DOCSLIB.ORG

Fluchtpunkt Hollywood Reprint

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
Fluchtpunkt Hollywood Reprint freyermuth.com Fluchtpunkt Hollywood Die ungeschriebene Folge 8 Eine ganze Kultur wanderte aus, als die Nazis die Macht übernahmen. Mit Beginn des Zweiten Weltkrieges wurde die Neue Welt zur letzten Zuflucht. Eine Spurensuche bei letzten Überlebenden des deutschen Anti- Nazi-Exils in Hollywood Reprint Mann unter Wölfen Fluchtpunkt Hollywood war auf zwölf Folgen angelegt. Während die Publikation bereits lief, wurde die Serie von der stern-Chefredaktion – aus einem aktuellen Anlass, den ich nicht mehr erinnere – auf sieben Folgen reduziert. In der achten Folge, an der ich zu diesem Zeitpunkt schrieb, porträtierte ich den Romancier und Drehbuchautor Curt Siodmak. Weiter > 1988Von Gundolf S. Freyermuth vol. 2009.08 info fluchtpunkt hollywood. folge 8 1/44 freyermuth.com Die ungeschriebene achte Folge Nachdem ich 1988 die Arbeit an der achten Folge der Serie abbrechen musste, sollten neun Jahre vergehen, bis ich Gelegenheit fand, das Porträt zu Ende zu schreiben – und dann auf Englisch und für ein amerikanisches Publikum. Der Artikel erschien 1997, kurz nach Curt Siodmaks 95. Geburtstag, in der Los Angeles Times. Dass die Berlinale im darauf folgenden Frühjahr ihre Retrospektive den Gebrüdern Siodmak widmete und Curt dazu auch persönlich nach Berlin kam, bot die Gelegenheit, diesen amerikanischen Artikel auf deutsch in der Berliner Zeitung sowie einen zweiten, kürzeren in der Frankfurter Rundschau zu platzieren. Ein letztes Mal schließlich schrieb ich dann im Jahr 2000 über Curt Siodmak für Die Welt – den Nachruf. Zwischen diesen Artikeln bestehen etliche Überschneidungen. Jeder Text bietet aber auch neue Szenen und Einsichten, weshalb ich sie alle im Reprint dokumentiere. Zu meinen aktuellen Publikationsplänen gehört freilich die Fortsetzung und Beendigung der Reise in die Verlorengegangenheit auf den Spuren des deutschen Anti-Nazi-Exils, deren erster Band 1990 erschien. vol. 2009.08 info fluchtpunkt hollywood. folge 8 2/44 freyermuth.com In einen solchen zweiten Band werden dann diese Artikel sowie das umfangreiche, noch nicht verwendete Material einfließen, das ich über anderthalb Jahrzehnte hinweg bei mehreren Besuchen, regelmäßigen Telefonaten und im Briefwechsel mit Curt Siodmaks über sein Leben und Werk gesammelt habe. Despite His Fate, He Found His Fortune / 5 vol. 2009.08 info fluchtpunkt hollywood. folge 8 3/44 freyermuth.com So nahe an 100 Prozent / 17 Weltbürger im Wolfsmannpelz / 27 Ein Mann unter Wölfen / 37 vol. 2009.08 inhalt info fluchtpunkt hollywood. folge 8 4/44 freyermuth.com Despite His Fate, He Found His Fortune Curt Siodmak, 95, writer of classic Science Fiction and Horror who brought The Wolf Man to Hollywood, Sees His Career Coming Full Circle Weiter> Erstpublikation 1997 vol. 2009.08 infoinhalt info fluchtpunkt hollywood. folge 38 5/44 freyermuth.com Follow Old River Road, but be careful not to drive too far, or you end up on the ce- metery! I warn you, they like to keep people there,« Curt Siodmak said on the phone. He spoke Anglo-Saxon: American words with the heavy accent of Dresden, where he was born in 1902, in another age, when Saxony was still a monarchy ruled by His Maje- sty King Friedrich August. A few days later, I was driving down to Siodmak’s Old South Fork Ranch in Three Rivers. At God’s acre I made the right turn, and it was like gliding into a Henri Matisse painting touched up by Norman Rockwell. A pastoral landscape with high old trees, their thick leaves softening the blistering sun, a serene gorge with a narrow bridge, the river mur- muring all the way up to the hidden ranch house. In front of it, an energetic elderly gentleman was waiting for me. He had a broad smile on his face, little hair on his head and an air of existential impatience about him. Behind him a slim white-haired lady appeared and put her left arm lovingly around his hip. vol. 2009.08 info fluchtpunkt hollywood. folge 8 6/44 freyermuth.com »My greatest achievement in life is marrying this woman!« Curt Siodmak introduced his wife Henrietta, beaming as if they were newly weds. »But living with an angel isn’t too easy either.« That’s how I re- member our first en- counter twelve years Curt Siodmak on his ranch in ago. Now, on August Three Rivers, California, 1985. 