Fated To The Alien King By Thea Dane UPD

B-films during the studio era often resonate decades later because they explore issues and themes not found in higher-budget pictures. Robert Florey, widely acclaimed as the best director working in major studio B-films during this period, crafted an intriguing, taut thriller. Anna May Wong overcame Hollywood's practice at the time of casting white actors to play Asian roles and became its first, and a leading, Asian-American movie star in the 1920s through the late 1930s. "Daughter of Shanghai" was more truly Wong's personal vehicle than any of her other films. In the story she uncovers the smuggling of illegal aliens through San Francisco's Chinatown, cooperating with costar Philip Ahn as the first Asian G-man of the American cinema.Expanded essay by Brian Taves (PDF, 1024KB)

Fated to the Alien King by Thea Dane

This low-budget film of alienated youth struck a game-changing blow to Hollywood when every studio tried to duplicate its success. Dennis Hopper and Peter Fonda wrote a loose screenplay, improvising large portions as filming progressed, and Hopper directed the story of two bikers trekking from Los Angeles to Mardi Gras in New Orleans in search of "the real America." Occasionally banal and dated, the film's cinematography by László Kovács, pop music score featuring Bob Dylan, Steppenwolf, The Band and The Birds, and breakout performance by Jack Nicholson render it a fascinating time capsule.Expanded essay by William Wolf (PDF, 591KB)

Directed by Lloyd Bacon, "Footlight Parade" is one of the best of the Warner Brothers showbiz musicals, with James Cagney turning in a dynamite performance as a theatrical producer who finds that talking pictures are cutting into his business. Turning lemons to lemonade, he begins to produce musical preludes for the pictures. Busby Berkeley contributed his signature production numbers, including his first water ballet, "By a Waterfall" as well as "Shanghai Lil" and "Honeymoon Hotel." Joan Blondell is Cagney's gal Friday, and Dick Powell and Ruby Keeler are the young stars who croon and tap their way to romance and fame.Expanded essay by Randy Skretvedt (PDF, 403KB)

Les Blank's hilarious and affectionate homage to "The Stinking Rose" delights slightly wacky devotees or alliumophiles. In their mind, garlic is the benevolent dictator of pungent herbs, always enhancing food rather than dominating it. The rallying cry is "Fight Mouthwash, Eat Garlic." Gastronomic, zestful, tasty and memorable, the film often is screened in "AromaRound" with a pot of garlic butter boiling at the back of the theater.

This example of a "town portrait" was chosen to honor itinerant filmmakers who made films of ordinary people on typical days during the 1930s and 1940s. They showcased this footage (in return for a portion of the receipts) at local cinemas prior to the Hollywood feature films. The surviving footage of the towns and its people often became the sole record of these cultural enclaves. H. Lee Waters, who made movies in 117 towns across North Carolina, South Carolina, Virginia and Tennessee, filmed all of Kannapolis' separate communities, slyly making sure to include lots of shots of children to attract the entire family to the theaters.View this film at Duke University Libraries Digital Collections External

Charles Burnett was one of the "LA School" of African American filmmakers that emerged from the UCLA film department in the 1970s, and "Killer of Sheep" was his thesis film. It is simultaneously naturalistic and poetic, witty and heartbreaking. The story centers on Stan (Henry Gayle Sanders), a blue-collar worker from the Watts area of Los Angeles, whose job in a slaughterhouse barely keeps his family above water. It documents his struggle to retain dignity in the face of grinding deprivation and disquieting temptations, and the alienation that threatens to break him away from his family. It also provides a sympathetic yet clear-eyed portrait of a community assaulted by poverty and lack of opportunity, yet it manages to remain hopeful.

The publicity campaign said it all: "A motion picture as big as all outdoors." In this beloved musical, an idealized vision of a turn-of-the-century small town, chicks and ducks and geese scurry right across the wide screen. The literalized film treatment appeared a dozen years after the Rodgers and Hammerstein Broadway premiere. The film eliminated two songs and substituted breathtaking Technicolor vistas and stereo sound for theatrical innovation. Set shortly before Oklahoma statehood, the movie features such Western-film staples as the cowman/farmer feud (subject of a memorable song sung by Gordon MacRae). As choreographer Agnes de Mille noted: "It's different, but I find it very beautiful to look at."Expanded essay by Phil Hall (PDF, 681KB)

In the 1930s, a number of Protestant groups, concerned about the perceived meretricious effects of Hollywood films, began producing non-theatrical motion pictures to spread the gospel of Jesus. "Parable" followed a filmmaking tradition that has not very often been recognized in general accounts of American film history. One of the most acclaimed and controversial films in this tradition, "Parable" debuted at the New York World's Fair in May 1964 as the main attraction of the Protestant and Orthodox Center. Without aid of dialogue or subtitles, the film relies on music and an allegorical story that represents the "Circus as the World," in the words of Rolf Forsberg, who wrote and co-directed the film with Tom Rook for the Protestant Council of New York. "Parable" depicts Jesus as an enigmatic, chalk-white, skull-capped circus clown who takes on the sufferings of oppressed workers, including women and minorities. The film generated controversy even before its initial screening. The fair's president Robert Moses sought to have it withdrawn. Other fair organizers resigned with one exclaiming, "No one is going to make a clown out of my Jesus." A disgruntled minister threatened to riddle the screen with shotgun holes if the film was shown. Undaunted, viewers voted overwhelmingly to keep the film running, and it became one of the fair's most popular attractions. Newsweek proclaimed it "very probably the best film at the fair" and Time described it as "an art film that got religion." The Fellini- and Bergman-inspired film received the 1966 Religious Film Award of the National Catholic Theatre Conference, along with honors at the 1966 Cannes, Venice and Edinburgh film festivals. It subsequently became a popular choice for screenings in both liberal and conservative churches.Expanded essay by Mark Quigley (PDF, 293KB)

