Abstract The emergence of sexual politics and women's movements is generally viewed in terms ... more Abstract The emergence of sexual politics and women's movements is generally viewed in terms of the problems of women—or of women as problems. However, while it is women who experience sexual oppression, it is the system of gender relations that is the problem, and masculinity in its contemporary forms is a major contributor to this system. Masculinity is challenged by the new movements, and in this article it is argued that it is in crisis due to these and to changes in social structures. This crisis is reflected in the backlash against what are often labelled ‘1960s’ demands for women's and gay rights. But it creates opportunities for men to recognize that masculinity limits their humanity too, and to begin to examine ways in which they can contribute to defining new sex roles.
54-minute interview and sequence analysis, directed by Michael Brooke. Paul Lewis: “Killers (The)... more 54-minute interview and sequence analysis, directed by Michael Brooke. Paul Lewis: “Killers (The) AKA Ernest Hemingway's The Killers (Blu-ray)”: ‘Frank Krutnik on The Killers’ (54:20). Frank Krutnik provides an introduction to the film: ‘Whatever film noir is, The Killers is definitely it’, he declares. He discusses the film’s origins in Hemingway’s short story. Krutnik talks about the writing of the film and the problems faced by the original writer, Richard Brooks and, later, John Huston – who couldn’t take an official screenplay credit owing to the fact that he was contracted to the US army at the time of the film’s production. Krutnik also talks about Hellinger’s attempts to get Don Siegel to direct the film and Robert Siodmak’s approach to the material. Krutnik then goes on to provide a commentary over four sequences from the film: the opening sequence; the sequence in which Reardon, Lubinsky and Lilly reflect on Andreson’s first meeting with Kitty Collins; the sequence depicting the heist at the Prentiss Hat Factory; and the Green Cat Club sequence. (http://www.dvdcompare.net/review.php?rid=3499) Glenn Sturdy: “Blu-ray Review: The Killers”: ... Kudos to Michael Brooke for his brilliantly produced hour-long documentary on the making of The Killers. The doc has an insightful overview of the film by Frank Krutnik (author of ‘In a Lonely Street: Film Noir, Genre, Masculinity‘), but is embellished with an extraordinary amount of additions. Photographs, posters, other film sequences and detailed use of freeze-frame pepper the screen.... (http://sosogay.co.uk/2014/blu-ray-review-killers/) Paul Crowson: “Blu-Ray Review - The Killers (1946) - Arrow Films”: ... Yet again, Arrow also deliver on the special features. For a movie that is now 68 years old, there is a wealth of supplementary material, with the cream of the crop being a very interesting analysis by film noir expert Frank Krutnik. (http://aftermoviediner.blogspot.co.uk/2014/12/blu-ray-review-killers-1946-arrow-films.html)
... a ruthlessly competitive self-interest has displaced allegiances to other individuals and to ... more ... a ruthlessly competitive self-interest has displaced allegiances to other individuals and to social institutions. Unlike It's A Wonderful Life, though, Double Indemnityco-scripted by Raymond Chandlerdoes not mourn the decay of communal and familial values, and refuses ...
This critical anthology brings together new and pre-published scholarly material devoted to comed... more This critical anthology brings together new and pre-published scholarly material devoted to comedians and to the cinematic, cultural and industrial contexts within which they worked. As well as offering ways of reading the development of the comedian film, from the silent era to the contemporary period, the book also introduces diverse approaches to the study of the comedian film from scholars such as Tom Gunning, Peter Kramer, Steve Seidman, Henry Jenkins, Patricia Mellencamp, Kathleen Rowe and Steve Neale. The book explores the relations between film and other media (vaudeville, television, stand-up performance), between the carnivalesque and genre, and between performance and narrative; it also examines how the comedian film has provided a forum for working through representations of ethnicity, race, gender, sexuality and the body. Krutnik is one of the pioneers in this area, whose work is extensively cited in the growing critical literature on the field. This volume extends his earlier explorations of the comedian film, inaugurated in the 1984 Screen article, The Clown Prints of Comedy, and developed through a range of subsequent publications. Beyond its usefulness as a teaching resource, the book also signals and develops paradigms for the scholarly study of films that are often marginalized within established agendas of film and cultural studies. Besides compiling and editing this collection, Krutnik also provided a 10,000 word general introduction and introductory material for the books five sections (a further 5-6000 words in total). The introduction not only outlines the various contributions presented in the book but aims to provide a more wide-ranging and rigorous scrutiny of a range of formal, historical and ideological approaches to performer-centred comedy. It seeks to locate the comedian film, and the representational issues it raises, within broader histories of both Hollywood and traditions of critical discourse on film and popular culture.