10, Curt Siodmak has (Photo: Michael Montfort) turned 95, and almost nothing seems to have changed. Henrietta, his companion for more than seventy years, is still his angel, and the Old South Fork Ranch with its sandy hills and breathta- king vistas is still his paradise on earth. vol. 2009.08 info fluchtpunkt hollywood. folge 8 7/44 freyermuth.com In Curt’s office, however, the small room with the ancient computer and the bulky copier, you’ll see a second framed letter on the wall. The first one that was always hanging there was written in 1937 by Curt’s German publisher. It coolly states: »I he- rewith inform you that all copies of your book have been confiscated by the Geheime Staatspolizei [Secret Police]. Yours truly ...« The second letter arrived in 1992. It is signed by the President of the Federal Republic of Germany and declares that Curt Siodmak has been awarded the Bundesverdienst- kreuz Erster Klasse, the German equivalent to the Presidential Medal of Freedom. »They gave that to me,« says Siodmak with a weary smile, »because they couldn’t catch and kill me back then.« The sarcasm hides some satisfaction. Curt Siodmak’s autobiography for which he couldn’t find an American publisher has recently been translated into German. The Ber- lin film museum Kinemathek has bought his personal archive. And the next Berlinale, the Berlin film festival, will honor him – together with his late brother, the director Robert Siodmak (The Spiral Staircase) – with a retrospective. vol. 2009.08 info fluchtpunkt hollywood. folge 8 8/44 freyermuth.com All that shows that Curt Siodmak has come full circle. For it was in Berlin, the vibrant German capital of the Weimar years, where his remarkable career took off. There the young man from Dresden with the Ph.D. in mathematics, second son of a Jewish fur merchant, found work as a reporter. His first scoop: being hired as an extra by Fritz Lang for Metropolis and becoming the only journalist to get to see the closed set. Then, in the late 1920’s, he had the idea for Menschen am Sonntag (People on Sunday). Friend Billie Wilder, who in the US would change his first name to Billy, expanded the basic idea into a loose shooting script. Curt Siodmak financed a large part of the low budget of this semi-documentary, a masterwork of neo-realism before neo-realism was even invented, and Edgar Ulmer and brother Robert Siodmak directed. The movie became an instant hit, and a few weeks later the Siodmaks and their colla- borators had well-paid contracts with Erich Pommer, the legendary Ufa-producer (The Blue Angel). Curt worked successfully on a dozen movie scripts. Even more important for him was that he got to write his first score of novels. One of them was F.P.1 Doesn’t Answer, a science fiction novel that came up with the concept of aircraft carriers. Siodmak himself adapted the novel to film. vol. 2009.08 info fluchtpunkt hollywood. folge 8 9/44 freyermuth.com When the movie was released, however, the thirty year old hotshot writer didn’t care anymore. His world was falling apart. I lived in Pfalzburger Straße, close to Kurfürstendamm,« he remembers. »Night after night, I was lying there in the dark, helplessly listening to the shouting and ghastly songs of the Nazis marching by. I’ll never forget how they sang: Wenn das Judenblut vom Messer spritzt ... [When the Jewish blood will splash from our knives ...].« »I will not stay here one day longer,« Henrietta finally told Curt. And till today the resolute old lady, descendant of an old aristocratic family from Switzerland, repeats this sentence with an emphasis so strong as if only sixty days and not sixty years had passed. Like his brother Robert, like Billy Wilder and Erich Pommer, like so many friends Curt and Henrietta Siodmak escaped into exile. Their first stop was Paris. To write in a foreign language was difficult enough, but the linguistic problems were nothing com- pared to the bureaucratic hurdles they faced. Neither France nor Great Britain, where Henrietta gave birth to their Geoffrey, granted them permanent residency. Curt Siod- vol. 2009.08 info fluchtpunkt hollywood. folge 8 10/44 freyermuth.com mak had to shuttle between countries, a migrant author often working under assumed names. He wrote a few movies, and he wrote one last novel in German: Die Macht im Dunklen (The Power in the Dark), in which he foresaw the Nazi’s attack against Poland. When the book got published, 1937 in Switzerland, he was already on his way to Curt and Henrietta Siodmak Hollywood. »Henrietta with their son Geoffrey in the Hollywood Hills, California, pushed me. She saw early 1940s. much clearer than I did that there was no future for us in Eu- rope.