moments hold the potential to prompt unanticipated discussions between film history, theory, and visual culture. Cinephiliac moments are like Walter Benjamin’s “lightning flashes”: they pulsate briefly, sometimes in the margins of vii our attention, exceeding their narrative contexts and offering unconventional points of entry into the cinematic and cultural terrain of Classic Hollywood. The project treats cinephiliac moments as clues toward an alternative historiography, one modeled on Benjamin’s figures of historical materialism: the ragpicker, the flâneur, and the detective. After theorizing the notion of cinephilia in the introduction, each chapter issues from a Benjaminian figure, deployed both thematically and methodologically as a way to activate the excessive signification concealed in cinephiliac moments from otherwise standard studio films. Chapter 2 begins with a mysterious fur coat falling on Jean Arthur’s head