The winner of four Academy Awards for directing, John Ford is considered by many to be America’s greatest native-born director. Ford helmed some of the most memorable films in American cinema, including The Grapes of Wrath, How Green Was My Valley, and The Quiet Man, as well as such iconic westerns as Stagecoach, My Darling Clementine, She Wore a Yellow Ribbon, The Searchers, and The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance. In The John Ford Encyclopedia, Sue Matheson provides readers with detailed information about the acclaimed director’s films, from the silent era to the 1960s. In more than 400 entries, this volume covers not only the films Ford directed and produced, but the studios for which he worked; his preferred shooting sites; his WWII documentaries; and the men and women with whom he collaborated including actors, screenwriters, technicians, and stuntmen. Encompassing the entire range of the director’s career—from his start in early cinema to his frequent work with national treasure John Wayne—this is a comprehensive overview of one of the most highly regarded filmmakers in history. The John Ford Encyclopedia will be of interest to professors, students, and the many fans of the director’s work.

Rather than limiting the cinema, as certain French New Wave critics feared, adaptation has encouraged new inspiration to explore the possibilities of the intersection of text and film. This collection of essays covers various aspects of adaptation studies--questions of genre and myth, race and gender, readaptation, and pedagogical and practical approaches.

This is a critical examination of the ways that ageing and old age are represented and given meaning in popular film. Arguing that the narratives, discourses, and philosophical positions that underlie filmic depictions of growing older are historical and open to revision, the author evaluates how a given film both portrays ageing or older characters and tells the larger story of ageing itself. Using the evaluations to explain how knowledge about ageing and old age is made visible through film, the book shows how movies are able not only to promote negative portrayals of aging but also to challenge the cultural devaluation of old age. Movies cannot only consolidate age-based exclusionary definitions of self and personhood but also to dispute the distinction between self and other on which these definitions are based. The author sees popular film as a helpful site of cultural struggle where the cinematic representation and the lived reality of ageing and old age intertwine.

The documents emerging from the secret police archives of the former Soviet bloc have caused scandal after scandal, compromising revered cultural figures and abruptly ending political careers. "Police Aesthetics" offers a revealing and responsible approach to such materials. Taking advantage of the partial opening of the secret police archives in Russia and Romania, Vatulescu focuses on their most infamous holdings--the personal files--as well as on movies the police sponsored, scripted, or authored. Through the archives, she gains new insights into the writing of literature and raises new questions about the ethics of reading. She shows how police files and films influenced literature and cinema, from autobiographies to novels, from high-culture classics to avant-garde experiments and popular blockbusters. In so doing, she opens a fresh chapter in the heated debate about the relationship between culture and politics in twentieth-century police states.

Remaking Horror chronicles the American horror genre in its development of remake titles from the 1930s to 21st century films. The book investigates Gus Van Sant's 1998 remake of Alfred Hitchcock's Psycho (1960) as the watershed moment when the horror genre opened its doors to the possibility of that horror movie--classic, modern, B-movie, and more--might be remade for contemporary audiences. Staple horror franchises--Halloween (1978), Friday the 13th (1980), and A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984)--are highlighted along with their remake counterparts in order to illustrate how the genre has embraced a phenomenon of remake productions and what the future of horror holds for American cinema. More than 25 original films, their remakes, and the movies they influenced are presented in detailed discussions throughout the text.

Aptly named ""Television's First Lady"" by Walter Ames of the Los Angeles Times, actress Beverly Garland (1926-2008) is also regarded as a Western and science-fiction film icon. Beverly was TV's first ""police woman"" in the landmark series Decoy, and was seen in starring or recurring roles in such popular shows as My Three Sons and Scarecrow and Mrs. King. In addition to more than 700 television appearances, she made more than 55 feature and made-for-television films including the cult classics Not of This Earth, It Conquered the World and The Alligator People. Working with such mega-names as Sinatra, Bogart, and Bing Crosby, Beverly Garland had fascinating stories to tell about all of them and many, many more. This comprehensive biography of Beverly's life and career includes a foreword and afterword by her colleagues Joseph Campanella and Peggy Webber.

