Hollywood Melodrama:
A Bibliography of Materials in the UC Berkeley Library











Books/Videos
Journal and Newspaper Articles
Books/Articles about Douglas Sirk

Articles and Books on Individual films
Max Ophüls bibliography

Books/Videos

Barefoot, Guy
Gaslight melodrama: from Victorian London to 1940s Hollywood / Guy Barefoot. New York: Continuum, 2001.
UCB Main PN1995.9.M45 B37 2001

Byars, Jackie.
All that Hollywood allows: re-reading gender in 1950s melodrama / Jackie Byars. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, c1991. Series title: Gender & American culture.
UCB Main PN1995.9.S47 B9 1991
UCB Moffitt PN1995.9.S47 B9 1991

Cavell, Stanley
Contesting tears: the Hollywood melodrama of the unknown woman / Stanley Cavell. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1996.
UCB Main PN1995.9.W6 C38 1996

Cook, Pam.
"No Fixed Address: The Women's Picture from Outrage to Blue Steel." In: Screening the past : memory and nostalgia in cinema / London ; New York : Routledge, 2005.
MAIN: PN1995.9.N67 C66 2005; View current status of this item
Table of contents http://www.loc.gov/catdir/toc/ecip0416/2004006798.html

Desilet, Gregory E.
Our faith in evil : melodrama and the effects of entertainment violence Jefferson, N.C. : McFarland, Date c2006.
Main Stack PN1995.9.V5.D47 2006

Doane, Mary Ann
"Clinical eye : medical discourses in the "woman's film" of the 1940s." In: The Female body in western culture : contemporary perspectives / Susan Rubin Suleiman, editor. Cambridge, Mass. : Harvard University Press, 1986, c 1985.
Anthropology NX652.W6.F461 1986
Main Stack NX652.W6.F461 1986
Moffitt NX652.W6.F461 1986

Elsaesser, Thomas.
"Tales of Sound and Fury: Observations on the Family Melodrama." In: Film genre reader II / edited by Barry Keith Grant. 1st ed. pp: 50-80. Austin: University of Texas Press, 1995.
Main Stack PN1995.F45792 19953 1995

Fischer, Lucy.
Cinematernity: film, motherhood, genre / Lucy Fischer. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, c1996.
Main Stack PN1995.9.W6.F565 1996

Gaines, Jane.
"Fire and Desire: Race, Melodrama, and Oscar Micheaux." In Black American Cinema. Edited by Manthia Diawara. New York: Routledge, 1993.
Main Stack PN1995.9.N4.B45 1993
Moffitt PN1995.9.N4.B45 1993

Also in: Melodrama: stage, picture, screen / edited by Jacky Bratton, Jim Cook, Christine Gledhill. p. 231-45. London: British Film Institute, 1994.
Main Stack PN1912.M45 1994

Also in: Melodrama : stage, picture, screen / edited by Jacky Bratton, Jim Cook, Christine Gledhill. London : British Film Institute, 1994.
Main Stack PN1912.M45 1994

Gaines, Jane.
"The Melos in Marxist Theory." In: The Hidden foundation : cinema and the question of class / David E. James and Rick Berg, editors. pp: 56-71. Minneapolis : University of Minnesota Press, c1996.
Main Stack PN1995.9.P6.H5 1996

Gallagher, Mark
"I married Rambo : spectacle and melodrama in the Hollywood action film." In: Mythologies of violence in postmodern media / edited by Christopher Sharrett. Detroit, MI : Wayne State University Press, c1999. Contemporary film and television series.
Main Stack PN1995.9.V5.M98 1999

Home is where the heart is: studies in melodrama and the woman's film
Edited by Christine Gledhill. London: BFI Pub., 1987.
UCB Main PN1995.9.M4 H6
UCB Moffitt PN1995.9.M4 H6

Imitations of life: a reader on film & television melodrama
Edited by Marcia Landy. Detroit: Wayne State University Press, c1991. Series title: Contemporary film and television series.
UCB Main PN1995.9.M45 I45 1991
UCB Moffitt PN1995.9.M45 I45 1991

Joyrich, Lynne
"All that television allows: TV melodrama, postmodernism, and consumer culture." In: Private screenings: television and the female consumer / Lynn Spigel and Denise Mann, editors. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, c1992. Camera obscura book.
Main Stack HQ1233.P755 1992
Moffitt HQ1233.P755 1992

Kaplan, E. Ann.
Motherhood and representation: the mother in popular culture and melodrama / E. Ann Kaplan. London; New York: Routledge, 1992.
UCB Main PS228.M66 K36 1992
UCB Moffitt PS228.M66 K36 1992

Kaplan, E. Ann.
"Classical Hollywood Film and Melodrama." In: The Oxford guide to film studies / edited by John Hill and Pamela Church Gibson; consultant editors, Richard Dyer, E. Ann Kaplan, Paul Willemen. pp: 272-82 Oxford; New York: Oxford University Press, 1998.
Main Stack PN1995.O93 1998

Kaplan, E. Ann.
"Classical Hollywood Film and Melodrama." In: American cinema and Hollywood : critical approaches / edited by John Hill and Pamela Church Gibson. Oxford : Oxford University Press, 2000.
Main Stack PN1993.5.U65.A44 2000

Kauffmann, Stanley
"Film: melodrama and popular culture: Melodrama and farce: a note on a fusion in film." In: Melodrama / edited by Daniel Gerould Martinsville, N.J. : Analecta Enterprises, 1980 New York literary forum ; 7
Main Stack PN1912.M4

Kim, Soyoung
"Questions of Woman's Film: The Maid, Madame Freedom, and Women." In: South Korean golden age melodrama : gender, genre, and national cinema. pp. 185-200.Detroit : Wayne State University Press, c2005.
MAIN: PN1993.5.K6 S68 2005

Kuhn, Annette.
"Women's Genres: Melodrama, Soap Opera and Theory." In: Feminist film theory: a reader / edited by Sue Thornham. pp: 146-56. New York: New York University Press, 1999.
Main Stack PN1995.9.W6.F465 1999

Kuhn, Annette.
Women's pictures : feminism and cinema. London ; New York : Verso, 1994.
MAIN: PN1995.9.W6 K8 1994

Landy, Marcia.
"Melodrama and Femininity in Second World War British Cinema." In: The British cinema book / edited by Robert Murphy. 2nd ed. pp: 119-26 London : British Film Institute, 2001.
Main Stack PN1993.5.G7.B66 2001

Lang, Robert
American film melodrama: Griffith, Vidor, Minnelli / by Robert Lang. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, c1989.
UCB Main PN1995.9.M45 L361 1989
UCB Moffitt PN1995.9.M45 L36 1989