« Being by now a movie veteran and an experienced survivor as well, he needed only a year to make enough money so that he could send for Henrietta and their boy. »You see, in Hollywood, at that time, almost nobody knew English well. That’s why I could make a living until I had mastered the language.« vol. 2009.08 info fluchtpunkt hollywood. folge 8 11/44 freyermuth.com Siodmak, however, didn’t just make a living as he modestly puts it. He created science fiction and horror movies that are cult classics by now: The Wolf Man (1941) with Lon Chaney and Claude Rains, Jacques Tourneur’s I Walked With a Zombie (1942) and Son of Dracula (1943), directed by his brother Robert.
Load more

Recommended publications
  • A Foreign Affair (1948)
    Chapter 3 IN THE RUINS OF BERLIN: A FOREIGN AFFAIR (1948) “We wondered where we should go now that the war was over. None of us—I mean the émigrés—really knew where we stood. Should we go home? Where was home?” —Billy Wilder1 Sightseeing in Berlin Early into A Foreign Affair, the delegates of the US Congress in Berlin on a fact-fi nding mission are treated to a tour of the city by Colonel Plummer (Millard Mitchell). In an open sedan, the Colonel takes them by landmarks such as the Brandenburg Gate, the Reichstag, Pariser Platz, Unter den Lin- den, and the Tiergarten. While documentary footage of heavily damaged buildings rolls by in rear-projection, the Colonel explains to the visitors— and the viewers—what they are seeing, combining brief factual accounts with his own ironic commentary about the ruins. Thus, a pile of rubble is identifi ed as the Adlon Hotel, “just after the 8th Air Force checked in for the weekend, “ while the Reich’s Chancellery is labeled Hitler’s “duplex.” “As it turned out,” Plummer explains, “one part got to be a great big pad- ded cell, and the other a mortuary. Underneath it is a concrete basement. That’s where he married Eva Braun and that’s where they killed them- selves. A lot of people say it was the perfect honeymoon. And there’s the balcony where he promised that his Reich would last a thousand years— that’s the one that broke the bookies’ hearts.” On a narrative level, the sequence is marked by factual snippets infused with the snide remarks of victorious Army personnel, making the fi lm waver between an educational program, an overwrought history lesson, and a comedy of very dark humor.
    [Show full text]
  • 'The Whole Burden of Civilisation Has Fallen Upon Us'
    ‘The Whole Burden of Civilisation Has Fallen upon Us’. The Representation of Gender in Zombie Films, 1968-2013 Leon van Amsterdam Student number: s1141627 Leiden University MA History: Cities, Migration and Global Interdependence Thesis supervisor: Marion Pluskota 2 Contents Chapter 1: Introduction .............................................................................................................. 4 Theory ................................................................................................................................. 6 Literature Review ............................................................................................................... 9 Material ............................................................................................................................ 13 Method ............................................................................................................................. 15 Chapter 2: A history of the zombie and its cultural significance ............................................. 18 Race and gender representations in early zombie films .................................................. 18 The sci-fi zombie and Romero’s ghoulish zombie ............................................................ 22 The loss and return of social anxiety in the zombie genre .............................................. 26 Chapter 3: (Post)feminism in American politics and films ....................................................... 30 Protofeminism .................................................................................................................
