bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Influence of Tank Water Depths on Reproductive Performance of Catfish (Heterobranchus longifilis) Valenciennes, 1840
Authors: A. J. Otoh
Published: June 2024

Aims: To determine the optimum water depth required for catfish spawning in hatcheries.
Study Design: Treatments were assigned using complete randomized design.
Place and Duration of Study: Fish Farm Complex of the Akwa Ibom State University (AKSU), Nigeria.
Methodology: Eighteen (18) similarly-sized H. longifilis broodstock (2.51-2.53 kg, 64 – 66 cm): comprising six broodstock of three males and three females, were held for six months at 0.50 m, 0.75 m and 1.0 m pond water depth. All males were sacrificed for milt extraction without hormonal inducement; with milt from each treatment diluted with normal saline solution. Female broodstock from each treatment were separately induced with ovaprim hormones at a single dosage of 0.5ml/kg body weight of fish and allowed for 16 hours before manual stripping; 3g of egg from each broodstock and mixed with the diluted milt and activated with 100 ml of normal saline. The fertilized eggs were incubated and thereafter assessed for percentage fertilization, hatchability, survival and fry production success.
Results: broodstock reproductive parameters significantly increased (P = 0.00) with water depth of broodstock culture tank. Percentage fertilizations were: 49.50±0.78, 68.17±0.93, and 82.50±1.44; respectively. Percentage hatchability of broodstock eggs were: 91.37±1.65 significantly higher for 1.0 m water depth group than 67.79±4.58 from 0.75 m water depth treatment while the least value of hatchability 50.31± 0.78 was recorded for broodstock raised at 0.50 m water depth. The fish group raised at 1.0 m water depth also exhibited highest percentage survival value of 97.02 ± 1.09 and fry production success value of 73.08 ± 0.53 while broodstock raised at 0.50 m water depth indicated the least values: % survival, 8.38 ± 0.48 and fry production success of 2.07 ± 0.07. Conclusion: In times or places of water scarcity, H. longifilis broodstock may be raised at pond water of 0.5 m to 1.0 m. But the water depth that would afford the best breeding and reproductive performance is at 1.0 m depth.
Floral Biology of Chinar (Platanus orientalis L.) under Temperate Conditions in the Kashmir Himalayas
Authors: Wagay Oyais Ahmad , Raj Anup , Khan P. A. , Mugloo J. A. , Mir Aashfaq A. , Rafeeq Jauhar
Published: June 2024

Chinar, Platanus orientalis is a huge, widely distributed, and long-lived deciduous tree native to the eastern Mediterranean. It is the only species of the Platanaceae family found in India and grows throughout the valley. Since ancient times, this particular species has garnered fascination and reverence, leading to its continuous examination and admiration. However, the information related to its floral biology is meagre. The floral biology of P. orientalis is crucial to understanding its reproductive mechanisms and ecological interactions. The present study, therefore, aimed at investigating the floral characteristics of P. orientalis. For this study, seven young sexually mature trees were selected to study the floral characteristics. It was revealed that, in general, male flowers often emerge earlier than female blosssoms. The position of the male flower is always proximal and that of the female flower is distal when present on terminal branches. The average male female ratio recorded was 7:1 and the ratio between pollen and ovules on average was 9550 to 1. The pollen-ovule ratio is a fundamental reproductive parameter that provides insights into the reproductive strategies and ecological adaptations of plant species. The floral biology of P. orientalis demonstrates its adaptation to wind pollination and efficient seed dispersal mechanisms. This knowledge enhances comprehension and aids in gaining a deeper understanding of the reproductive strategies of P. orientalis and its ecological significance within its native range. Research in this field can help in developing effective conservation strategies and utilizing this species for research purposes.
Evaluation of the Different Varieties of Lotus (Nelumbo nucifera) in Prayagraj Agro Climatic Conditions, Uttar Pradesh
Authors: Mondal Srijika , Singh Devi , Tiwari Aakanksha
Published: June 2024

Lotus, an aquatic perennial flowering plant, holds significant economic and medicinal value. Lotus (Nelumbo nucifera) commonly known as sacred lotus, have significant medical value due to its wide range of bioactive compounds. This study, conducted in Prayagraj, Uttar Pradesh, evaluates the performance of six lotus varieties under local agro-climatic conditions. The Lotus varieties under investigation–Yellow Peony, Pastel Pink, Bucha, Rani Red, White Budhha and Pink cloud exhibited significant variations across all observed parameters. The research focuses on various characteristics of Lotus, including growth parameters, floral parameters, quality parameters, yield parameters and economy of the cultivation, to determine the most suitable variety for cultivation in similar climatic conditions. The variety V3: Bucha demonstrated superior performance in terms of plant height (41.31 cm), leaf length (14.94 cm), leaf width (19.68 cm), flower diameter (16.28 cm), total numbers of flowers per plant (38.13), total number of flowers per hectare (1,525,000), yield of rhizome per plant (1.74 kg), and yield of rhizome per hectare (69.73 tonnes). Additionally, V6: Pink Cloud reported longest vase-life (6.25 days), followed by V3: Bucha (5. 75 days). The variety V3: Bucha also achieved the highest gross return (4,444,500 Rs .ha-1), net return (3,437,050 Rs .ha-1), and benefit – cost ratio (4.41). Based on the findings, V3: Bucha is recommended for cultivation in the agro-climatic conditions of Prayagraj, Uttar Pradesh.
Effectiveness of Different Desensitizing Protocols in In-Office Dental Whitening: Clinical, Blind and Randomized Study
Authors: Dalbosco Bruno Fongaro , Cardoso Poliana Maria de Faveri , Godoy Carlos Eduardo Misiak , Ueda Julio Katuhide , Campos Francisco Ubiratan Ferreira de , Camilotti Veridiana
Published: June 2024