Lehman, Peter.
"Crying over the Melodramatic Penis: Melodrama and Male Nudity in Films of the '90s." In: Masculinity : bodies, movies, culture / edited by Peter Lehman. New York : Routledge, 2001. AFI film readers.
Main Stack PN1995.9.M46.M34 2001

Leibowitz, Flo.
"Apt Feelings, or Why 'Women's Films' Aren't Trivial." In: Post-theory: reconstructing film studies / edited by David Bordwell and Noel Carroll. Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, c1996. Wisconsin studies in film.
Grad Svcs PN1994.P6565 1996 Non-circulating; may be used only in Graduate Services.
Main Stack PN1994.P6565 1996 219-29. 1996

Lusted, David.
"Social Class and the Western as Male Melodrama." In: The book of westerns / edited by Ian Cameron and Douglas Pye. pp: . New York: Continuum, 1996.
Main Stack PN1995.9.W4.B66 1996
Moffitt PN1995.9.W4.B66 1996
Bancroft PN1995.9.W4.B66 1996 Non-circulating; may be used only in The Bancroft Library.

Lutz, Tom.
"Men's Tears and the Roles of Melodrama." In: Boys don't cry? : rethinking narratives of masculinity and emotion in the U.S. / edited by Milette Shamir and Jennifer Travis. pp: 185-204. New York : Columbia University Press, c2002.
Main Stack PS173.M36.B69 2002

Mayer, David. Day-Mayer, Helen.
"A 'Secondary Action' or Musical Highlight? Melodic Interludes in Early Film Melodrama Reconsidered." In: The sounds of early cinema / edited by Richard Abel and Rick Altman. pp: 220-31. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, c2001.
UCB Main PN1995.75 .S64 2001

Mayne, Judith
"The Woman at the Keyhole: Women's Cinema and Feminist Criticism." New German Critique, No. 23. (Spring - Summer, 1981), pp. 27-43.
UC users only

McHugh, Kathleen Anne.
American domesticity: from how-to manual to Hollywood melodrama / Kathleen Anne McHugh. New York: Oxford University Press, 1999.
UCB Main PN1995.9.W6 M38 1999

Melodrama and Asian cinema
Edited by Wimal Dissanayake. Cambridge ; New York : Cambridge University Press, 1993. Cambridge studies in film.
Main Stack PN1993.5.A75.M45 1993

Melodrama: stage, picture, screen
Edited by Jacky Bratton, Jim Cook, Christine Gledhill. London: British Film Institute, 1994.
UCB Main PN1912 .M45 1994

Mercer, John, Dr.
Melodrama : genre, style, sensibility London ; New York : Wallflower, 2004.
MAIN: PN1995.9.M45 M47 2004

Mulvey, Laura.
"'It Will Be a Magnificent Obsession': The Melodrama's Role in the Development of Contemporary Film Theory." In: Melodrama: stage, picture, screen Edited by Jacky Bratton, Jim Cook, Christine Gledhill. pp: 121-33. London: British Film Institute, 1994.
Main Stack PN1912.M45 1994

Nowell-Smith, G.
"Genre criticism. Minnelli and melodrama." In: Movies and methods : an anthology / edited by Bill Nichols. Berkeley : University of California Press, c1976
Main Stack PN1994.M71 Library has: v.1-2 (1976-1985)

Oroz, Silvia
Melodrama : o cinema de lagrimas da America Latina / Silvia Oroz. Rio de Janeiro, RJ : Rio Fundo Editora, c1992.
Main Stack PN1995.9.M45.O76 1999
Main Stack PN1995.9.M45.O76 1992 [earlier edition]

Partington, Angela.
"Melodrama's Gendered Audience." In: Off-centre : feminism and cultural studies / edited by Sarah Franklin, Celia Lury & Jackie Stacey. pp: 49-68. London ; New York : Harper Collins Academic, 1991. Cultural studies Birmingham.
Main Stack HQ1190.O34 1991b

Robards, Brooks.
"Reel Art: Excursions into the Biopic, Mystery/Suspense, Melodrama and Movies in the Eighties." In: Beyond the stars. Vol 3: The material world in American popular film. / edited by Paul Loukides and Linda K. Fuller. pp: 106-20 Bowling Green, Ohio : Bowling Green University Popular Press, c1990
Main Stack PN1995.9.C36.B49 1990 Library has: v.[1]-5 (c1990-c1996) Note: Vol. numbering on dust jacket only.
Moffitt PN1995.9.C36.B49 1990 Library has: v.[1]-5 (c1990-c1996)

Rowe, Kathleen
"Comedy, melodrama, and gender." In: Classical Hollywood comedy / edited by Kristine Brunovska Karnick and Henry Jenkins. New York: Routledge, 1995. AFI film readers.
Main Stack PN1995.9.C55.C56 1995

Rowe, Kathleen
"Melodrama and men in post-classical romantic comedy." In: Me Jane: masculinity, movies, and women / edited by Pat Kirkham and Janet Thumin. 1st ed. New York: St. Martin's Press, 1995.
Main Stack PN1995.9.M46.M35 1995
Moffitt PN1995.9.M46.M35 1995

Sharratt, Bernard.
"The Politics of the Popular? From Melodrama to Television." In: Performance and politics in popular drama: aspects of popular entertainment in theatre, film, and television, 1800-1976 / edited by David Bradby, Louis James, and Bernard Sharratt. pp: 275-295 Cambridge [Eng.]; New York: Cambridge University Press, 1980.
UCB Main PN1643 .P4 1980

Singer, Ben.
"Female power in the serial-queen melodrama : the etiology of an anomaly." In: Silent film / edited, and with an introduction by Richard Abel. New Brunswick, N.J. : Rutgers University Press, c1996. Rutgers depth of field series.
Main Stack PN1995.75.S55 1996
Moffitt PN1995.75.S55 1996

Singer, Ben
Melodrama and modernity : early sensational cinema and its contexts / Ben Singer. New York : Columbia University Press, c2001.
Main Stack PN1995.9.M45.S56 2001
PFA PN1995.9.M45.S56 2001
Table of contents from Google books

Sobchack, Thomas.
"Interiors: The Space of Melodrama." In: Beyond the stars. Vol. 4: Locales in American popular film. / edited by Paul Loukides and Linda K. Fuller. pp: 261-77 Bowling Green, Ohio : Bowling Green University Popular Press, c1990
Main Stack PN1995.9.C36.B49 1990 Library has: v.[1]-5 (c1990-c1996)
Moffitt PN1995.9.C36.B49 1990 Library has: v.[1]-5 (c1990-c1996)

