Edgar G. Ulmer Detour on Poverty Row

by Rhodes, Gary D.; Broomer, Stephen; Hantke, Steffen; Harper, Graeme; Heffernan, Kevin; Hogan, David; Humphries, Reynold; Justice, Chris; Loren, Scott; Manon, Hugh S.; Peirse, Alison; Pummer, Claudia; Santos, Marlisa; Singer, Robert; Sipiora, Phillip; Tracy

• ISBN13: 9780739125670
• ISBN10: 0739125672
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2008-05-13
• Publisher: Lexington Books

Summary

Edgar G. Ulmer: Detour on Poverty Row illuminates the work of this under-appreciated film auteur through 21 new essays penned by a range of scholars from around the globe. Ulmer, an immigrant to Hollywood who fell from grace in Tinseltown after only one studio film, became one of the reigning directors of Poverty Row B-movies. Structured in four sections, Part I examines various contexts important to Ulmer's career, such as his work at the Producers Releasing Corporation (PRC), and his work in exploitation films and ethnic cinema. Part II analyzes Ulmer's film noirs, featuring an emphasis on Detour (1945) and Murder Is My Beat (1955). Part III covers a variety of Ulmer's individual films, ranging from Bluebeard (1944) and Carnegie Hall (1947) to The Man from Planet X (1951) and Daughter of Dr. Jekyll (1957). Part IV concludes the volume with a case study of The Black Cat (1934), offering three different analyses of Ulmer's landmark horror film.

Table of Contents

Introduction	p. ix
Texts and Contexts
Edgar G. Ulmer: The Low-End Independent Filmmaker Par Excellence	p. 3
Edgar G. Ulmer: The Godfather of Sexploitation?	p. 25
At the Border: Edgar G. Ulmer's Foreign-Language Productions-The Singing Blacksmith and Cossacks in Exile	p. 41
Film Noir
Dead Fathers and Other Detours: Ulmer's Noir	p. 61
See Spot: The Parametric Film Noirs of Edgar G. Ulmer	p. 97
Even the Pictures Lie: The Unreliable Narrator in the Film Noirs of Edgar G. Ulmer	p. 117
Edgar G. Ulmer's Homicidal Noirs: Psychosis and Possession in Strange Illusion, The Strange Woman, and Bluebeard	p. 133
All Wrong Turns: Tracking Subjectivity in Detour	p. 145
Masculinity and Masochism in Detour	p. 165
Individual Films
Puppets and Paintings: Authorship and Artistry in Edgar G. Ulmer's Bluebeard	p. 181
Beyond Citizen Kane: Ruthless as Radical Psychobiography	p. 195
"The Gateway to America": Assimilation and Art in Carnegie Hall	p. 211
Meeting The Man From Planet X	p. 225
Nothing to Hyde: Reading The Daughter of Dr. Jekyll	p. 239
Murder, Family, and Weird Science: The Amazing Transparent Man	p. 251
"A Sword and Sandal Gone Screwy" or, Edgar G. Ulmer's Journey to the Lost City-L'Atlantide	p. 263
Case Study-The Black Cat (1934)
Bauhaus of Horrors: Edgar G. Ulmer and The Black Cat	p. 275
The Devil's Contract: The Satisfaction of Self-Destruction in Edgar G. Ulmer's The Black Cat	p. 289
"Tremonstrous" Hopes and "Oke" Results: The 1934 Reception of The Black Cat	p. 301
Index	p. 323
About the Contributors	p. 331
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