Aims: To evaluate the efficacy of ozonated sunflower oil in managing sensitivity during and after in-office dental bleaching.
Methodology: Thirty patients were selected and allocated into two distinct groups - 5% Potassium Nitrate and 2% Sodium Fluoride (NF) and ozonated sunflower oil (OGO). Desensitization was performed before the application of the bleaching gel for 10 minutes. Hydrogen peroxide was applied for 30 minutes. The evaluation of the degree of sensitivity (DS) was performed on an illustrative scale from 0 to 4, and the patients were questioned during bleaching (05 minutes, 10 minutes, 15 minutes, 20 minutes, 25 minutes, and 30 minutes) and after bleaching (1 hour, 24 hours, 48 hours and 7 days). The degree of whitening (DW) was assessed before and 7 days after treatment. The data were subjected to Wilcoxon statistical analysis (p<0.05).
Results: In the intra-group analysis, there was a statistical difference between the times. In the inter-group analysis, ozonated sunflower oil compared to the conventional desensitizing agent resulted in statistical differences for the times of 25 minutes, 30 minutes and 1 hour post-bleaching. In the color saturation analysis, both groups showed statistical differences between the initial color and the final color.
Conclusion: Ozonated sunflower oil demonstrates significant management of sensitivity during and after in-office dental bleaching, in addition to not interfering with the degree of color saturation of the bleached teeth and the efficiency of hydrogen peroxide.
Response of Mixed Nano Micronutrients on Growth and Quality of French Bean
Authors: Maurya Pankaj Kumar , Bahadur Vijay , Shukla P. K. , E. Topno Samir
Published: June 2024

Micronutrients are essential for the enzymatic activity of plants, which affects fruit quality and growth. The study was conducted in the Rabi season of 2021 at SHUATS, Prayagraj. The purpose of the study was to investigate how the French bean variety "Arka Komal" was affected by mixed nano micronutrients in terms of growth and quality. The experiment was set up using a FRBD one factor being application of mixed nano micronutrients and other being application of nano fertilizers. The mixed nano micronutrients given were M0-control; M1- 0.2ml/ L of nano mix micronutrient/L of water as foliar application; M2- 0.4ml/L of nano mix micronutrient/ L of water as foliar application; M3 -0.6ml/ L of nano mix micronutrient/L of water as foliar application. The nano-fertilizers treatment given were F0– Control (without fertilizer); F1- 100% RDF as traditional fertilizer; F2-5ml/ L each of Nano NPK/ L of water as foliar application; F3- 4ml/L each of Nano NPK/ L of water as foliar application; F4- 3ml/L each of Nano NPK/ L of water as foliar application. 50% traditional fertilizers were applied in all treatments excluding control. From above experimental findings it was concluded that treatment M3 performed best for growth parameters like plant height; leaf area studied in French bean. M3 performed best for quality parameters like TSS, ascorbic acid content.
Improved Topical Antifungal Medication using Sertaconazole Bilosomes: In vitro Permeability, Cytotoxicity, and Clinical Assessment
Authors: Eldemiri Omar Magdy , Girgis Germeen NS , Fouad Sara Hamdy , Borg Thanaa Mohamed
Published: June 2024

Objective: The purpose of the current study was to develop Sertaconazole bilosomes (SBs) with enhanced permeability, skin deposition, anti-fungal properties, and clinical efficacy.
Methods: By changing span 60 to cholesterol molar ratio, bile salt type, and concentration, 12 formulations of SBs were prepared using the thin film hydration method and characterized by particle size (PS), zeta potential (ZP), polydispersity index (PDI), % entrapment efficiency (% EE), and % cumulative drug released after 8h (% Q8h ) and 24h (% Q24h). The optimized formulation (SB 5) was incorporated into 1% Carbopol 940 hydrogel (SBG 5) and tested for ex-vivo permeability, skin deposition, and anti-fungal efficacy compared to the commercial formulation (Dermofix® cream) and sertaconazole alone hydrogel (SAG). A randomized controlled clinical trial of SBG 5 compared to Dermofix® cream and SAG was done on 30 patients diagnosed with Tinea corporis with a 4-week follow-up.
Results: SB 5 showed PS of 158 ± 6.4nm, ZP of −55 ± 1.7mV, PDI of 0.16 ± 0.01, % EE of 96 ± 3.4, % Q8h of  70.3 ± 3.6, and % Q24h of  97.2 ± 3.0. SBG 5 exhibited in vitro release after 24h (1.25 and 1.51-fold), skin permeability (1.6 and 2.3-fold), skin deposition (3.86 and 14.82-fold), and anti-fungal efficacy against Candida albicans (two and 1.44-fold) compared to Dermofix® cream and SAG respectively. Patients receiving SBG 5 exhibited a 1.25 and 1.8-fold higher recovery rate on days 14 and 21 respectively compared to Dermofix® cream, and a 4.5 and two-fold recovery rate on days 14 and 21 respectively compared to SAG.
Conclusion: Bilosomes could be utilized to enhance permeability, skin deposition, anti-fungal properties, and clinical efficacy of Sertaconazole.
Water Stress: Between Farmers' Needs and Public Policies the Case of Smallholder Farmers in the Villages of Nabatieh Governorate
Authors: Aawada Hala , Chamseddine Salam , Kayel Sana , El-Jarf Akram
Published: June 2024

