Department of Theatre and Film

Forum Editors:

Cynthia Baron and Rosalind Sibielski

This forum brings together a series of reflections on the films screened as part of the Tuesdays at the Gish Film Series at Bowling Green State University in Fall 2010. Sponsored by The Culture Club:  Cultural Studies Scholars Association and the BGSU Department of Theatre and Film, Tuesdays at the Gish is dedicated to screening public domain, obscure, or independent films. Programming for the Fall 2010 series was comprised of a mix of prominent cult films, such as Russ Meyer’s Faster Pussycat!  Kill!  Kill! and Herschell Gordon Lewis’s Two Thousand Maniacs!, and lesser-known classics from the studio-era like Lewis Milestone’s The Strange Love of Martha Ivers and W.S. Van Dyke’s The Thin Man. Originally presented as introductions to the screenings at the Gish, the essays collected here invite us to reflect on the cultural, historical and industrial contexts in which these films were originally produced and viewed, as well as the categorization along the lines of production budgets, subject matter, and taste that are conventionally used to differentiate cult films from mainstream Hollywood films.

Forum Essays:

Melinda Lewis, “ Serial Mom: Perverse Pleasure, a Suburban Murderess, and the Prince of Puke”

Kevan A. Feshami, “Two Thousand Maniacs! in Cultural Context”

Angie Fitzpatrick, “Sweet Kittens and Sharp Claws: Gender Politics in Faster, Pussycat! Kill! Kill!”

Lizabeth Mason, “The Strange Love of Martha Ivers: Love and the Film Noir”

Melinda Lewis, “D.O.A.:  Poisoning the Film Noir Hero and Middle Class Values as Antidote”

Katie S. Barak, “The Thin Man: The Mixology of Class and Classiness”

Mallory Jagodzinski, “His Girl Friday: Hildy and Happily-Ever-After”

Justin Philpot, “Near Dark and the Vampire Western”