The Films of Joseph H. Lewis
Explores American Joseph H. Lewis's eclectic career, including his best-known film, Gun Crazy.

Joseph H. Lewis enjoyed a monumental career in many genres, including film noir and B-movies (with the East Side Kids) as well as an extensive and often overlooked TV career. In The Films of Joseph H. Lewis, editor Gary D. Rhodes, PhD. gathers notable scholars from around the globe to examine the full range of Lewis's career. While some studies analyze Lewis's work in different areas, others focus on particular films, ranging from poverty row fare to westerns and "television films." Overall, this collection offers fresh perspectives on Lewis as an auteur, a director responsible for individually unique works as well as a sustained and coherent style.

Essays in part 1 investigate the texts and contexts that were important to Lewis's film and television career, as contributors explore his innovative visual style and themes in both mediums. Contributors to part 2 present an array of essays on specific films, including Lewis's remarkable and prescient Invisible Ghost and other notable films My Name Is Julia Ross, So Dark the Night, and The Big Combo. Part 3 presents an extended case study of Lewis's most famous and-arguably-most important work, Gun Crazy. Contributors take three distinct approaches to the film: in the context of its genre as film noir and modernist and postmodernist film; in its relationship to masculinity and masochism; and in terms of ethos and ethics.

The Films of Joseph H. Lewis offers a thorough assessment of Lewis's career and also provides insight into film and television making in the 1930s, 40s, and 50s. Scholars of film and television studies and fans of Lewis's work will appreciate this comprehensive collection.

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The Films of Joseph H. Lewis
Explores American Joseph H. Lewis's eclectic career, including his best-known film, Gun Crazy.

Joseph H. Lewis enjoyed a monumental career in many genres, including film noir and B-movies (with the East Side Kids) as well as an extensive and often overlooked TV career. In The Films of Joseph H. Lewis, editor Gary D. Rhodes, PhD. gathers notable scholars from around the globe to examine the full range of Lewis's career. While some studies analyze Lewis's work in different areas, others focus on particular films, ranging from poverty row fare to westerns and "television films." Overall, this collection offers fresh perspectives on Lewis as an auteur, a director responsible for individually unique works as well as a sustained and coherent style.

Essays in part 1 investigate the texts and contexts that were important to Lewis's film and television career, as contributors explore his innovative visual style and themes in both mediums. Contributors to part 2 present an array of essays on specific films, including Lewis's remarkable and prescient Invisible Ghost and other notable films My Name Is Julia Ross, So Dark the Night, and The Big Combo. Part 3 presents an extended case study of Lewis's most famous and-arguably-most important work, Gun Crazy. Contributors take three distinct approaches to the film: in the context of its genre as film noir and modernist and postmodernist film; in its relationship to masculinity and masochism; and in terms of ethos and ethics.

The Films of Joseph H. Lewis offers a thorough assessment of Lewis's career and also provides insight into film and television making in the 1930s, 40s, and 50s. Scholars of film and television studies and fans of Lewis's work will appreciate this comprehensive collection.

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Overview

Explores American Joseph H. Lewis's eclectic career, including his best-known film, Gun Crazy.

Joseph H. Lewis enjoyed a monumental career in many genres, including film noir and B-movies (with the East Side Kids) as well as an extensive and often overlooked TV career. In The Films of Joseph H. Lewis, editor Gary D. Rhodes, PhD. gathers notable scholars from around the globe to examine the full range of Lewis's career. While some studies analyze Lewis's work in different areas, others focus on particular films, ranging from poverty row fare to westerns and "television films." Overall, this collection offers fresh perspectives on Lewis as an auteur, a director responsible for individually unique works as well as a sustained and coherent style.

Essays in part 1 investigate the texts and contexts that were important to Lewis's film and television career, as contributors explore his innovative visual style and themes in both mediums. Contributors to part 2 present an array of essays on specific films, including Lewis's remarkable and prescient Invisible Ghost and other notable films My Name Is Julia Ross, So Dark the Night, and The Big Combo. Part 3 presents an extended case study of Lewis's most famous and-arguably-most important work, Gun Crazy. Contributors take three distinct approaches to the film: in the context of its genre as film noir and modernist and postmodernist film; in its relationship to masculinity and masochism; and in terms of ethos and ethics.

The Films of Joseph H. Lewis offers a thorough assessment of Lewis's career and also provides insight into film and television making in the 1930s, 40s, and 50s. Scholars of film and television studies and fans of Lewis's work will appreciate this comprehensive collection.


Product Details

ISBN-13: 9780814334621
Publisher: Wayne State University Press
Publication date: 09/05/2012
Series: Contemporary Approaches to Film and Media Series
Pages: 304
Product dimensions: 5.90(w) x 8.90(h) x 0.80(d)

About the Author

Gary D. Rhodes, PhD, is a film historian, filmmaker, and a lecturer of film studies at the Queen's University of Belfast. His films include Lugosi: Hollywood's Dracula and Banned in Oklahoma. Rhodes is also the author of The Perils of Moviegoing in America and Emerald Illusions: The Irish in Early American Cinema.

Contributors: Lance Duerfahrd, Michael E. Grost, David J. Hogan, Brian Hoyle, Christopher Justice, Michael Lee, Hugh S. Manon, Francis M. Nevins, Gary D. Rhodes, Marlisa Santos, Robert Singer, Phillip Sipiora, Brian Taves, Yannis Tzioumakis, Tony Williams

Table of Contents

Foreword Francis M. Nevins Joseph H. Lewis, 1907-2000 ix

Acknowledgments xiii

Introduction Gary D. Rhodes 1

Part I Texts and Contexts

1 Style Development and Product Upgrading: Monogram Pictures, the Ambitious B Movie, and the East Side Kids Films Directed by Joseph H. Lewis Yannis Tzioumakis 11

2 Partition and Desire in the Films of Joseph H. Lewis Hugh S. Manon 38

3 The Joseph H. Lewis Nobody Knows: The Television Films Michael E. Grost 62

Part II Individual Works

4 "A House Where Anything Can Happen and Usually Does": Joseph H. Lewis, Bela Lugosi, and (The) Invisible Ghost Gary D. Rhodes 81

5 B Is for Belief: Joseph Lewis's Experiments with the Mad Doctor of Market Street Lance Duerfahrd 98

6 Joseph H. Lewis, Anna May Wong, and Bombs over Burma Brian Taves 116

7 "People Can Think Themselves into Anything": The Domestic Nightmare in My Name is Julia Ross Marlisa Santos 134

8 "A Matchless Stylist Exercise": Joseph H. Lewis and So Dark the Night Brian Hoyle 146

9 The Undercover Man and the Police Procedural David J. Hogan 163

10 The "How Big Is It?" Combo: Noir's Dirty Spectacles Robert Singer 178

11 The Halliday Brand and Terror in a Texas Town: Western Allegories of the Blacklist Tony Williams 199

Part III Gun Crazy

12 Rejecting Everything: Gun Crazy and the Radical Noir of Joseph H. Lewis Christopher Justice 223

13 Music, Masculinity, and Masochism in Gun Crazy Michael Lee 242

14 Ethos and Ethics: Reconsidering Gun Crazy Phillip Sipiora 255

List of Contributors 271

Index 275

What People are Saying About This

Fellow in Film Studies at the University of Essex and Co-Editor of New Zealand Filmmakers (Wayne State University Press, - Ian Conrich

A genre filmmaker with a creative and visual style that set him apart from many of his B movie contemporaries, Joseph H. Lewis is a director who has remained neglected for far too long. This exceptional anthology brings Lewis into focus, giving his career the critical attention and re-evaluation that it has deserved.

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