Water scarcity is a paramount developmental and livelihood issue globally, posing life-threatening challenges in the Arab world and the Eastern Mediterranean. This scarcity manifests in two forms: physical scarcity, due to insufficient water resulting from local environmental conditions, and economic scarcity, characterized by inadequate water infrastructure. When these forms of scarcity converge, they lead to severe water stress, exemplified by regions experiencing both low rainfall and inadequate water storage and sanitation facilities. In Lebanon, state policies, or the lack thereof, have significantly exacerbated water scarcity. Governmental negligence and mismanagement of water resources, compounded by insufficient investment in infrastructure, have intensified both physical and economic water scarcities. The lack of effective water conservation policies, poor maintenance of existing water facilities, and failure to develop new water projects have led to severe water stress, hindering developmental progress and threatening the livelihoods and health of the population. The combined effect of environmental challenges and governmental inaction has made water scarcity a critical issue, necessitating immediate and comprehensive interventions to ensure sustainable water management and availability for the future.
D.W. Griffith and the Development of American Narrative Cinema
Authors: Keil Charlie
Published: November 2011

The first and arguably most significant phase of D. W. Griffith's film directing career began in 1908 and ended in 1913, the years when he was the most important filmmaker at the preeminent film production company in America. That Griffith's tenure at Biograph coincides almost to the year with the tumultuous period of industrial and formal change typically referred to as “the transitional era” is but one of many reasons that historians view the director as central to the period's developments. But what role did Griffith ultimately play in the American film industry's adoption of a storytelling approach that brought together the resources of performance and decor, framing and composition, and, most crucially, editing, in producing thousands of one‐reel narratives for a growing audience of moviegoers in the post‐nickelodeon marketplace? Some have questioned the tendency to attribute the period's change in narrational strategies to the singular achievements of Griffith, no matter how impressive those achievements may have been. Opposition to understanding Griffith as a key transitional figure derives less from any hesitation about his talent and more from the distinctiveness of his output. The debate focuses on whether we should label Griffith as a representative director of this period: While he may be the era's most celebrated filmmaker, does he actually define that era? Close attention to the formal qualities of Griffith's Biograph films can certainly help us to assess more precisely his contribution to the developing norms of the transitional period; but beyond such study, we also need to consider his films in relation to those of his competitors. Only then can we establish with any certainty whether Griffith stood apart from the rest of the industry during the Biograph years, or whether he merely realized the aims of the era more proficiently, albeit also more idiosyncratically, than any other filmmaker at this time.
Women and the Silent Screen
Authors: Stamp Shelley
Published: November 2011

Women were more engaged in movie culture at the height of the silent era than they have been at any other time since. Female filmgoers dominated at the box office; the most powerful stars were women, and fan culture catered almost exclusively to female fans; writers shaping film culture through the growing art of movie reviewing, celebrity profiles, and gossip items were likely to be women; and women's clubs and organizations, along with mass‐circulation magazines, played a signature role in efforts to reform the movies at the height of their early success. In Hollywood women were active at all levels of the industry: The top screenwriters were women; the highest‐paid director at one point was a woman; and women held key leadership roles in the studios as executives and heads of departments like photography, editing, and screenwriting. Outside Hollywood women ran movie theaters, screened films in libraries and classrooms, and helped to establish venues for nonfiction filmmaking. Looking at the extraordinary scope of women's participation in early movie culture — indeed, the way womenbuiltthat movie culture — helps us rethink conventional ideas about authorship and the archive, drawing in a broader range of players and sources. As Antonia Lant reminds us, the binary notion of women working on “both sides of the camera” needs to be significantly complicated and expanded in order to accommodate all of the ways in which women engaged with and produced early film culture (2006, 548–549).
“The Poor Little Rich Girl”
Authors: Sturtevant Victoria
Published: November 2011

The Pickford persona was so cherished in part because it had these two sides, and so embodied a number of dynamic contradictions. The film roles Pickford played as often emphasize her doll‐like beauty as they ask her to dress in rags and present herself as a feisty ragamuffin child. She is glorious but humble, remote but familiar. Her films often indulge these twin compulsions (to muddy Pickford up and also to style her in beautiful lace dresses with golden curls) by placing her in narratives of class rise, or fantasized class rise, that allowed her characters to make a shift from one half of the persona to another, from grubby urchin to democratic princess. Time and again she descends among the children and is restored anew to a magical position of privilege.
African‐Americans and Silent Films
Authors: Massood Paula J.
Published: November 2011

