Jon Lewis
- Published in print:
- 2017
- Published Online:
- January 2018
- ISBN:
- 9780520284319
- eISBN:
- 9780520959910
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of California Press
- DOI:
- 10.1525/california/9780520284319.003.0002
- Subject:
- Film, Television and Radio, Film
Elizabeth Short (AKA the Black Dahlia) arrived in Los Angeles filled with aspiration and hope, seduced by a Hollywood narrative fixed in the glamorous studio era. What she didn’t know – what she and ...
More
Elizabeth Short (AKA the Black Dahlia) arrived in Los Angeles filled with aspiration and hope, seduced by a Hollywood narrative fixed in the glamorous studio era. What she didn’t know – what she and so many other Hollywood aspirants and wannabes like her could not possibly have known – was how quickly and systematically the movie business would be transformed and scaled down in the years to come. Short has become the most notorious but hardly the only casualty of an industry and city in transition after the war.Less
Elizabeth Short (AKA the Black Dahlia) arrived in Los Angeles filled with aspiration and hope, seduced by a Hollywood narrative fixed in the glamorous studio era. What she didn’t know – what she and so many other Hollywood aspirants and wannabes like her could not possibly have known – was how quickly and systematically the movie business would be transformed and scaled down in the years to come. Short has become the most notorious but hardly the only casualty of an industry and city in transition after the war.
Douglas Keesey
- Published in print:
- 2015
- Published Online:
- September 2016
- ISBN:
- 9781628466973
- eISBN:
- 9781628467024
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University Press of Mississippi
- DOI:
- 10.14325/mississippi/9781628466973.003.0028
- Subject:
- Film, Television and Radio, Film
This chapter depicts a plunge back into the nightmarish world of film noir with The Black Dahlia (2006). The story pivots around the lust-murder of Elizabeth Short (Mia Kirshner), dubbed the “Black ...
More
This chapter depicts a plunge back into the nightmarish world of film noir with The Black Dahlia (2006). The story pivots around the lust-murder of Elizabeth Short (Mia Kirshner), dubbed the “Black Dahlia,” the wannabe starlet who ended up in stag films before having her face slashed from ear to ear and her body cut in half. Elizabeth herself becomes the object of obsession for key male characters in the film. The Black Dahlia, the chapter argues, presented the image of Elizabeth's severed corpse as a way to call attention to the sexploitation and victimization of women. Moreover, the chapter searches for an autobiographical resonance in the film's male characters, particularly in the form of the lead character Bucky's (Josh Hartnett) troubled family memories and fraternal rivalry with his partner Lee (Aaron Eckhart).Less
This chapter depicts a plunge back into the nightmarish world of film noir with The Black Dahlia (2006). The story pivots around the lust-murder of Elizabeth Short (Mia Kirshner), dubbed the “Black Dahlia,” the wannabe starlet who ended up in stag films before having her face slashed from ear to ear and her body cut in half. Elizabeth herself becomes the object of obsession for key male characters in the film. The Black Dahlia, the chapter argues, presented the image of Elizabeth's severed corpse as a way to call attention to the sexploitation and victimization of women. Moreover, the chapter searches for an autobiographical resonance in the film's male characters, particularly in the form of the lead character Bucky's (Josh Hartnett) troubled family memories and fraternal rivalry with his partner Lee (Aaron Eckhart).
Jon Lewis
- Published in print:
- 2017
- Published Online:
- January 2018
- ISBN:
- 9780520284319
- eISBN:
- 9780520959910
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- University of California Press
- DOI:
- 10.1525/california/9780520284319.001.0001
- Subject:
- Film, Television and Radio, Film
The history of Hollywood’s postwar transition is framed by two spectacular dead bodies: Elizabeth Short, AKA the Black Dahlia, found dumped and posed in a vacant lot in January 1947 and Marilyn ...
More
The history of Hollywood’s postwar transition is framed by two spectacular dead bodies: Elizabeth Short, AKA the Black Dahlia, found dumped and posed in a vacant lot in January 1947 and Marilyn Monroe, the studio era’s last real movie star, discovered dead at her home in August 1962. Short and Monroe are just two of the many left for dead after the collapse of the studio system, Hollywood’s awkward adolescence during which the company town’s many competing subcultures -- celebrities, moguls, mobsters, gossip mongers, industry wannabes, and desperate transients – came into frequent contact and conflict. Hard-Boiled Hollywood: Crime and Punishment in Postwar Los Angeles focuses on the lives lost at the crossroads between a dreamed-of Los Angeles and the real thing after the Second World War.Less
The history of Hollywood’s postwar transition is framed by two spectacular dead bodies: Elizabeth Short, AKA the Black Dahlia, found dumped and posed in a vacant lot in January 1947 and Marilyn Monroe, the studio era’s last real movie star, discovered dead at her home in August 1962. Short and Monroe are just two of the many left for dead after the collapse of the studio system, Hollywood’s awkward adolescence during which the company town’s many competing subcultures -- celebrities, moguls, mobsters, gossip mongers, industry wannabes, and desperate transients – came into frequent contact and conflict. Hard-Boiled Hollywood: Crime and Punishment in Postwar Los Angeles focuses on the lives lost at the crossroads between a dreamed-of Los Angeles and the real thing after the Second World War.
