Contents

Chapters in this book

1. Frontmatter i
2. Contents iii
3. Figures v
4. The Contributors vii
5. Acknowledgments xi
6. Introduction 1
7. 1 The Pre-Bard Stage Career of John Barrymore 10
8. 2 Dangerously Modern: Shakespeare, Voice, and the “New Psychology” in John Barrymore’s “Unstable” Characters 22
9. 3 The Curious Case of Sherlock Holmes 35
10. 4 John Barrymore’s Introspective Performance in Beau Brummel 47
11. 5 “Keep Back your Pity”: The Wounded Barrymore of The Sea Beast (1926) and Moby Dick (1930) 59
12. 6 From Rome to Berlin: Barrymore as Romantic Lover 71
13. 7 The Power of Stillness: John Barrymore’s Performance in Svengali 85
14. 8 Prospero Unbound: John Barrymore’s Theatrical Transformations of Cinema Reality 98
15. 9 A Star is Dead: Barrymore’s Anti-Christian Metaperformance 109
16. 10 Handling Time: The Passing of Tradition in A Bill of Divorcement 123
17. 11 John Barrymore’s Sparkling Topaze 135
18. 12 “Planes, Motors, Schedules”: Night Flight and the Modernity of John Barrymore 145
19. 13 Barrymore and the Scene of Acting: Gesture, Speech, and the Repression of Cinematic Performance 157
20. 14 “I Never Thought I Should Sink So Low as to Become an Actor”: John Barrymore in Twentieth Century 169
21. 15 Barrymore Does Barrymore: The Performing Self Triumphant in The Great Profile 183
22. Works Cited 195
23. Index 200