H.R. Pufnstuf, ""Lidsville"", ""Sigmund and The Sea Monsters"", ""Land of the Lost"": For a generation of children growing up in the late sixties and early seventies, these were some of the most memorable shows on Saturday morning television. At a time when television cartoons had lost some of their luster, two puppeteers named Sid and Marty Krofft put together a series of shows that captivated children. Using colorful sets and mysterious lands full of characters that had boundless energy, the Kroffts created a new form of children's television, rooted in the medium's earliest shows but nevertheless original in its concept. This work first provides a history of the Kroffts' pretelevision career, then offers discussions of their 11 Saturday morning shows. Complete cast and credit information is enhanced by interviews with many of the actors and actresses, behind-the-scenes information, print reviews of the series, and plot listings of the individual episodes. ""The H.R. Pufnstuf"" feature film, the brothers' other television work, and their short-lived indoor theme park are also detailed.

This interdisciplinary volume is dedicated to exploring the idea of the cinematic sublime by bringing together the disciplines of film studies and aesthetics to examine cinema and cinematic experience. Explores the idea of ‘the sublime’ in cinema from a variety of perspectives; the essays range in focus from early cinema, through classical Hollywood, documentary, avant-garde and art cinema traditions, and on to contemporary digital cinema. The book aims to apply the discussion of the sublime in philosophy to cinema and to interrogate the ways in which cinema engages with this tradition. Offers new and exciting insights into how cinema engages with traditional historical and aesthetic discourse. Original and wide-ranging, this clear and coherent volume is a useful resource for both post-graduate students and established scholars interested in the interrelations between film and philosophy. The range of material covered in the individual essays makes this a wide-ranging and very useful introduction to the topic. A significant new contribution to the literature on Film-Philosophy. What sets this reader apart from the existing books on the subject is the wider scope. It embraces both philosophers and film scholars to consider films from throughout film history in light of theories of the sublime from throughout the history of Philosophy. In doing so it aims to demonstrate the diverse value of sublime approaches (versus a singular definition and philosophical perspective) to a wider range of films than has previously been considered.  An original and stimulating collection of essays contributing new insights into the crossover between historical and aesthetic approaches to contemporary cinema and cinematic experience. The main readership will be academic markets including film studies and philosophy, and academics with an interest in the legacies of Burke and Kant on aesthetics. Useful for teaching aesthetics through cinematic illustration and application. Appropriate to final year undergraduate and postgraduate students with an interest in ideas at the boundaries of contemporary film studies.

From a hotel in Marrakech in The Man Who Knew Too Much, to small-town Alabama in To Kill a Mockingbird, to Mission Control in Space Cowboys, creating a fictional, yet wholly believable world in which to film a movie has been the passion and life's work of Henry Bumstead, one of Hollywood's most celebrated production designers. In a career that has spanned nearly seventy years, Bumstead has worked on more than one hundred movies and television films. His many honors include Academy Awards for Art Direction for To Kill a Mockingbird and The Sting, as well as nominations for Vertigo and The Unforgiven.

This popularly written and extensively illustrated book tells the intertwining stories of Henry Bumstead's career and the evolution of Hollywood art direction. Andrew Horton combines his analysis of Bumstead's design work with wide-ranging interviews in which Bumstead talks about working with top directors, including Alfred Hitchcock, George Roy Hill, Robert Mulligan, and Clint Eastwood, as well as such stars as Paul Newman, Robert Redford, Doris Day, Jimmy Stewart, Sidney Poitier, Bill Cosby, Jerry Lewis, and James Cagney. Numerous production drawings, storyboards, and film stills illustrate how Bumstead's designs translated to film. This portrait of Bumstead's career underscores an art director's crucial role in shaping the look of a film and also tracks the changes in production design from the studio era through location shooting to today's use of high-tech special effects.

In a career of more than fifty years?spanning the Golden Era from 1926 to 1976?Hollywood icon John Wayne created a treasure trove of movies. Today, scarcely an hour goes by without one of them appearing on television somewhere in the world. With most of the Wayne films available to his fans today, just a few of them remain unavailable in this era of remastered miracles. Of all the movies he made beyond the 1939 'Stagecoach' age, only two have been kept from the public: 'Island in the Sky' and 'The High and the Mighty.' Many reasons have been suggested for why the two films have been unavailable until the summer of 2005, from the thought that the original films were damaged and the copies were not good enough for additional distribution to the theory that they have been withheld for a future grand release. Whatever the reasons may be, 'The Lost Films of John Wayne' honors his work in both films and servesa as a loving portrayal of some fo the lesser-known images he left behind.