    [Show full text]
  • Heidegger, the Uncanny, and Jacques Tourneur's Horror Films
    Heidegger, the Uncanny, and Jacques Tourneur’s Horror Films Curtis Bowman Most horror films are not very horrifying, and many of them are not especially frightening. This is true, of course, of the bad or mediocre productions that populate the genre. Since the failure rate among horror films is very high, it should come as no surprise that we frequently remain unmoved by what we see on the screen. But if we are honest about our reactions, then we must admit that even some of the classics neither horrify nor frighten us. They must have acquired their classic status by moving us in some significant way, but how they managed to do so is not always obvious. We need an explanation of the fact that some of the most successful horror films fail to move us as the genre seems to dictate they should. After all, we typically think that horror films are supposed to horrify and, by implication, to frighten us.1 Excessive familiarity with some films tends to deaden our response. However much we might admire the original Frankenstein (1931), it is difficult for us to be horrified or frightened by it any longer. We respond favorably to the production values, director James Whale’s magnificent visual sense, Boris Karloff’s performance as the monster, and so forth. The film no longer horrifies or frightens us, yet we still consider it a successful horror movie, and thus not merely of historical interest for fans and admirers of the genre. We can still be moved by it in ways that depend on its possessing the features that we expect to find in a horror film.
    [Show full text]
  • The File on Robert Siodmak in Hollywood: 1941-1951
    The File on Robert Siodmak in Hollywood: 1941-1951 by J. Greco ISBN: 1-58112-081-8 DISSERTATION.COM 1999 Copyright © 1999 Joseph Greco All rights reserved. ISBN: 1-58112-081-8 Dissertation.com USA • 1999 www.dissertation.com/library/1120818a.htm TABLE OF CONTENTS INTRODUCTION PRONOUNCED SEE-ODD-MACK ______________________ 4 CHAPTER ONE GETTING YOUR OWN WAY IN HOLLYWOOD __________ 7 CHAPTER TWO I NEVER PROMISE THEM A GOOD PICTURE ...ONLY A BETTER ONE THAN THEY EXPECTED ______ 25 CHRISTMAS HOLIDAY _____________________________ 25 THE SUSPECT _____________________________________ 49 THE STRANGE AFFAIR OF UNCLE HARRY ___________ 59 THE SPIRAL STAIRCASE ___________________________ 74 THE KILLERS _____________________________________ 86 CRY OF THE CITY_________________________________ 100 CRISS CROSS _____________________________________ 116 THE FILE ON THELMA JORDON ___________________ 132 CHAPTER THREE HOLLYWOOD? A SORT OF ANARCHY _______________ 162 AFTERWORD THE FILE ON ROBERT SIODMAK___________________ 179 THE COMPLETE ROBERT SIODMAK FILMOGRAPHY_ 185 BIBLIOGRAPHY __________________________________ 214 iii INTRODUCTION PRONOUNCED SEE-ODD-MACK Making a film is a matter of cooperation. If you look at the final credits, which nobody reads except for insiders, then you are surprised to see how many colleagues you had who took care of all the details. Everyone says, ‘I made the film’ and doesn’t realize that in the case of a success all branches of film making contributed to it. The director, of course, has everything under control. —Robert Siodmak, November 1971 A book on Robert Siodmak needs an introduction. Although he worked ten years in Hollywood, 1941 to 1951, and made 23 movies, many of them widely popular thrillers and crime melo- dramas, which critics today regard as classics of film noir, his name never became etched into the collective consciousness.