Histories of African‐American participation in American silent film often cite D. W. Griffith's
The Birth of a Nation
(1915) as the defining moment in black cinematic representation. The film's myths of black inferiority and the sanctity of white nationhood seemed almost nostalgic at a moment of national growth and change, of which the new film technology was a part. At the same time, its images of black brutes lasciviously chasing innocent white women and a congressional hall filled with barefoot, chicken‐eating black coons solidified a number of myths that appealed to a young nation furiously attempting to define itself in the face of increasing immigration from abroad, the massive growth of urban industrial areas (and the attendant loss of an agrarian culture), and the threat of world war.
Chaplin and Silent Film Comedy
Authors: Maland Charles J.
Published: November 2011

On May 12, 1913, Keystone movie producer Mack Sennett sent a telegram to Alf Reeves, the manager of a touring British music hall company, performing at the Nixon Theater in Philadelphia. It read: “IS THERE A MAN NAMED CHAFFIN IN YOUR COMPANY OR SOMETHING LIKE THAT STOP IF SO WILL HE COMMUNICATE WITH KESSEL AND BAUMAN 24 LONGACRE BUILDING BROADWAY NEW YORK.” Reeves showed the telegram to a featured comedian, Charles Chaplin, whom Sennett, although he had forgotten the name, had seen perform at the American Music Hall in 1911. Chaplin had no experience in the movies but agreed to try after Sennett offered him $150 weekly — twice his music hall salary (Chaplin 1964, 137–139).
Immigrant Stardom in ImperialAmerica
Authors: Negra Diane
Published: November 2011

Historically positioned as she was between the passive, pure ideal woman of the late 1800s and the “New Woman” of the 1920s, Polish‐born Pola Negri — the consummate silent‐era vamp who arrived in Hollywood from Berlin in 1922 — had ties to both stereotypes. The relationship between them in Negri's career provides insight into Hollywood's female image repertoire and an understanding of transgressive ethnic femininity in turn‐of‐the‐century American culture.
Unsophisticated Lady
Authors: Jacobs Lea
Published: November 2011

During the transition to sound in Hollywood, several articles in the film industry trade press suggested that audiences were no longer interested in “sophisticated” fare and that the new technology had occasioned the resurrection of “10–20–30 style melodrama” or “old tear‐jerking hits.”
1
Most of the films to which the journalists referred were adaptations of well‐known stage plays —
Madame X
,
East Lynne
,
Common Clay
— that fell under the generic rubric of what present‐day critics have called the maternal melodrama. This investigation of the reception of such films across the course of the 1920s and early 1930s aims to shed light upon what was considered “old‐fashioned melodrama” in the period, and also to explain shifts in critical attitudes toward the genre.
Two or Three Things We Thought We Knew about Silent Film Sound
Authors: Altman Rick
Published: November 2011

Some years ago I started work on what I expected to be the first chapter of a general history of Hollywood sound. I knew I had to cover the sound for silent films, but I figured that this task would be easily accomplished. After all, didn't everyone writing about silent film sound agree on the basic contours of early accompaniment practices? Right from the earliest years of cinema, everyone seemed to concur, films were accompanied by the ever‐present piano playing light classical selections or improvised creations, until such time as the piano could be replaced by an orchestra playing a carefully confected score specifically designed to match each film's shifting emotional tone. Finding one version or another of this same story in one history after another, my first impulse was just to borrow a few references from the many books that devote a short initial chapter to the sounds of silents: London (1936), Manvell and Huntley (1957), Bazelon (1975), Evans (1975), Gorbman (1987), Prendergast (1992), Flinn (1992), Kalinak (1992), Brown (1994), Chion (1995). But I kept hearing my own voice, as I would tell my graduate students never to trust received opinion and to be especially suspicious of widespread agreement on underresearched topics. Enjoying a National Endowment for the Humanities Fellowship at the time, I figured I could afford a week or two to check out at least the basic references shared by these writers.
Synchronized Sound Comes to the Cinema
Authors: Young Paul
Published: November 2011

By 1926, Hollywood had established conventions for staging, filming, and editing silent pictures that told stories efficiently and enjoyably while emphasizing the glamour and pathos of their stars. But in that same year Warner Bros. threatened the stability of these conventions by releasingDon Juan(directed by Alan Crosland), the first major‐studio feature film distributed with synchronized musical accompaniment. Even more radical was the prologue Warners distributed withDon Juanto the few theaters equipped to project it with sound: a gaggle of short films featuring fully synchronized speeches, orchestral music, opera singers, and jazz. Warners' breakthrough is a documented fact; how the studio system managed the breakthrough, however, is a matter of some debate. One influential account, Alexander Walker's 1978 bookThe Shattered Silents, suggests thatDon Juan's release was the first step toward an industry‐wide panic that came to a head with Warners' release of the first “part‐talking” picture,TheJazz Singer, the following year. Suddenly, Walker reports, industry leaders foresaw talking pictures taking over the film industry, but had no clue how to harness or even survive the upheaval a full transition to sync sound would undoubtedly wreak on this “silent” industry (Walker 1986, 40–41, 62–68).
Helios and the Apocalypse
Authors: Baer Nicholas
Published: November 2011