A 1906 film called ""The Dream of a Rarebit Fiend"" shows a man drinking and eating voraciously at a restaurant, then going home to bed. In the surreal scenes that follow, furniture disappears, tiny devils poke the man's head with pitchforks, and his bed hurls itself out the window and across the city. But it wasn't commentary on drinking; rather, it was a showcase of early special effects - double exposure photography, panning shots, and montage. Turn-of-the-century films typically treated drinking as a subject for comedy and ridicule, and the comic possibilities translated well into silent movies. As talkies developed and the film industry matured, alcohol's portrayal was reflected in the times: prohibition, the Great Depression, the war years, and as social commentary. Here is a study of 64 years of alcohol as portrayed in film. The author begins with the appearance in 1898 of what is probably the first commercial: a 30-second film of men in kilts dancing and the words ""Scotch Whiskey"" appearing in the background. The final film is 1962's ""Days of Wine and Roses"", which addresses alcoholism. The author includes a film from each decade, those with artistic or historical value, those that represent the comedy, drama and musical genres, and wellknown pictures such as ""The Lost Weekend"" and ""A Star is Born"". The first three chapters cover 1903 to 1939. The remaining chapters follow not a timeline but the growing complexity of the movies. A recurring motif is the use of the term ""white logic,"" a phase used by writer Jack London in his 1913 memoir John Barleycorn. It refers to disillusionment with everyday life brought on by and exacerbated by alcohol. An annotated filmography lists the date, source and other relevant information about movies in this study.

When Saigon fell in 1975, it signaled the end of America's longest war. Yet in many ways the conflict was far from over. Although the actual fighting ended, the struggle to find political justification and historical vindication for the Vietnam War still lingers in American consciousness after more than three decades. A plethora of images from America's first ""televised war"" has kept the conflict all too fresh in the memories of those who lived through it - and all too familiar for those whose generational gap should allow them to regard the conflict as history. The political process of attaching meaning to historical events has ultimately failed due to the lack of consensus - then and now - regarding events surrounding the Vietnam War. Reviewing a combination of political, social and artistic media, this volume provides a brief overview of the war's appearance in America's political and media culture since 1975. It examines the ways in which this conflict has consistently resurfaced in social and political life, especially in the arena of contemporary world events such as the Soviet misadventure in Afghanistan, the gulf war and the 2004 presidential campaign. To this end, the work explores the contexts and uses of the Vietnam War as a recurring subject. The circumstances and symbolism used through the rhetoric of the political elite and the news media including the ""New York Times"", the ""Washington Post"", ""Time"", and ""Newsweek"" are discussed. Emphasis is also placed on the role of the entertainment-oriented mass media, primarily film and television, which accounts for the most substantial penetration into American culture. Works reviewed are chosen based on social influence rather than critical acclaim.

On June 29, 1908, U.S. Attorney General Charles Bonaparte ordered the creation of a special force within the Department of Justice. Consisting of 28 agents and eight former Treasury Department investigators, it was designed to stop interstate crimes yet had no power to arrest perpetrators or carry firearms. Named the Bureau of Investigation, the agency was soon bogged down with its own inherent ineffectiveness, becoming an object of corruption and contempt - until May 19, 1924. On that date, President Calvin Coolidge appointed John Edgar Hoover to replace the corrupt director. Hard-working with a no-nonsense attitude, Hoover immediately set about reorganizing the bureau, setting a standard that he expected his agents to follow. Hoover, impressed by Hollywood's manner of maintaining an image and manipulating the media, began to use some of these tricks to clean up his agency's image. Thanks in part to his efforts, movies of the 1930s shifted from glorifying outlaws and gangsters to glorifying lawmakers - and who better to play that role than Hoover's new, improved FBI? From crime-busting heroes to enemies of free speech, this volume examines the evolution of Hollywood's portrait of the FBI over the last 75 years. The book looks in-depth at how Hollywood's creative rewriting of history enhanced the FBI's reputation and discusses the historical events that shaped the bureau off-screen, including the various figures who tell the real FBI story - the gangsters, the politicians, the journalists, the communists. The main body of the work examines the filmmakers, actors, technicians, writers and producers who were responsible for FBI films, following the FBI from the birth of a cultural icon in the 1930s, through the spy-busting war years and the threat of the Red Menace, and, finally, to death of Hoover and the scandals of the 1960s. Studio correspondence and once confidential FBI memos are also included.

