Mervyn LeRoy Comes to Town

MURRAY POMERANCE is an independent scholar living in Toronto and the author of numerous books, including Edge of the Screen and Uncanny Cinema: Agonies of the Viewing Experience, as well as the editor or coeditor of dozens of books, including Autism in Film and Television: On the Island. R. BARTON PALMER is Calhoun Lemon Professor of Literature emeritus at Clemson University, where he founded the World Cinema program. Among numerous books and multiauthor volumes, he is the coauthor of Major Performers in Hollywood Noir and Hollywood’s Tennessee: The Williams Films and Postwar America, as well as the author of Shot on Location: Postwar American Cinema and the Exploration of Real Space.

"A studio director in the best and sometimes worst sense of the term, in this book Mervyn LeRoy finally gets his due—and then some: nineteen compact essays redress decades-old snubs, together rehabilitating the reputation of the director of such classics as Little Caesar and I Am a Fugitive from a Chain Gang. Mervyn LeRoy Comes to Town revisits old-school auteurism to help readers appreciate and understand the work of an unpretentious American artist." - Jon Lewis (author of Road Trip to Nowhere: Hollywood Encounters the Counterculture) "By offering the first sustained look at the career of Mervyn LeRoy, this book does something new, showing what a director-driven study can be like without the neo-romanticism of traditional auteur theory." - Patrick Keating (author of Film Noir and the Arts of Lighting)

• Introduction by R. Barton Palmer and Murray PomeranceChapter 1. Little Caesar, Original Gangster by Matthew SolomonChapter 2. I Am a Fugitive from a Chain Gang by David DesserChapter 3. The Forgotten Number: Sexual Economics, Politics, and PTSD in Gold Diggers of 1933 by Linda BadleyChapter 4. Tugboat Annie: Cogs in the Wheel of Industry by Kristen HatchChapter 5. What Makes Anthony Adverse? by Neil BadmingtonChapter 6. They Won’t Forget: Mervyn LeRoy Goes Deep South Matthew H. BernsteinChapter 7. Dance by Candlelight: Extinguishing the Everyday in Waterloo Bridge by Steven RybinChapter 8. The Cells of Johnny Eager by Mark OsteenChapter 9. Random Harvest: “You haven’t even a memory” by Lawrence NapperChapter 10. His Finger on the Public Pulse: Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo by R. Barton PalmerChapter 11. On the Street Where You Live: Mervyn LeRoy’s East Side, West Side by Adrian DanksChapter 12. Trendsetting Quo Vadis by R. Barton PalmerChapter 13. Mervyn LeRoy’s Feminist Tale of a Million Dollar Mermaid by Rebecca Bell-MetereauChapter 14. The Palm at the End of the War: Mr. Roberts by Brenda Austin-SmithChapter 15. In Fertile Soil: The Bad Seed by Dominic LennardChapter 16. Playing the Agent in The FBI Story by Daniel VarndellChapter 17. A Friend Out of an Enemy: Screen Space and the Traversal of Socio-cultural Boundaries in A Majority of One by Matthew CipaChapter 18. “Nothing to hit but the heights”: Mervyn LeRoy’s Gypsy by Murray PomeranceChapter 19. Minute to Minute, Moment to Moment by Tom ConleyBibliographyNotes on Contributors IndexIntroduction: The Unauthorial Eye | R. Barton Palmerand Murray Pomerance 11 Little Caesar, Original Gangster | Matthew Solomon 112 I Am a Fugitive from a Chain Gang | David Desser 213 The Forgotten Number: Sexual Economics, Politics,and PTSD in Gold Diggers of 1933 | Linda Badley 334 Tugboat Annie: Cogs in the Wheel of Industry |Kristen Hatch 455 What Makes Anthony Adverse? | Neil Badmington 576 They Won’t Forget: Mervyn LeRoy Goes Deep South |Matthew H. Bernstein 697 Dance by Candlelight: Extinguishing the Everydayin Waterloo Bridge | Steven Rybin 818 The Cells of Johnny Eager | Mark Osteen 919 Random Harvest: “You Haven’t Even a Memory” |Lawrence Napper 10310 His Finger on the Public Pulse: Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo |R. Barton Palmer 11311 On the Street Where You Live: Mervyn LeRoy’sEast Side, West Side | Adrian Danks 12512 Trendsetting Quo Vadis | R. Barton Palmer 13713 Mervyn LeRoy’s Feminist Tale of a Million Dollar Mermaid |Rebecca Bell-Metereau14914 The Palm at the End of the War: Mister Roberts |Brenda Austin-Smith16115 In Fertile Soil: The Bad Seed | Dominic Lennard 17316 Playing the Agent in The FBI Story | Daniel Varndell 18517 A Friend Out of an Enemy: Screen Space and the Traversalof Sociocultural Boundaries in A Majority of One |Matthew Cipa 19718 “Nothing to Hit but the Heights”: Mervyn LeRoy’s Gypsy |Murray Pomerance 20919 Minute to Minute, Moment to Moment | Tom Conley 221Works Cited 233Notes on Contributors 247Index 253