Books by "Edward Lewis Dodd"
2 books found
This book provides an in-depth study of Bette Davis, Joan Fontaine, Kim Novak and Meryl Streep, and the treatment of adultery in their films. It avoids the near-impossible challenge of writing about the sheer volume of adultery in film by focusing on specific periods in the work of these four major Hollywood actresses who have each performed roles that share some features but also contain points of difference. The periods discussed cover Davis’s work in 1937 to 1943, Fontaine’s work between 1939 and 1950, Novak in 1954 to 1964, and finally Streep’s work between 1979 and 1985. Closely analysing both established classics and lesser known films, Edward Gallafent explores the work of a broad range of directors including Alfred Hitchcock, Max Ophüls, Sydney Pollack and Billy Wilder. Adultery and the Female Star explores topics such as motherhood, the significance of place, censorship, and adaptation, and is the first book of its kind to take on the topic of adultery in relation to these four actresses. It ultimately argues that our understanding of the adultery narrative is tightly bound up with our understanding of the Hollywood stars that depict it.
The attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, solved the problem for a lot of American kids who wanted to be Army pilots but didn't meet the two years of college requirement for acceptance into the aviation cadet program. In mid-1942, under wartime pressures, the Army Air Corps dropped that requirement and made an exception for applicants who could pass a stiff written test. As the result of that momentous change, many high school kids soon found themselves sporting second lieutenant bars and flying fighters with 2,000-horsepower engines - before they reached their 21st birthdays! A group of those very young men came together from both the East and West Coasts of the U.S. when they were assigned to the 360th Fighter Squadron with the 8th Air Force in England to take part in the invasion and the critical air battles over Germany during 1944-45. They began flying combat missions in Republic P-47 "Thunderbolts," but in late 1944 switched to flying North American P-51 "Mustangs." Most of them had their high school sweethearts, but as healthy young officers wearing a pair of wings they soon found new romance, not only in the skies they flew but with crops of eager young girls who found these handpicked and glamorous pilots to be of special interest. Under wartime stress, romances were quick to bloom and promises hastily made. But the war had a way of changing people, as high school kids quickly grew into men with deeper values and an understanding of what life is really about. This is the story of some of those wartime romances that blossomed within the cauldron of war - some to flare brightly and flicker out, while others lived on.