Three technologies that emerged in the nineteenth century — the railroad, photography, and film — found verbal and visual expression in the figure of the horse. The train or “Iron Horse” offered a mechanical alternative to the stagecoach as a mode of transport beginning in the early nineteenth century, and gave rise to debates about the merits of “horse‐power” versus “steam‐power.” In the United States, the railroad system not only ensued from and advanced processes of industrialization and modernization, but also served an intrusive and expansionist function; in the words of Wolfgang Schivelbusch, “The mechanization of transportation was … seen … as a means of gaining a new civilization from a hitherto worthless (because inaccessible) wilderness” (1986, 90–91). American processes of westward expansion and national incorporation found symbolic finalization on May 10, 1869, when politician, business magnate, and scientific horseman Leland Stanford struck the Golden Spike at Promontory Point, Utah, in an act that marked the convergence of the Union Pacific and Central Pacific Railroads — and, by extension, the completion of the first transcontinental railroad. Three years after this ceremonial event, which was famously photographed by Andrew J. Russell, Stanford commissioned Eadweard Muybridge to analyze the movement of a horse through a series of photographs that is commonly cited as a precursor to motion pictures.1
Re‐visioning Frank Capra
Authors: Zagarrio Vito
Published: November 2011

Frank Capra has been consistently identified as a populist, at times a demagogic, conservative filmmaker, whose films have long been classified as escapist fantasies of goodwill portraying a comic, optimistic, sentimental view of American life. He often has been described as a populist because his films are both for and about the “little people,” celebrating the vitality, ingenuity, noble aspirations, and strength of character of the common man. He prescribes small‐town good‐neighborliness as an antidote to the greed, evil, and selfishness of cynical big‐city villains. His good‐neighbor policy, the flavor of “Capracorn,” and the message that happiness comes from little things (and certainly not from money) have defined — but also confined — Capra to a narrow, optimistic vision of New Deal‐era America. This has made it easy to deny him the significant dignity of “authorship” and to place him within the tradition of “American visions,” as Raymond Carney does in his book
American Vision
, or as Joseph McBride does in his biography,
The Catastrophe of Success
.
“Let
'
Em Have It”
Authors: Vasey Ruth
Published: November 2011

In the 1930s, the major Hollywood studios produced approximately 400 films per year. The vast majority of these faded from public memory almost immediately after their initial period of exhibition, but a small number have continued to resonate in the public imagination to the present day. Prominent amongst these is a spate of “gangster” films, including
Little Caesar
(Warner Bros., 1930),
The Public Enemy
(Warner Bros., 1931), and
Scarface: The Shame of a Nation
(Caddo, 1932), the majority of which were made in the production season of 1930/1931, when a grand total of 23 films revolving around “gang” themes were produced. This amounted to less than 6 percent of the industry's total annual output and from 1932 onwards the numbers of these movies dwindled, but the notoriety of a handful of the early films was perpetuated, particularly at Warner Bros., by the recirculation and reformulation of elements of the original gangster formula. This essay considers some of the factors that, while contributing to the popularity of the unreconstructed screen gangster in the early 1930s, also insured that he made an early exit from Hollywood's production schedules. It traces his subsequent reincarnations throughout the decade in forms that, while being engineered to constitute more socially benign entertainment, were nevertheless characterized by an increasingly complex, nuanced, and contradictory relationship with their audiences.
Cinema and the Modern Woman
Authors: Pravadelli Veronica
Published: November 2011

In American cinema of the 1930s the image of the modern woman and the trajectory of female desire present two different models. Between the end of the 1920s and the early 1930s, American cinema continued to focus on the image of the young, self‐assertive, and sexy woman in her multiple facets: Working girls, gold diggers, flappers, show girls, and kept women inundated the talkies and perpetuated the cult of New Womanhood that emerged in the early years of the century. This tendency would wane as the decade progressed. From about the mid–1930s, the dominant narrative of female desire was tuned to the formation of the couple and to marriage while the figure of the emancipated woman became marginal. In this process the representation of class rise and upward mobility were also questioned and the heroine's social aspirations were more often thwarted than supported. One need only compareBaby Face(1933) andStella Dallas(1937), both starring Barbara Stanwyck in the leading role, to realize how the convergence between gender and class changed dramatically in just a few years. In the second half of the 1930s, only the upper‐class protagonists of screwball comedy enjoyed sexual freedom and independence, while working‐class women were denied both upward mobility and gender equality.
The Magician
Authors: Naremore James
Published: November 2011

