Interview with James Stratton, author of A Century in the Telling: Must-See Genre Films
(Q) You have written books about individual films, individual stars, and individual directors. What motivated you to write about such a wide variety of genre films and to use the hundred year perspective?
(A) Genre is the mainstay of American filmmaking. For over a century now, Hollywood movies have centered around distinct archetypes that have remained remarkably resilient. To understand those structures is to understand a great deal about the grammar, themes, and economic realities of classic American cinema. This book gave me the opportunity to discuss some of my favorite films and to look at how they work. I especially liked seeing how certain genres transformed and adapted over time. Essentially, the book is a collection of over eighty separate, self-contained essays, which is a very reader-friendly format. Hopefully everyone will find some of their own favorites among the selections.
(Q) What is an example of a genre that has transformed over time?
(A) The Western is traditionally patriarchal. The narratives concern powerful men acquiring land, establishing communities, protecting the vulnerable, or seeking revenge. The women tend to be either saloon girls or supportive pioneer wives. Modern Westerns have become more discursive, questioning those assumptions and positing alternatives. Sam Fuller’s Forty Guns, for example, has Barbara Stanwyck playing the strong leader. As Jessica Drummond, she is an all-powerful ranch boss commanding a small army of forty gunslingers who obey her every command. She controls the local politicians and merchants. Of course, in the end, her agency is “contained” by a male law officer and love interest, but the film nevertheless suggests a way of being that transcends the gender stereotypes of most other Westerns.
(Q) How did you decide on the categorization? Don’t some films fit more than one genre definition?
(A) In most cases, the classifications were pretty straightforward. For example, Batman Begins is clearly a superhero film and Run Silent, Run Deep is a classic submarine picture. The musicals and the comedies were also easy to place. A picture like No Highway in the Sky, on the other hand, could be an aviator in peril, an absent-minded scientist, or a queen bee film. Because of what I believe is the dominating presence and performability of Marlene Dietrich, I include it in the queen bee section. Whenever there are multiple options, I try to point out the overlaps.
(Q) What criteria did you use for selecting the films that were ultimately chosen for discussion?
(A) Some of the films were selected because they so perfectly fit the archetypal pattern. Out of the Past, for example, is a quintessential film noir just as Topkapi, Swing Time, and Remember the Titans are classic caper, musical, and sports movies respectively. Other films were included because of their quirkiness. A good example of that is the Swedish horror film Let the Right One In, where vampire tropes are blended into an adolescent romance. Films like Five Came Back and Prime Cut represent neglected treasures deserving renewed attention. And some of the movies just happen to be personal favorites—pictures such as Four Brothers, I Could Go on Singing, This Is the End, and True Confessions.
(Q) Do you have a favorite genre?
(A) I would have to say film noir. I love the convoluted plots, the anti-heroes, the flashbacks, the urban claustrophobia, the treacherous femmes fatales, the menace, the hardboiled dialogue, and the shadowy stylistics. There is also a very interesting tone of post-war pessimism that permeates the genre. I can and do watch movies like Gilda, Out of the Past, The Narrow Margin, and The Killers over and over again.
(Q) Do any actors and actresses re-appear in the movies highlighted in the book?
(A) Fred Astaire, Robert Mitchum, Cary Grant, Barbara Stanwyck, Ava Gardner, Myrna Loy, Colin Farrell, and Hugh Grant all make more than one appearance. This is due, I believe, to either dominance in a genre (Astaire) or versatility (Cary Grant, Stanwyck, Farrell). Unbelievably enough, none of these actors/actresses have ever won a competitive Oscar. This oversight is most unfortunate in the case of Cary Grant and Barbara Stanwyck, who are among the best film actors/actresses of all time.
(Q) How about directors? Do any have more than one picture represented here?
(A) Henry Hathaway and Jean Negulesco both appear twice. Both directors worked under long-term studio contracts, Hathaway mostly at Twentieth Century Fox and Negulesco at Warner Bros. and Fox. Neither has ever been considered among the top rank of auteurs but both are skilled and versatile craftsmen. Hathaway directed the gritty international political thriller Diplomatic Courier and the moody Gary Cooper western Garden of Evil. Although shot mainly on the Fox backlot, Diplomatic Courier is so authentic looking that whenever directors asked studio boss Darryl Zanuck for permission to shoot on location, he instructed them to watch Hathaway’s picture instead. Likewise, Negulesco could shift effortlessly between a film noir like Road House and the 1953 version of Titanic. He was also the master of the Fox CinemaScope and Technicolor extravaganzas. Both directors are among my favorites.
(Q) Are film genres international in scope?
(A) Some genres are specific to certain cultures. The Western, with some notable exceptions, tends to be an American archetype and the jidai-geki (Edo-period costume drama), for example, is specifically Japanese. Comedies, musicals, romances, horror, science fiction, and most other genres are universal. The book includes a Mexican comedy, an Italian road picture, a French horror film, and an Irish film noir.
(Q) What is the present status of genre films?
(A) For both economic and artistic reasons, genre continues to guide current filmmaking. Production companies prefer bankrolling the kind of stories that have already proven popular with audiences. Superhero sagas, horror films, and rom-coms therefore dominate the market. Filmmakers themselves are interested in redefining the classic genre films that influenced them growing up. The Coen brothers, for example, have continually revisited, reshaped, and reimagined film noir just as Todd Haynes has refashioned the domestic drama.
(Q) What do you see as the future for genre?
(A) Genre is forever. Whenever critics decide that some genre such as the Western or the musical is moribund, an inventive new artist comes along to resuscitate it. Genre touches on basic human emotions and needs and as long as audiences want to see themselves reflected on the screen, there will be genre films. It may be called neo-noir, techno-noir, pulp noir, or future-noir but it is basically noir with the same narratives, the same tropes, and the same stylistics.