Tasker, Yvonne
"Female friendship: melodrama, romance, feminism." In: Working girls: gender and sexuality in popular cinema / Yvonne Tasker. London; New York: Routledge, 1998.
Main Stack PN1995.9.W6.T36 1998

Walsh, Andrea S.
Women's film and female experience, 1940-1950 / Andrea S. Walsh. New York: Praeger, 1984.
Main Stack PN1995.9.W6.W3 1984
Moffitt PN1995.9.W6.W3 1984

Williams, Linda
"The American Melodramatic Mode." In: Playing the race card: melodramas of black and white from Uncle Tom to O.J. Simpson / Linda Williams. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, c2001.
Grad Svcs E185.625.W523 2001 Non-circulating; may be used only in Graduate Services.
Main Stack E185.625.W523 2001
Moffitt E185.625.W523 2001

Williams, Linda
"Melodrama revised." In: Refiguring American film genres: history and theory / Nick Browne, editor. Berkeley: University of California Press, c1998.
Grad Svcs PN1993.5.U6.R443 1998 Non-circulating; may be used only in Graduate Services.
Main Stack PN1993.5.U6.R443 1998
Moffitt PN1993.5.U6.R443 1998

Williams, Linda
Playing the race card : melodramas of black and white from Uncle Tom to O.J. Simpson Princeton, N.J. : Princeton University Press, c2001.
MAIN: E185.625 .W523 2001
MOFF: E185.625 .W523 2001
ETHN: E185.625 .W523 2001; Housed at Ethnic Studies Library.

Journal Articles

Bisplinghoff, Gretchen
"Mothers, madness and melodrama." Jump Cut nr 37 (July 1992); p 120-126.
Examines concepts of gender in melodrama's dealing with psychoanalysis, esp. with the link of madness and motherhood.

Carpender, Lynette
"Guilty pleasures: women and the weepies." (melodramas reflect women's limited options and difficult choices) Ms. Magazine May-June 1991 v1 n6 p74(3)

Connor, J. D.
"Disappearing, Inc.: Hollywood Melodrama and the Perils of Criticism." MLN. 112(5):958-70. 1997 Dec
"Books such as 'The Cinema of Max Ophuls: Magisterial Vision and the Figure of Woman,' 'Melodrama and Meaning: History, Culture, and the Films of Douglas Sirk,' 'Contesting Tears: The Holywood Melodrama of the Unknown Woman' and 'Max Ophuls in the Hollywood Studios' represent the significance of Hollywood melodramas. The genre provides a means for criticism which is important to social formations. These books brings to focus that as long as attention is given to Hollywood films, the genre will remain." [Expanded Academic Index]

Cunningham, Stuart
"The 'force-field' of melodrama." Quarterly Review of Film Studies Vol VI nr 4 (Fall 1981); p 347-364.

de Allencar Lyon, Andre
"The Afterlife of Melodrama" Stanford Undergraduate Journal Spring 2004
Develops a religious-political framework for the understanding of melodrama and relates it to some contemporary examples of new Hollywood cinema.

Dissanayake, Wimal (ed.)
"Special Issue on Melodrama and Cinema." East-West Film Journal. 5 (1) 1991 Jan.

Fell, John L.
"Melodrama, the Movies, and Genre." New York Literary Forum. 7:187-195. 1980.

Fell, John L.
"Melogenre." North Dakota Quarterly. 51(3):100-110. 1983 Summer

Ferriss, Suzanne and Young, Mallory
"Chick Flicks and Chick Culture." Post Script; Fall2007, Vol. 27 Issue 1, p32-49, 18p, 6bw
UC users only
"An essay is presented which discusses motion pictures designed for women, known as chick flicks, the varying reactions to them by audiences and their place as a part of women's culture. The authors discuss how the term "chick," once considered an insult to feminists, has been embraced by young women. Many feminists believe chick flicks such as "Bridget Jones' Diary" and "Legally Blonde" promote consumerism and traditional views of women. The authors note films such as "Waiting to Exhale" and "Bride and Prejudice," which offer positive depictions of minority women, and films such as "Calendar Girls," which feature older women. They note how chick flicks can belong to different film genres such as melodrama and romantic comedy." [Ebsco]

Fink, Janet. Holden, Katherine
"Pictures from the Margins of Marriage: Representations of Spinsters and Single Mothers in the Mid-Victorian Novel, Inter-War Hollywood Melodrama and British Film of the 1950s and 1960s." Gender & History, 11 (2): 233-55 1999.

Flinn, Carol
"The problem of femininity in theories of film music." Screen Vol XXVII nr 6 (Nov-Dec 1986); p 56-72.
Consideration of film music as the feminine, examining film music as a process of signification in its own right, and analysing the function of music in classic Hollywood melodramas.

Flitterman-Lewis, Sandy.
"The Blossom and the Bole: Narrative and Visual Spectacle in Early Film Melodrama." Cinema Journal. 33 (3): 3-15. 1994 Spring.

Fuqua, Joy Van.
"'Can You Feel It, Joe?': Male Melodrama and the Feeling Man." Velvet Light Trap. 38: 28-38. 1996 Fall.

Gaines, Jane
"The scar of shame: skin color and caste in black silent melodrama." Cinema Journal Vol XXVI nr 4 (Summer 1987); p 3-21.
Discusses the use of melodrama to reach black audiences in the 1920's, esp. in "The scar of shame", and theorizes on the nature of the black audience (see also separate Oscar Micheaux bibliography)

Gledhill, Christine
"Speculations on the relationship between soap opera and melodrama." Quarterly Review of Film and Video Vol XIV nr 1-2 (July 1992); p 103-124.
Explores similarities and differences between the genres, citing British/US examples past and present.

Higgins, Scott.
"Suspenseful Situations: Melodramatic Narrative and the Contemporary Action Film." Cinema Journal. Winter 2008. Vol. 47, Iss. 2; p. 74 (23 pages)

Higson, Andrew; Vincendeau, Ginette
"Melodrama." Screen Vol XXVII nr 6 (Nov-Dec 1986); p 2-5.
Introduction to a series of articles on aspects of melodrama.

"Hollywood reconsidered." Jump Cut nr 32 (Apr 1986); p 15-32.
On women in the Hollywood film, incl. the representation of fantasy women in "The stepford wives", the simultaneous celebration and reduction of wartime heroines such as "Rosie the riveter" and an analysis of melodrama.

Jacobs, Lea.
"The Woman's Picture and the Poetics of Melodrama." Camera Obscura. 31:121-47. 1993 Jan-May
Considers definitions of melodrama and tragedy in relation to the pressure or assertive nature of the heroine in literature and in women's romantic Hollywood films of the 1930's and 1940's.

