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University of Warwick institutional repository: http://go.warwick.ac.uk/wrap A Thesis Submitted for the Degree of PhD at the University of Warwick http://go.warwick.ac.uk/wrap/50024 This thesis is made available online and is protected by original copyright. Please scroll down to view the document itself. Please refer to the repository record for this item for information to help you to cite it. Our policy information is available from the repository home page. The Happy Couple: American Marriages in Hollywood Films 1934-1948 Nicolas Pillai A thesis submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Film Department of Film and Television Studies University of Warwick April 2012 Table of Contents List of illustrations………………………………………………….6 Acknowledgements…………………………………………………7 Abstract……………………………………………………………..9 Introduction……………………………………………………….10 Review of the literature Cavell’s couples……………………………………………………20 Challenging Cavell: David R. Shumway…………………………..24 The problem of happiness………………………………………….26 Spaces of comedy and melodrama…………………………………31 Spaces of performance……………………………………………..35 Couples and cycles…………………………………………………38 Performance: Virginia Wright Wexman…………………………...42 Performance: James Naremore……………………………………..45 Performance: Andrew Klevan……………………………………...48 Defining ‘chemistry’……………………………………………….51 Marriage and its contexts: Kathrina Glitre…………………………54 1. Partners in Crime: marriage and mystery in film series…..58 The seduction of crime……………………………………………..61 Watching the detectives…………………………………………….64 Marriage and detection……………………………………………..69 Nick, gentleman detective………………………………………….72 Nora and Asta………………………………………………………75 Nick and Nora………………………………………………………78 Knowing ‘lovely people’…………………………………………...81 2 Bedside manners……………………………………………………85 The democratic couple……………………………………………...87 ‘I’m glad you’re not a detective’…………………………………...91 What happens After the Thin Man?…………………………………95 Another Thin Man…………………………………………………..107 Nick Jr. and narrative……………………………………………….109 Peopling the old dark house………………………………………...112 Socialising Nora…………………………………………………….115 ‘Adoringly, Bella Spruce’…………………………………………..120 ‘You know how girls are!’………………………………………….122 ‘Send me to the chair or get your kid back in one piece!’………….124 2. Bringing Up Jr: the male child, education and environment.128 Nick Jr. and Shadow of the Thin Man………………………………129 ‘In the old days they put a lamp in the window!’…………………...133 Tarzan Finds a Son!………………………………………………...134 The Thin Man Goes Home (without Nick Jr.)………………………137 Nick Jr. and Song of the Thin Man…………………………………144 Domestic routine……………………………………………………146 Bedtime stories……………………………………………………..150 ‘No one’d hurt a little boy…’………………………………………151 Three mysteries…………………………………………………….154 Shadow of the Thin Man: spaces of mystery……………………….155 The Thin Man Goes Home: spaces of mystery……………………..158 Song of the Thin Man: a loss of tempo……………………………..164 The lost city…………………………………………………………167 3 3. Building Doll’s Houses: daughters, discomfort, domesticity.169 Recollections of a shared life……………………………………….173 Mementoes and music………………………………………………176 The mise-en-scene of memory………………………………………178 Incompatible spaces…………………………………………………182 House of borrowed paper……………………………………………186 Ellipsis……………………………………………………………….189 Empty space and Applejack…………………………………………190 A fairy (god)mother…………………………………………………195 Home and hysteria…………………………………………………..199 Nativity, death and division………………………………………….203 ‘I’m not coming home’………………………………………………207 Mr. Blandings Builds his Dream House……………………………..212 Modern-day cliff dwellers……………………………………………214 Mapping the house……………………………………………………216 Very American, very grass roots, very blueberry pie………………...218 4. Lover, come back to me: returning to marriage………………223 My Favourite Wife: You and the night and the music………………...225 Awful truths…………………………………………………………..229 Being Beastly to Bianca………………………………………………231 ‘Is that Johnny Weissmuller?’………………………………………..235 Hamburgers and root beer……………………………………………237 ‘It’s like a miracle.’…………………………………………………..239 The Best Years of Our Lives: coming home………………………….242 Hollywood realism and deep focus…………………………………..243 4 All the best ones are already married………………………………248 Nervous out of the service………………………………………….249 You’re home now, sailor……………………………………………252 ‘You remember. My husband – Al!’……………………………….255 Fred’s return………………………………………………………...258 Al & Milly: Among My Souvenirs…………………………………260 Marie & Fred: ‘Nobody’s got a wife looks like that!’………………262 ‘I’m going to break that marriage up.’……………………………..267 Homer & Wilma…………………………………………………….270 Homer & Wilma, Al & Milly, Fred & Peggy……………………….271 The constructed family in Tomorrow is Forever……………………274 ‘I never let her grow up.’