Martin Shingler – författare

It reaches millions of people every minute of the day, it costs us virtually nothing and yet we take it entirely for granted. Superseded by television as the primary source of entertainment and information, radio still has a unique place in the mass media spectrum. While the textual properties and reception of film and television have received considerable critical attention, until now radio has only really been considered in terms of its history and its modes of production. 'On Air' adopts a wide-ranging theoretical and critical approach. It provides an in-depth examination of radio's codes (speech, music, noise and silence),and the conventions of using these codes and the dominant modes of reception. The text offers a vocabulary and methodology for analysing radio programmes, drawing on work by both media theorists and professional broadcasters in Britain, Australia, and North America. Written by an academic and a practitioner, 'On Air' provides a critical overview of radio for media students, as well as suggestions for practical activities, a time-line of major events in the history of radio, and a glossary of key terms.

An in-depth examination of sixteen renowned actors and their return to the spotlight later in life.While the comeback film is a well-recognized phenomenon inspiring excitement (or dismay) for cinemagoers and has been consequential to furthering or ending the careers of aging actors, this book is the first to analyze the cultural significance of these films. In this collection of essays, scholars follow the late-career revival projects of international film stars from 1957 to 2019, including renowned actors Joan Crawford, John Travolta, Bette Davis, Amitabh Bachchan, Sessue Hayakawa, Wesley Snipes, and Linda Hamilton. Combining close textual analysis of film moments with the critical reception of each performance, the contributors examine cinematic aging in relation to gender and sexuality, camp and consumption, star continuity and discontinuity, and nostalgia and longing. Their work reveals the unique circumstances of each actor's comeback trajectory as they seek to understand the consequences of aging in a largely sexist and ageist film industry, while providing new ways of conceptualizing films featuring comeback stars.

An in-depth examination of sixteen renowned actors and their return to the spotlight later in life.While the comeback film is a well-recognized phenomenon inspiring excitement (or dismay) for cinemagoers and has been consequential to furthering or ending the careers of aging actors, this book is the first to analyze the cultural significance of these films. In this collection of essays, scholars follow the late-career revival projects of international film stars from 1957 to 2019, including renowned actors Joan Crawford, John Travolta, Bette Davis, Amitabh Bachchan, Sessue Hayakawa, Wesley Snipes, and Linda Hamilton. Combining close textual analysis of film moments with the critical reception of each performance, the contributors examine cinematic aging in relation to gender and sexuality, camp and consumption, star continuity and discontinuity, and nostalgia and longing. Their work reveals the unique circumstances of each actor's comeback trajectory as they seek to understand the consequences of aging in a largely sexist and ageist film industry, while providing new ways of conceptualizing films featuring comeback stars.

This book offers a different take on the early history of Warner Bros., the studio renowned for introducing talking pictures and developing the gangster film and backstage musical comedy. The focus here is on the studio’s sustained commitment to produce films based on stage plays. This led to the creation of a stock company of talented actors, to the introduction of sound cinema, to the recruitment of leading Broadway stars such as John Barrymore and George Arliss and to films as diverse as The Gold Diggers (1923), The Marriage Circle (1924), Beau Brummel (1924), Disraeli (1929), Lilly Turner (1933), The Petrified Forest (1936) and The Private Lives of Elizabeth and Essex (1939). Even the most crippling effects of the Depression in 1933 did not prevent Warners’ production of films based on stage plays, many being transformed into star vehicles for the likes of Ruth Chatterton, Leslie Howard and Bette Davis.

Diana Dors was not only Britain's most successful sex symbol of the 1950s but also a popular entertainer who remained a major celebrity until her death in 1984. Diana Dors: Film Star and Actor is primarily a celebration of her film acting skills, providing detailed analysis of her performances in a selection of films from across the star's five-decade career, including The Unholy Wife, Berserk!, and The Pied Piper. In addition to investigating Dors' versatility as an actress by paying close attention to the different ways in which she uses her voice and body, poses and gestures, facial expressions and looks in specific moments from her movies, Shingler also discusses the performance of sexuality, gender and age, while considering her appeal for male and female, gay and straight audiences.

Examines Diana Dors' film career, acting method, star image and enduring celebrityTraces the development of Dors' film acting across five decades and a range of genresEmphasises the international nature of Dors' stardom and film workCelebrates Dors' achievements as a film actor with close textual analysis of her performances rather than dwelling on her personal life, publicity stunts and tabloid news coverageDiana Dors became one of Britain's most successful sex symbols in the 1950s and remained a major celebrity until her death in 1984. This book examines both her acting method and her celebrity. It provides a detailed analysis of Dors' performance in a number of her films from across different periods of her career, investigating her versatility by paying close attention to her voice, facial expressions and looks, body poses and gestures in specific moments from her movies. It also discusses the performance of gender and age, as well as considering her later role as a gay icon.

'Rebel', 'oddball' and 'Uncle Mickey': just three of the many conflicting labels Mickey Rourke has 'earned' over his remarkable career in the limelight. His public persona, moving from actor to boxer to actor, is not easy to define: making it all the more intriguing, and making Keri Walsh's study an unique and fascinating addition to the 'Film Stars' series.