    [Show full text]
  • Science Fiction Films of the 1950S Bonnie Noonan Louisiana State University and Agricultural and Mechanical College, [email protected]
    Louisiana State University LSU Digital Commons LSU Doctoral Dissertations Graduate School 2003 "Science in skirts": representations of women in science in the "B" science fiction films of the 1950s Bonnie Noonan Louisiana State University and Agricultural and Mechanical College, [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.lsu.edu/gradschool_dissertations Part of the English Language and Literature Commons Recommended Citation Noonan, Bonnie, ""Science in skirts": representations of women in science in the "B" science fiction films of the 1950s" (2003). LSU Doctoral Dissertations. 3653. https://digitalcommons.lsu.edu/gradschool_dissertations/3653 This Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by the Graduate School at LSU Digital Commons. It has been accepted for inclusion in LSU Doctoral Dissertations by an authorized graduate school editor of LSU Digital Commons. For more information, please [email protected]. “SCIENCE IN SKIRTS”: REPRESENTATIONS OF WOMEN IN SCIENCE IN THE “B” SCIENCE FICTION FILMS OF THE 1950S A Dissertation Submitted to the Graduate Faculty of the Louisiana State University and Agricultural and Mechanical College in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in The Department of English By Bonnie Noonan B.G.S., University of New Orleans, 1984 M.A., University of New Orleans, 1991 May 2003 Copyright 2003 Bonnie Noonan All rights reserved ii This dissertation is “one small step” for my cousin Timm Madden iii Acknowledgements Thank you to my dissertation director Elsie Michie, who was as demanding as she was supportive. Thank you to my brilliant committee: Carl Freedman, John May, Gerilyn Tandberg, and Sharon Weltman.
    [Show full text]
  • "Those Things" and "You People" : Issues Of
    d “THOSE THINGS” AND “YOU PEOPLE” Issues of Racism in Zombie Cinema Kyle Allkins Judith Halberstam claims that “it would be very difficult in a horror film to show and punish racism simultaneously,” but this essay contends that zombie films show racism through their representation of African American characters and the ways zombies function as racial “others” who exemplify the non­normative and inhuman (Skin Shows 4). Zombie films also link the colonized racial “other” to the colonized white female in interesting ways. The extermination of zombies in cinema represents racism, racial profiling, racial violence, and racial self­hatred and links racism with sexism. At times, zombie cin­ ema may also punish the culturally normative “we or us” for seeking violence against the racialized or feminized “them.” Cinematic zombies evoke fear in part because zombies can be anyone. Spouse, sibling, co­worker, friend, priest, cop, Mayor, President, girl next door—anyone in a zombie film can be altered and “turned” in no time at all. Those that haven’t been turned are slowly being outnumbered, becoming the mi­ nority, becoming non­normative themselves. Audiences have eagerly consumed films about zombies since their first appear­ ance in White Zombie, a 1932 horror film starring Bela Legosi. 112 Subsequent zombie films such as Jacques Tourneur’s 1943 I Walked with A Zombie, George A. Romero’s 1968 cult classic Night of the Living Dead, and even Wes Craven’s 1988 The Serpent and the Rainbow, continued to shape the genre by adding unique elements. The website http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ List_of_zombie_films lists the dozens of zombie films made in America and abroad over the last eight decades and attests to the genre’s continuing popularity.
    [Show full text]
  • Taylor Doctoralthesis Complete
    21st Century Zombies: New Media, Cinema, and Performance By Joanne Marie Taylor A dissertation submitted in partial satisfaction of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Performance Studies and the Designated Emphasis in Film Studies in the Graduate Division of the University of California, Berkeley Committee in charge: Professor Peter Glazer, Chair Professor Brandi Wilkins Catanese Professor Kristen Whissel Fall 2011 21st Century Zombies: New Media, Cinema, and Performance © 2011 by Joanne Marie Taylor Abstract 21st Century Zombies: New Media, Cinema, and Performance by Joanne Marie Taylor Doctor of Philosophy in Performance Studies and a Designated Emphasis in Film Studies University of California, Berkeley Professor Peter Glazer, Chair This project began with a desire to define and articulate what I have termed cinematic performance, which itself emerged from an examination of how liveness, as a privileged performance studies concept, functions in the 21st century. Given the relative youth of the discipline, performance studies has remained steadfast in delimiting its objects as those that are live—shared air performance—and not bound by textuality; only recently has the discipline considered the mediated, but still solely within the circumscription of shared air performance. The cinema, as cultural object, permeates our lives—it is pervasive and ubiquitous—it sets the bar for quality acting, and shapes our expectations and ideologies. The cinema, and the cinematic text, is a complex performance whose individual components combine to produce a sum greater than the total of its parts. The cinema itself is a performance—not just the acting—participating in a cultural dialogue, continually reshaping and challenging notions of liveness, made more urgent with the ever-increasing use of digital technologies that seem to further segregate what is generally considered real performance from the final, constructed cinematic text.