Kaplan, E. Ann.
"Melodrama, Cinema and Trauma." Screen. 42(2):201-05. 2001 Summer
Approaching the genre of melodrama from the perspective of 'trauma theory' highlights gaps in theorising about melodrama, previously articulated through Freudian psychoanalysis.

Kaplan, E. Ann.
"Theories of Melodrama: A Feminist Perspective." Women & Performance: a Journal of Feminist Theory. 1(1):40-48. 1983 Spring-Summer.

Kauffmann, Stanley.
"Melodrama and Farce: A Note on a Fusion in Film." New York Literary Forum. 7:169-172. 1980.

Kennedy, Harlan
"The melodramatists." (film makers Douglas Sirk and Nicholas Ray) American Film Jan-Feb 1992 v17 n1 p54(3)

Kleinhans, Chuck
"Notes on melodrama and the family under capitalism." Film Reader nr 3 (1978); p 40-47.
Discusses the family under capitalism in order to better understand bourgeois domestic melodrama.

Kuhn, Annette
"Women's genres." Screen Vol XXV nr 1 (Jan-Feb 1984); p 18-28.
Developments in film and tv theory relating to critical work on film melodrama and tv soap opera, with particular reference to the audience for these genres, which is traditionally female.

Lloyd, Justine. Johnson, Lesley.
"The Three Faces of Eve: The Post-War Housewife, Melodrama, and Home." Feminist Media Studies. 3 (1): 7-25. 2003 Mar., Book Publication Date: 2003.

MacKinnon, Kenneth
"The family in Hollywood Melodrama: actual or ideal?" Journal of Gender Studies Volume 13, Number 1 / March 2004, pp: 29 - 36
UC users only
"This paper suggests that 1950s movie melodrama highlights the gulf between the experience of an actual family and its members' belief, implicit and sometimes explicit, in Family as an idealised Platonic form. At the dénouement, the transcendental ideal of the latter entity is maintained despite the unsettling experiences of a particular family, or the discovery of a superior version of family, in the preceding narrative. Melodrama's apparent celebration of familial ideology, and of the mythology which makes the bourgeois patriarchal family so 'natural' that it marginalises all rival versions, could be viewed as reactionary in terms of sexual politics. Perhaps, though, the very exposure of the consequences of Family mythology could be thought to be at least potentially 'progressive'. An especially succinct exemplification of the process whereby a particular family fictionalises itself into a closer approximation to the ideal is provided by Cat on a Hot Tin Roof. Several other movie melodramas of the 1950s are also briefly explored, however, to show that reluctance to jettison family, as long as there is belief in Family, is widely shared." [Taylor & Francis]

Margolis, Harriet.
"Contemporary Women's Films: A Fictional Genre?" Film Criticism. 13(2):47-60. 1989 Winter.

McHugh, K. A.
"The labor of maternal melodramas: converting angels to icons." In: American domesticity : from how-to manual to Hollywood melodrama / Kathleen Anne McHugh. New York : Oxford University Press, 1999.
Main Stack PN1995.9.W6.M38 199

"Melodrama." Film Criticism. 9(2). 1984-1985 Winter.

"Melodrama." Wide Angle Vol IV nr 2 (1980); p 4-51.
"Five articles studying examples of the melodrama genre in the light of recent work in theory and feminism."

"Melodrama and transgression." Screen Vol XXIX nr 3 (Summer 1988); p 2-115.
Dedicated to the portrayal of heroines in melodramas.

Mendelsohn, Daniel
"The Melodramatic Moment." (are current melodramas such as 'Far From Heaven' sincere, or manipulative?) The New York Times Magazine March 23, 2003 p40 col 1 (50 col in)

Merritt, Russell.
"Melodrama: Postmortem for a Phantom Genre." Wide Angle 5(3):25-31. 1983
The body of work defined by the word 'melodrama' may constantly shift in line with shifting standards of realism.

Modleski, Tania.
"Time and desire in the woman's film." Cinema Journal Vol XXIII nr 3 (Spring 1984); p 19-30.
UC users only
Using "Letter from an unknown woman" as its chief example, reviews the scholarship on melodrama and speculates on the reasons for the appeal of this genre to women.

Montgomery, Sarah
"Women's Women's Films." Feminist Review No. 18, Cultural Politics (Winter, 1984), pp. 38-48
UC users only

Morris, Gary
"John M. Stahl: The man who understood women." Film Comment Vol XIII nr 3 (May-June 1977); p 24-27.
Discussion of the themes and style of the melodramas of Stahl.

Neale, Steve
"Melo talk: on the meaning and use of the term 'melodrama' in the American trade press." Velvet Light Trap nr 32 (Fall 1993); p 66-89.
On the use of the term 'melodrama' to describe Hollywood films of the period 1938-60. Concludes that contrary to popular belief the term was not derogatory, and was used more frequently to describe male-orientated action films than for films aimed at women.

Neale, Steve
"Melodrama and tears." Screen Vol XXVII nr 6 (Nov-Dec 1986); p 6-22.
Reappraisal of the genre in terms of a series of relationships or tensions, exploring the genre as a processing of spectatorial pleasure, and explaining why we cry when we watch melodramas.

Neumeyer, David
"Melodrama as a compositional resource in early Hollywood sound cinema." Current Musicology Jan 1995 n57 p61(34)
"Studio producers, directors, composers and sound technicians evolved the basic practices of film music in the late 1920s and early 1930s when cinema changed from silent movies to talkies. Max Steiner, Alfred Newman and Herbert Stothart were the pioneers in this field. Steiner drew from Wagner and Viennese melodrama while underscoring dialogue in a terse synchronized manner. The main contribution of the 1930s was the integration of the melodramatic with the operatic style. This is one of the preferred techniques even in the 1990s." [Expanded Academic Index]

Rodowick, D.N..
"Madness, authority, and ideology in the domestic melodrama of the 1950's." Velvet Light Trap nr 19 (1982); p 40-45.

Russell, Catherine.
"'Overcoming Modernity': Gender and the Pathos of History in Japanese Film Melodrama." Camera Obscura: A Journal of Feminism, Culture, and Media Studies. 35: 131-57. 1995 May.

Scheman, Naomi.
"Missing mothers/desiring daughters: framing the sight of women." Critical Inquiry, 1988, Vol. 15 Issue 1, p62-89, 28p;

Singer, Ben
"Female power in the serial-queen melodrama: the etiology of an anomaly." Camera Obscura nr 22 (Jan 1990); p 90-129.
Reappraisal of the US melodramatic film serials, pointing out the central position given to the heroine.

