Chapter 23

2020 ◽  
pp. 313-326
Author(s):  
Mark Glancy
Keyword(s):  
Marilyn Monroe ◽  
Screwball Comedy ◽  
Howard Hawks

To help Betsy Drake’s flagging career, Grant agreed to do a radio series with her. Mr and Mrs Blandings (1951) continued the comical adventures that began in Mr Blandings Builds His Dream House (1948), but the series was not well received. On screen, he took some risks in this period, playing an outspoken doctor in the politically charged People Will Talk (1952), and an ordinary family man in the gentle comedy Room for One More (1952). He also returned to the more familiar terrain of screwball comedy. Howard Hawks’ Monkey Business (1952), co-starring Ginger Rogers and Marilyn Monroe, allowed him some fine comic moments, but Dream Wife (1953), co-starring Deborah Kerr, seemed tired and old-fashioned. None of these films scored with audiences. Seeing the rising popularity of young method actors such as Marlon Brando, Grant began to wonder if his own debonair image was out of date, and if it was time for him to retire.

scholarly journals Performing gender in the studio and postmodern musical

2012 ◽  
pp. 19-35
Author(s):  
Michael Charlton
Keyword(s):  
First Century ◽  
Marilyn Monroe ◽  
Female Roles ◽  
Studio System ◽  
Twenty First Century ◽  
Judy Garland ◽  
Studio Era ◽  
Howard Hawks ◽  
Historical Periods ◽  
A Performance

This essay explores two distinct historical periods in the Hollywood musical through a Butlerian reading of gender as a performance. The two example films from the studio era, Howard Hawks’ Gentlemen Prefer Blondes (1953) and the restored version of George Cukor’s A Star is Born (1954), are contextualised not only within the studio system but through the constructed star personae of their leads—Marilyn Monroe and Judy Garland. Baz Luhrmann’s Moulin Rouge! (2001) and Rob Marshall’s Chicago (2002), the two example films from the twenty first century, are contextualised within a Jamesonian post-modern aesthetic and as examples of the non-studio, non-star filmic text as act of nostalgia. In contrasting these historical periods, the essay posits that the studio musical was, in fact, always already “post-modern” in its fragmentation of narrative in favour of the star performance, which constructs the gendered persona of the star. In addition, it is suggested that the sub-textual subversion of traditional female roles within the studio star performance is in many ways more effectively critical of gender conventions than the intentionally parodic aesthetics of Luhrmann and Marshall.

Chapter 22

2020 ◽  
pp. 295-310
Author(s):  
Mark Glancy
Keyword(s):  
Box Office ◽  
Political Drama ◽  
Screwball Comedy ◽  
Howard Hawks ◽  
War Bride

When Cary Grant coaxed Betsy Drake to join him in Hollywood in 1948, he did everything he could to kickstart her career as a film star. He used his own leverage with the powerful gossip columnists Hedda Hopper and Louella Parsons to win favourable coverage for Drake, and he agreed to co-star with Drake in her first film, Every Girl Should Be Married (1948). He turned down several other promising films, including Alfred Hitchcock’s Rope (1948), to make this feeble comedy. His next film was Howard Hawks’ screwball comedy I Was a Male War Bride (1949). Filming began on location in Europe, but Grant developed hepatitis and nearly died. It was several months before he could complete filming in Hollywood. The film turned out to be a huge box-office success, but the grim political drama Crisis (1950), was a box-office disaster that marked the beginning of a downturn in his career fortunes. By this time, however, he had married Betsy Drake, in a ceremony arranged by Howard Hughes, and he was looking forward to his new life with her.