According to John Houseman, Orson Welles was “at heart a magician whose particular talent lies not so much in his creative imagination (which is considerable) as in his proven ability to stretch the familiar elements of theatrical effect far beyond their normal point of tension” (1972, 495). Left‐handed as the compliment may seem, Welles was in fact a magician, and watching his movies is sometimes like attending a performance by Blackstone or Sorcar. InCitizen Kane(1941), for example, there is a famous shot where the camera moves in to a close‐up of a group photograph of theChroniclestaff while Kane talks about what good men they are; suddenly Kane walks right into the photo, and as the camera pulls back from the assembled journalists we find ourselves at anInquirerparty six years later. Near the beginning ofThe Magnificent Ambersons(1942) Welles reads Booth Tarkington offscreen while the house across the street from the Amberson mansion is shown in long shot; slowly the sky darkens, a moon appears, and the house is festooned with lanterns — as if by magic, a winter day is transformed into a summer night. Moments like these are not merely functional; they also draw upon a cinema of illusionism as old as Méliès. Even if we were to disregard such obvious showpieces of movie trickery, Welles's films would still seem flamboyant, filled with magic and “theatrical effect.”
A Victory “Uneasy with Its Contrasts”
Authors: Giovacchini Saverio
Published: November 2011

In 1941, screenwriter Paul Jarrico was elated to leave his hometown, Los Angeles, to join the Merchant Marine. The urgency of the war made his work as a screenwriter at MGM pale. “We are getting a little tired of telling ourselves that the greatest contribution to the war we can make is right at our desks,” he wrote to friend and comrade Michael Wilson, himself then serving with the Marines. “The tendons of conscience grow taut,” he went on to observe (Ceplair 2007, 69). He was finally assigned to serve in the Merchant Marine on a Liberty ship bound for Naples, Italy. He was on it for three and half months. “The voyage was wonderful, everything I wanted, the smartest thing I ever did,” Jarrico wrote Wilson (Ceplair 2007, 71). He would enlist again in 1945. Many Hollywood leftists shared Jarrico's enthusiasm. At its onset the war seemed a great opportunity to defend their country in uniform. The war effort also seemed to swing Hollywood in the direction leftists had long supported.
Hollywood as Historian, 1929–1945
Authors: Smyth J. E.
Published: November 2011

While American filmmakers' preoccupation with visualizing the past is nearly as old as the cinematic medium itself, large‐scale historical filmmaking truly emerged as a substantial component of production with the successes of European historical epics (Cabiria, 1914), biblical dramas (Judith of Bethulia, 1914), Westerns (The Battle of Elderbush Gulch, 1913), adaptations of popular historical literature (A Tale of Two Cities, 1917), biopics (Joan the Woman, 1916), the success ofGettysburg(1913), and the notoriety of D. W. Griffith'sTheBirth of a Nation(1915). History — predominantly European and American — was reconstructed and enjoyed in a wide variety of formats, adaptations, and emerging film genres during the silent era. There was no distinct “historical” genre; rather, historical dramas, lives, and perspectives formed a small but prestigious component of silent film production. Though biographies of “great” men and dramatic political and military events featured prominently, filmmakers also represented the history of Native Americans (The Red Man's View, 1909;The Vanishing American, 1925), women (Janice Meredith, 1924;So Big, 1924;Glorious Betsy, 1928), African‐Americans (Uncle Tom's Cabin, 1927), and the working class (Oliver Twist, 1922;Down to the Sea in Ships, 1923). By 1927, American filmgoers could expect half a dozen major historical films and a cluster of shorts and serials in theaters each year. But by the early 1930s, what had once been an occasional, expensive practice became the Industry's “most innovative, prestigious, and controversial form of feature filmmaking” (Smyth 2006, 6). Although the historical film did not exist as a traditional genre, Hollywood's obsession with projecting the past was the dominant production trend from the early sound era through the mid‐1940s, impacting every form of feature filmmaking, from musicals to literary adaptations to biopics to war films, Westerns, and gangster pictures.
Taking Stock at War's End
Authors: Grundmann Roy
Published: November 2011

At the end of World War II, America found itself at one of the most profound junctures in its history. War had not only transformed the national economy, but had ushered in significant social and cultural change, much of which was set in motion before the United States entered the war but would be irreversible in large part as a result of it. Although the transition to a peacetime economy presented broad‐based opportunities, the end of the war also created numerous challenges, dilemmas, and hardships that had not been anticipated. As large sectors of production had to be modernized and retooled for the manufacture of consumer goods, the daunting task of reorganizing the national workforce was further complicated by the need to absorb the massive influx of returning veterans seeking jobs — some of which no longer existed in the peacetime economy, while others were now possibly taken by women. It would not be long before the vicissitudes of industrial reorganization and postwar economic retrenchment, therefore, would ignite conflicts between labor and industry. To be sure, some of these conflicts stemmed from the years of the Great Depression, but their New Deal legacy took on a new status in the post–World War II political climate.
The Gun in the Briefcase
Authors: Arthur Paul
Published: November 2011

