Mcfarland Company Inc Publishers: 2371 books
Perry Como
A Biography and Complete Career Record
Language: English
Release Date: May 7, 2015
Perry Como put aside his career as a barber to become one of the top American crooners of the 20th century and also one of the first multimedia stars. His record sales exceeded 100 million. In 1948, Como was the first popular singer to cross over to television and The Perry Como Show became the benchmark...
The Monomyth in American Science Fiction Films
28 Visions of the Hero's Journey
Language: English
Release Date: November 19, 2014
One of the great intellectual achievements of the 20th century, Joseph Campbell’s The Hero with a Thousand Faces is an elaborate articulation of the monomyth: the narrative pattern underlying countless stories from the most ancient myths and legends to the films and television series of today. The...
by Louis Paul
Language: English
Release Date: June 8, 2015
Language: English
Release Date: June 8, 2015
There is no cinema with such effect as that of the hallucinatory Italian horror film. From Riccardo Freda’s I Vampiri in 1956 to Il Cartaio in 2004, this work recounts the origins of the genre, celebrates at length ten of its auteurs, and discusses the noteworthy films of many others associated...
by Roberto Curti
Language: English
Release Date: September 28, 2013
Language: English
Release Date: September 28, 2013
In 1970s Italy, after the decline of the Spaghetti Western, crime films became the most popular, profitable and controversial genre. In a country plagued with violence, political tensions and armed struggle, these films managed to capture the anxiety and anger of the times in their tales of tough...
Politics and Society in Italian Crime Fiction
An Historical Overview
Language: English
Release Date: January 23, 2014
This book comprehensively covers the history of Italian crime fiction from its origins to the present. Using the concept of “moral rebellion,” the author examines the ways in which Italian crime fiction has articulated the country’s social and political changes. The book concentrates on such...
Mavericks of Italian Cinema
Eight Unorthodox Filmmakers, 1940s-2000s
Language: English
Release Date: May 21, 2018
The history of Italian cinema includes, in addition to the renowned auteurs, a number of peculiar and lesser-known filmmakers. While their artistry was often plagued with production setbacks, their works—influenced by poetry, playwriting, advertising, literature, comics and a nonconformist, sometimes...
From Broadway to the Bowery
A History and Filmography of the Dead End Kids, Little Tough Guys, East Side Kids and Bowery Boys Films, with Cast Biographies
Language: English
Release Date: May 7, 2015
In 1935 Sidney Kingsley’s play about streetwise urban kids, Dead End, opened on Broadway featuring 14 adolescent actors. For two years on Broadway and then on tour, Kingsley’s play delivered its social commentary contrasting affluent neighborhoods and tenement slums on New York City’s East River....
Sandy Dennis
The Life and Films
Language: English
Release Date: November 8, 2013
This is the first book-length study of the American actress Sandy Dennis (1937–1992). Winner of two successive Tony Awards for her work in the theatre in 1963 and 1964, she moved into film in supporting roles. For her performance in Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (1966) Dennis won the Best Supporting...
The CCC Chronicles
Camp Newspapers of the Civilian Conservation Corps, 1933-1942
Language: English
Release Date: December 31, 2003
When Franklin Delano Roosevelt founded the Civilian Conservation Corps in 1933, newspapers relating to the organization were launched almost immediately. Happy Days, the semi-official newspaper of the CCC, and other such publications served as soundings boards for opinions among the CCC enrollees,...
Mickey Spillane on Screen
A Complete Study of the Television and Film Adaptations
Language: English
Release Date: January 12, 2018
In the mid–20th century, Mickey Spillane was the sensation of not just mystery fiction but publishing itself. The level of sex and violence in his Mike Hammer thrillers (starting with I, the Jury in 1947) broke down long-held taboos and engendered a near hysterical critical backlash. Nonetheless,...
Horror Films by Subgenre
A Viewer's Guide
Language: English
Release Date: February 9, 2016
More horror movies are produced and released each year than any other film genre. While horror enjoys broad popularity, many hardcore fans voraciously consume films from their favorite subgenres while avoiding others entirely. This says something interesting about the films and their audiences. This...
June Cleaver Was a Feminist!
Reconsidering the Female Characters of Early Television
Language: English
Release Date: May 11, 2013
Long dismissed as ciphers, sycophants and “Stepford Wives,” women characters of primetime television during the 1950s through the 1980s are overdue for this careful reassessment. From smart, savvy wives and resilient mothers (including the much-maligned June Cleaver and Donna Reed) to talented...
Flying Flak Alley
Personal Accounts of World War II Bomber Crew Combat
Language: English
Release Date: January 28, 2015
Air warfare was a decisive component of World War II, especially in western Europe and over Japan, where Allied bombers damaged 66 of the country’s largest cities. The guts and glory of the bomber crews came, however, with a high casualty rate which had only improved marginally by the war’s end....
The Up Stairs Lounge Arson
Thirty-Two Deaths in a New Orleans Gay Bar, June 24, 1973
Language: English
Release Date: June 4, 2014
On June 24, 1973, a fire in a New Orleans gay bar killed 32 people. This still stands as the deadliest fire in the city’s history. Though arson was suspected, and though the police identified a likely culprit, no arrest was ever made. Additionally, government and religious leaders who normally would...