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Imperial Hollywood: American Cinematic Representations of Europe, 1948-1964 by Anna Cooper Sloan A thesis submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Film and Television Studies University of Warwick Department of Film and Television Studies March 2013 Table of Contents TABLE OF CONTENTS ............................................................................................................................... 2 TABLE OF ILLUSTRATIONS .................................................................................................................... 4 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS ........................................................................................................................... 11 DECLARATION ......................................................................................................................................... 11 WORD COUNT .......................................................................................................................................... 11 ABSTRACT ................................................................................................................................................ 12 INTRODUCTION ...................................................................................................................................... 13 MAPPING THE FIELD: HOLLYWOOD AND PROPAGANDA IN THE POSTWAR PERIOD ................................ 15 TEXTUAL ANALYSIS AND IDEOLOGY ........................................................................................................... 30 CHAPTER 1. POSTCOLONIAL READING STRATEGIES AND THE FILM TEXT ....................... 47 POSTCOLONIAL LITERARY STUDIES ............................................................................................................ 47 COLONIAL VISUAL REPRESENTATION ......................................................................................................... 60 GAZE THEORY .............................................................................................................................................. 68 CHAPTER 2. EARLY WIDESCREEN AND THE RETURN OF THE TRAVELOGUE .................... 82 THIS IS CINERAMA ....................................................................................................................................... 89 THREE COINS IN THE FOUNTAIN ............................................................................................................. 103 CHAPTER 3. RUINS, DYSTOPIAS AND THE DARK TOURIST FILM ........................................ 121 CONFIDENTIAL REPORT ........................................................................................................................... 131 A FOREIGN AFFAIR ................................................................................................................................... 151 2 CHAPTER 4. MELODRAMA AND THE AMERICAN WOMAN IN ITALY: SUMMERTIME .... 176 FEMINISM AND THE GAZE ......................................................................................................................... 183 THE CONSUMING WOMAN ........................................................................................................................ 203 TOURISM AND NOSTALGIA ....................................................................................................................... 211 CHAPTER 5. FASHION AND CONSUMERISM IN THE PARIS MUSICAL ................................. 225 SILK STOCKINGS ....................................................................................................................................... 233 GENTLEMEN PREFER BLONDES ............................................................................................................... 254 CONCLUSION ......................................................................................................................................... 268 APPENDIX: THE CORPUS OF FILMS ............................................................................................... 274 FILMOGRAPHY ..................................................................................................................................... 280 BIBLIOGRAPHY .................................................................................................................................... 287 3 Table of Illustrations Figure 1. Clark Gable, Sophia Loren and Vittorio de Sica in It Started in Naples. _________________________ 53 Figure 2. Lucia (Loren) performs sexual looseness. ________________________________________________________ 56 Figure 3. Lucia as the 'good Catholic girl' in a religious procession. _______________________________________ 56 Figure 4. Lorelei (Monroe) and Dorothy (Russell) enter the ship’s dining room and catch all eyes, Gentlemen Prefer Blondes. _____________________________________________________________________________________ 78 Figure 5. The musicians stare at the women and ‘collapse on top of one another’. ______________________ 78 Figure 6: Dorothy and the male beefcake body. _____________________________________________________________ 79 Figure 7. Lorelei envisions Piggy’s (Charles Coburn) head as an enormous diamond. __________________ 79 Figure 8. Lowell Thomas narrates at the beginning of This is Cinerama. __________________________________ 91 Figure 9. A reproduction of the cave painting of a boar. ____________________________________________________ 91 Figure 10. The Great Train Robbery, quoted in This is Cinerama. __________________________________________ 93 Figure 11. Son of the Sheik, quoted in Cinerama. ____________________________________________________________ 93 Figure 12. The roller coaster. _________________________________________________________________________________ 94 Figure 13. The 'Oriental' ballet. _______________________________________________________________________________ 94 Figure 14. The helicopter ride over Niagara Falls. __________________________________________________________ 95 Figure 15. Aerial view of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. ________________________________________________________ 96 Figure 16. The Venetian gondolier. __________________________________________________________________________ 98 Figure 17. An American couple step into a gondola. ________________________________________________________ 98 Figure 18. A dreamy, jagged sketch of Edinburgh Castle begins the Scotland sequence. ________________ 99 Figure 19. The bagpipe rally. _________________________________________________________________________________ 99 Figure 20. The Vienna Boys’ Choir on the Schönbrunn Palace grounds. __________________________________ 99 Figure 21. The bullfight. ______________________________________________________________________________________ 100 Figure 22. The flamenco dancers. ___________________________________________________________________________ 100 Figure 23. La Scala opera house, Milan. _____________________________________________________________________ 101 Figure 24. The triumphal parade from Verdi’s Aida. _______________________________________________________ 101 Figure 25. An aerial view of Venice, Three Coins in the Fountain. _________________________________________ 105 Figure 26. Frances (McGuire), Maria (MacNamara) and Dino (Jourdan) gazing down from the aeroplane. _____________________________________________________________________________________________________ 105 Figure 27. Swooping low over the canal. ___________________________________________________________________ 105 4 Figure 28. Touring the canals by gondola. __________________________________________________________________ 105 Figure 29. Dino guides the American women on the gondola tour. ______________________________________ 105 Figure 30. Going under a bridge – a near-identical shot to one in This is Cinerama. ____________________ 105 Figure 31. An ‘impossible’ view of the bells. ________________________________________________________________ 106 Figure 32. Pigeons swirling around the Piazza San Marco - a near identical shot to one in This is Cinerama. ______________________________________________________________________________________________________ 106 Figure 33. Dino says, ‘Look!’ and claps his hands. __________________________________________________________ 106 Figure 34. The pigeons take flight en masse. _______________________________________________________________ 106 Figure 35. The writer Shadwell (Webb) in a palatial residence with his personal secretary, Frances. 109 Figure 36. Maria in the modern Stazione Termini building. ______________________________________________ 109 Figure 37. The women's breezy convertible outside their villa. __________________________________________ 110 Figure 38. The women tour Rome in their car. _____________________________________________________________ 110 Figure 39. The CinemaScope logo announced boldly prior to the fountain sequence. __________________ 111 Figure 40. The first shot of the film: a glimmering spout of water