All at once, and without apology or shame, the name Whoopi Goldberg conjures images of laughter, sex, surprise, versatility, African heritage, and Jewish identity, to name a few. How did she become such a major player in Hollywood and the larger world? This book provides an overview of some of Goldberg's most important efforts on Broadway and in major motion pictures, television, and the world of social activism. Major features include comparative analyses of Goldberg's work in relation to that of such notable performers as Bert Williams, Jackie ""Moms"" Mabley, Richard Pryor, George Carlin, Billy Crystal, Robin Williams and Dave Chappelle, as well as an in-depth analysis of her work as the fictional Celie in the major motion picture The Color Purple; her Oscar-winning role as the fictional Oda Mae Brown in Ghost and her cultural impact as an American woman working.

When did Queen for a Day air? How long did the soap opera The Edge of Night run? A valuable companion to Television Network Prime-Time Programming, this book is complete. Beginning with September 1959 and continuing to the fall of 1989, this work provides month-by-month early morning (Monday-Friday, 7-9 a.m.), daytime (Monday-Friday, 10-6) and late night (Monday-Friday, 11-2 a.m.) schedules for all national broadcasting networks (ABC, CBS, NBC and Fox). Schedules are presented in easy-to-understand, at-a-glance charts. Also included are a detailed listing of all network programming moves, including series premieres, cancellations and time slot moves, and a yearly recap of key programming moves.

The Royal Edinburgh Military Tattoo is one of the greatest shows on earth. Around 220,000 people attend each year. It is seen on TV by a further 100 million. Alasdair Hutton is the Voice of the Tattoo. This book is the story of the Tattoo, told by the Narrator and prefaced by a short history of tattoos pre-Edinburgh and a history of the Tattoo pre-Alasdair. With an ever-changing cast of over 1,000 performers, each year’s show is unique. Some elements remain unchanged – the spine-tingling Lone Piper playing on the Castle ramparts, the cacophony of sound that is the closing massed pipes and drums, the welcoming voice of Alasdair Hutton as you arrive. Ladies and gentlemen, take your seats, the Greatest Show on Earth is about to begin. For the last 25 years, Alasdair Hutton has told our story to each of our audiences since he started in 1992 – a total live audience of over 5 million people. Not only has he been behind the microphone without fail, in Edinburgh and when we have taken the show abroad, but he has also researched and written the script. Alasdair’s most precious talents are his voice, his sense of timing and his feel for occasion. Alasdair Hutton is above all one of life’s great gentlemen. Not only is he impeccably polite but he has great charisma, values and a wonderful sense of purpose. This book, which is Alasdair’s own story – only a small part of it! – gives a sense of the huge contribution he has made to the remarkable institution of the Royal Edinburgh Military Tattoo. From the foreword by brigadier David Allfrey

As Doctor Who nears its 50th anniversary, it is very much a part of British popular culture, and the Doctor has become a British icon. Nevertheless, thanks to BBC America and BBC Worldwide's marketing strategy, as well as the Doctor's and his companions' recent in-person visits to the U.S., the venerable series is becoming more susceptible to an ""American influence,"" including the possibility of becoming ""Americanised."" Doctor Who and recent spinoffs Torchwood and The Sarah Jane Adventures offer American audiences very different insights into the Whoniverse and have met with varying degrees of success. Whereas Torchwood became a U.S.-U.K. co-production, The Sarah Jane Adventures was largely mismarketed. To complicate matters, the interrelationships that keep the Doctor Who franchise alive through radio dramas, audiobooks, comics, novels, etc., during hiatuses in television broadcasts, may give U.S. and U.K. audiences different understandings of the lead characters--the Doctor, Captain Jack Harkness, and Sarah Jane Smith. Although the past decade has been an exciting time in the Whoniverse, the Doctor--and the franchise--are poised for yet another regeneration.

