Taking care of business

So, it’s the third week of the university term and things are ticking along nicely. I’m really grateful for the opportunity to teach in Warwick’s Film and Television Department so soon after submitting my PhD. In past years, I’ve taught modules on French and British national cinemas, and on Adaptation. This time round, I’m introducing first years to Film Theory. So far, we’ve tackled Bazin, Epstein and Mary Ann Doane. Next week: Eisenstein!

As well as this teaching, I’ve continued working as a web editor for the Wolfson Research Exchange, which has been taking up a lot of time. Our Research Match scheme has been a fantastic success (which has translated into lots of uploading of profiles by yours truly), and later in the year, I’ll be acting as an online tutor for the Library’s 23 Things for the Digital Professional course.

The best news I’ve had this week has been the offer from Warwick’s German Department to teach a film segment for their Culture and Politics in the Weimar Republic and the Third Reich module. I’m really thrilled to be renewing my acquaintance with this academic department, who were so welcoming and attentive when I was an undergraduate. The films I’m lecturing on are good’uns too – Metropolis, The Blue Angel and M!

While my PhD thesis on Hollywood marriage is out of my hands and in those of the examiners, the Thin Man films continue to be a part of my life. I’m very proud to have had an article on that loveable pooch Asta published in Mystery Reader’s Journal 27: 3. You can subscribe or buy the pdf here.

I also recently addressed the Institute of Advanced Study’s Drinking Studies Network on the subject of social drinking in the Thin Man cycle. Deborah Toner’s account of the symposium is here, in which she describes the content of my paper and the Q&A that followed.

My association with online publisher Silkworms Ink continues, and we on the editorial team are very excited about our new-look website. There will be all sorts of great content posted in the coming months. Sam Kinchin-Smith’s edited collection on Nick Cave will be published soon, in which I have an essay on Cave and hard-boiled literature. I’m really thrilled to be sharing space on the contents page with my dear friend Tom Steward on this one, too.

Last but not least, Roisin and I are counting down the days until the BFI’s 30th anniversary celebration of Cagney & Lacey. We’ve been rewatching episodes recently in preparation for a larger study of female detectives and I’ve been really struck by the achievement and importance of this programme. It’s a crime that there is no complete DVD release yet, but perhaps the interest generated by this event will give MGM a kick up the arse. Regardless, it’ll be an enormous thrill to be in the same room as Sharon Gless, Tyne Daly and executive producer Barney Rosenzweig. In the past few weeks, we’ve been in contact with Barney’s webteam and we hope to interview him sometime after the event. I’ll also be writing an event report for Screen.

Right, I think that’s everything! Expect updates sooner rather than later…

Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows trailer

Well, here it is! I have to admit, this trailer prompted a big goofy smile from me…

Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows posters

Guy Ritchie’s sequel to Sherlock Holmes is due to be released this winter, and Omnimystery News have just put up some new posters:

The first of these seems to give us our first glimpse of Jared Harris as Professor Moriarty. I’m rather pleased they’ve gone for the bearded George Zucco look – if this film manages to conjure half the fun of The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, they’ll be doing alright.

Interview etiquette

I had some good news this week. I’ve been putting together a proposal for an essay in an academic journal. Not really expecting anything back, I contacted two writers who I admire asking them for an interview and they agreed! I’m putting together questions right now, but I’ve also blogged about it over at PhD Life. If anyone has any experience of conducting interviews, I’d be really grateful for your advice.

Recasting Nick Charles

Last week Thompson on Hollywood ran a non-story on Johnny Depp’s planned Thin Man remake. You might remember that I blogged about the potential for such a project last year. The only bit of new information that’s emerged since then isn’t exactly encouraging. It’s a given that the screenplay for this film needs to be urbane and sophisticated, right? The first three Thin Man movies were written by Frances Goodrich and Albert Hackett, after all.

Well, Johnny Depp and Rob Marshall have entrusted the project to… Jerry Stahl.

Author of Bad Boys II.

Oh dear.

The more I think about this, the more this film seems doomed. Wrong scriptwriter, wrong director and worst of all, wrong leading man. I’ll admit it, I’ve never been a Johnny Depp fan. For me, he’s one of those actors who’s all surface, rarely letting us in – always playing funny rather than being funny.

In my opinion, there’s only one actor working at the moment who might be able to match William Powell:

John Slattery

Think about it. He looks good in a suit, he drinks and smokes gracefully, he’s just the right age and he’s a ringer for Dashiell Hammett. Put a ‘tache on him and you’re in business.

Of course, the real sign that Depp and Marshall’s remake is in trouble is the lack of any credible Nora. Film stars just don’t look like Myrna Loy any more, and they rarely have the same knack for comedy. Can anyone think of  “a lanky brunette with a wicked jaw” who might fit the bill? No, I didn’t think so.

The Abominable Dr. Silkworms

Vincent and friend

I wrote an essay on the inimitable Mr. Price, and you can read it here.

They Had Faces Then #7

“I think every intelligent woman should have a career.” – Bonita Granville in Nancy Drew Detective (1938)

I’m often surprised by my PhD. Last week I sat down to rewrite the introduction to my third chapter (on daughters and domestic space, Penny Serenade and Mr. Blandings) and I ended up singing the praises of Nancy Drew. I’ve only seen the first Bonita Granville movie so far, which is a lot of fun, largely thanks to Frankie Thomas ‘ long suffering turn as Ted Nickerson. That’s Frankie in the picture above with Bonita. He stoically goes along with Nancy’s plans, even when they involve him dressing up as a nurse. And as you’d hope, he gets chatted up by a gangster.

