Scoring the Hollywood Actor in the 1950s

by Gregory Camp

Overview

Scoring the Hollywood Actor in the 1950s theorises the connections between film acting and film music using the films of the 1950s as case studies.

Closely examining performances of such actors as James Dean, Montgomery Clift, and Marilyn Monroe, and films of directors like Elia Kazan, Douglas Sirk, and Alfred Hitchcock, this volume provides a comprehensive view of how screen performance has been musicalised, including examination of the role of music in relation to the creation of cinematic performances and the perception of an actor’s performance. The book also explores the idea of music as a temporal vector which mirrors the temporal vector of actors’ voices and movements, ultimately demonstrating how acting and music go together to create a forward axis of time in the films of the 1950s.

This is a valuable resource for scholars and researchers of musicology, film music and film studies more generally.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780367674779
Publisher:	Taylor & Francis
Publication date:	08/01/2022
Series:	Ashgate Screen Music Series
Pages:	220
Product dimensions:	6.12(w) x 9.19(h) x (d)

About the Author

Gregory Camp is a Senior Lecturer at the University of Auckland School of Music, New Zealand.

Table of Contents

List of figures vii

Preface and Acknowledgements ix

Introduction 1

1 Musicalising Montgomery Clift 15

2 Kazan, Brando, and Mélomania 36

3 Hitchcock's time vectors of acting and music 63

4 Day, Monroe, and gendered music 84

5 Dissonance and consonance in James Dean's films 111

6 Waters, Poitier, music, and race 132

7 Musical characterisation in the melodramas of Sirk and Minnelli 160

Conclusion 190

References 193

Index 203