Tag Archives: Links

Mary Pickford Links

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Posted by Sarah

Here is a link to Mary Pickford films on archive.org.

https://archive.org/search.php?query=%22mary%20pickford%22%20AND%20mediatype%3Amovies

Stella Maris

Some of the shorts include DW Griffith’s An Aracdian Maid (1910), The Narrow Road (1912) and A Beast at Bay (1912). These are all about 15 minutes long.

https://archive.org/details/TheNarrowRoad

https://archive.org/details/AnArcadianMaid_179

https://archive.org/details/ABeastAtBay

I’d especially recommend some of the longer films such as Stella Maris (1918) and Pollyanna (1919).

https://archive.org/details/StellaMaris_665

https://archive.org/details/Pollyanna_837

Mary Pickford on Psychobitches

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Posted by Sarah

Ahead of the screening of Coquette on Wednesday, I thought it might be interesting to consider the presentation of Mary Pickford on Psychobitches. In the Sky Arts comedy series Rebecca Front stars as a therapist helping famous, and infamous, women from history. Julia Davis as Pickford can be seen on youtbe: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PlMQ0UT9UaU

Davis as Pickford

The clips comment effectively on Pickford’s star image, genre expectation and silent films. All in 2 and a half minutes!

 

psychobitches

Apologies, for the delay, but this also seems a good opportunity to congratulate Tamar for guessing the right answer to the Bette Davis and Joan Crawford Psychobitches Challenge. In the clip Mark Gatiss’ Crawford calls Frances Barber’s Davis by the single-syllabled ‘Bet’ rather than the double-syllabled ‘Bette’. Apparently, despite their feud, she would never have dreamed of doing this. Even to wind up Davis!

Well done too to Rosa for supllying another valid answer.

Many thanks to Lies and Ann-Marie for organising this and supplying the great prizes.

Melodrama Group Challenge: Bette and Joan on Psychobitches

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Posted by Sarah
Ann-Marie and Lies have very kindly suggested a competition. It relates to the Sky Arts comedy Psychobitches which stars Rebecca Front as a therapist helping famous, and infamous, women from history. The first episode features an appearance from Bette Davis (Frances Barber) and Joan Crawford (Mark Gatiss) (both pictured below) engaged in a confrontation whilst wearing their What Ever Happened to Baby Jane? costumes.
psychobitches
The Competition
View a clip of Bette and Joan’s appearance on Psychobitches(http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-EBHCPNs_Zc) and SPOT THE MISTAKE!
At the screening on Wednesday a small prize will be handed to the person(s) with the correct answer.
Many thanks to Ann-Marie and Lies for suggesting this, especially as it will also provide a useful discussion point in terms of Bette and Joan’s star images.
Good Luck!

Inspirations: A Celebration of Pam Cook’s Work in Film Studies

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Posted by Sarah

Keeley sent me an email to draw the Group’s attention to an event taking place at the University of Southampton on the 9th of November. It is a celebration of renowned film scholar Pam Cook’s work. The speakers include Claire Hines, Richard Dyer, Sarah Street, Catherine Grant, Michael Williams, and of course Pam Cook.

Pam Cook

Pam Cook’s work on stardom is especially relevant to our work of the last couple of weeks. In addition, Catherine Grant (former of the University of Kent, now of the University of Sussex) is contributing a video essay entitled: Mirrors, Melodrama and Pam Cook: A Video Essay.

The all-important link: http://www.southampton.ac.uk/film/news/events/2013/11/09_inspirations.page

It looks like a great opportunity, so many thanks to Keeley for mentioning it.

Variety Ultimate Subscription Now Available for Kent Users

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Posted by Sarah

There is some very exciting news about a new resource available for those of us who have a University of Kent login. The Templeman Library now has access to Variety Ultimate. This means that most issues of the American trade journal (from 1905-the present) can now be searched and accessed. This is excellent news for research at Kent generally, and, of course, melodrama.