The oral eye is a metaphor for the dominance of global designer capitalism. It refers to the consumerism of a designer aesthetic by the 'I' of the neoliberalist subject, as well as the aural soundscapes that accompany the hegemony of the capturing attention through screen cultures. An attempt is made to articulate the historical emergence of such a synoptic machinic regime drawing on Badiou, Bellmer, Deleuze, Guattari, Lacan, Ranciere, Virilio, Ziarek, and i ek to explore contemporary art (post-Situationism) and visual cultural education. jagodzinski develops the concept of an 'avant-garde without authority, ' 'self-refleXion' and 'in(design)' to further the questions surrounding the posthuman as advanced by theorists such as Hansen, Stiegler and Ziarek's 'force' of art.

He's one of the most famous and revered men in all of American History. The 16th President of the United States. Abraham Lincoln. And he's a vampire hunter! In anticipation of the release of the summer blockbuster from Timur Bekmambetov (Wanted), Bazelevs and Aspen Comics proudly present The Art of Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter. This deluxe edition contains never-before-seen storyboards, concept art, production illustrations, and costume designs, as well as drawings from visionary director Timur Bekmambetov. This behind-the-scenes glimpse into the creation of the hit film also features commentary by Bekmambetov, along with several others who helped bring this extraordinary film to life. Don't miss out on this rare, behind-the-scenes look into the creation of one of the most talked about new movies of the year, Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter!

In this work, 222 musicals developed specifically for television are fully detailed, including musical episodes from non-musical shows, animated specials that appealed to adults as well as children, and operas and related works commissioned for the small screen. Each entry provides air date, network, running time, cast and credits, and a listing of all the songs. A plot synopsis follows these data, focusing on the show itself and the story from which it was adapted; information on award nominations and awards won, recordings, videos, and published music is then provided. Contemporary reviews of the show complete the entry.

The five directors studied here embody postmodernism-the erosion of the earlier 20th century distinction between ""high culture"" and the so-called mass or popular culture that had its beginnings in the 1950s and 1960s. Comprised of repetition, pastiche, parody and homage, their postmodern films borrowed from high and low, from directors like Lean, Kurosawa, Hitchcock, Ford and Godard. The personal history and childhood interests of each director are studied, along with their apprenticeship in film school and early directorial efforts. This shared film school background and their familiarity with the films of Hollywood's classic period, of the entire ouevres of certain directors, have allowed them mastery of a wide range of film styles, genres and techniques.

This new and updated encyclopedic guide, with over 2700 cross-referenced entries, covers all aspects of the American theatre from its earliest history to the present. Entries include people, venues and companies scattered through the USA, plays and musicals, and theatrical phenomena. Additionally, there are some 100 topical entries covering theatre in major US cities and such disparate subjects as Asian American theatre, Chicano theatre, censorship, Filipino American theatre, one-person performances, performance art, and puppetry. Major popular forms are represented in entries such as circus, burlesque, vaudeville, and tent shows. Highly illustrated, the Guide is supplemented with a thorough historical survey as introduction, a bibliography of major sources published since the compilation of the first edition, and a unique and valued biographical index covering over 3200 individuals mentioned in the text. This new edition includes hundreds of new and updated entries, making it the most up-to-date guide to American theatre available.

Hollywood's conversion to sound in the 1920s created an early peak in the film musical, following the immense success of The Jazz Singer. The opportunity to synchronize moving pictures with a soundtrack suited the musical in particular, since the heightened experience of song and dance drew attention to the novelty of the technological development. Until the near-collapse of the genre in the 1960s, the film musical enjoyed around thirty years of development, as landmarks such as The Wizard of Oz, Meet Me in St. Louis, Singin' in the Rain, and Gigi showed the exciting possibilities of putting musicals on the silver screen. The second of three volumes, Race, Sexuality, and Gender and the Musical Screen Adaptation: An Oxford Handbook, traces how the genre of the stage-to-screen musical has evolved, focusing in particular of issues of race, gender and sexuality. Enduringly popular adaptations such as Kiss Me Kate and Pal Joey are considered through the lens of identity, while several chapters consider how different adaptations of the same stage musical reflect shifting historical contexts. Together, the chapters incite lively debates about the process of adapting Broadway for the big screen and provide models for future studies. Volume I: The Politics of the Musical Theatre Screen Adaptation Volume II: Race, Sexuality, and Gender and the Musical Screen Adaptation Volume III: Stars, Studios, and the Musical Theatre Screen Adaptation

