MADD MANN: Art & Aesthetic Appreciation in the Apocalypse of Avarice

|Phil Kolas| I’ve been writing haikus, lately. There’s something so completely stupid and perfect about every single one of them. They are utterly impossible to do incorrectly, as long as you can count to 17. It is an unmissable endeavor. It is a great gift granted to every human being that… Continue reading

Steely Resolve: Firearm Fetishization in Joseph H. Lewis’s Gun Crazy

|Chris Polley| Planting a flagpole in the ground? That’s a phallus. Shredding a guitar on stage? That’s a phallus. Cocking a revolver and pointing it at a cashier with a lusty grin of power and control on your face, side by side with your gun-toting lover? You better believe that’s a phallus. Continue reading

Firecrackers and Traditional Gender Role Reversals in Classic Hollywood: Gun Crazy

|Penny Folger| It’s difficult to measure the kind of influence a film like Gun Crazy has had. Like so many great films, it flopped upon its initial release in 1950. It was the only movie ever made by its B-movie producers, the King Brothers, that actually lost money. The industry thought of… Continue reading

“Mixed Up”: Sylvia Sidney’s Bad Desire

|Doug Carmoody| In the years prior to her leading role in Fritz Lang’s You Only Live Once, Sylvia Sidney had endured a barrage of difficult on-screen romantic partners. She was impregnated and drowned by her boyfriend in An American Tragedy, bullied into a life of alcoholism and infidelity… Continue reading