With over 300 new entries added since the 1995 edition, this ultimate video guidebook for all video viewers gives a clear plot summary of each film, an MPAA rating, and extensive indices. From new releases to classics, foreign films to children's viewing, this reference contains over 20,000 entries of films available on video.

The respected expert in video sales and rentals offers an extensive reference guide of every film available on video--from new releases, classics and golden oldies to made-for-TV and foreign films. More than 20,000 entries, cross-indexed by title, director, celebrity, category, and more.

Sex and Sexuality in Modern Screen Remakes examines how sexiness, sexuality and revisited sexual politics are used to modernize film and TV remakes. This exploration provides insight into the ever-evolving—and ever-contested—role of sex in society, and scrutinizes the politics and economics underpinning modern media reproduction. More nudity, kinky sex, and queer content are increasingly deployed in remakes to attract, and to titillate, a new generation of viewers. While sex in this book refers to increased erotic content, this discussion also incorporates an investigation of other uses of sex and gender to help a remake appear woke and abreast of the zeitgeist including feminist reimaginings and ‘girl power’ make-overs, updated gender roles, female cast-swaps, queer retellings, and repositioned gazes. Though increased sex is often considered a sign of modernity, gratuitous displays of female nudity can sometimes be interpreted as sexist and anachronistic, in turn highlighting that progressiveness around sexuality in contemporary media is not a linear story. Also examined therefore, are remakes that reduce the sexual content to appear cutting-edge and cognizant of the demands of today’s audiences.

Alfred Hitchcock called the silent "the purest form of cinema," and the ten silent films he directed between 1925 and 1929 reveal the young director's mature artistry. Hitchcock's silents have often been characterized as the work of a talented amateur, a young director practicing his craft during a pre-sound era of antiquated instruments and poor film techniques--the director experimented with myriad points of view, unique camera angles and movements, and special effects such as dissolves, blurriness, and violent cuts. These films, however, contain the first appearances of some of his greatest and most familiar techniques: the vertigo-inducing crowd scene, the symbolic use of inanimate objects, the manipulation of the audience's emotions, and the self-conscious, often macabre wit. This work discovers Hitchcock's early talent and skill through close readings of the films from The Pleasure Garden to the silent version of Blackmail, using shot-by-shot descriptions and interpretations. Each film's chapter includes technical information, a summary of the critical response from the film's release to the present, and detailed analysis of the camera techniques and themes Hitchcock uses.

Alfred Hitchcock made many great films, but he also made many that critics and audiences largely dismissed. These least celebrated films, despite their admitted flaws and relative obscurity, offer much to reward the open-minded viewer. This critical study examines and reappraises fifteen such films generally overlooked by scholars and Hitchcock aficionados: Juno and the Paycock, The Skin Game, Waltzes from Vienna, Jamaica Inn, The Paradine Case, Under Capricorn, I Confess, Torn Curtain, Number Seventeen, Rich and Strange, Secret Agent, Mr. and Mrs. Smith, Stage Fright, The Wrong Man, and Topaz. Each film is discussed and analyzed in detail, revealing the master's touch in many previously unheralded ways. Brief assessments of the films from popular review compendia introduce each one, and excerpted highlights of numerous works of scholarship are liberally sprinkled throughout the text. In addition, wonderful rare still photographs from each film are included. Readers will come away with a richer sense of the director's talents in these films, adding to their appreciation of his work in unexpected ways.

While best known as one of the most important playwrights of the twentieth century, Harold Pinter (1930–2008) had an equally successful career writing screenplays. His collaborations with director Joseph Losey garnered great attention and esteem, and two of his screenplays earned Academy Award nominations: The French Lieutenant's Woman (1981) and Betrayal (1983). He is also credited for writing an unproduced script to remake Stanley Kubrick's 1962 adaptation of Lolita. Much scholarship has been dedicated to the subject of Pinter as playwright, but the rich landscape of his work in film has been left largely undisturbed. In Sharp Cut: Harold Pinter's Screenplays and the Artistic Process, Steven H. Gale, the world's foremost Pinter scholar, analyzes Pinter's creative process from initial conception to finished film. Gale makes careful, point-by-point comparisons of each stage in the screenplay's creation—the source material, the adaptations themselves, and the films made from the scripts—in order to reveal the meaning behind each film script and to explain the cinematic techniques used to express that meaning. Unlike most Pinter scholars, who focus almost solely on the written word, Gale devotes discussion to the cinematic interpretation of the scripts through camera angles and movement, cutting, and other techniques. Pinter does not merely convert his stage scripts to screenplays; he adapts the works to succeed in the other medium, avoiding elements of the live play that do not work onscreen and using the camera's focusing operations in ways that are not possible on the stage. As Pinter's career progressed and his writing evolved, screenplays became for him an increasingly vital means of creative expression. Sharp Cut is the first study to fully explore this important component of the Pinter canon.

Blondie, Boston Blackie, Ellery Queen, The Lone Wolf, Gasoline Alley, Jungle Jim... There were 27 film series produced and released by Columbia Pictures from 1926 through 1955. This reference book covers the origins of the popular fictional characters featured, as well as their appearances in other media (comics, novels, radio and television). Also provided are thumbnail biographies of the actors who brought these characters to life. The films themselves are examined in detail, with release dates, cast and production credits, synopses, reviews, the author's summation, the publicity "tag lines," and the songs heard. Additionally, most of the outdoor locations used in filming such Columbia western series as Wild Bill Saunders and The Durango Kid are identified.

Explores theories on the evolution of technology, the effects that human choice has on this revolution, and what's in store in the future.

The Soft Edge is a one-of-a-kind history of the information revolution. In his lucid and direct style, Paul Levinson, historian and philosopher of media and communications, gives us more than just a history of information technologies. The Soft Edge is a book about theories on the evolution of technology, the effects that human choice has on this (r)evolution, and what's in store for us in the future. Paul Levinson's engaging voice guides us on a tour that explains how communications media have been responsible for major developments in history and for profound changes in our day-to-day lives. Levinson presents the intriguing argument that technology actually becomes more human. We see how information technologies are selected on the basis of how well they meet human needs. Why is email more like speech than print is? Why didn't the arrival of television destroy the radio? These and many more thought provoking questions are answered in The Soft Edge. Boldly extending and deepening the pathways blazed by McLuhan, Paul Levinson has provided us with a brilliant and exciting study of life with our old media, our new media, and the media still to come.

What are the driving forces behind the film industry? How does the creative side gel with the business side? This book explores this fascinating industry in detail and answers the questions never-before answered.The Motion Picture Mega Industry is an in-depth exploration of the movie industry from the early developments to its current multi-billion dollar influence on today's society. Barry Litman has produced a truly unique text drawing on contributions from some of the top scholars in the field. The book examines the business of motion pictures; how the industry is structured; what ethics and morals are commonplace; the current issues that are affecting the motion picture industry today. It includes explicit chapters on conglomerates, mergers, copyright, censorship, and more. Movie industry buffs.Part of The Allyn & Bacon Series in Mass Communication