Of all the writers to transition from pulp magazines to noir movies, Cornell Woolrich was by far ... more Of all the writers to transition from pulp magazines to noir movies, Cornell Woolrich was by far the most prolific. The heyday of ‘classic’ Hollywood film noir saw not only seventeen films based on Woolrich properties but also over seventy radio dramas and a large number of television adaptations that would continue into the early 1960s. Drawing on a range of critical and archival materials, this article assesses Woolrich's contribution to radio drama in the classic noir era and explores several adaptations of his 1936 story ‘The Night Reveals’, one of the most popular selections on the acclaimed CBS anthology series Suspense (1942–62).
An Autopsy on Capitalism: A visual essay on the production and reception of Force of Evil by Fran... more An Autopsy on Capitalism: A visual essay on the production and reception of Force of Evil by Frank Krutnik, author of In a Lonely Street: Film noir, genre, masculinity Commentary on selected Force of Evil themes by Krutnik
Page 1. \ POPULAR FILM AND TELEVISION COMEDY Steve Neale and Frank Krutnik &a... more Page 1. \ POPULAR FILM AND TELEVISION COMEDY Steve Neale and Frank Krutnik < Also available as a printed book see title verso for ISBN details Page 2. Popular Film and Television Comedy What is comedy? Can it easily be defined and described? ...
Abstract The emergence of sexual politics and women's movements is generally viewed in terms ... more Abstract The emergence of sexual politics and women's movements is generally viewed in terms of the problems of women—or of women as problems. However, while it is women who experience sexual oppression, it is the system of gender relations that is the problem, and masculinity in its contemporary forms is a major contributor to this system. Masculinity is challenged by the new movements, and in this article it is argued that it is in crisis due to these and to changes in social structures. This crisis is reflected in the backlash against what are often labelled ‘1960s’ demands for women's and gay rights. But it creates opportunities for men to recognize that masculinity limits their humanity too, and to begin to examine ways in which they can contribute to defining new sex roles.
