James Mason

by Sarah Thomas, Martin Shingler (Editor), Susan Smith (Editor)

Overview

Sarah Thomas's study moves beyond the image of the brooding, destructive man at odds with employers and his own star status to explore the complexity of Mason's career and star persona. Her analysis is structured around three strands central to understanding stardom: the star persona, industry and power, and screen performance. Thomas addresses the incredible range of Mason's star career – 1930s 'quota quickies'; 1940s Gainsborough melodramas; the desperate IRA man in Carol Reed's 'Odd Man Out' (1947); from the 1950s onwards, Hollywood classics including starring in Hitchcock's 'North by Northwest' (1959) and playing Humbert Humbert in Kubrick's 'Lolita' (1962). She also considers in depth his undervalued post-1962 career, off-screen celebrity status, non-film work, comic and vocal performances, and the star's own self-commentary. In doing so, she offers a new perspective on such subjects as power and powerlessness; public image and national identity, contextualizing Mason's career in wider histories of British, American and European transnational filmmaking.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781844576357
Publisher:	Bloomsbury Academic
Publication date:	12/14/2016
Series:	Film Stars
Edition description:	1st ed. 2018
Pages:	146
Product dimensions:	5.38(w) x 7.48(h) x 0.37(d)

About the Author

Martin Shingler is Senior Lecturer in Radio and Film Studies at the University of Sunderland, UK. He is the co-author of two books, On Air: Methods and Meanings of Radio, with Cindy Wieringa, (1998) and Melodrama: Genre, Style& Sensibility, with John Mercer (2004). He has also published essays on the Hollywood film star Bette Davis in the books Hollywood Spectatorship, eds. Melvyn Stokes and Richard Maltby (BFI, 2001) and Screen Acting, eds. Alan Lovell and Peter Kramer, (1999), and in Screen, the Journal of American Studies, the Journal of Film& Video, Theatre Annual and Film History. He has edited a dossier on Bette Davis for Screen (2008) and an edition of the Radio Journal (2008). He is co-editor, with Susan Smith, of the BFI Film Stars series, and author of 'Star Studies: A Critical Guide' (BFI, 2012).

Susan Smith is Reader in Film Studies at the University of Sunderland, UK. She is author of Elizabeth Taylor (BFI/Palgrave, 2012), Voices in Film (Wallflower Press, 2007), The Musical: Race, Gender and Performance (Columbia University Press, 2005) and Hitchcock: Suspense, Humour and Tone (BFI, 2000). She also co-edits the BFI's Film Stars series.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments
Introduction
Persona
Power
Performance
Notes
Bibliography
Filmography
Index