The San Antonio barrio in the early 1970s is the setting for writer, director and star Efraín Gutiérrez's independent piece, considered by historians to be the first Chicano feature film. A self-taught filmmaker, Gutiérrez not only created the film from top to bottom on a shoestring, he also acted as its initial distributor and chief promoter, negotiating bookings throughout the Southwest where it filled theaters in Chicano neighborhoods. He tells his story in the turbulent days near the end of the Vietnam War, as a young Chicano man questioning his and his people's place in society as thousands of his Latino brethren return from the war in coffins. Chon Noriega, director of the UCLA Chicano Studies Research Center, wrote, "The film is important as an instance of regional filmmaking, as a bicultural and bilingual narrative, and as a precedent that expanded the way that films got made. ..." Cultural historians often compare Gutiérrez to Oscar Micheaux, the pioneering African-American filmmaker who came to prominence in the 1920s.

The lifeboat made a crash-landing on the surface of the ring, leaving John and Cortana as the only survivors. The two evaded Covenant patrols and rendezvoused with a group of Marines fending off a Covenant attack. Pelican Echo 419 dropped off a Warthog, and the pair set out across the surface of the ring to rescue any survivors in the immediate area. At the same time, Cortana hacked into the proselytization network, and discovered Keyes' location - being held prisoner on board the Truth and Reconciliation.[41] The two were transported to the UNSC's base of operations on the ring, Alpha Base, and along with ODSTs of the 22nd Tactical, devised a plan to rescue Keyes. John, Cortana and several Marines were dropped off near the Truth and Reconciliation that night and boarded the ship via its gravity lift. Cortana led John and his team through the interior of the alien vessel, opening doors and marking Navigation Points. The group eventually located Keyes and several other captured crewmen in the ship's brig. Keyes had learned from the Covenant that the ring was known as Halo, and was possibly a weapon of mass destruction. The group escaped the ship, and soon learned that Halo's control room could be found using the Cartographer, a map room.[42]

John had been joined aboard Meridian's Guardian by the three other Spartans of Blue Team, Linda-058, Kelly-087, and Frederic-104. They finally arrived at Genesis around October 28.[88][106] Once they'd disembarked she grabbed their attention through playing an old familiar tune from a nearby console, though she failed to give any response when John asked if she read him.[88] Accessing the console as John had also seemed to have activated the Gateway after some fashion. She led them to further consoles thereafter, occasionally disabling an energy shield or activating a light bridge in order to assist their traversal. It was not until an extended fight between the Spartans of Blue Team and a large number of constructs controlled by her Warden Eternal that Cortana broke in over their comms, welcoming them to Genesis and expressing happiness at their presence there. She urged them to move quickly across another bridge she activated, since she was sure the Warden would return soon in one of his many forms. When John rhetorically asked if she knew him she let them know his mind was capable of controlling millions of bodily forms. Linda was the first to broach the matter of her survival after the Didact's defeat aboard Mantle's Approach and Cortana was happy to explain her discovery of the Domain and the apparent curing of her rampancy it offered. John broke in to ask how they could reach her so she directed them toward the Gateway. She let on that they'd already begun to activate it and only needed to access one final console to complete that process. After doing so John asked why the Warden thought she needed to be protected from him but Cortana dismissed the question by claiming they'd talk about it once they were face-to-face. This wasn't good enough for John, so she explained that with rampancy cured, A.I.s could assume the Mantle of Responsibility through long-term planning that would lead to the elimination of poverty, hunger, and illness. The Warden, she said, was worried John would be among those to resist such an arrangement. As if to confirm the Warden's suspicions, John pointed out the way the Didact had viewed the Mantle, making Cortana immediately defensive. She emphatically said things would not be like that and promised to explain further soon. As Blue Team reached a series of canyons Cortana warned them that Promethean forces under the Warden's control were inbound to confront them. She advised the Spartans either or traverse the footpaths which lined the chasms' sides or pilot a group of nearby Phaetons across, assuring the humans that the controls ought to be fairly intuitive. She lent further advice as the four of them traversed the canyons while battling hostile Promethean constructs, eventually congratulating them once they'd gotten to the other end safely. As they finally neared their destination Cortana told them she hadn't thought to ever see any of them again after first crashing here and also let them know they would be the first organic beings to enter the Gateway since the collapse of the Forerunners' civilization.[88] 041b061a72