54-minute interview and sequence analysis, directed by Michael Brooke. Paul Lewis: “Killers (The)... more 54-minute interview and sequence analysis, directed by Michael Brooke. Paul Lewis: “Killers (The) AKA Ernest Hemingway's The Killers (Blu-ray)”: ‘Frank Krutnik on The Killers’ (54:20). Frank Krutnik provides an introduction to the film: ‘Whatever film noir is, The Killers is definitely it’, he declares. He discusses the film’s origins in Hemingway’s short story. Krutnik talks about the writing of the film and the problems faced by the original writer, Richard Brooks and, later, John Huston – who couldn’t take an official screenplay credit owing to the fact that he was contracted to the US army at the time of the film’s production. Krutnik also talks about Hellinger’s attempts to get Don Siegel to direct the film and Robert Siodmak’s approach to the material. Krutnik then goes on to provide a commentary over four sequences from the film: the opening sequence; the sequence in which Reardon, Lubinsky and Lilly reflect on Andreson’s first meeting with Kitty Collins; the sequence depicting the heist at the Prentiss Hat Factory; and the Green Cat Club sequence. (http://www.dvdcompare.net/review.php?rid=3499) Glenn Sturdy: “Blu-ray Review: The Killers”: ... Kudos to Michael Brooke for his brilliantly produced hour-long documentary on the making of The Killers. The doc has an insightful overview of the film by Frank Krutnik (author of ‘In a Lonely Street: Film Noir, Genre, Masculinity‘), but is embellished with an extraordinary amount of additions. Photographs, posters, other film sequences and detailed use of freeze-frame pepper the screen.... (http://sosogay.co.uk/2014/blu-ray-review-killers/) Paul Crowson: “Blu-Ray Review - The Killers (1946) - Arrow Films”: ... Yet again, Arrow also deliver on the special features. For a movie that is now 68 years old, there is a wealth of supplementary material, with the cream of the crop being a very interesting analysis by film noir expert Frank Krutnik. (http://aftermoviediner.blogspot.co.uk/2014/12/blu-ray-review-killers-1946-arrow-films.html)
... a ruthlessly competitive self-interest has displaced allegiances to other individuals and to ... more ... a ruthlessly competitive self-interest has displaced allegiances to other individuals and to social institutions. Unlike It's A Wonderful Life, though, Double Indemnityco-scripted by Raymond Chandlerdoes not mourn the decay of communal and familial values, and refuses ...
This critical anthology brings together new and pre-published scholarly material devoted to comed... more This critical anthology brings together new and pre-published scholarly material devoted to comedians and to the cinematic, cultural and industrial contexts within which they worked. As well as offering ways of reading the development of the comedian film, from the silent era to the contemporary period, the book also introduces diverse approaches to the study of the comedian film from scholars such as Tom Gunning, Peter Kramer, Steve Seidman, Henry Jenkins, Patricia Mellencamp, Kathleen Rowe and Steve Neale. The book explores the relations between film and other media (vaudeville, television, stand-up performance), between the carnivalesque and genre, and between performance and narrative; it also examines how the comedian film has provided a forum for working through representations of ethnicity, race, gender, sexuality and the body. Krutnik is one of the pioneers in this area, whose work is extensively cited in the growing critical literature on the field. This volume extends his earlier explorations of the comedian film, inaugurated in the 1984 Screen article, The Clown Prints of Comedy, and developed through a range of subsequent publications. Beyond its usefulness as a teaching resource, the book also signals and develops paradigms for the scholarly study of films that are often marginalized within established agendas of film and cultural studies. Besides compiling and editing this collection, Krutnik also provided a 10,000 word general introduction and introductory material for the books five sections (a further 5-6000 words in total). The introduction not only outlines the various contributions presented in the book but aims to provide a more wide-ranging and rigorous scrutiny of a range of formal, historical and ideological approaches to performer-centred comedy. It seeks to locate the comedian film, and the representational issues it raises, within broader histories of both Hollywood and traditions of critical discourse on film and popular culture.
Of all the writers to transition from pulp magazines to noir movies, Cornell Woolrich was by far ... more Of all the writers to transition from pulp magazines to noir movies, Cornell Woolrich was by far the most prolific. The heyday of ‘classic’ Hollywood film noir saw not only seventeen films based on Woolrich properties but also over seventy radio dramas and a large number of television adaptations that would continue into the early 1960s. Drawing on a range of critical and archival materials, this article assesses Woolrich's contribution to radio drama in the classic noir era and explores several adaptations of his 1936 story ‘The Night Reveals’, one of the most popular selections on the acclaimed CBS anthology series Suspense (1942–62).
An Autopsy on Capitalism: A visual essay on the production and reception of Force of Evil by Fran... more An Autopsy on Capitalism: A visual essay on the production and reception of Force of Evil by Frank Krutnik, author of In a Lonely Street: Film noir, genre, masculinity Commentary on selected Force of Evil themes by Krutnik
Page 1. \ POPULAR FILM AND TELEVISION COMEDY Steve Neale and Frank Krutnik &a... more Page 1. \ POPULAR FILM AND TELEVISION COMEDY Steve Neale and Frank Krutnik < Also available as a printed book see title verso for ISBN details Page 2. Popular Film and Television Comedy What is comedy? Can it easily be defined and described? ...