Singer, Ben
"Serial melodrama and narrative Gesellschaft." (Gemeinschaft und Gesellschaft)(Critical Essay) Velvet Light Trap Spring 1996 p72(9) (5797 words)

Sobchack, Vivian.
"Child/Alien/Father: Patriarchal Crisis and Generic Exchange." Camera Obscura: A Journal of Feminism, Culture, and Media Studies. 15: 7-34. 1986 Fall.

Tay, Sharon
"Constructing a Feminist Cinematic Genealogy: The Gothic Woman's Film beyond Psychoanalysis." Women: a Cultural Review Volume 14, Number 3 / December 2003 Pages: 263 - 280
UC users only
"The Gothic woman's film, as a particular 1940s phenomenon, responded to the social changes caused by the upheavals of the Second World War. It featured female protagonists, expressed anxieties about marriage and complicated the classic realist premises of narrative and heterosexual closures. As the Gothic narrative trajectory revolved around the heroine's pursuit of marital happiness, these films are often theorized in the sexually differentiated terms of Lacanian psychoanalysis. As a result, they are interpreted as cinematic manifestations of paranoia, primal scenes, passive female desires and the impossibility of female subjectivity. Tay considers how the Gothic woman's film may resist such psychoanalytic codifications by considering critiques of psychoanalysis and investigating the ways in which Gilles Deleuze's cinematic topography may apply to the genre. This engagement with Deleuze reveals how 1940s Gothic films--such as Suspicion (Hitchcock, 1941), Gaslight (Cukor, 1944), and Sleep, My Love (Sirk, 1948)--breach the narrative normativity of classic realist love stories like Random Harvest (LeRoy, 1942). Culminating in a detailed analysis of Hitchcock's Rebecca (1940) as a film that sustains female transgression in its textual operation, Tay posits possibilities for furthering a feminist cinematic discourse beyond psychoanalytic codifications." [Taylor & Francis abstract]

Turim, Maureen.
"Fictive Psyches: The Psychological Melodrama in 40s Film." Boundary 2-An International Journal of Literature & Culture. 12-13(3-1):321-31. 1984 Spring-Fall
UC users only

Turim, Maureen.
"Psyches, Ideologies, and Melodrama: The United States and Japan." East-West Film Journal. 5 (1): 118-43. 1991 Jan.

Viviani, Christian
"Who is without sin? The maternal melodrama in American film, 1930-39." Wide Angle Vol IV nr 2 (1980); p 4-17.
Considers the four versions of "Madame X". Trans. from 'Cahiers de la Cinmathque' 28-29, 1979.

Williams, Linda.
"Melodrama in Black and White: Uncle Tom and The Green Mile." Film Quarterly. 55(2):14-21. 2001-2002 Winter

All About Eve

Cook, Page.
"The sound track." Films in Review Vol XL nr 8-9 (Aug-Sept 1989); p 437-440.
Analysis of Alfred Newman's score for "All about Eve".

Gussow, Mel.
"The lasting allure of 'All About Eve'." The New York Times Oct 1, 2000 pAR13(N) pAR13(L) col 1

Gussow, Mel.
"The man who made 'All About Eve' recalls his sometimes bumpy ride." (Joseph L. Mankiewicz) (Living Arts Pages) Mel Gussow. The New York Times Nov 24, 1992 v142 pB1(N) pC13(L) col 1

Haun, H.
"All about Eve." (production history) Films in Review Vol XLII nr 3-4 (Mar-Apr 1991); p 74-83.

Shingler, Martin.
"Interpreting All About Eve: A Study in Historical Reception." In: Hollywood Spectatorship: Changing Perceptions Of Cinema Audiences; Ed. By Melvyn Stokes. pp: 46-62. London British Film Institute 2001

Swicord, Robin
"Blonde ambition." Sight & Sound Vol V nr 11 (Nov 1995); p 59.

Brief Encounter

See David Lean bibliography

Far From Heaven (Todd Haynes)

See Todd Haynes bibliography

Gaslight

See George Cukor bibliography

Letter From an Unknown Woman

See Max Ophüls bibliography

Mildred Pierce

See Film Noir bibliography

Now Voyager

Cavell, Stanley.
"Ugly Duckling, Funny Butterfly: Bette Davis and Now, Voyager." Critical Inquiry. 16(2):213-289. 1990 Winter

Ely, M. Lynda
"The untold want: representation and transformation echoes of Walt Whitman's "Passage to India" in "Now, Voyager"." (19th-century American poet)(Critical Essay) Literature-Film Quarterly Jan 2001 v29 i1 p43(10)
UC users only
"The manner in which a couplet about unfulfilled desire in Walt Whitman's poem "Passage to India" frames the themes in the 1941 novel, "Now, Voyager," by Olive Higgins Prouty, and the 1942 movie of the same name are examined. Topics include the spirituality of Whitman's poetry, the theme of metamorphosis, the manners in which romantic relationships and motherhood define women, and the constrictions of convention in the life of Prouty's main female character." [Expanded Academic Index]

Jacobs, Lea.
"Now Voyager: Some Problems of Enunciation and Sexual Difference." Camera Obscura. 7:89-104. 1981

Shingler, Martin.
"Breathtaking: Bette Davis's Performance at the End of Now, Voyager." Journal of Film and Video. Spring 2006. Vol. 58, Iss. 1/2; p. 46 (13 pages)
UC users only

Wells, Lynn; Weathers, Winston.
"Staging Nontraditional Fiction: 'Now Voyager' as a Case History." Literature in Performance: a Journal of Literary & Performing Art. 3(2):45-54. 1983 Apr.

Stella Dallas

See King Vidor bibliography

Douglas Sirk

See also: German film bibliography (for Sirk's German films)

Basinger, Jeanine
"The Lure of the Gilded Cage: All I Desire and There's Always Tomorrow." Bright Lights Film Journal, vol. 48, pp. (no pagination), May 2005.

Bourget, Jean Loup.
Douglas Sirk / Jean-Loup Bourget. Paris : Edilig, [1984] Cinegraphiques
Main Stack PN1998.A3.S545331 1984

Bourget, Jean Loup.
"Sirk and the Critics." Bright Lights Film Journal, vol. 48, pp. (no pagination), May 2005.

