6 Narratives of Failure: Dead End (1937), The Desperate Hours (1955), and Gangsters in Distress

Chapters in this book

1. Frontmatter i
2. Contents v
3. List of Figures vii
4. Acknowledgments x
5. Notes on Contributors xi
6. Introduction: William Wyler—Chariot Races and Flower Shows 1
7. Part I Style
8. 1 Wyler’s Early Films: Evolution of the “Styleless Style” 25
9. 2 More than Meets the Eye: Perspectives on William Wyler and the Auteur Theory 54
10. 3 Traumatic History and the Prosthesis of Myth in Wyler’s 68
11. 4 Persistent Presence: Space and Time in the Films of William Wyler 88
12. Part II Collaboration, Genre, and Adaptation
13. 5 Clash of the Titans: The Hidden Collaboration of William Wyler and David O. Selznick on Carrie (1952) 109
14. 6 Narratives of Failure: Dead End (1937), The Desperate Hours (1955), and Gangsters in Distress 127
15. 7 Wyler’s Wuthering Heights (1939): Genre, Transnationalism, and the Adaptation of the Victorian Novel 143
16. Part III Gender and Sexuality
17. 8 William Wyler’s The Heiress (1949) and the Unknown Woman 9 These Three: Wyler and his Two Adaptations of The Children’s Hour 161
18. 9 These Three: Wyler and his Two Adaptations of The Children’s Hour 176
19. Part IV War and Peace
20. 10 A War of the People: Destruction, Community, and Hope in William Wyler’s Wartime Films 191
21. 11 Turning the Other Cheek: Wyler’s Pacifism Trilogy—Friendly Persuasion (1956), The Big Country (1958), and Ben-Hur (1959) 208
22. Part V Global Wyler
23. 12 William Wyler’s Voyage to Italy: Roman Holiday (1953), Progressive Hollywood, and the Cold War 227
24. 13 “Down Eros, Up Mars!”: Post-Colonialism, Imperial Violence, and the Corrupting Influence of Hate in William Wyler’s Ben-Hur (1959) 244
25. 14 “Life Isn’t Always What One Likes”: The Unbearable Lightness of Royalty, and Other Stereotypes in Roman Holiday (1953) 258
26. Filmography 278
27. Academy Awards for Acting under Wyler 281
28. Index 284