Acknowledgments ix
Introduction: Stardom in the 1950s 1
R. BARTON PALMER
1 Montgomery Clift: Hollywood Pseudohomosexual 18
TISON PUGH AND BARRY SANDLER
2 Charlton Heston and Gregory Peck: Organization Men 37
R. BARTON PALMER
3 James Stewart and James Dean:The Darkness Within 61
MURRAY POMERANCE
4 James Mason: A Star Is Born Bigger Than Life 86
AMY LAWRENCE
5 Reflexivity and Metaperformance: Marilyn Monroe,
Jayne Mansfield, and Kim Novak 107
MATTHEW SOLOMON
6 Audrey Hepburn:The Film Star as Event 130
WILLIAM A. BROWN
7 Doris Day and Rock Hudson:The Girl Next Door
and the Brawny He-Man 147
FOSTER HIRSCH
8 Marlon Brando: Actor, Star, Liar 165
SUSAN WHITE
9 Jerry Lewis: From Hamlet to Clown 184
FRANK KRUTNIK
10 Judy Holliday:The Hungry Star 205
PAMELA ROBERTSON WOJCIK
11 What a Swell Party This Was: Fred Astaire, Gene Kelly,
Bing Crosby, and Frank Sinatra 220
ADRIENNE L. McLEAN
In the Wings 245
R. BARTON PALMER
Works Cited 253
Contributors 263
Index 267
Subtitle: Movie Stars of the
1950s Author:
Edited and with an
introduction by R. Barton Palmer Subject:Film,
American
Studies Paper ISBN: 978-0-8135-4767-1 Cloth ISBN: 978-0-8135-4766-4 Pages: 272 pages Publication Date: August 2010 Series:
Star
Decades
Description:
The constellation of Hollywood stars burned
brightly in the 1950s, even as the industry fell on hard economic
times. Major artists of the 1940s—James Stewart, Jerry Lewis, and
Gregory Peck—continued to exert a magical appeal but the younger
generation of moviegoers was soon enthralled by an emerging cast, led
by James Dean and Marlon Brando. They, among others, ushered in a
provocative acting style, “the Method,” bringing hard-edged, realistic
performances to the screen. Adult-oriented small-budget dramas were
ideal showcases for Method actors, startlingly realized when Brando
seized the screen in On the
Waterfront. But, with competition from television looming,
Hollywood also featured film-making of epic proportion—Ben-Hur and other cinema wonders
rode onto the screen with amazing spectacle, making stars of physically
impressive performers such as Charlton Heston.
Larger Than
Life offers a comprehensive view of the star system in 1950s
Hollywood and also in-depth discussions of the decade’s major stars,
including Montgomery Clift, Judy Holliday, Jerry Lewis, James Mason,
Marilyn Monroe, Kim Novak, Bing Crosby, Gene Kelly, Jayne Mansfield,
and Audrey Hepburn. About the Author:
R. BARTON PALMER is
the Calhoun Lemon Professor of Literature at Clemson University, where
he also directs the film studies program. He is the author, editor, or
general editor of numerous books on various literary and cinematic
subjects, including Traditions in
World Cinema (Rutgers University Press).