It seems that Nancy continues to be a role model to adventurous girls, at least in books. Did anyone go to see the recent movie? The trailer looks like a fairly lame attempt to appropriate the panache of Clueless, but I’d be willing to give it a shot if anyone wanted to recommend it!

Nancy Drew 2007:

Nancy Drew 1938:

Hi-Fi P.I.

In Jazz Noir, David Butler writes, “Film noir provides an alluring range of images, situations and meanings with which a potential audience for jazz can attempt to interpret the music.”

This association is, however, largely retrospective. Classical film noir, the film noir of the 1940s, rarely featured jazz prominently.That aural association between private detectives and wailing saxophones came somewhat later, with the TV ‘tecs of the 50s: Johnny Staccato and Peter Gunn.

The first P.I. movie that I ever saw was Harper (1966), and I’ve loved Ross Macdonald ever since. Go figure. I must have been about nine years old and, while Paul Newman’s cruel blue eyes and short-sleeved shirts stayed with me, I misremembered the music.

For years afterwards, I was certain that the film’s theme tune was Dave Brubeck’s Take Five. It must have been Arthur Hill’s glasses that misled me.

Not Albert Graves...

A few years later, when I got Harper on video, I paid close attention to Johnny Mandel’s brassy, swinging score. I would whistle it on the way to school, hoping that some of Harper’s cool would rub off on the gawky teenage me (it didn’t). Listening now, Mandel’s music is perhaps a little too self-consciously trendy, a little too eager to draw in the sophisticates (ditto the film’s poster). But I still love it – that West Coast bluster is modish but still fun, nicely evoking the movie’s corrupt sun-drenched world. And when I whistle it, it still makes me want to be Paul Newman.

Thinking about the music of Harper led me to look up John Williams’ music for The Long Goodbye (1973). Very different in terms of glamour, I think Newman’s Harper and Elliot Gould’s Marlowe occupy similar roles, both moving through their mysteries one step removed, both bringing their mysteries to arresting and unexpected conclusions. Gould’s shabby chic is certainly a more achievable look – I was once flattered/appalled to be compared to him by a university friend. Trust me, I’ve cleaned my act up since then.

The throaty growl of Jack Sheldon is such a perfect match for the mood of this movie, all wet neon and dry scotch. He provides the vocals here, but he was a noted trumpeter in his day. And it’s no surprise that Sheldon featured as an instrumentalist on two Tom Waits albums: Foreign Affairs and One from the Heart. Those rambling rhymes with which Sheldon closes seem like a blueprint for the young Waits. However, unlike Waits’ drunken troubadour schtick, this isn’t performance or pastiche; it’s the essence of experience.

A notorious hell-raiser, Sheldon fits the stereotype of the hard-living jazzman to a tee. Born in 1931, he was part of the West Coast scene of the 50s, playing with Art Pepper, Stan Kenton, Wardell Gray, Curtis Counce and Gerry Mulligan, amongst others. Two parts musician, one part raconteur, Sheldon also carved out a career on TV, following an eccentric path that took in Dragnet, The Merv Griffin Show, Schoolhouse Rock and Family Guy. He even had his own short-lived show in the late 60s: Run Buddy Run. He was also a notorious hellraiser.

In 2008, his crazy life was the subject of a documentary entitled Trying to Get Good. I think I need to lay my peepers on that baby, oh yes I do… (fadeout on trumpet and double bass)

Taste the Blood of Silkworms Ink

I’ve written another post for the chaps at Silkworms Ink. It’s entitled “Kensington Gore” and you can read it here.

Teaching Sherlock Holmes #1

As some of you may know, over the past few years I’ve been researching and writing my PhD in Film at the University of Warwick. One of the real benefits of this long and arduous process has been the opportunity to teach undergraduates, and to try to convey some of my enthusiasm for the subject.

I’m really excited about next week, when I’m assisting Michael Lightborne on his Adaptation course. He’s asked me to teach a two-week module on transmedia Sherlock Holmes. Planning this work has been very pleasant indeed: I’ve been trawling through all my DVDs, books and comics finding examples of Conan Doyle’s immense influence on culture.

Next week, I’m going to be showing my students Rathbone’s Sherlock Holmes and the Secret Weapon alongside Brett’s The Dancing Men, two very different riffs on the same source material. We’re also going to be running a workshop which will project three different reels of Sherlockian material, allowing the students to explore the space, making their own connections between different adaptations.

Putting together these reels has been tremendous fun. We’re using clips from the Rathbone films, the Brett series, the Wilmer and Cushing BBC episodes, The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes, Murder by Decree, Without a Clue and the recent Cumberbatch and Downey Jr. versions. We’ll also have a slideshow running displaying illustrations, advertising material and pages from comic books.

In the second week, I’m going to be lecturing on a more focused case study, comparing the approaches of the Cumberbatch and Downey Jr. Sherlocks, and asking what prompted their creative decisions.

I think it should be a stimulating couple of sessions and I can’t wait to see what the students make of it all! Needless to say, I shall report back on our findings here at Squeezegut Alley…