MOVIE COMEDIANS OF THE 1950S REVIEWED
“Movie Comedians of the 1950s” isn’t the kind of material that is going to grab every reader. However, it asks that those who pick up the book understand history and its relation to entertainment. Analyzing the Post WWII and Eisenhower Administration environments to understand how films changed is quite important. Especially, as it tracks the evolution of the American and eventual International comedy. America remained rather unscathed from direct soil conflict, so we had a chance to recover emotionally before our international friends. What did this mean for us?
Much time is spent covering the emerging sexuality of comedy and Charlie Chaplin getting shoved out of the country. While a ton of this material is sad, it’s amazing to see how an artform evolved in a decade’s time. I’m a huge Frank Tashlin fan, so I enjoyed having an entire chapter dedicated to the man’s work during this time. Still, there’s enough here to revisit and produce a Tashlin dedicated novel. My only real complaint for the book is that it’s far shorter than I expected. It could be teaching material for a May Term course, but that’s about it.
BOOK STATS
- Wes D. Gehring
- 212 pages
- McFarland
RELEASE DATE: OUT NOW!
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