Uncanny Bodies: The Coming of Sound Film and the Origins of the Horror GenreUniversity of California Press, 2007 M09 4 - 202 páginas In 1931 Universal Pictures released Dracula and Frankenstein, two films that inaugurated the horror genre in Hollywood cinema. These films appeared directly on the heels of Hollywood's transition to sound film. Uncanny Bodies argues that the coming of sound inspired more in these massively influential horror movies than screams, creaking doors, and howling wolves. A close examination of the historical reception of films of the transition period reveals that sound films could seem to their earliest viewers unreal and ghostly. By comparing this audience impression to the first sound horror films, Robert Spadoni makes a case for understanding film viewing as a force that can powerfully shape both the minutest aspects of individual films and the broadest sweep of film production trends, and for seeing aftereffects of the temporary weirdness of sound film deeply etched in the basic character of one of our most enduring film genres. |
Contenido
| 1 | |
| 8 | |
2 Ludicrous Objects Textualized Responses | 31 |
3 The Mystery of Dracula | 45 |
4 Dracula as Uncanny Theater | 61 |
5 Frankenstein and the Vats of Hollywood | 93 |
Conclusion | 121 |
Notes | 129 |
Bibliography | 163 |
Films Cited | 179 |
Index | 183 |
Otras ediciones - Ver todas
Uncanny Bodies: The Coming of Sound Film and the Origins of the Horror Genre Robert Spadoni Vista previa limitada - 2007 |
Uncanny Bodies: The Coming of Sound Film and the Origins of the Horror Genre Robert Spadoni Sin vista previa disponible - 2007 |
Términos y frases comunes
actors audiences Bakshy Bela Lugosi Bride of Frankenstein Browning’s Browning's film camera Campaign Canary Chaney character Cinematographer classic horror close-up coming of sound Count Dracula Crafton critics dialogue diegetic Drac Early Cinema early films early sound films edited effect Exhibitors Expressionist face Film Daily film’s Gabbo Garrett Fort genre Harker Harrison's Reports Helsing Horror Film James James Whale Karloff Lusk medium monster Mordaunt Hall Motion Picture Herald Movies moving Mummy mystery narrative noted novel Phonofilm Picture Play production Publicity Scene Cuts reception Renfield reviewer Riley Scene Cuts section screen sensations Sept sequence shadows shooting script shot silent films sound film sound transition story strange studio suggest Svengali synchronized speech Talkies talking film Talking Pictures theater tion Tod Browning Tsivian uncanny body Universal Weekly University Press Van Helsing ventriloquist viewers Vitaphone voice Whale Whale's film White Zombie wrote York
Pasajes populares
Página 61 - ... is forcing himself through an .aperture too small for the reception of his body, and is there arrested and tortured by the pangs of suffocation produced by the pressure to which he is exposed ; or he loses his way in a narrow labyrinth, and gets involved in its contracted and inextricable mazes ; or he is entombed alive in a sepulchre, beside the mouldering dead. There is, in most cases, an intense reality in all that he sees, or hears, or feels. The aspects of the hideous phantoms which harass...
Página 40 - ... painfully impressed — and his own impressiveness grew upon him and impressed him still more. He loomed quite prophetic. Cold shivers went down Trilby's back as she listened. She had a singularly impressionable nature, as was shown by her quick and ready susceptibility to Svengali's hypnotic influence. And all that day, as she posed for Durien (to whom she did not mention her adventure), she was haunted by the memory of Svengali's big eyes and the touch of his soft, dirty finger-tips on her...
Página 6 - everything is unheimlich that ought to have remained secret and hidden but has come to light
Página 69 - ... raised his hands, and seemed to call out without using any words. A dark mass spread over the grass, coming on like the shape of a flame of fire. And then He moved the mist to the right and left, and I could see that there were thousands of rats with their eyes blazing red, like His only smaller. He held up his hand, and they all stopped, and I thought he seemed to be saying, V A11 these lives will I give you, ay, and many more and greater, through countless ages, if you will fall down and worship...
Página 13 - ... character, opened its mouth and began to talk, accompanied by an ever-changing countenance, including the formation of the mouth as each peculiar sound is uttered; or if instead of one head, two were produced, and an argument gone through with all the turns and twists of the head incidental...
Página xi - At the Margaret Herrick Library of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences...
Página 37 - ... we are so disconcerted by a sourceless sound that we would rather attribute the sound to a dummy or a shadow than face the mystery of its sourcelessness or the scandal of its production by a nonvocal (technological or 'ventral') apparatus.