Steve Neale and the Male Melodrama

Posted by Sarah, on Ann-Marie’s behalf

 

Steve Neale’s article ‘Melo Talk’ attempts to look at how the term melodrama was used in the trade press. Neale’s sources include Film Daily, Hollywood Reporter, Motion Picture Herald and Variety, yet it seems his use is selective. He states that the term melodrama is ‘rather rare in reviews of women’s films,’[1] for instance, films such as Dark Victory. The analysis is often limited by his reliance on review pages in trade papers, whereas he could have benefited to look at the categorizing pages such as the release chart. This is the case with Dark Victory. Neale informs us that Variety reviews it as an “intense drama,”[2] and thus leads us to infer that woman’s pictures, and this in particular, was not categorized as a melodrama. However, Motion Picture Herald does in fact claim it to be a melodrama (CLICK HERE FOR PDF:Motion Picture Herald 25th February 1939). Thus, is Neale being selective by relying on reviews, or selecting what suits his analysis?

He concludes that ‘the trade press clearly recognized [melodramas as] the adventure film, the thriller, the horror film, the war film and the western.’[3] This is questionable due to the status and categorizing of Dark Victory as a melodrama. Thus, further research is needed to clarify whether the majority were treated in the same manner as Dark Victory.

 

[1] Steve Neale, ‘Melo Talk: On the Meaning and Use of the Term “Melodrama” in the American Trade Press’, The Velvet Light Trap, Number 32, (Austin: University of Texas Press, 1993) p.74

[2] Neale, ‘Melo Talk’, The Velvet Light Trap p. 74

[3] Neale, ‘Melo Talk’, The Velvet Light Trap p.76

 

 

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