    [Show full text]
  • Werewolves and White Trash
    Werewolves and White Trash Dr Victoria Amador American University of Sharjah The vampire has experienced an enormous resurgence in film, television and fiction in recent years, and accompanying this renaissance in popularity has been the werewolf, albeit taking second place usually, rather like a familiar or loyal canine accompanying a more powerful master. While there has been parity with the vampire on occasion, as in the British television program Being Human , where a vampire, werewolf and ghost shared a flat, generally the furry beast plays a secondary role. Not only is this monster carrying second billing, an interesting permutation is the community status of the monster. Rather than being the elite, evening clothed, private school creature of the night, the werewolf is frequently placed in a subordinate social class, relegated to the equivalent of a kennel rather than a castle. This paper will explore this lesser position of the werewolf in three particular works. First, in 1941’s The Wolf Man , despite his role as a man who “is pure at heart and says his prayers at night” (to quote the Curt Siodmak-penned rhyme about the wolf curse), Lon Chaney Jr.’s portrayal of Larry Talbot as a rather, lumbering, expatriated-to-America prodigal son of a Welsh grandee places him, both in terms of script and performance, as a poor relation clearly out of his depth who will pay for that awkwardness. In the Twilight series, the Native American shapeshifter, Jacob Black, lives on the reservation and cannot complete with the effete Cullen family. Finally, while the notion of American Southern white/trailer trash permeates the television adaptation of Charlaine Harris’ novels, True Blood portrays the wolf packs as crude boondocks residences, and despite his kindness and loyalty, Alcide (played by Joe Manganiello) cannot possibly keep Sookie Stackhouse’s affections.
    [Show full text]
  • Shail, Robert, British Film Directors
    BRITISH FILM DIRECTORS INTERNATIONAL FILM DIRECTOrs Series Editor: Robert Shail This series of reference guides covers the key film directors of a particular nation or continent. Each volume introduces the work of 100 contemporary and historically important figures, with entries arranged in alphabetical order as an A–Z. The Introduction to each volume sets out the existing context in relation to the study of the national cinema in question, and the place of the film director within the given production/cultural context. Each entry includes both a select bibliography and a complete filmography, and an index of film titles is provided for easy cross-referencing. BRITISH FILM DIRECTORS A CRITI Robert Shail British national cinema has produced an exceptional track record of innovative, ca creative and internationally recognised filmmakers, amongst them Alfred Hitchcock, Michael Powell and David Lean. This tradition continues today with L GUIDE the work of directors as diverse as Neil Jordan, Stephen Frears, Mike Leigh and Ken Loach. This concise, authoritative volume analyses critically the work of 100 British directors, from the innovators of the silent period to contemporary auteurs. An introduction places the individual entries in context and examines the role and status of the director within British film production. Balancing academic rigour ROBE with accessibility, British Film Directors provides an indispensable reference source for film students at all levels, as well as for the general cinema enthusiast. R Key Features T SHAIL • A complete list of each director’s British feature films • Suggested further reading on each filmmaker • A comprehensive career overview, including biographical information and an assessment of the director’s current critical standing Robert Shail is a Lecturer in Film Studies at the University of Wales Lampeter.
    [Show full text]
  • Hans 1, Salter
    CLASSIC SCORES OF MY~TERYAND HORROR BY FRANK SU1WNER 4' HANS 1, SALTER SLOVAK RADIO SYMP+IONY ORCHES7RA (BRA~ISLAVA) WILLIAM 7. STROMBERCi Hans J. Salter 1896-1 994 .Frank Slcinner 1897-1 968 UNIVERSAL'S CLASSIC SCORES OF MYSTERY AND HORROR Reconstructed and orchestrated by John Morgan except 'Man Made Monster' (25-26)' orchestrated by William T. Stromberg The Ghost of Frankenstein Halls 3. Salter (1942) Universal signature (Jinznzy McHrcglz) Main Title Blowing up the Castle Freeing the Monster Renewed Life Frankenstein's Castle Arrival at Vasaria [81 Erik's Dilemma Baron Frankenstein's Diary The Monster's Trial Elsa's Discovery Dr. Kettering's Death Ygor's Scheme Baron Frankenstein's Advice A New Brain Searching the Castle Monster Kidnaps Child / Monster's Desire Brain Transfer Mob Psychology Monster Talks Death of the Unholy Three End Cast Son of Dracula Hnizs J. Snlfer (1943) Main Title Blaclc Friday Hails Salter; Cl~arlesHenderson, Cltm'les Previn (1940) Hypnosis Man Made Monster Hails J. Snlter (1941) Corlzy Electro-Biology Sherloclc Holmes and the Voice of Terror Frailk Skilzner (1942) Main Title Limehouse Christopher Doclts Voice of Terror The Spider No Time to Lose March of Hate End Title Two years before his death, celebrated Chicago newspaper columnist Mike Royko, in a sentimental gesture aimed at his seven-year-old son, merrily decided one weekend to mount a mini-festival at home highlighting the old Universal horror pictures he had enjoyed so much during his own youthful days. In a Clricogo Tribrrrre column headlined, "Horrors of the Past are G-rated Today," Royko wrote of renting videos of Universal's Drncrrlo, Frnrrker~steirrand Frorrkerrstehr Meets tlre ll'o(fA4or1, then each night viewing one of the classic horror films alongside his son.
