In 1931 Universal Pictures released "Dracula" and "Frankenstein", two films that inaugurated the horror genre in Hollywood cinema. These films appeared directly on the heels of Hollywood's transition to sound film. "Uncanny Bodies" argues that the coming of sound inspired more in these massively influential horror movies than screams, creaking doors, and howling wolves. A close examination of the historical reception of films of the transition period reveals that sound films could seem to their earliest viewers unreal and ghostly. By comparing this audience impression to the first sound horror films, Robert Spadoni makes a case for understanding film viewing as a force that can powerfully shape both the minutest aspects of individual films and the broadest sweep of film production trends, and for seeing aftereffects of the temporary weirdness of sound film deeply etched in the basic character of one of our most enduring film genres.
Uncanny Bodies
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"Rich, insightful book... A poetic and clever analysis, presenting impressive historical scholarship with panache."--Choice "Well-researched and persuasive... Uncanny Bodies impressively persuades one to think anew about films."--Film Quarterly "Original and stimulating."--Image & Narrative "Spadoni's analysis is intriguing."--Metro Newspapers "Contributes substantially to the history of film sound as well as the history of classic horror cinema... Lucid, accessible prose."--Hist Journal of Film, Rad, Tv
About the Author
Robert Spadoni is Assistant Professor in the English Department at Case Western Reserve University.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
By PAUL COLBECK
Format:Kindle Edition
This is a stimulating and persuasive book presenting a fascinating a thesis that should be of interest to anyone who wants to understand how film works on us, whether or not they have a particular interest in the horror genre.
BUT! In the Kindle edition where there should be illustrations there are blank spaces and the text "To view this image, refer to the print version of this title". So I am supposed to buy both? Or to read it on my Kindle only while in a library that has a print copy available?
Given the subject of the book, the illustrations are essential to understanding sections of the text. Faced with this astonishing deficiency, the price difference of £[] between the Kindle and print editions begins to look more like a rip-off than a concession. I have Kindle editions of other film studies titles in which the illustrations are present and correct.
This is the equivalent of buying a DVD with the soundtrack removed- buy it, but buy the print edition.
A hundred percent credit to the author, but one out of ten for the publisher.
BUT! In the Kindle edition where there should be illustrations there are blank spaces and the text "To view this image, refer to the print version of this title". So I am supposed to buy both? Or to read it on my Kindle only while in a library that has a print copy available?
Given the subject of the book, the illustrations are essential to understanding sections of the text. Faced with this astonishing deficiency, the price difference of £[] between the Kindle and print editions begins to look more like a rip-off than a concession. I have Kindle editions of other film studies titles in which the illustrations are present and correct.
This is the equivalent of buying a DVD with the soundtrack removed- buy it, but buy the print edition.
A hundred percent credit to the author, but one out of ten for the publisher.
Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta)
Amazon.com:
4.8 out of 5 stars
5 reviews
7 of 7 people found the following review helpful
4.0 out of 5 stars
Original ideas about a under-studied era
1 Feb 2008
By Dain P. Goding
- Published on Amazon.com
Format:Paperback
I read "Uncanny Bodies" because I am such a big fan of "Dracula" and "Frankenstein", the films that most of the text is committed to studying. However, I ended up learning a lot more than I bargained for about an era in film history that is often ignored -- the four years of transition between "The Jazz Singer" and the end of silent film production from the major studios. "Dracula" was made during the end of the transition era, and by the time "Frankenstein" was produced, Universal had ended all silent film production.
The book cites many primary sources and critical writing of the era to shed light on the uncertain responses of a 1931 viewer to the novelty of sound film, and does an excellent job supporting its thesis that the producers of "Dracula" and "Frankenstein" played off of their audience's experiences of early sound films to heighten the terror of the living dead who are threatening the protagonists. Well-written and accessible, while exhaustively researched and remaining very academic, Spadoni's book uses reception study to reveal a lot about the often hailed, derided, and misunderstood early horror masterpieces.
The book cites many primary sources and critical writing of the era to shed light on the uncertain responses of a 1931 viewer to the novelty of sound film, and does an excellent job supporting its thesis that the producers of "Dracula" and "Frankenstein" played off of their audience's experiences of early sound films to heighten the terror of the living dead who are threatening the protagonists. Well-written and accessible, while exhaustively researched and remaining very academic, Spadoni's book uses reception study to reveal a lot about the often hailed, derided, and misunderstood early horror masterpieces.
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars
A Horror Delight
7 Aug 2008
By AudioArabesque
- Published on Amazon.com
Format:Paperback
UNCANNY BODIES deftly explores the connections between early silent and sound cinema reception and the development of the classic horror genre. In the introduction, the author notes: "As film viewers, Hollywood's first horror filmmakers encountered the same body of films that general audiences and professional critics did during the sound transition years. I will argue that this viewing experience predisposed these filmmakers to conceive of a new kind of film in a way that capitalized on impressions that synchronized sound film had recently made on the viewership at large." In short, the uncanny bodies of actors on the screen that viewers encountered in the transition from silent to sound cinema - with their black and white visages, processed, accented and dislocated voices, and exaggerated acting styles - gave horror filmmakers the raw material to create some of the greatest horror characters in classical cinema, namely DRACULA (1931) and FRANKENSTEIN (1931). Author Robert Spadoni provides a meticulous and well-researched argument in this study. One of the main revelations for the field of cinema scholarship (and cinema history) is the integration of the voices of various critics and filmgoers from the 1920s and 1930s about the transition from silent to sound cinema. These insights offer a time capsule of the changing attitudes toward cinema as a developing art form. I highly recommend this book for both scholars and general readers.
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars
a cinephile's delight
16 July 2010
By Peter Stanfield
- Published on Amazon.com
Format:Paperback
This illuminating study of Universal's two seminal horror pix, Dracula and Frankenstein, is good enough to stand alongside the best that Film Studies has produced on popular American cinema, and is by far the finest book on early Hollywood horror. Spadoni's thesis on the films' place in the transition from silent to sound cinema is utterly compelling. Along with conveying a cinephile's delight in his subject, he has produced a perfect compact of archive research and theoretical insight.
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