{"id":2431,"date":"2020-02-18T09:50:05","date_gmt":"2020-02-18T09:50:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/melodramaresearchgroup\/?p=2431"},"modified":"2020-02-18T09:50:05","modified_gmt":"2020-02-18T09:50:05","slug":"melodrama-screening-and-discussion-wednesday-26th-of-february-5-7pm-jarman-6","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/melodramaresearchgroup\/2020\/02\/18\/melodrama-screening-and-discussion-wednesday-26th-of-february-5-7pm-jarman-6\/","title":{"rendered":"Melodrama Screening and Discussion, Wednesday 26th of February, 5-7pm, Jarman 6"},"content":{"rendered":"<p style=\"text-align: justify\">All are very welcome to join us for the fourth of this term\u2019s screenings. We will be showing <em>The Franchise Affair<\/em> (1951, Lawrence Huntingdon, 95 mins) on Wednesday the 26<sup>th<\/sup> of February, 5-7pm, in Jarman 6.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/melodramaresearchgroup\/files\/2020\/02\/franchise-affair-poster.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-2432\" src=\"http:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/melodramaresearchgroup\/files\/2020\/02\/franchise-affair-poster.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"266\" height=\"187\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify\"><em>The Franchise Affair<\/em> is based on Josephine Tey\u2019s 1948 novel of the same name. The third of Tey\u2019s Inspector Alan Grant series of novels, it directly follows 1936&#8217;s <em>A Shilling for Candles<\/em>, adapted as <em>Young and Innocent (1937).<\/em> (You can see our discussion of this film here: <a href=\"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/melodramaresearchgroup\/2020\/01\/21\/summary-of-discussion-on-young-and-innocent\/\">https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/melodramaresearchgroup\/2020\/01\/21\/summary-of-discussion-on-young-and-innocent\/<\/a> )<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify\">Grant once more briefly appears, this time played by John Bailey, but the top-billed stars are Michael Denison and Dulcie Gray. Denison, as local lawyer Robert Blair, comes to the aid of Gray\u2019s Marion Sharpe, and her mother (played by Marjorie Fielding). They have been accused of kidnapping and torturing a local young woman, Betty Kane (Ann Stephens). Tey\u2019s plot was inspired by the real-life case of 18<sup>th<\/sup> Century maidservant Elizabeth Canning.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify\">The <em>New York Times<\/em> considered both Tey\u2019s novel and the film to belong to the melodrama genre. On the film\u2019s release in the United States a very brief note labels the film \u2018a British-made melodrama\u2019 (3<sup>rd<\/sup> June 1952). Two months later, James Kelly reviewed Tey\u2019s <em>The Privateer<\/em> (written under the name Gordon Daviot) for the same newspaper. In his review, Kelly applies the term \u2018melodrama\u2019 to <em>The Franchise Affair<\/em> and <em>Brat Farrar <\/em>\u2013 Tey\u2019s 1949 non-Alan Grant novel (24<sup>th<\/sup> August 1952). Kelly provides more detail, claiming that Tey\u2019s \u2018vivid characterization, dispassionate reporting, and crisp writing can lend conviction to improbable melodrama\u2019. Kelly\u2019s view of melodrama is therefore pejorative \u2013 it is not believable, and praise is due to Tey for surmounting it.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify\">We can perhaps discuss this in relation to the novel and\/or film. In particular, it may be worth considering if the fact that the <em>New York Times<\/em> labelling of the film as \u2018British melodrama\u2019 has additional significance, commenting not just on its country of production, but its treatment of melodrama.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify\">Do join us if you can.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>All are very welcome to join us for the fourth of this term\u2019s screenings. We will be showing The Franchise Affair (1951, Lawrence Huntingdon, 95 mins) on Wednesday the 26th of February, 5-7pm, in Jarman 6. The Franchise Affair is &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/melodramaresearchgroup\/2020\/02\/18\/melodrama-screening-and-discussion-wednesday-26th-of-february-5-7pm-jarman-6\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5401,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[50575],"tags":[217656,92827,217739,217736,217740,217733,217671,217742,217741,217658,217738,20536,217737,130,217669,217668,217735,217734,217657],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/melodramaresearchgroup\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2431"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/melodramaresearchgroup\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/melodramaresearchgroup\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/melodramaresearchgroup\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5401"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/melodramaresearchgroup\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2431"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/melodramaresearchgroup\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2431\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2433,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/melodramaresearchgroup\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2431\/revisions\/2433"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/melodramaresearchgroup\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2431"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/melodramaresearchgroup\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2431"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/melodramaresearchgroup\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2431"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}