Genre en séries : cinéma, télévision, médias (#16), 2024
Jules Sandeau's French translation of a chapter from my 1991 book In a Lonely Street: Film Noir, ... more Jules Sandeau's French translation of a chapter from my 1991 book In a Lonely Street: Film Noir, Genre, Masculinity.
Crime Fiction Studies (Cornell Woolrich and Transmedia Noir), 2023
Of all the writers to transition from pulp magazines to noir movies, Cornell Woolrich was by far ... more Of all the writers to transition from pulp magazines to noir movies, Cornell Woolrich was by far the most prolific and most influential. From 1940 to 1954, the heyday of ‘classic’ film noir, Hollywood based not only 18 films on Woolrich properties but also over 70 radio dramas and the beginnings of an equally abundant crop of television adaptations that would continue into the early 1960s. Drawing on a range of critical and archival materials, including audio recordings, this article assesses Woolrich’s contribution to radio drama in the ‘classic noir’ era of the 1940s and early 1950s as well as his broader significance to what David Bordwell has identified as the period’s ‘Murder Culture’. Besides exploring material based on Woolrich’s short stories and novels, I also consider more general propositions about ‘radio noir’ and the ways in which contemporaneous radio dramas intersected in fascinating and diverse ways with cinematic noir. The article concludes with a detailed case study of several radio adaptations of Woolrich’s 1936 short story “The Night Reveals”, one of the most popular selections on the acclaimed CBS anthology series Suspense (1942-62).
Historical Journal of Film, Radio and Television, 2021
Unlike more celebrated Hollywood-on-Hollywood films, Walter Wanger’s neglected screwball comedy S... more Unlike more celebrated Hollywood-on-Hollywood films, Walter Wanger’s neglected screwball comedy Stand-In (1937) emphasizes the centrality of labour to studio-era production. Besides climaxing with a highly unusual, if carefully negotiated spectacle of industrial action by Hollywood’s rank and file workers, the film departs further from other self-reflexive movies by defining stardom in relation to labour and gender and by focusing on the topical and contentious issues of star salaries and child stardom (via a highly topical parody of Shirley Temple). With the aid of a wide array of primary and secondary materials – including newspapers and magazines, the entertainment trade press, and documents of the Production Code Administration – as well as detailed textual scrutiny, this essay examines Stand-In’s depiction of Hollywood and labour in relation to the economic, industrial and social challenges the Great Depression posed to studio production. The article proposes that the film’s comic framework allows it to deliver an uncommonly upfront, if conflicted critique of the contemporary motion picture business.
This introduction to the special issue "Exploring Film Seriality" situates film seriality within ... more This introduction to the special issue "Exploring Film Seriality" situates film seriality within a broader history of popular media seriality and within seriality studies before engaging with specific forms of film seriality.
This book brings together key works by pioneering film studies scholar Steve Neale. From the 1970... more This book brings together key works by pioneering film studies scholar Steve Neale. From the 1970s to the 2010s Neale’s vital and unparalleled contribution to the subject has shaped many of the critical agendas that helped to confirm film studies’ position as an innovative discipline within the humanities.
Although known primarily for his work on genre, Neale has written on a far wider range of topics. In addition to selections from the influential volumes Genre (1980) and Genre and Hollywood (2000), and articles scrutinizing individual genres – the melodrama, the war film, science fiction and film noir – this Reader provides critical examinations of cinema and technology, art cinema, gender and cinema, stereotypes and representation, cinema history, the film industry, New Hollywood, and film analysis. Many of the articles included are recommended reading for a range of university courses worldwide, making the volume useful to students at undergraduate level and above, researchers, and teachers of film studies, media studies, gender studies and cultural studies.
