Screening the Stage: Case Studies of Film Adaptations of Stage Plays and Musicals in the Classical Hollywood Era, 1914-1956 [Paperback]

Introduced by a comprehensive account of the factors governing the adaptation of stage plays and musicals in Hollywood from the early 1910s to the mid-to-late 1950s,Screening the Stageconsists of a series of chapter-length studies of feature-length films, the plays and musicals on which they were based, and their remakes where pertinent. Founded on an awareness of evolving technologies and industrial practices rather than the tenets of adaptation theory, particular attention is paid to the evolving practices of Hollywood as well as to the purport and structure of the plays and stage musicals on which the film versions were based. Each play or musical is contextualized and summarized in detail, and each film is analyzed so as to pinpoint the ways in which they articulate, modify, or rework the former. Examples range from dramas, comedies, melodramas, musicals, operettas, thrillers, westerns and war film, and includeThe Squaw Man, The Poor Little Rich Girl, The Merry Widow, 7th Heaven, The Cocoanuts, Waterloo Bridge, Stage Door, I Remember Mama, The Pirate, Dial M for MurderandAttack.

Steve Neale is Professor Emeritus of Film Studies at the University of Exeter. He is author ofGenre and Hollywood,author (with Sheldon Hall) ofEpics, Spectacles and Blockbusters: A Hollywood History, editor ofThe Classical Hollywood Reader, editor (with Frank Krutnik, Brian Neve and Peter Stanfield) of'Un-American' Hollywood: Politics and Film in the Blacklist, and editor (with John Belton and Sheldon Hall) ofWidescreen Worldwide.

Introduction
1. The Squaw Man
2. The Poor Little Rich Girl
3. The Merry Widow
4. 7th Heaven and Seventh Heaven
5. The Cocoanuts
6. Street Scene
7. Waterloo Bridge
8. Stage Door
9. The Pirate
10. I Remember Mama
11. Dial M for Murder
12. Attack
Bibliography; Index