Alfred Hitchcock made many great films, but he also made many that critics and audiences largely dismissed. These least celebrated films, despite their admitted flaws and relative obscurity, offer much to reward the open-minded viewer. This critical study examines and reappraises fifteen such films generally overlooked by scholars and Hitchcock aficionados: Juno and the Paycock, The Skin Game, Waltzes from Vienna, Jamaica Inn, The Paradine Case, Under Capricorn, I Confess, Torn Curtain, Number Seventeen, Rich and Strange, Secret Agent, Mr. and Mrs. Smith, Stage Fright, The Wrong Man, and Topaz. Each film is discussed and analyzed in detail, revealing the master's touch in many previously unheralded ways. Brief assessments of the films from popular review compendia introduce each one, and excerpted highlights of numerous works of scholarship are liberally sprinkled throughout the text. In addition, wonderful rare still photographs from each film are included. Readers will come away with a richer sense of the director's talents in these films, adding to their appreciation of his work in unexpected ways.

From the time Westinghouse started commercial broadcasting in 1920 through the end of the radio soap operas in the early 1960s, hundreds of men and women performed on radio. Day after day, week after week, these performers (e.g., Jack Benny, Bing Crosby, Kate Smith, Lowell Thomas, Kay Kyser, and Bob Hope) became familiar voices and welcomed guests in the homes of millions of Americans. Actors, comedians, singers, commentators, announcers, emcees, newscasters, preachers and various other artists all gave voice to radio and 953 of them are covered in this unique reference work. Performers Fran Allison, Les Paul, Johnny Desmond, Alec Templeton, Don Wilson, Jerry Colonna and soap opera favorites Virginia Payne, Betty Garde, Macdonald Carey, David Gothard, Page Gilman, and Jan Miner are included herein, as well as Ezra Stone, Groucho Marx, Will Rogers, and Frank Sinatra and hundreds more. For each, there is a listing of their radio programs, birth and death dates (where appropriate) and a biography that focuses on their work in radio. It is heavily illustrated.

From inauspicious beginnings in the kinetoscope parlors and nickelodeons to the movie palaces of the golden era, and finally to the pared down multiplexes of today, this is the history of motion picture viewing in the nation's capital and vicinity. The research is supported by numerous interviews. The book includes a 200-page listing of all the movie theaters in the area past and present, with data such as location, dates of operation, architect, and seating capacity, as well as a summary of each theater's history and current status. Maps, drawings and photographs (most of which have never before been published) round out this comprehensive study.

Museums of Cinema and their Audience examines how cinema has been transformed and strengthened through museological and archival activities since its origins, and asks what paradoxes may be involved in putting cinema in a museum.

Cere examines the ideas which developed around the need to establish national museums of cinema, how these have negotiated and defined the boundary between the national and the international in their exhibitionary and screening practices. She looks at the tensions between the history of film as an aesthetic product and cinema as a a leisurea (TM) activity, and at how, museums of cinemaa (TM)s exhibitions, collections and festivals organised under their aegis, resolve them. The book also explores the way the ideal of public access to a cultural heritage is contradicted by the recent emphasis on museums as 'tourist spaces for individualised consumption'.

All these themes combined will be concretised through the empirical study of five different museums of cinema, including a visitor and audience study and interviews with leading staff, adopting a comparative focus because the resolution of many of the theoretical questions posed above may be shaped by the prevailing sense of national cultural and filmic traditions, as well as the motivations of founders and funding agencies, which may be inflected differently in varying national contexts.

The winter of 1917-18 found the United States in a general upheaval. A large percentage of the world's population was at war and the United States itself was fully occupied with an unprecedented mass mobilization of its military forces, which were rushing headlong into an era of modern warfare. It was in this setting that the Liberty Theatres were opened. Created by the War Department's Commission on Training Camp Activities, these theatres aimed to produce ""morally uplifting"" plays and movies as a form of entertainment for thousands of troops - ideally proving more effective than policing the camps. In actuality, however, Liberty Theatres became little more than public relations ploys. Ultimately, although the theatres endeavored to provide a constructive form of recreation and diversion, they - and CTCA - fell far short of what had been promised. Compiled from a variety of government documents, camp newspapers and entertainment trade journals, this volume provides an in-depth look at the 42 Liberty Theatres created by the War Department during 1918 and 1919. It discusses the way in which these theatres were designed and run, as well as the relationship between CTCA's somewhat idealistic leaders and the theatrical professionals who handled this day-to-day operation. Setting the military and the American theatre within their respective historical contexts, the book also explores the role of Liberty Theatres with regard to both entities. Appendices contain a listing of Liberty Theatre opening and closing dates; Liberty Theatre expenses; gross receipts and estimates of attendance; and the average weekly receipts of Liberty Theatres.