The image is a fleeting one: In a darkened motel room on the outskirts of a border town, a man in a business suit wrestles open a briefcase, previously entrusted to his new bride, only to discover that important legal papers and his government‐issue revolver are missing. Without another shred of information concerning narrative context or patterning, this shot might already augur the volatile collision of social and psychosexual themes underpinning our long‐standing fascination with film noir. Add to this scenic description the sole fact that the man in question is a Mexican narcotics agent played by Charlton Heston in olive makeup and we sense
critical mass
on the horizon. Arriving as it does at the historical end of the noir universe,
Touch of Evil
(1958) is a film in which practically every discernible signifier can be made to register with cataclysmic impact.
Laughter and Agony in Minnelli's
The Long, Long Trailer
Authors: McElhaney Joe
Published: November 2011

In 1951, a radio writer and producer named Clinton Twiss published an anecdotal memoir about the experiences he and his wife Merle encountered with their purchase of a 28‐foot long trailer. The purchase came about after the couple, working steadily for 10 years, decided to take a two‐year sabbatical and travel the country, visiting each of the 48 states.
The Long, Long Trailer
recounts various comic mishaps that occurred in relation to what Twiss and his wife came to call “the monster.” The book's popularity resulted in its sale to Hollywood, where the producer Pandro S. Berman assembled the project for Metro‐Goldwyn‐Mayer. The screenplay was assigned to the husband and wife writing team of Albert Hackett and Frances Goodrich and the direction to Vincente Minnelli. Hackett, Goodrich, and Minnelli had already collaborated on
Father of the Bride
(1950) and its sequel,
Father's Little Dividend
(1951), two domestic comedies that were enormous hits for MGM (they had also collaborated on the 1948 musical
The Pirate
), and the suitability of their collective talents in adapting the Twiss material must have seemed obvious. As in the first two domestic comedies, the film uses a framing device: an exhausted male protagonist narrates a chain of events that have brought him to the state in which we initially find him. In the case of
The Long, Long Trailer
, though, the protagonist tells his story to a character within the film's diegetic world rather than, as in the first two films, directly to the camera; and the state in which we find him is less exhausted than borderline hysterical. While a modest critical success,
The Long, Long Trailer
was a major financial one, reportedly becoming the highest grossing comedy in the history of MGM up to that time (Minnelli 1974, 275). Twiss did not live to see the adaptation, having died suddenly in 1952.
Adults Only
Authors: Schaefer Eric
Published: November 2011

The years following World War II dealt the Hollywood film industry multiple blows. The Supreme Court'sParamountdecision (1948) and the subsequent divorce of the vertically integrated studios' production/distribution arms from their theaters left them staggering, without a guaranteed venue for their productions. Weakly performing theaters were shuttered as American families moved from cities to the expanding suburbs and as television began to dominate time once reserved for movies and radio. In the 15 years from 1946 to 1961, the percentage of television households in the United States went from virtually zero, to almost 90 percent. The studios had to pull themselves off the ropes to find new ways to attract audiences and to differentiate their product from television. This meant a renewed emphasis on technology (3‐D, widescreen, color, stereo sound), as well as an emphasis on cinematic spectacle(e.g., Around the World in Eighty Days, 1956; The Ten Commandments, 1956; etc.). Still, box office receipts plunged from a record high of almost $1.7 billion in 1946, to an anemic $900 million in 1962.
Pornography in the Cinema
Authors: Williams Linda
Published: November 2011

The Rite of Spring
1
had reportedly been the most notorious premiere in the history of music and ballet. What happened at that premiere in the Théâtre des Champs Élysées in Paris was quite simply a riot. Almost from the very first notes of Igor Stravinsky's music and the very first steps of Serge Diaghilev's ballet, the audience was shocked by the scenic and rhythmic evocation of pagan rituals with percussive intensities never before heard in classical music.
2
American Film Criticism
Authors: Sterritt David
Published: November 2011

From its beginnings, film criticism has been divided among contrasting goals, methodologies, and means of distribution that have never been authoritatively sorted out by either practitioners or theorists. One division is between the concepts ofcriticismandreviewing. Although these terms are often used interchangeably, they are sometimes distinguished from each other such that the “critic” produces comparatively deep and thorough readings, perhaps assuming that the reader has already seen the film(s) under discussion, while the “reviewer” produces less detailed and interpretive accounts, emphasizing descriptions and evaluations that readers may use in deciding what films they want to see. Another division is betweenjournalisticandscholarlyortheory‐basedcriticism. These terms appear to set forth a clear‐cut distinction between articles published in newspapers and magazines, on one hand, and in academic books and journals, on the other. In practice, however, academic critics frequently publish their work in general interest periodicals, and journalists appear side by side with scholars in some eclectic film magazines.
It's Only a Movie
Authors: Perez Gilberto
Published: November 2011

A movie is reflexive when it calls attention to itself as a movie, when it makes manifest to the viewer its conventions and its artifice. Acknowledging the artifice of art is characteristic of modernism and the avant‐garde. But reflexivity is no modern invention or avant‐garde innovation. Art can be reflexive in different ways, for different motives, with different aims. Look at a child's playacting, the pretend people and pretend objects not soliciting belief but offered in a spirit of make‐believe: There you have a spontaneous reflexivity at the earliest stage of artistic activity. Playacting leads to theater, which, whether popular or experimental, is perhaps the form of art least inclined to conceal its artifice. The fun of watching a magician in the theater is bound up with the knowledge that the magic is fake. Hollywood movies followed on the American popular theater that flourished in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, and at the movies, as in the theater, the public knows the magic is fake.
Independent Film
Authors: King Geoff
Published: November 2011

