Busby Berkeley’s classic films of the 1930s were very popular and much imitated but they weren’t analyzed very much until recently. An online content search reveals that even reviewers’ discussions of the films tailed off gradually between the 1940s and the 1960s. The great classics were rarely seen until repertory movie houses, film festivals, andContinue reading “Busby Berkeley and the “Fascist Aesthetic””
Monthly Archives: September 2021
The Thin Man (1934) – 2. Novel vs. Movie
One shouldn’t spend too much time comparing an original story with its film adaptation. All writers know that as soon as the options are picked up and the payments deposited, the film version is out of their hands. It’s lucky that they aren’t forced to sign non-disclosure agreements enjoining them from claiming that they actuallyContinue reading “The Thin Man (1934) – 2. Novel vs. Movie”
The Comic Fetish and The Phallus Game
A core premise of this blog is that Comedy is based on a game I call “Phallus, Phallus, Who’s Got the Phallus?” or The Phallus Game. It’s based on the notion of a comic fetish. The core principle of a fetish is that it veils an absence, the absence of something that is deeply desired.Continue reading “The Comic Fetish and The Phallus Game”
My Favorite Blonde (1942)
I was never fond of Bob Hope. He was ubiquitous when I was growing up — TV specials, USO shows in Vietnam, celebrity golf-tourneys, beauty pageants –, and always the same: bland, smug, delivering one joke at a time that generally hinged on some insider allusion to Hollywood celebrity. I didn’t think he was funny.Continue reading “My Favorite Blonde (1942)”