Hamlet Lives in Hollywood: John Barrymore and the Acting Tradition Onscreen

Description

John Barrymore’s influence on screen and stage in the early twentieth century is incalculable. His performances in the theatre defined Shakespeare for a generation, and his transition to cinema brought his theatrical performativity to both silent and sound screens. This book, a collection of fifteen original essays on the film performances and stardom of John Barrymore, redresses this lack of scholarship on Barrymore by offering a range of varied perspectives on the actor’s work. Looking at his performances and influence from the perspectives of gender studies, psychoanalysis, queer studies and performance analysis, Hamlet Lives in Hollywood represents a major attempt by contemporary scholars to come to terms with the ongoing vitality of John Barrymore’s work in our present day. Contents Figures The Contributors Acknowledgments Introduction 1 The Pre-Bard Stage Career of John Barrymore 2 Dangerously Modern: Shakespeare, Voice, and the “New Psychology” in John Barrymore’s “Unstable” Ch 3 The Curious Case of Sherlock Holmes 4 John Barrymore’s Introspective Performance in Beau Brummel 5 “Keep back your pity”: The wounded Barrymore of The Sea Beast (1926) and Moby Dick (1930) 6 From Rome to Berlin: Barrymore as Romantic Lover 7 The Power of Stillness: John Barrymore’s Performance in Svengali 8 Prospero Unbound: John Barrymore’s Theatrical Transformations of Cinema Reality 9 A Star is Dead: Barrymore’s Anti-Christian Metaperformance 10 Handling Time: The Passing of Tradition in A Bill of Divorcement 11 John Barrymore’s Sparkling Topaze 12 “Planes, Motors, Schedules”: Night Flight and the Modernity of John Barrymore 13 Barrymore and the Scene of Acting: Gesture, Speech, and the Repression of Cinematic Performance 14 “I Never Thought I Should Sink So Low as to Become an Actor”: John Barrymore in Twentieth Century 15 Barrymore Does Barrymore: The Performing Self Triumphant in The Great Profile Works Cited