They were often grainy, sometimes monochrome; they tended to be talky rather than full of movement or action, and they frequently betrayed their low‐budget origins. But they were also marked as “new,” fresh, and inspiring to others. There had always been independent features, of one kind or another, as long as there had been a Hollywood or any other establishment against which such distinctions could be made. During the 1980s and into the early 1990s, however, the notion of American independent cinema gained a new currency. Rather than being a catch‐all term, taken more or less literally to describe a range of very different types of nonstudio filmmaking, ranging from the avant‐garde to exploitation‐oriented genre cinema (including, at one extreme, pornography), “independent” came primarily to signify a particular type of lower‐budget feature production. This was something akin to an American “art” cinema in certain respects: Although blended in many cases with more popular generic components, often characterized as “quirky” or “off‐beat,” it became widely celebrated as an accessible alternative to the Hollywood mainstream. It also gained a new label of its own: “indie,” not just “independent,” which suggested something of the particular territory that was involved (a term that brought resonances from some similar developments in the same period in the field of popular music), as opposed to wider and less specific connotations of independence. Work of this type had its own earlier history in American cinema, not least in the films of John Cassavetes in the preceding two decades. What marked the period from the 1980s onward as different and gave it a more established identity was a gathering momentum. Rather than being perceived as occasional one‐off occurrences, or the persistent work of isolated individuals such as Cassavetes, independent films began to gain a sustained presence that had the appearance of a distinct movement in both the cinematic and the wider cultural discourses of the time.
American Avant‐Garde Cinema from 1970 to the Present
Authors: MacDonald Scott
Published: November 2011

Much of what has happened during the past three decades of American avant‐garde film history is a result of the explosion of creativity that characterized the 1960s and early 1970s.1Not only did a remarkable number of interesting filmmakers emerge during this moment, but filmmakers who had been productive during the 1950s and 1960s found a new audience. The American film society movement, energized by Amos Vogel's Cinema 16 in New York and Frank Stauffacher's Art in Cinema in San Francisco and Berkeley, spread across the nation during the late 1940s and the 1950s, and began a transformation in American film awareness that culminated during the next decade, producing a very wide range of interesting avant‐garde films, plus an abundance of what Gene Youngblood (1970) called “expanded cinema” (that is, multimedia presentations and happenings that expanded the use of motion pictures beyond the movie theater), as well as the beginnings of what came to be called “video art.” Much of the creative energy of this moment was devoted to rebelling against conventional American society and in particular against the social standards that had come to seem “normal” during the 1950s and early 1960s. This rebellion took two general forms, evoking the traditional distinction between the Apollonian and the Dionysian in Greek art.
Charting the Middle Course
Authors: Hark Ina Rae
Published: November 2011

Science fiction, as a genre about encounters with the unknown, holds out both the promise of wonder and the fear of disaster. Possibly because disasters are both more cinematic1and more dramatic than wonder, when the movies do SF we are more likely to see what we dread than what we hope for. The first two distinct eras of the genre emphasized fears, but of different things. The 1950s, of course, used the genre in low‐budget B‐pictures without big stars as a prism to reflect on the anxiety of nuclear annihilation, either from the communist foes of the Cold War or as unintended consequences of America's own deployment of the atomic bomb. In 1968, after a waning of the genre early in the decade,2001: A Space OdysseyandPlanet of the Apesreinvented screen SF for big budgets, expensive effects, and, in the latter case, a major movie star in the lead. Both of these films also deviated from the formula in which either the communist threat or the unintended consequences of nuclear testing appeared in the symbolic guise of a monstrous Other. Here the monsters were clearly humans themselves, come to the end of their evolutionary usefulness and replaced by an alien‐designed Star Child, on the one hand, and evolved primates, on the other.
Back to the Future
Authors: Jeffords Susan
Published: November 2011

The 1980s marked the beginning of what came to be called “The Reagan Revolution.” The lynchpin of the Reagan Revolution was “Reaganomics,” a supply‐side economic theory that argued for government deregulation, tax cuts, and limiting growth of social spending. On the international front, the Reagan Revolution adopted a confrontational stance toward communism and the Soviet Union, labeling it “the evil empire.” This political philosophy included an end to détente, a ramping up of the US military, and the development of what came to be known as “Star Wars,” the Strategic Defense Initiative focused on an effort to create a “shield” in space that would protect the United States against missile attacks.
Eros and Thanatos
Authors: Doherty Thomas
Published: November 2011

In Hollywood parlance, a “four quadrant” film strikes the golden vein that scores with the four demographic pillars supporting a blockbuster yield (young/old, male/female), but any studio bottom liner knows that age pays better than gender and teen‐age pays best of all. For the motion picture industry, the mother lode is the actuarial span from around 12 to 20, the chronological bookends for the gregarious, leisured, and tribally cohesive segment of the population whose hormones crave action and whose eyeballs seek diversion.