Chung, Hye Seung
"Hollywood Goes to Korea: Biopic Politics and Douglas Sirk's "Battle Hymn" (1957) Historical Journal of Film, Radio and Television 25:1 [March 2005] p. 51-80

de Allencar Lyon, Andre
"The Afterlife of Melodrama" Stanford Undergraduate Journal Spring 2004

Doherty, Thomas.
"Douglas Sirk: Magnificent Obsession." Chronicle of Higher Education, 11/15/2002, Vol. 49 Issue 12, pB16, 3p,
UC users only

Douglas Sirk.
[Lisbon, Portugal] Cinemateca Portuguesa/Museu do Cinema, 2002.
PFA PN1998.3.S57.D68 2002
Published in conjunction with a film retrospective held at the Cinemateca Portuguesa, Apr.-June 2002. Includes filmography (p.147-153) and bibliographical references (p.153).

Fear, Dave.
"Magnificent Obsessions; The Return of the 1950's Melodrama." Kitchen Sink. Jan 31, 2003. Vol. 1, Iss. 2; p. 36
UC users only

Fischer, Lucy
"Sirk and the Figure of the Actress: All I Desire." Film Criticism Wntr-Spring 1999 p136 (5286 words)
UC users only
"Douglas Sirk's film "All I Desire" portrays the duality of the female character. Situated at the turn of the century, the film follows a woman's desire to become an actress at the price of abandoning her husband and children. Although she is reunited with her family in the end, her absence has created intensified love or hatred in her children and meekness in her husband." [Expanded Academic Index]

Gallagher, Tag
"White Melodrama: Douglas Sirk." Senses of Cinema: An Online Film Journal Devoted to the Serious and Eclectic Discussion of Cinema, vol. 36, pp. (no pagination), Summer 2005.

Gallagher, Tag
"White Melodrama: Douglas Sirk." Film Comment, Nov/Dec98, Vol. 34 Issue 6, p16, 9p
UC users only

Gemunden, Gerd (compiler).
"Douglas Sirk: Selected Bibliography." Film Criticism. 23(2-3):167-74. 1999 Winter-Spring

Gemunden, Gerd
"Introduction." (screenwriter Douglas Sirk) Film Criticism Wntr-Spring 1999 p1 (4695 words)
UC users only
"German-born filmmaker Douglas Sirk made significant contributions to cinematic portrayal of industrialized culture. Sirk changed his name and place of birth on emigrating from Germany to avoid anti-Nazi sentiment. This duality is revealed in many of his films, in which characters struggle to create their identities or come to terms with them." [Expanded Academic Index

Hake, Sabine.
"The Melodramatic Imagination of Detlef Sierck: Final Chord and Its Resonances." Screen. 38 (2): 129-48. 1997 Summer.

Horak, Jan-Christopher.
"Sirk's Early Exile Films: Boefje and Hitler's Madman." (Douglas Sirk, Adolf Hitler) Film Criticism Wntr-Spring 1999 p122 (5195 words)
UC users only
"Filmmaker Douglas Sirk examined the destruction of the German social order in his works. Sirk disassociated himself from Nazism through emigration, and targeted fascism as the primary cause of cultural dissolution through its dismantling of religion and human values. This social decay is represented in both "Boefje" and "Hitler's Madman"." [Expanded Academic Index]

Joyrich, Lynne
"All that television allows: TV melodrama, postmodernism and consumer culture." Camera Obscura nr 16 (Jan 1988); p 128-153.
A postmodernist reading of US melodrama, tracing its shift from cinema, in the films of Douglas Sirk, to its current home, the tv soap opera.

Kauffmann, Stanley
"Douglas Sirk." [obituary] The New Republic Feb 16, 1987 v196 p25(1) (395 words)

Kennedy, Harlan
"The melodramatists." (film makers Douglas Sirk and Nicholas Ray) American Film Jan-Feb 1992 v17 n1 p54(3)

Klinger, Barbara
Melodrama and meaning: history, culture, and the films of Douglas Sirk / Barbara Klinger. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, c1994.
UCB Main PN1998.3.S57 K55 1994

Koch, Gertrud
"From Detlef Sierck to Douglas Sirk." Film Criticism Wntr-Spring 1999 p14 (7224 words)
UC users only
" Filmmaker Douglas Sirk examines the origins of social conflicts within his works. Many of Sirk's plots are based on confrontations between societies based on values and those based on abstract rules. Other themes he explores include sexual repression and homosexuality, ethnic identity, gender performance and the bonds between family members." [Expanded Academic Index]

Koepnick, Lutz
"Sirk and the Culture Industry: Zu neuen Ufern and The First Legion." Film Criticism, vol. 23, no. 2-3, pp. 94-121, Winter 1999.

Laufer, Elisabeth.
Skeptiker des Lichts : Douglas Sirk und seine Filme / Elisabeth Laufer. Originalausg. Frankfurt am Main : Fischer Taschenbuch, 1987. Fischer Cinema ; 4468
Main Stack PN1998.3.S57.L38 1987

Lawrence, Amy.
"Trapped in a Tomb of Their Own Making: Max Ophuls's The Reckless Moment and Douglas Sirk's There's Always Tomorrow." Film Criticism Wntr-Spring 1999 p150 (6057 words)
UC users only
"Filmmakers Max Ophuls and Douglas Sirk depict the gradual decay of the family unit in their films. Both focus on the rise of youth culture during the 1950s, coupled with the open floor plans of that era. Boundaries are therefore transgressed physically, mentally and emotionally, leading family members to seek means of escape and make irrational decisions." [Expanded Academic Index]

Morey, A.
"A star has died: affect and stardom in a domestic melodrama." Quarterly Review of Film and Video, vol. 21, no. 2, pp. 89-105, April-June 2004
UC users only
"Until relatively recently, it has been fashionable to read Douglas Sirk as ridiculing popular culture though his manipulation of it. In other words, critics claim, to be moved by a Sirk film is to have missed the critical boat. In this essay, the author seeks to demonstrate that Sirk is more a parodist. This article compares Sirk's Imitation of Life (1959) to Aavid O. Selznick and William Wellman's A Star is Born (1937) to explore a characteristically Sirkian narrative strategy-the latter film does not amuse itself at its predecessor's expense so much as it inverts the message. A Star is Born conveys to its audience the idea that envying the glamorous life of the Hollywood star is inappropriate, inasmuch as the glamour has been fully paid for in suffering; arguably, what is lost is more valuable than the beauty, wealthy, fame, and indeed audience envy that is won. Imitation of Life, in contrast, suggests that envying the glamorous life of the Broadway star is inappropriate because as Gertrude Stein once quipped of Oakland, "there's no there there" (Stein, 289). Sirk's protagonist cannot trade suffering for glamour because she is not sufficiently real to suffer; literally, then, there is nothing to envy. Like other domestic melodramas of the day, Imitation of Life explores the possibilities of female rebellion and escape, variously offering its audience validation, socialization, and emotional release through tears-but it accomplishes this task in a way that criticizes female aspirations and audience gullibility considerably less that it criticizes theatricality in general." [Communication Abstracts]