Julie Christie's prickly relationship with stardom is legendary. This fascinating text provides a comprehensive account of Christie's career, from her emergence in the 1960s to present day. It moves from analysing her star persona, to exploring her performance and her politics, and in doing so raises important questions for the film industry.

Julie Christie's prickly relationship with stardom is legendary. This fascinating text provides a comprehensive account of Christie's career, from her emergence in the 1960s to present day. It moves from analysing her star persona, to exploring her performance and her politics, and in doing so raises important questions for the film industry.

Tall, dark and handsome, with a manufactured name and a scrupulously designed professional image, Rock Hudson represented the Hollywood ideal of American masculinity during the 1950s and 60s; an ideal that was to be questioned and ultimately undermined during the years to follow by lurid accounts of his private life and his death from AIDS related illness.This illuminating analysis of Hudson's career reassesses the perceived disparity between his public persona and his 'true' nature. Exploring his unique qualities as a performer and exposing the role of his agent, producers and directors in the construction of his image, John Mercer unpicks Hudson's stardom to reveal a more complex star identity than has hitherto been understood. Foregrounding the ways in which Hudson's career provides insights into the nature of American popular culture and attitudes towards gender and sexuality, Mercer ultimately depicts Hudson as a star who embodied a period of transition between the old Hollywood and the new.

Elizabeth Taylor was one of the major film stars of the twentieth century, embodying all the glamour and allure of Hollywood stardom. Yet her achievements as an actress have often been overshadowed by her beauty and tumultuous life off-screen.To redress this imbalance, Susan Smith offers an illuminating study of Elizabeth Taylor's work in film, exploring her fascinating trajectory from child to adult star. Smith reveals the influence that Taylor's early work exerted over her later career and the ways in which her on-screen identity is profoundly rooted in her association with animals and nature. Smith carefully unpicks what made Taylor such a distinctive and dynamic on-screen performer – from the expressive use she made of her eyes to the dramatic significance of her voice – and considers the importance of certain professional collaborations that Taylor forged during her career, most notably her acting partnership with Montgomery Clift.

A wide-ranging account of the Indian film star Madhuri Dixit, one of the most popular actresses of Hindi cinema. Nandana Bose's study traces Dixit's twenty-five year career, exploring her star persona, her indelible impact on Indian popular culture, and her continuing popularity even in middle age. Nandana Bose discusses Dixit's unusual and distinctive career trajectory that upends pre-existing models of female stardom, by marrying at the peak of her career, withdrawing from the limelight for years, and then returning to extend her career into her early fifties by reinventing herself as a transmedia celebrity for a new generation. However, it is her unique talent as a dancer, and her innovative choreographic styles and repertoire of movements that make her standout from other Hindi film stars. Surveying Dixit's film-making career, Bose argues that she represents a wholesome and traditional figure of femininity that has resonated across class and cultural hierarchies at a time of great economic and social change in India.

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.

Barbara Stanwyck's illustrious career began in the 1920s and spanned sixty years. During that period she starred in major films of many genres and worked with some of the most distinguished Hollywood directors. Devoting each chapter to a significant quality of Stanwyck's performances, Andrew Klevan foregrounds crucial scenes from her exemplary films, including Stella Dallas (1937), The Lady Eve (1941), and Double Indemnity (1944). Through the lens of her achievement, Klevan examines the wider concerns of these films while revisiting classic topics from Film Studies – psychoanalysis, medium reflexivity, and the representation of female roles such as the 'sacrificial mother' and the 'femme fatale'. In paying close attention to the various aspects of Barbara Stanwyck's skilfully executed performances, this book enhances familiar understandings and provides fresh illumination.

This illuminating study provides a comprehensive reassessment of Deborah Kerr's career, highlighting lesser-known aspects of her star persona. Sarah Street traces the specific qualities of Kerr's screen performances, paying close attention to facial expression, gesture, voice and costume. Covering many iconic films, including The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp, Black Narcissus, From Here to Eternity, An Affair to Remember, The Innocents and Bonjour Tristesse, this book follows Kerr’s journey from her foundational image as an 'English rose' to her performances of challenging roles in which she was cast against type. Illustrated with images from Kerr’s films, this unique case study contributes to the critical understanding of film stars and screen performance.

Tony Leung Chiu-Wai investigates the rich, prolific career of an acclaimed leading man of Hong Kong and Chinese film and television: the star of more than 70 films and dozens of television series, and the only Hong Kong actor to earn the Cannes Film Festival’s best-actor award. This book addresses the dynamics of media stardom in Hong Kong, mainland China and the East Asian region, including the importance of television series for training and promotion; the phenomenon of regional, transmedia stardom across popular entertainment genres; and cultural and political considerations as performers move among different East Asian production environments. Attentive to Leung’s position in both East Asian and global screen cultures, the book addresses relations among acting, global stardom and internationally circulating film genres and acclaimed directors. Overall, this unique study of Leung – who the New York Times calls “one of the world’s last true matinee idols” – illuminates challenges and opportunities for Chinese screen actors in local, regional and global cultural and industrial contexts.