The collection has been selected and edited by Frank Krutnik and Richard Maltby, scholars who have worked closely with Neale and been inspired by his diverse and often provocative critical innovations. Their introduction assesses the significance of Neale’s work, and contextualizes it within the development of UK film studies.
Reviews:
The book charts Neale’s intellectual development over the course of his career, as he subjected his own earlier assumptions to critique and revision, serving as an original account of disciplinary change over time through the prism of one of its key actors. - Sheldon Hall, Sheffield Hallam University
The book serves as a handbook of methods of analysis – archival work involving print culture, “distant” readings of large bodies of film, close textual analysis, theoretical polemics. Neale’s work provides some of the best examples of each of these methods: a “manual” of sorts in film studies. - Will Straw, McGill University, Montreal, Canada
Despite their prominent, and ongoing, significance within cinematic production and reception, ser... more Despite their prominent, and ongoing, significance within cinematic production and reception, serial narratives have been curiously neglected within film scholarship. This special issue of Film Studies examines diverse forms, processes, and contexts of film seriality from the 1910s to the contemporary period, outlining various approaches to a topic that is integral to cinema and other popular media. Taking inspiration from the interdisciplinary initiative of seriality studies, the articles presented here explore cinema’s medium-specific serial forms and the manner in which its serial enterprises have been shaped by developments elsewhere in popular culture. Editors: Frank Krutnik (University of Sussex) and Kathleen Loock (Freie Universität Berlin) Contributors: Ruth Mayer (Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz Universität Hannover), Rob King (Columbia University), Frank Krutnik (University of Sussex), Scott Higgins (Wesleyan University), Kathleen Loock (Freie Universität Berlin), Holly Chard (University of Brighton)
Essential Film Noir: Collection 4 #210-213 (Imprint Blu-Ray set), 2023
“A 19-minute discussion in which Krutnik delves into the real-life history of Murder Inc., the re... more “A 19-minute discussion in which Krutnik delves into the real-life history of Murder Inc., the real-life counterparts of some of the characters in the film, the subgenre of organized crime films of the time, where this falls into the career of Humphrey Bogart, the use of flashbacks and more”. (https://geekvibesnation.com/essential-film-noir-collection-4-imprint-blu-ray-review/)
Essential Film Noir: Collection 4 #210-213 (Imprint Blu-Ray set), 2023
“A great 18-minute discussion in which Krutnik delves into the reason for the documentary-like op... more “A great 18-minute discussion in which Krutnik delves into the reason for the documentary-like opening, where this falls into the career of Alan Ladd and Lewis Allan, the stylistic flourishes of the filmmaking, the themes of the film and more”. (https://geekvibesnation.com/essential-film-noir-collection-4-imprint-blu-ray-review/)
Friends, family and scholars pay tribute to the life and works of pioneering film studies theoris... more Friends, family and scholars pay tribute to the life and works of pioneering film studies theorist Steve Neale. See also: https://www.bdcmuseum.org.uk/news/steve-neale-1950-2021-a-tribute/
Part of the box-set Columbia Noir #4, released by Indicator/Powerhouse Films (27 September 2021)
... more Part of the box-set Columbia Noir #4, released by Indicator/Powerhouse Films (27 September 2021)
In a Lonely Street: Film Noir, Genre, Masculinity author and academic Frank Krutnik states up front that he intends to explore the context behind Walk East on Beacon!, context, he suggests that, “might be more interesting than the film.” Krutnik really knows his subject, and using Henry Hathaway’s style-setting 1945 The House on 92nd Street as a springboard, he examines the anti-communist and semi-documentary film cycles of the 1940s and 1950s in considerable and consistently fascinating depth. He looks at the career of producer Louis De Rochemont and how his work on The March of Time series eventually led to the making of Walk East on Beacon!, which is also analysed in some detail. Contemporary reviews are quoted from, many of which are on the negative side, though there was plenty of praise from prominent right-wingers for the film and