In this essay collection David Lazar looks to our intimate relationships with characters, both well-known and lesser known, from Hollywood's Golden Age. Veering through considerations of melancholy and wit, sexuality and gender, and the surrealism of comedies of the self in an uncanny world, mixed with his own autobiographical reflections of cinephilia, Lazar creates an alluring hybrid of essay forms as he moves through the movies in his mind. Character actors from the classical era of the 1930s through the 1950s including Thelma Ritter, Oscar Levant, Martin Balsam, Nina Foch, Elizabeth Wilson, Eric Blore, Edward Everett Horton, and the eponymous Celeste Holm all make appearances in these considerations of how essential character actors were, and remain, to cinema.
In this essay collection David Lazar looks to our intimate relationships with characters, both well-known and lesser known, from Hollywood's Golden Age. Veering through considerations of melancholy and wit, sexuality and gender, and the surrealism of comedies of the self in an uncanny world, mixed with his own autobiographical reflections of cinephilia, Lazar creates an alluring hybrid of essay forms as he moves through the movies in his mind. Character actors from the classical era of the 1930s through the 1950s including Thelma Ritter, Oscar Levant, Martin Balsam, Nina Foch, Elizabeth Wilson, Eric Blore, Edward Everett Horton, and the eponymous Celeste Holm all make appearances in these considerations of how essential character actors were, and remain, to cinema.
Acknowledgments
Introduction
On Characters: Preston Sturges’s Ensemble
My Two Oscars: On Wit and Melancholy
Celeste Holm Syndrome: The Eyes of Sister Scholastica
Double Take: Jack Carson Agonistes
Comedy and Pain: Eric Blore, with a Side of Franklin Pangborn
Ma: Five Movie Mothers, with a Coda on Hitchcock
My Family Romance: Edward Everett Horton and Jessie Royce
Landis
Martin Balsam: The Best Possible Arnold Burns
David Lazar is a professor at Columbia College Chicago. He
is the author of several books, including I’ll Be Your Mirror:
Essays and Aphorisms (Nebraska, 2017), Who’s Afraid of Helen of
Troy? An Essay on Love, and Occasional Desire: Essays (Nebraska,
2013). He is the founding editor of the literary magazine Hotel
Amerika.
"Lazar’s writing is both erudite and ardent. He is both professor
and cinéaste."—Elizabeth Bales Frank, Brevity
“Fans of Hollywood’s Golden Age will delight in this affecting look
at what makes actors truly memorable, even if they’re not in the
spotlight.”—Publishers Weekly
“In personal, insightful essays, the author defines the brilliance
of second-billed players. . . . Well-observed reflections for true
fans of the silver screen.”—Kirkus Reviews
"Lazar's Celeste Holm Syndrome reminds us that even the quietest
presence or briefest screen time from these supporting players with
a seemingly tireless work ethic and deep well of modest humility
can leave a lasting impression."—Christopher John
Stephens, Pop Matters
“This gorgeously written book makes many brilliant observations
about the tiny nuances of ‘character actors’ and in so doing makes
an unassailable case that because we are all bit players in the
cosmic firmament, ‘interesting and endearing people’ are
immeasurably more compelling than ‘heroes’ (whoever they might
be).”—David Shields, author of The Trouble with Men: Reflections on
Sex, Love, Marriage, Porn, and Power
“A great book about character actors would be enough, but Lazar’s
imaginative and ingratiatingly erudite series of meditations is
much more. The author spins sprightly essays from each subject,
allowing biography and personal speculation to reinforce and enrich
each other. The sublime tribute to Oscar Levant and melancholia is,
as they say, worth the price of admission.”—Molly Haskell, author
of From Reverence to Rape: The Treatment of Women in the Movies
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