The Illusion of Depth

In 1945, Deanna Durbin starred in Lady on a Train , playing a young woman addicted to murder mysteries.  At the end of the film, she and her brand-new husband (a mystery novelist) are off on their honeymoon together. He is anxious to get their wedding night underway (if you get my drift) but she is completely engrossed in his latest novel, and clearly has no intention of putting it down any time soon. "You know what, darling? This is your finest book," she tells him, adoringly. Most authors love hearing such things from their fan base, but on this occasion, her devotion to his literary prowess is delaying the opening night   of their marriage. So, he leans forward and very deliberately says to her, "The man with the green hat did it." "Oh, Wayne," she says, annoyed. "Now you've just spoiled the whole book." Of course she then realises what's on his mind and all is forgiven, but this little scene represents one of pop culture's earlies...

When I launched this film series earlier this month, I described it as Genre Fluid ; a celebration of films that refuse to conform to the usual parameters of their respective genres. Ultimately, genres are available in a wide variety of... fluids, and we will be sampling an awful lot of them before this series is over. Westerns, Rom-Coms, Thrillers, Space Operas, Sword & Sorcery... Don't be surprised if we see practically everything but the kitchen sink. In fact, now that I mention it, we're getting the "Kitchen Sink" as well. Kitchen Sink Realism is a specific branch of British drama that flourished in the 1950s and 60s and was notable for its focus on the drab, the mundane and the everyday. Its protagonists were typically working class figures, often living in financially constrained circumstances in decidedly non-affluent parts of the country. The characters in Kitchen Sink dramas were were not changing the world, battling Evil or fighting International Commun...

In 1954, the psychologist Fredric Wertham published Seduction of the Innocent , his infamous diatribe about the incipient dangers of allowing young children to read comic books. Seduction of the Innocent has gone down in history as a reactionary screed that predicts doom and despair if we do not act to ban comic books immediately, or at least strip them of the insidious subtext that was so objectionable to the Fredric Werthams of the world. The character of Batman was singled out by Dr. Wertham for especial outrage, mostly because (he felt) the character was dripping with gay messaging that would turn young boys into raging homosexuals. This is only one aspect of Dr. Wertham's book, but it's the one that tends to get the most attention in hindsight. His warnings were taken very seriously, both by the general public and by the US government, and the comic book industry was ultimately regulated and sanitised, exactly the way he wanted. And then society went on to decriminalise h...

You may or may not be aware of this (there are so many other news stories at the moment) but a Presidential election is currently underway in the US. The Batley Townswomen's Guild Reenactment of the 2024 Presidential Election (with apologies to Monty Python) This election has been replete with moments of drama (and will doubtless continue to be) but one stand-out incident has to be the interview a couple of months ago in which one of the candidates claimed that his opponent had "only recently turned black." "I didn't know she was black until a number of years ago when she happened to turn black and now she wants to be known as black. So I don't know - Is she Indian? Or is she black?" I'm not going to waste anyone's time by being shocked or appalled that a self-confessed rapist could possibly say such a thing. He's a shmuck. We already knew that; it hardly qualifies as news any more. But there is actually something interesting about this parti...