its staunchly anti-communist star, who for me was probably the dullest thing in the movie. Particularly intriguing is the news that the FBI not only advised on the film, but also had a say on what elements should be included or removed and even on which actor should be cast in the lead. That explains a lot. Surprisingly, this commentary ends 68 minutes in, but does so because Krutnik has said everything he has to say, and just dragging it out for another 20 minutes would have served no purpose. A huge amount is of information is imparted nonetheless, much of which was new to me and interesting as hell. A very fine companion to the film. CineOutsider, http://www.cineoutsider.com/reviews/bluray/c/columbia_noir_4b_br.html
Uploads
Papers by frank krutnik
Although known primarily for his work on genre, Neale has written on a far wider range of topics. In addition to selections from the influential volumes Genre (1980) and Genre and Hollywood (2000), and articles scrutinizing individual genres – the melodrama, the war film, science fiction and film noir – this Reader provides critical examinations of cinema and technology, art cinema, gender and cinema, stereotypes and representation, cinema history, the film industry, New Hollywood, and film analysis. Many of the articles included are recommended reading for a range of university courses worldwide, making the volume useful to students at undergraduate level and above, researchers, and teachers of film studies, media studies, gender studies and cultural studies.
The collection has been selected and edited by Frank Krutnik and Richard Maltby, scholars who have worked closely with Neale and been inspired by his diverse and often provocative critical innovations. Their introduction assesses the significance of Neale’s work, and contextualizes it within the development of UK film studies.
Reviews:
The book charts Neale’s intellectual development over the course of his career, as he subjected his own earlier assumptions to critique and revision, serving as an original account of disciplinary change over time through the prism of one of its key actors.
- Sheldon Hall, Sheffield Hallam University
The book serves as a handbook of methods of analysis – archival work involving print culture, “distant” readings of large bodies of film, close textual analysis, theoretical polemics. Neale’s work provides some of the best examples of each of these methods: a “manual” of sorts in film studies.
- Will Straw, McGill University, Montreal, Canada
Editors: Frank Krutnik (University of Sussex) and Kathleen Loock (Freie Universität Berlin)
Contributors: Ruth Mayer (Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz Universität Hannover), Rob King (Columbia University), Frank Krutnik (University of Sussex), Scott Higgins (Wesleyan University), Kathleen Loock (Freie Universität Berlin), Holly Chard (University of Brighton)
See also: https://www.bdcmuseum.org.uk/news/steve-neale-1950-2021-a-tribute/
In a Lonely Street: Film Noir, Genre, Masculinity author and academic Frank Krutnik states up front that he intends to explore the context behind Walk East on Beacon!, context, he suggests that, “might be more interesting than the film.” Krutnik really knows his subject, and using Henry Hathaway’s style-setting 1945 The House on 92nd Street as a springboard, he examines the anti-communist and semi-documentary film cycles of the 1940s and 1950s in considerable and consistently fascinating depth. He looks at the career of producer Louis De Rochemont and how his work on The March of Time series eventually led to the making of Walk East on Beacon!, which is also analysed in some detail. Contemporary reviews are quoted from, many of which are on the negative side, though there was plenty of praise from prominent right-wingers for the film and its staunchly anti-communist star, who for me was probably the dullest thing in the movie. Particularly intriguing is the news that the FBI not only advised on the film, but also had a say on what elements should be included or removed and even on which actor should be cast in the lead. That explains a lot. Surprisingly, this commentary ends 68 minutes in, but does so because Krutnik has said everything he has to say, and just dragging it out for another 20 minutes would have served no purpose. A huge amount is of information is imparted nonetheless, much of which was new to me and interesting as hell. A very fine companion to the film.
CineOutsider, http://www.cineoutsider.com/reviews/bluray/c/columbia_noir_4b_br.html