The link: http://chain.kent.ac.uk/login?url=http://www.varietyultimate.com/

I have had a very quick look in terms of film melodrama and found this very early review by ‘Jolo’ of the film The Big Sister on 15th of September 1916, p 26: http://www.varietyultimate.com.chain.kent.ac.uk/archive/issue/WV-09-15-1916-26

big sister

The film was directed by John B O’Brien and starred Mae Murray.’Jolo’ opined that the film ‘is melodrama without any attempt at concealment’. The mention of concealment is interesting in two ways. Firstly it indicates the reviewer’s, and the general, rather negative view of melodrama by suggesting that other melodramas might try to appear to be something else. But also, as we have seen, concealment is often a key theme of melodrama.

There will be many, many more exciting nuggets relating to melodrama, so do take a look. And do also share your findings by emailing me on sp458@kent.ac.uk. I can then post them to the blog for us all to enjoy!

Melodrama Readings: Gledhill and Williams

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Posted by Sarah

I thought it would be useful to draw attention to some excellent chapters about film and melodrama by two of the field’s leading writers on the subject.

These are:

Christine Gledhill’s  “Rethinking Genre” in Linda Williams and Christine Gledhill, eds, Reinventing Film Studies. Bloomsbury USA Academic, 2000: 42-88.

and

Linda Williams’ “Melodrama Revised” in Nick Browne, ed, Refiguring American Film Genres: History and Theory, University of California Pr, 1998: 42-88.

Please go to http://melodramaresearchgroupextra.wordpress.com/ for more details.

I’m sure you’ll find it interesting to (re)read them. As always, do log in to comment or email me on sp458@kent.ac.uk

Melodrama Readings: Bourget and Basinger

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Posted by Sarah

Ahead of this week’s screening of Joan Crawford in Rain, Lies has very kindly suggested some readings for this week.

Joan melo

These are:

“Faces of the American Melodrama: Joan Crawford”  in Film Reader 3 (1978), by Jean-Loup Bourget and  Chapter 5 of Jeanine Basinger’s  A Woman’s View: How Hollywood Spoke to Women, 1930-1960. Wesleyan University Press, 1995, pp. 160-187. (Pages 164-177 are most relevant for discussion of Crawford and Davis.)

Please go to http://melodramaresearchgroupextra.wordpress.com/ for more information.

As always, do log in to comment, or email me on sp458@kent.ac.uk to add your thoughts.

Bette Davis and Of Human Bondage Links

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Posted by Sarah

Please find below the picture of Bette Davis, some links which relate to the Hollywood star and to Of Human Bondage.

Bette_davis_of_human_bondage

Ann-Marie has very kindly provided links to audio material which features some of Bette’s radio performances:

https://play.spotify.com/album/6uC1Qe9gMsEgl7FWJa4CVt

 

Of Human Bondage (1934) on archive.org: http://archive.org/details/humanbondage

A 1949 Studio One TV version on archive.org: http://archive.org/details/StudioOneOfHumanBondage1949

Maugham’s novel on archive.org: http://archive.org/details/humanbondage00mauggoog

 

Do also visit our other blog for more information: http://melodramaresearchgroupextra.wordpress.com/

 

Log in to comment or email me on sp458@kent.ac.uk to add your thoughts and suggestions for other links.

Tamar Jeffers McDonald Appears on Radio Kent!

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Posted by Sarah

Doris book!Melodrama Research Group founder Dr Tamar Jeffers McDonald (http://www.kent.ac.uk/arts/staff-profiles/profiles/film/t_jeffers-mcdonald.html) appeared on Radio Kent today to talk about her new book: Doris Day Confidential: Hollywood, Sex and Stardom.To listen to the programme, or indeed to re-listen, go to the BBC iplayer: http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p01gcjxh

The interview with Tamar begins about 2 hours into the programme.

For more details of the Doris Day Weekend at the Gulbenkian, please see previous posts on the blog.

CFP: The Melodramatic Moment, 1790-1820

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Posted by Sarah,

I thought people might be interested in an upcoming conference on melodrama due to take place at the Institute of Historical Research in London in March 2014. The era it focuses on is a fair bit earlier than we have been examining, but I’m sure there is still much of relevance.

http://events.history.ac.uk/event/show/11430