Chapter 13

2020 ◽  
pp. 155-171
Author(s):  
Mark Glancy
Keyword(s):  
Performance Style ◽  
Exclusive Contract ◽  
Screwball Comedy ◽  
And Control ◽  
Howard Hawks

In 1937, Cary Grant’s career as a freelance star began with three screwball comedies that established him as the master of this genre. Topper (1937), made by the independent producer Hal Roach, initiated this sharp upturn in his career. This stylish screwball comedy brought out a new playful, wry, ironic dimension in Grant’s performance style. Improvisation on the set was key to his new screen persona, and he was given even greater reign to improvise in his first Columbia film, Leo McCarey’s The Awful Truth (1937). Legend has it that he was uncomfortable working with McCarey, but McCarey helped him to mould the Cary Grant star persona, unique for combining debonair and slapstick qualities. He signed a contract with Columbia Pictures that gave him the power to choose which films he made, and control over both his publicity and his wardrobe, but it was a non-exclusive contract, allowing him to make his next film at RKO Pictures. In Bringing Up Baby (1938), director Howard Hawks encouraged a frenzied edge to his performance. This is perfectly exemplified in the famous scene in which Grant leaps in the air, shouting “I just went gay all of the sudden”—a line he improvised on the set and one that demonstrates the liberated, unconventional mores of screwball comedy. Bringing Up Baby had a mixed reception on first release in 1938, but in later years, through repeated revivals and screenings on television, it became one of his best known and most admired films.

Chapter 15

2020 ◽  
pp. 187-200
Author(s):  
Mark Glancy
Keyword(s):  
Romantic Relationship ◽  
The Public ◽  
The Usa ◽  
Screwball Comedy ◽  
Howard Hawks ◽  
Critical Reviews ◽  
Woman's Film

In 1938 and 1939, Cary Grant enjoyed a close, romantic relationship with the actress Phyllis Brooks. They travelled together through Europe in the summer of 1939 and they very nearly married on their return to the USA. Brooks’ mother, however, disliked Grant, and this proved fatal to their relationship. Professionally, Grant continued to branch out as an actor, making the tough aviation drama Only Angels Have Wings (1939). Howard Hawks directed Grant alongside co-stars Jean Arthur and Rita Hayworth, both of whom found the director difficult to work with. Grant branched out further by making the melodramatic “woman’s film” In Name Only (1939) with co-star Carole Lombard. These films were well received by critics and the public, but his next film, His Girl Friday (1940), was a much more significant hit. In this quintessential screwball comedy, director Howard Hawks encouraged Grant and co-star Rosalind Russell to adlib lines, speaking over one another to build a frenzied comic atmosphere. Although critical reviews were mixed in 1940, the film’s reputation has grown over the years, and His Girl Friday now stands among his very best films.

: Marilyn Monroe . Joan Mellen.

1974 ◽  
Vol 27 (3) ◽  
pp. 55-56
Author(s):  
Ernest Callenbach
Keyword(s):  
Marilyn Monroe

EL ESPEJO ES MÁGICO COMO EN EL CINE: MARILYN MONROE EN EL DIVÁN

Altamira CUT ◽  
2015 ◽  
Vol 2 (8) ◽  
pp. 58-67
Author(s):  
NATALIA RIVERA LUGO
Keyword(s):  
Marilyn Monroe

Autopsie d'un mythe : Marilyn Monroe

1980 ◽  
Vol 46 (1) ◽  
pp. 85-99
Author(s):  
Noëlle de Chambrun
Keyword(s):  
Marilyn Monroe

Unmasking the Icon: Marlene Dumas’ Liminal Portraits

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Timea Andrea Lelik
Keyword(s):  
Contemporary Culture ◽  
Mary Magdalene ◽  
Cultural Images ◽  
Marilyn Monroe

Marlene Dumas’ unrecognizable depictions of iconic figures such as Mary Magdalene or Marilyn Monroe make up some of her active commentary on the role and functioning of cultural icons in contemporary culture. Analyzing the meaning of “iconic portraits,” the author will evidence the manner in which Dumas unmasks the fact that cultural images represent collectively created stereotypical identities. By referencing the concept of “liminality” I argue that Dumas depicts these iconic subjects is in a state of transition and “in-betweenness” that functions as process of rewriting the subjectivity of the depicted characters.

Marilyn Monroe: Soldier in Greasepaint

2014 ◽  
Vol 33 (1) ◽  
pp. 209-225 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kristi Good
Keyword(s):  
Marilyn Monroe
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