Mulvey, Laura.
"Notes on Sirk and melodrama." In: Visual and other pleasures Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1989.
Grad Svcs PN1995.9.W6.M84 1989
Main Stack PN1995.9.W6.M84 1989
Moffitt PN1995.9.W6.M84 1989

Petley, Julian
"Sirk in Germany." (film director Douglas Sirk). Sight and Sound Winter 1987 v57 n1 p58(4)

Rentschler, Eric.
"Douglas Sirk Revisited: The Limits and Possibilities of Artistic Agency." New German Critique, Spring/Summer2005 Issue 95, p149-161, 13p
UC users only
"The article analyzes the work of film director Douglas Sirk as a case study of a central deliberation in David Bathrick's work, "the limits and possibilies of artistic agency." Sirk has exerted strong influence on discussions about authorship and authorial resistance to the ideolological determinations of Hollywood and the studio system. He also contributed to the international discovery and subsequent valorization of the New German cinema." [Ebsco

Sarris, Andrew
"Sarris on Sirk." Bright Lights Film Journal, vol. 48, pp. (no pagination), May 2005.

Schulte-Sasse, Linda.
"Douglas Sirk's Schlubakkord and the question of aesthetic resistance." The Germanic Review, Wntr 1998 v73 n1 p2(30)
UC users only
"It is difficult to prove that Douglas Sirk's films offer resistance to National Socialism. If they do at all, they do it by reflecting on desire for the impossible. While Nazism pathologically reflects on the desire for harmony, purity and wholeness, Sirk's German films express desire and its contradictory dependency on harmony and exclusion." [Expanded Academic Index]

Sheehan, Henry
"Douglas Sirk." [web article]

Sirk, Douglas
Sirk on Sirk; interviews with Jon Halliday. New York, Viking Press [1972] Cinema one, 18
Main Stack PN1993.C45 v.18

Smith, Robert E.
"Love Affairs That Always Fade." Bright Lights Film Journal, vol. 48, pp. (no pagination), May 2005.

Stern, Jane
"Two Weeks in Another Town: Interview with Douglas Sirk." Bright Lights Film Journal, vol. 48, pp. (no pagination), May 2005.

Stern, Michael
Douglas Sirk / Michael Stern Boston : Twayne Publishers, 1979 (Series: Twayne's theatrical arts series)
Main Stack PN1998.A3.S54536
Moffitt PN1998.A3.S54536

Stern, Michael
"Sirk Speaks." Bright Lights Film Journal, vol. 48, pp. (no pagination), May 2005.

Willemen, Paul
"Towards an analysis of the Sirkian system." Screen Vol XIII nr 4 (Winter 1972-73); p 128-134
Assesses Sirk's value as an artist who dramatized and presented the contradictions within US society of the 1950's.

Zukerman, George.
"On Sirk." Bright Lights Film Journal, vol. 48, pp. (no pagination), May 2005.

All That Heaven Allows (Douglas Sirk)

Haralovich, Mary Beth.
"All that Heaven Allows: Color, Narrative Space, and Melodrama." In Close viewings: an anthology of new film criticism / edited by Peter Lehman. pp: 57-72. Tallahassee: Florida State University Press; Gainesville, FL: Orders to University Presses of Florida, c1990.
Main Stack PN1995.C543 1990

Joyrich, Lynne
"All that television allows: TV melodrama, postmodernism and consumer culture." Camera Obscura nr 16 (Jan 1988); p 128-153.

McNiven, R.D.
"The middle-class American home of the fifties." Cinema Journal Vol XXII nr 4 (Summer 1983); p 38-57.

Metz, Walter C.
"Pomp(ous) Sirk-umstance: intertextuality, adaptation, and all that heaven allows." Journal of Film and Video Winter 1993 v45 n4 p3(19)
"An intertextual analysis of Douglas Sirk's 1955 film 'All That Heaven Allows,' an adaptation of Edna and Harry Lee's 'woman's novel,' helps understand the influence of auteurism on melodrama studies. Sirk's portrayal of American culture of the 1950s reflects his ability as a modernist creator of social critique. The archaeology of film studies criticism is significant to the understanding of film text interpretation." [Expanded Academic Index]

Reimer, Robert C.
"Comparison of Douglas Sirk's All That Heaven Allows and R. W. Fassbinder's Ali: Fear Eats the Soul: Or, How Hollywood's New England Dropouts Became Germany's Marginalized Other." Literature-Film Quarterly. 24(3):281-87. 1996
"Rainer Werner Fassbinder's 1973 film "Ali: Fear Eats the Soul" was influenced by Douglas Sirk's 1955 film "All That Heaven Allows" but was not a remake of the earlier film. "Ali: Fear Eats the Soul" represents Fassbinder's response to Sirk's work, paired with personal experiences that he was having around the time he made the film. "All That Heaven Allows" positioned the main characters as failing to fit into New England society. Fassbinder replaced them with economically and politically marginalized figures in Germany." [Expanded Academic Index]

Imitation of Life

Douglas Sirk

Butler, Jeremy G.
"Style and the Domestic Melodrama." Jump Cut /32, Apr 86; p.25-28.
Discusses a theory of style through a comparison of the 1934 and 1959 versions of "Imitation of Life".

Butler, Judith.
"Lana's 'Imitation': Melodramatic Repetition and the Gender Performative." . 9:1-18. 1990 Fall. Genders

Caputi, J. and Vann, H.
"Questions of Race and Place." Cineaste XV/4, 87; p.16-21.
Discusses racism in "Imitation of Life" and "Places in the Heart".

Caughie, Pamela L.
"Let It Pass: Changing the Subject, Once Again." PMLA: Publications of the Modern Language Association of America. 112 (1): 26-39. 1997 Jan.

Conroy, Marianne.
"'No Sin in Lookin' Prosperous': Gender, Race, and the Class Formations of Middlebrow Taste in Douglas Sirk's Imitation of Life." In: The hidden foundation : cinema and the question of class / David E. James and Rick Berg, editors. pp: 114-37. Minneapolis, Minn. : University of Minnesota Press, c1996.
UCB Main PN1995.9.P6 H5 1996

Fischer, Lucy
"Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous: Imitation of Life." Post Script X/2, Winter 91; p.5-13..
The public image of US stars, esp. female, is contrasted with the reality of their private life; focuses on the example of Lana Turner and her role in "Imitation of life".

Flitterman-Lewis, Sandy.
"Imitation(s) of Life: The Black Woman's Double Determination as Troubling 'Other'." Literature & Psychology. 34(4):44-57. 1988.