On January 24, 1897, an event took place that would change Cuban culture forever: the first moving pictures were shown in Havana. A couple of weeks later, on February 7, the first movie was filmed on the island. Since then, cinematography and Cuba have shared peculiar and innate connections, as their beginnings roughly coincide and Cubans are living in both the age of independence and revolution and the age of film. This work is a filmography of every Cuban film (including documentaries, shorts and cartoons) released from 1897, the first year films were shown and made in Cuba, through 2001. Each entry gives the original title of the film, the English translation of it, director, production company or companies, year of release, black and white or color, total running time, writing credits if the film is based on a story or novel, animation credits if the film is a cartoon, music credits if music has been written specifically for the film, cast credits, and a synopsis and short critical evaluation. The work also provides comments on the relationship between Cuban film and history, and the changes that have taken place over the years in themes, topics, methods, and other aspects of filmmaking in Cuba.

Archie Bunker, George Jefferson, Maude - the television sitcom world of the 1970s was peopled by the creations of Norman Lear. Beginning in 1971, with the premier of ""All in the Family"", Lear's work gave sitcoms a new face and a new style. No longer were families perfect and lives in order. Mostly blue-collar workers and their families, Lear's characters argued, struggled, uttered sometimes shocking opinions and had no problem contributing to - or at least, acknowledging - the turmoil so shunned by 1960s television. Significantly, not only did Lear address difficult issues, but he did so through successful programming. Week after week, Americans tuned in to see the family adventures of the Bunkers, the Jeffersons, and Sanford and son. With a thorough analysis of his sitcoms, this volume explores Norman Lear's memorable production career during the 1970s. It emphasizes how Lear's shows reflected the political and cultural milieu, and how they addressed societal issues including racism, child abuse and gun control. The casting, production and behind-the-screen difficulties of ""All in the Family"", ""Sanford & Son"", ""Maude"", ""Good Times"", ""The Jeffersons"" and ""One Day at a Time"" are discussed. Each show is examined from inception through series finale. Interviews with some of the actors and actresses such as Rue McClanahan of Maude and Marla Gibbs from ""The Jeffersons"" are included.

Born Caroline Louise Dudley, Mrs. Leslie Carter was destined to become one of America's principal turn-of-the century actresses. In 1889, a high profile divorce case labeled her an adulteress and sent her to the brink of poverty. With characteristic resilience, however, Mrs. Carter used infamy to her advantage. Retaining her married name as an act of revenge against her ex-husband, she approached David Belasco, one of the foremost playwrights of the day, and persuaded him to teach her the art of acting. So began one of theatre's most prolific partnerships. Not only did Belasco become Mrs. Carter's acting coach, he composed plays specifically as vehicles to showcase her particular talents. Although their relationship ruptured in 1906, Mrs. Carter continued to enjoy international renown. Weathering the changing times and methods of the early twentieth century, she persevered through stage, silent movies and vaudeville shows. This biography focuses particularly on Mrs. Carter's successful career and on her professional partnership with David Belasco. Spanning a period of radical transformation in American theatre, her career reflected - and endured - the artistic changes, which occurred during the decades on either side of the century mark. Period photographs and theatrical art are included.

Director Fred Zinnemann was one of the most honored and revered directors of Hollywood's golden age. Peter Ustinov said, "Working with him was a permanent lesson in integrity." Zinnemann will always be remembered for such award-winning classics as High Noon, From Here to Eternity and A Man for All Seasons, and for his direction of such stars as Marlon Brando, Montgomery Clift, Rod Steiger, Spencer Tracy, Gary Cooper, Burt Lancaster, Audrey Hepburn, Robert Mitchum, Jane Fonda, Meryl Streep and Sean Connery. Above all, he deserves to be appreciated for raising the intelligence of popular cinema, making individualist dramas of conscience that could appeal to mass audiences without condescending to them and without compromising the director's vision. This book, the first single-author survey of Zinnemann's career, draws on the author's personal interviews with Zinnemann and reveals the coherence and subtlety of the director's work. The first part of the book deals with Zinnemann's struggle to make films of his own choosing in his own way, up to his breakthrough with The Search. The remainder of the text discusses Zinnemann's post-Search films according to major themes, including the ravages of war, the "sovereignty of selfhood," character as destiny, the outsider in society, and politics and the liberal conscience. A list of Zinnemann's awards is provided.