    [Show full text]
  • Unseen Horrors: the Unmade Films of Hammer
    Unseen Horrors: The Unmade Films of Hammer Thesis submitted by Kieran Foster In partial fulfilment of the requirements for the award of Doctor of Philosophy De Montfort University, March 2019 Abstract This doctoral thesis is an industrial study of Hammer Film Productions, focusing specifically on the period of 1955-2000, and foregrounding the company’s unmade projects as primary case studies throughout. It represents a significant academic intervention by being the first sustained industry study to primarily utilise unmade projects. The study uses these projects to examine the evolving production strategies of Hammer throughout this period, and to demonstrate the methodological benefits of utilising unmade case studies in production histories. Chapter 1 introduces the study, and sets out the scope, context and structure of the work. Chapter 2 reviews the relevant literature, considering unmade films relation to studies in adaptation, screenwriting, directing and producing, as well as existing works on Hammer Films. Chapter 3 begins the chronological study of Hammer, with the company attempting to capitalise on recent successes in the mid-1950s with three ambitious projects that ultimately failed to make it into production – Milton Subotsky’s Frankenstein, the would-be television series Tales of Frankenstein and Richard Matheson’s The Night Creatures. Chapter 4 examines Hammer’s attempt to revitalise one of its most reliable franchises – Dracula, in response to declining American interest in the company. Notably, with a project entitled Kali Devil Bride of Dracula. Chapter 5 examines the unmade project Nessie, and how it demonstrates Hammer’s shift in production strategy in the late 1970s, as it moved away from a reliance on American finance and towards a more internationalised, piece-meal approach to funding.
    [Show full text]
  • Slaves, Cannibals, and Infected Hyper-Whites: the Race and Religion of Zombies
    ARTICLE Slaves, Cannibals, and Infected Hyper-Whites: The Race and Religion of Zombies Elizabeth McAlister Wesleyan University ABSTRACT The first decade of the new millennium saw renewed interest in popular culture featuring zombies. This essay shows that a comparative analysis of nightmares can be a productive method for analyzing salient themes in the imaginative products and practices of cultures in close contact. It is argued that zombies, as the first modern monster, are embedded in a set of deeply symbolic structures that are a matter of religious thought. The author draws from her ethnographic work in Haiti to argue that the zonbi is at once part of the mystical arts that developed there since the colonial period, and comprises a form of mythmaking that represents, re- sponds to, and mystifies the fear of slavery, collusion with it, and rebellion against it. In turn, some elements of the Haitian zonbi figure can be found in patterns that haunt recent American zombie films. Zombies in these films are read as figures in a parable about whiteness and death-dealing consumption. This essay suggests that the messianic mood surrounding the presidential candidacy of Barack Obama was consistent with a pat- tern in zombie films since the 1960s where many zombie-killing heroes are figured as black American males. Zombies are used in both ethno- graphic and film contexts to think through the conditions of embodiment, the boundaries between life and death, repression and freedom, and the Anthropological Quarterly, Vol. 85, No. 2, p. 457–486, ISSN 0003-5491. © 2012 by the Institute for Ethnographic Research (IFER) a part of the George Washington University.
    [Show full text]