Gallagher, Tag
"White Melodrama: Douglas Sirk." (director Douglas Sirk's 1959 movie "Imitation of Life" was popular melodrama) Film Comment, Nov 1998 p16(1)
"Filmmaker Douglas Sirk thought that movies should function for society, playing on the audience's emotions. Good and evil, lightness and darkness were accentuated with music. Motion and light were used to create the necessary melodramatic moments. Two major Sirk themes are characters who impose their will despite pain (white melodrama), and characters who are dominated by their will, giving in to lust (black melodrama)." [Expanded Academic Index]

Handzo, Stephen
"Intimations of Lifelessness: Sirk's Ironic Tearjerker." Bright Lights Film Journal, vol. 48, pp. (no pagination), May 2005.

Harris, Tina M., Donmoyer, Deidra.
"Is Art Imitating Life? Communicating Gender and Racial Identity in Imitation of Life." Women's Studies in Communication. 23(1):91-110. 2000 Winter

Henke, R.
"Imitation World of Vaudeville." Jump Cut /39, June 94; p.31-39.
Examines the imprisonment and alienation of women in terms of race and gender in "Imitation of Life" with reference to the 'camp' sensibility evident in "Valley of the Dolls".

Heung, M.
"'What's the Matter with Sara Jane?': Daughters and Mothers in Douglas Sirk's Imitation of Life." Cinema Journal XXVI/3, Spring 87; p.21-43.
UC users only
Analyses the film in terms of the intersection of issues of race, class and gender.

Imitation of life : Douglas Sirk, director
Lucy Fischer, editor. New Brunswick : Rutgers University Press, c1991. Series title: Rutgers films in print ; v. 16.
UCB Main PN1997.I4553 I45 1991
UCB Moffitt PN1997.I4553 I45 1991

McKegney, M.
"Film Favorites."Film Comment VIII/2, Summer 72; p.71-73.
Defense of Douglas Sirk and of his last film: "Imitation of Life".

Niu, Greta Ai-Yu
"Performing White Triangles: Joan Riviere's 'Womanliness as a Masquerade' and Imitation of Life (1959)." Quarterly Review of Film and Video, vol. 22, no. 2, pp. 135-44, Spring 2005.

Selig, M.E.
"Contradiction and Reading: Social Class and Sex Class in Imitation of Life." Wide Angle X/4, 88; p.13-23.
Douglas Sirk's "Imitation of life" re-defined in connection with film melodrama, via feminist and Marxist perspectives.

Verstraeten, Peter.
"The (Dis)Illusion of White Masquerade: An Overidentification with Stock Images in Sirk's Melodrama Imitation of Life (1959)." Thamyris. 7(1-2):201-13. 2000 Summer

John Stahl

Butler, Judith.
"Lana's 'Imitation': Melodramatic Repetition and the Gender Performative." Genders. 9: 1-18. 1990 Fall.

Butler, Jeremy G.
"Style and the Domestic Melodrama." Jump Cut /32, Apr 86; p.25-28.
Discusses a theory of style through a comparison of the 1934 and 1959 versions of "Imitation of Life".

Caputi, J. and Vann, H.
"Questions of Race and Place." Cineaste XV/4, 87; p.16-21.
Discusses racism in "Imitation of Life" and "Places in the Heart".

Caughie, Pamela L.
"Let It Pass: Changing the Subject, Once Again." PMLA: Publications of the Modern Language Association of America. 112 (1): 26-39. 1997 Jan.

Milne, Tom.
"Imitation of Life." (review) Films & Filming /327, Dec 81; p.42-43.

Pulleine, Tim.
"Imitation of Life." (Review). Monthly Film Bulletin XLVIII/574, Nov 81; p.229.

Thaggert, Miriam
"Divided images: black female spectatorship and John Stahl's 'Imitation of Life.'" African American Review, Fall 1998 v32 n3 p481(11)
UC users only
"Director John Stahl's 1934 film 'Imitation of Life' offers images and characters for black female spectatorship. The film, an adaptation of Fannie Hurst's novel of the same title, contains cinematic elements such as black feminism that create pleasure in African American women viewers. This unique interplay of feminist film theory and black female spectatorship is effectively exploited in the strained relationship between the film's black mother and her light-skinned daughter." [Expanded Academic Index]

Magnificent Obsession (Douglas Sirk)

Bourget, Jean-Loup
"God Is Dead, or through a Glass Darkly." Bright Lights Film Journal, vol. 48, pp. (no pagination), May 2005.

Carroll, Noel.
"The Moral Ecology of Melodrama: The Family Plot and Magnificent Obsession." New York Literary Forum. 7:197-206. 1980.

Doherty, Thomas.
"Douglas Sirk: Magnificent Obsession." Chronicle of Higher Education. 49(12):B16-B18. 2002 Nov 15
This article examines the life and work of filmmaker Douglas Sirk who worked in Hollywood during the 1950s. Topics include how Sirk's films depicted passion and 1950s culture, and director Todd Haynes 2002 release of 'Far From Heaven,' which imitates the style of Sirk's classic melodramas.

Falcon, Richard
"Magnificent Obsession." Sight and Sound, vol. 13, no. 3, pp. 12-15, March 2003.

Mulvey, Laura.
"'It Will Be a Magnificent Obsession': The Melodrama's Role in the Development of Contemporary Film Theory." In: Melodrama: stage, picture, screen
Edited by Jacky Bratton, Jim Cook, Christine Gledhill. pp: 121-33. London: British Film Institute, 1994.
Main Stack PN1912.M45 1994

Selig, Michael.
"Hollywood Melodrama, Douglas Sirk, and the Repression of the Female Subject (Magnificent Obsession)." Genders. 9:35-48. 1990 Fall.

Written on the Wind

Klinger, Barbara.
"Much Ado about Excess: Genre, Mise-en-Scene and the Woman in Written on the Wind." Wide Angle 11(4):4-22. 1989 Oct.

Luzon, Vicky.
"Raving about Things That Won't Solve: Marylee Hadley in Written on the Wind." Miscelanea: a Journal of English & American Studies. 22:83-99. 2000

Orr, Christopher.
"Written on the Wind and the Ideology of Adaptation." Film Criticism. 10(3):1-8. 1985 Spring.

Wegner, Hart.
"Melodrama as Tragic Rondo: Douglas Sirk's Written on the Wind." Literature-Film Quarterly.10(3):155-161. 1982.
UC users only

Wood, Robin.
"Written on the Wind." In: In: The Oxford guide to film studies / edited by John Hill and Pamela Church Gibson pp: 24-26. Oxford; New York: Oxford University Press, 1998.
Main Stack PN1995.O93 1998



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