Richard BarriosCritiques

In A Song in the Dark: The Birth of the Musical Film, Richard Barrios writes, “The time that produced the first musical films was as complex as it was fraught, so much so that, until the late twentieth century, most historians preferred to leave the era alone. Such action has naturally marginalized the films and minimized their importance, and this has all been exacerbated by the fact that so many of the films themselves (as well as their creators) are beyond access” (pg. 5). He structures his examination based on the background and production history of the films, changing contemporary perceptions of the films, and the relationship between the films and their audiences in their own times. The result is an extensive work of scholarship that film scholars and cultural historians must consult in their study of the early era of sound film.

This is the second edition of Barrios' book, which is by turns informative, entertaining, occasionally laugh-out-loud funny (do not miss the footnotes, nor the end notes), and frankly, a must-have for cinephiles. The second edition takes advantage of recent developments and discoveries.

This book charts the history of gay and lesbian characters and moments in Hollywood films from the beginning to 1970 or so; filling in the picture that The Celluloid Closet (both book and film) created, and attempts to show that some of the earlier glimpses in the 1930s and 1940s were at least occasionally more positive than those that 1960s and the gradual relaxation of the code and its eventual end brought into existence.½