355:  Charles Puffy

Archival Spaces 355 Puffy’s Tragic End Uploaded 6 September 2024 Whenever they needed a fat man, Károly Huszár at 290 lbs. was there. Starting his film career with Michael Curtiz in Hungary in 1913, the comedian moved to Germany in 1920, before becoming a star of short comedies for Universal in 1924, as well asContinue reading “355:  Charles Puffy”

353: Anti-Nazi Western

Archival Spaces 353 John Wayne’s Anti-Nazi Western Uploaded 9 August 2024 When I wrote my dissertation on anti-Nazi films made in Hollywood by German Jewish Refugees, I included chapters on the depiction of the Fifth Column, life in Nazi Germany, and the anti-Nazi resistance in occupied Europe. I mentioned that the topic of anti-Nazi refugeesContinue reading “353: Anti-Nazi Western”

346: G.W. Pabst redux

Arrchival Spaces 346 G.W. Pabst rewritten: Daniel Kehlmann’s novel, Lichtspiel Uploaded 3 May 2024 Film historians consider G.W. Pabst one of the three most accomplished German film directors of the first half of the 20th century. One of my first grad student papers concerned G.W. Pabst’s Three Penny Opera (1931), written for George Bluestone’s seminarContinue reading “346: G.W. Pabst redux”

325: Mission to Moscow

Archival Spaces 325: Mission to Moscow (1943, Michael Curtiz) Uploaded 7 July 2023 For much of cinema’s history, the U.S. government has engaged in various forms of political film propaganda. In the modern era film and video have communicated soft power, rather than the nation’s actual military might, producing public service messages, educational, and documentaryContinue reading “325: Mission to Moscow”