Movie Love in the Fifties

By James Harvey and James Harvey

Book Overview

"What I set out to do is to help you see movies better, to experience them more deeply and sharply and richly," says James Harvey. And his critical method-reading a movie moment by moment, scene by scene-reveals new layers of meaning in even the most familiar films. See how 1940s film noir evolves into 1950s melodrama; how the femme fatale of the 1940s (think Barbara Stanwyck) becomes blander and blonder (think Doris Day) and then younger and sexier (yes, Marilyn); and how the new boy-men-Clift, Brando, Dean-finally steal the show. Harvey also discusses the directors: Hitchcock, Ophuls, Kazan, Welles. Comprehensive, vivid, and charismatic, Movie Love in the Fifties is a fresh look at the films, directors, and actors of a dynamic decade. "Whether he's escorting us through Nicholas Ray's Bitter Victory, Douglas Sirk's Imitation of Life, Orson Welles's Magnificent Ambersons, or any one of a dozen other great films from the period, Harvey lends us an astuteness of analysis and a power of observation that we couldn't have had on our own." -- Wendy Lesser, The American Prospect

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0306811774
• ISBN13: 9780306811777
• Release Date: September 2002
• Publisher: Grand Central Publishing
• Length: 448 Pages
• Weight: 1.00 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.5" x 5.9" x 8.9"

Customer Reviews

Excellent

Although I agree that, for some film fans, Harvey's analysis can be infuriating, this text is one of the more engrossing studies I've come across in recent years. But you should pick it up and browse the chapters to see if the actors, films, and directors he selects are ones that you'd like to read about. Being a huge fan of the majority of the works he does choose to focus on, I find this book to be a valuable companion. His chapter on Out of the Past is entertaining and informative and I love all the attention he gives to Nicholas Ray and Douglas Sirk.

Like overhearing a wonderful monologue on Fifties films

I think Harvey's "Romantic Comedy" is one of the best books ever written on Hollywood films, so I really looked forward to reading "Movie Love." I was not disappointed. The new book is as thoughtful and well-written as the previous book. My only complaint is that "Movie Love" is not chronologically organized.Harvey sets up an opposition between traditional Hollywood cinema and the "new realism" of the Fifties. He comes down in favor of the traditional filmmaking of Douglas Sirk, Alfred Hitchcock and Robert Siodmak, as opposed to the emotionalism of, say, "East of Eden" or other movies influenced by "Method" actors.Reading "Movie Love in the Fifties" is like listening to a wonderfully informed person talk about the movies he is enthusiastic about. Harvey's style is free of academic jargon, and he makes you remember that people went to movies because they were fun. I found myself dying to see "Vertigo" and "Written on the Wind" again after reading this book, and Harvey has persuaded me that I've got to track down and see "Christmas Holiday," "Lured," and "Imitation of Life" now.