This book explores the idea of nihilism, as introduced by German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche, through its appearance in modern popular culture. The author defines and reflects upon nihilism, then explores its manifestation in film and television characters, stories, and settings. He surveys these fictional portrayals and makes a distinction between two forms of nihilism: passive life-denial and active self-realization. Among the subjects examined are the award-winning television series ""The Sopranos"" and the film noir genre that preceded and influenced it. Films probed include Orson Welles's masterpiece ""Citizen Kane"", the films of Stanley Kubrick, Neil Jordan's controversial ""The Crying Game"" and Richard Linklater's unconventional ""Waking Life"". Finally, the author considers nihilism in terms of the decay of traditional values in the genre of westerns, mostly through works of filmmaker John Ford. In the concluding chapter, the author broadens the lessons gleaned from these studies, maintaining that the question of the possible meaninglessness of life must be recognized and appreciated before people can overcome its life-negating effects.

Early in the century, Marie Dressler was hailed as one of America's finest comics, with a 20-year string of Broadway and vaudeville successes including ""The Lady Slavey"", ""Miss Prinnt"", ""Higgledy Piggledy"", ""The Man in the Moon"", and ""Tillie's Nightmare"". She starred with Charlie Chaplin in the first ever feature-length comedy ""Tillie's Punctured Romance"" and later in ""Min and Bill"" for which she won an Academy Award. A brilliant comedienne in body, timing, inflection and reactions, her talents far exceeded the expectations of slapstick, and her movies earned sums far greater than those of Garbo, or Harlow, or even Gable. This work examines Dressler's life from vaudeville to talkies. Based on extensive research and interviews with Dressler's surviving friends, co-stars and colleagues, including Maureen O'Sullivan, Jackie Cooper and Anita Page, it details her public and personal successes and failures. A listing of her stage appearances, vocal recordings and films is included.

Who were the 35 actors that performed with stars Bud Abbott and Lou Costello in radio's ""The Abbott and Costello Show""? Do scripts survive for the old Burns and Allen shows or the children's crime fighter series ""The Green Hornet""? Serious researchers and curious browsers interested in Golden Age radio will find a wealth of information in this reference guide to surviving scripts. Most are from the 1930s, 1940s and 1950s, though subsequent decades are included for long-running shows. Crime series, whodunits, romances, situation comedies, variety shows, soap operas, quiz show series and others are included. Casual browsers will find tidbits on the radio careers of notables from other media (Humphrey Bogart, Ginger Rogers), mention of adaptations by famous authors (Jack London, Ray Bradbury), curious episode titles (""The Gorilla That Always Said Yeh-ah"") and series titles (""Whispering Streets""), and interesting sponsors (Insect-O-Blitz). The first section is an alphabetical list of significant radio script collections, with notes on their content and format and information on the collector. The second section is the guide to series scripts. Entries include title and basic information, including collection(s) in which they are found; producers, directors, writers, musicians and regular cast; sponsors; and holdings by date, episode number and title. Increasing the book's usefulness for researchers are indexes by name, program and sponsor.

2004 writeup: This is an anthology of the best papers presented at the 28th Comparative Drama Conference at the Ohio State University April 29-May 1, 2004. This international three-day event had 59 sessions and 200 program participants who presented and discussed 168 research papers. The panelists were affiliated with 100 universities and 16 colleges. For 24 years, Text and Presentation published the finest papers presented at the annual conferences as periodicals. This 25th edition is the first to be offered in book form, comprised of 16 research papers, one review essay and five book reviews. Topics include Euripides, German and Russian theatre, dramatic antecedents of the striptease, surrogate love in The Glass Menagerie, surrealist drama, Greek comedy and the American concept musical, and theatre and politics.