……………………………………………278 Going home…………………………………………………………280 ‘A man’s child is his future.’………………………………………..283 The price of ‘tomorrow’…………………………………………….285 Conclusions………………………………………………………...289 Appendix: Asta’s Love Song……………………………………...292 Bibliography………………………………………………………..293 Filmography………………………………………………………...309 5 List of Illustrations Fig. 1 Philo Vance meets Nick Charles…………………………………69 Fig. 2 The couple’s intellectual contest…………………………………80 Fig. 3 The exhausted family……………………………………………127 Fig. 4 The crowded couple……………………………………………..130 Fig. 5 Small town spaces………………………………………………140 Fig. 6 The doorway…………………………………………………….158 Fig. 7 The distant city………………………………………………….165 Fig. 8 The landing……………………………………………………...179 Fig. 9 The absent father………………………………………………..194 Fig. 10 The imagined home……………………………………………219 Fig. 11 The home as advertisement……………………………………222 Fig. 12 The diminished other woman………………………………….233 Fig. 13 Mapping America………………………………………………250 Fig. 14 Ghosts of the past………………………………………………281 Fig. 15 Embracing tomorrow…………………………………………..287 6 Acknowledgements I must begin by acknowledging a great debt to my supervisor, Ed Gallafent. His sensitivity and generosity informed every stage of my research process, and when my spirits have been low, his good humour has revived me. I have benefited from his wide knowledge of film and literature, and shared in his fondness for Hollywood’s memorable supporting actors. He has set me an example of rigorous and responsible scholarship, which I hope is reflected in this work. In one way or another, every member of staff in the Department of Film and Television Studies has contributed to my development. I wish to single out Victor Perkins, whose module on Renoir and Ophuls was a revelatory moment in my education. Teaching with Alastair Phillips and Charlotte Brunsdon gave me confidence and clarity. Charlotte’s advice and interest has encouraged me at crucial points in my academic career, and it was an accidental meeting with her at Birmingham Moor Street that prompted me to begin the doctoral process. I owe her my thanks for that, and for many other kindnesses. Jon Burrows has helped me many times and Catherine Constable has expressed enthusiasm for the films of Myrna Loy and recommended crime novels. Tracey McVey, Anne Birchall and Heather Hares enrich the department with their warmth and have assisted me in countless ways. Similarly, Richard Perkins, my subject librarian, has patiently tracked down Tom Conway films and compensated for my IT inadequacies. I am grateful to the Arts and Humanities Research Council, who have funded my doctoral study and who provided a travel grant for me to promote my research in Detroit. This trip was also part-funded by the University of Warwick Humanities Research Centre. The Department of Film and Television Studies’ conference 7 allowance permitted me to attend Stanley Cavell and Literary Criticism (Edinburgh, 2008) and to speak at conferences at the University of Winchester (2009) and Northumbria University (2011). I wish to register my thanks here to the librarians at the University of Kent, the BFI National Library and the Margaret Herrick Library, whose efficiency has been invaluable. The last two acknowledgements are the most important. My parents Gregory and Gillian, my brother Dominic and my grandparents Peter and Jean have supported me in every possible way. It was with them that I first saw many of the films discussed in this thesis. They, more than anyone, have fostered my love of film. Róisín Muldoon’s love, intelligence and wit have inspired me to complete this thesis. She has contributed far more than she can know, and her insights into the films discussed herein have enriched my understanding of them. Like Nora Charles, she doesn’t scold, she doesn’t nag and she looks far too pretty in the mornings. I would like to dedicate this thesis to Róisín and to my family. 8 Abstract This thesis examines Hollywood narratives of married life produced between 1934 and 1948. Using Stanley Cavell’s seminal Pursuits of Happiness as a point of departure, I compare the depiction of benign domesticity across four chapters. Combining textual analysis, genre criticism and studio archival research, I re-evaluate Cavell’s notion of ‘films in conversation’, and suggest that narratives of marriage call for an approach that considers intertextuality, audience address and the interaction of star personae. My first two chapters focus on MGM’s six Thin Man films, discussing an ongoing series’ portrayal of a continuous marriage. In my analysis of The Thin Man, After the Thin Man and Another Thin Man, I argue that the mystery plots of these films inform and inflect the depiction of marriage in private and public space. In contrast to previous studies that view Shadow