When Art Spiegelman's "Maus" won the Pulitzer Prize in 1992, it marked a new era for comics. Comics are now taken seriously by the same academic and cultural institutions that long dismissed the form. And the visibility of comics continues to increase, with alternative cartoonists now published by major presses and more comics-based films arriving on the screen each year.
"Projections" argues that the seemingly sudden visibility of comics is no accident. Beginning with the parallel development of narrative comics at the turn of the 20th century, comics have long been a form that invitesOCoindeed requiresOCoreaders to help shape the stories being told. Today, with the rise of interactive media, the creative techniques and the reading practices comics have been experimenting with for a century are now in universal demand. Recounting the history of comics from the nineteenth-century rise of sequential comics to the newspaper strip, through comic books and underground comix, to the graphic novel and webcomics, Gardner shows why they offer the best models for rethinking storytelling in the twenty-first century. In the process, he reminds us of some beloved characters from our past and present, including Happy Hooligan, Krazy Kat, Crypt Keeper, and Mr. Natural.
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Born on February 12, 1886, in Missouri Valley, Iowa, Margaret Fischer made her stage debut at the tender age of eight. Now called Margarita, by 1910, she had embarked on a new and daring occupation--as an actress in the fledgling industry of motion pictures. Although Margarita Fischer made an attempt to preserve her cinematic accomplishments shortly before her death in 1975, her career has remained largely unknown--until now. This biography details Fischer's life and career, examining not only her work in front of the camera but also the broader issues--including her devotion to family and her shrewd management of her public image--which informed her personal and professional decisions. It follows her sometimes difficult marriage to fellow performer Harry Pollard and examines her work with Pollard Picture Plays, a production company founded by the couple. Movies discussed include The Butterfly Girl, The Devil's Assistant, Impossible Susan and, her final film, Uncle Tom's Cabin. Through the lens of Fischer's life and career, the reader sees the changing mores and lifestyles of America, particularly those of the film industry itself. Never-before-published photographs and a filmography listing over 170 projects complete this story of one of America's earliest film stars.

Unlike traditional animation techniques that use specialized 3D animation software, machinima --a term derived from the words ""machine"" and ""cinema""--records the action in real-time interactive 3D environments, such as those found in video games, to create a cinematic production. No longer solely the province of hard-core gamers, machinima has become central to the convergence between animation, television, and film, but retains its own identity as a unique media format. It has evolved quickly within massive multi-player gaming and virtual platforms such as Second Life, The Sims, World of Warcraft, and virtual worlds under development. These interviews, essays, and discussions with leading machinima producers, reviewers, performers, and advocates discuss scripting basics, character development, and set design, as well as tips on crafting machinima through creative use of sound, lighting, and post-production. Aimed at beginning or intermediate machinima storytellers, this is an informative and useful overview of an emerging art form.

This is a detailed examination, from creation to cancellation, of 58 science fiction television series produced between 1990 and 2004, from the popular The X-Files to the many worlds of Star Trek (from The Next Generation onward), as well as Andromeda, Babylon 5, Firefly, Quantum Leap, Stargate Atlantis and SG-I, among others. A chapter on each series includes essential production information; a history of the series; critical commentary; and amusing, often provocative interviews with more than 150 of the creators, actors, writers and directors. The book also offers updates on each series' regular cast members, along with several photographs and a complete bibliography.

Arnold made some of the most enduring science fiction films of the 1950s--It Came from Outer Space, Creature from the Black Lagoon, and The Incredible Shrinking Man. But only recently has he been recognized as a distinguished genre director, 3-D pioneer, and artist of international repute. This is the first complete critical appreciation of his career and works. Extensive interview material, many rare and previously unpublished photographs, storyboards, and the first complete Arnold filmography are included.