There are six of them: heroines, heroes, wise elders, mad scientists, servants and monsters. One of the most fascinating and also endearing aspects of horror films is how they use these six clearly defined character types to portray good and evil. This was particularly true of the classics of the genre, where actors often appeared in the same type of role in many different films. The development of the archetypal characters reflected the way the genre reacted to social changes of the time. As the Great Depression yielded to the uncertainty of World War II, flawed but noble mad scientists such as Henry Frankenstein gave way to Dr. Nieman (The Ghost of Frankenstein) with his dreams of revenge and world conquest. This work details the development of the six archetypes in horror films and how they were portrayed in the many classics of the 1930s and 1940s.

Alcoa Presents: One Step Beyond made its television debut in 1959, nine months before Rod Serling's classic ""The Twilight Zone"", and paved the way for a generation of television programs devoted to paranormal topics such as the occult, ESP, and ghost stories. ""One Step Beyond"" was also where some of Hollywood's most famous leading men, including Warren Beatty, William Shatner, and Charles Bronson, got their starts in television. This complete reference work to the 96 half-hour episodes that ran for three seasons on ABC also offers a detailed history, extensive commentary and summaries of the critical reception of ""One Step Beyond"" as well as coverage of the sequel series produced in 1978 entitled ""The Next Step Beyond"". Complete credits for both series are provided.

Though Elvis Presley's music is widely credited as starting a sea change in American popular culture, his films are often dismissed as base marketing vehicles, commercially successful but insignificant. Beyond the formulaic plotlines and increasing reliance on weak songs, however, the films - and Elvis - serve as profound cultural touchstones, revealing changing American aesthetics more than a changing Elvis. Elvis's rebel image in 1956, as a guitar-swinging incarnation of Brando or Dean, had by 1969's Change of Habit become safe and sterile. This work demonstrates how Elvis, through his films, reflected a shifting social, cultural and political landscape in America. Encompassing all 31 movies and two 1970s documentaries, it provides a film-by-film study of Elvis Presley and America, and argues that each film reflects the society for which it was made. Throughout his career, most of Elvis's characters combined rebellion with wholesome, traditional ideals, but the public's perspective changed, and what was considered radical in 1954 was called reactionary by 1970. Studied sequentially, his films reflect those cyclical ideals, and unconsciously portray America's process of renewal and redefinition of self.

Beloved British humorist P.G. Wodehouse produced a wealth of literature in his lengthy career, contributing novels, short stories, plays, lyrics and essays to the canon of comic writing. His work in film and television included two stints as a screenwriter, and his stories have been the basis for more than 150 film and television productions. He also wrote several novels and essays about Hollywood, often satirizing the city and its entertainment magnates. This book studies P.G. Wodehouse's extensive, but often overlooked, relationship with Tinsel Town. The book is arranged chronologically, covering Wodehouse's Hollywood career from his early efforts in silent film, to his later contributions in television, to his work adapted posthumously for the screen. It includes a discussion of his internment in occupied France and how his brief appearances on German radio, which he intended as a way of communicating with concerned fans in America, led to his forced separation from his homeland and his assumption of American citizenship in 1955. Reflecting Wodehouse's international appeal, the book cites both British and American sources and explains differences between international anthologies, performances and broadcasts of his work. Also included are a comprehensive, detailed list of Wodehouse's stories and articles about Hollywood, and a complete filmography of motion picture and television works to which he contributed or which were based on his stories.

Is violence in American cinema a reflection of life? Or does life imitate the violence people see in cinema? One of the pressing questions in today's society is whether fictional portrayals of violence have social or psychological consequences. Studies have concluded with both ?yes? and ?no? verdicts. Is America a culture of violence? Why does violence, horror and melodrama appeal to people? This book explores these issues with primary focus on entertainment, especially film, through lenses of the media, the consumer, and the cultural backdrop. The film A Clockwork Orange allegedly spawned so much violence in the United Kingdom that director Stanley Kubrick was rumored to have fled with his family to avoid a death threat. From that classic case, the author takes readers through a study of media and violence that examines the structure of horror, the origin and nature of evil, the Greek mythic tradition, melodrama and catharsis, fairy tales, comic books, video games and real horror. In part two the author offers case studies in several genres: westerns, multi-melodrama (The Silence of the Lambs), slasher films, psycho drama, serials such as Star Wars and Harry Potter, apocalyptic melodrama, modern and postmodern noir, creature features and religious melodrama. In-text citations are included, and two notes expand on a couple of issues in the text?the perspectives of Plato and Aristotle on the effects of tragic drama, and discussion of differences of opinion relating to methodological approach.