humanities.lit.authors.shakespeare

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> What's in a name? The catalyst for speculation and even some advice
> By FRANCES TALIAFERRO : Wall Street Journal. February 16, 2008;
>
><> Bryson is a versatile journalist with an eye for detail; especially
> colorful is his description of the "insanely busy" modus operandi of
> the acting companies. "To prosper, a theater in London needed to draw
> as many as two thousand spectators a day. . . . To keep customers
> coming back . . . most companies performed at least five different
> plays in a week, sometimes six," and playwrights scrambled to supply
> material. Forget artistic transcendence: In a profession conducted
> at top speed, "reliability was paramount.">>
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Brave *New World*
---------------------------
Roger William Corman (5 April 1926, Detroit, Michigan)
.
<making low-budget films on a tight schedule), Roger Corman attempted
to break into films by the tried and trusted method of working as a
messenger for 20th-Century Fox, eventually rising to the position of
story analyst. He started direct involvement in films in 1953 as a
producer and screenwriter, making his debut as director in 1955.
Between then and his official retirement in 1971 he directed dozens of
films, often as many as six or seven per year, typically shot
extremely quickly on leftover sets from other, larger, productions.
His probably unbeatable record for a professional 35mm feature film
was two days and a night to shoot the original version of The Little
Shop of Horrors (1960), though sEVERal other films were made in less
than a week. In the early 1960s, his budgets got bigger (though nEVER
big), when he made a series of adaptations of Edgar Allan Poe stories
starring Vincent Price. Apart from Frankenstein Unbound (1990), he
retired from directing in 1971 to concentrate on production and
distribution through his company *New World* (and later Concorde),
making low-budget exploitation films and using the profits to
distribute distinguished art films. Apart from making dozens of
enormously entertaining films (there are amazingly few duds in his
output), Corman's place in film history is assured simply through his
unrivalled eye for talent - among many world-class names who were
employed by him at a VERy early stage in their careers are Francis
Ford Coppola, Martin Scorsese, Jonathan Demme, James Cameron, Peter
Bogdanovich, Joe Dante and many others - which means that his
influence on modern American cinema is almost incalculable.>>
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Match the girl to the boy:
...........................
1) Celia a) Glenda
2) Rosalind b) lawyer
3) Imogene c) law clerk
4) Portia d) Cesario
5) Glen e) Fidele
6) Julia f) Ganymede
7) Nerissa g) Aliena
8) Viola h) boy
9) Jessica i) Sebastian
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Edward Davis Wood Jr. (10 October 1924, Poughkeepsie - 10 December
1978, North Hollywood)
.
<unsuccessful career, died a penniless alcoholic, only to be
"rediscovered" when promoters in the early 1980s tagged him the worst
director of all time - and was given the singular honor of a full-
length biopic by Tim Burton. After fighting in World War II (he
claimed to have been wearing a bra and panties under his uniform
during a military landing), Wood attempted to break into the film
industry, initially without success, but finally landing the chance to
direct a film based on the Christine Jorgensen sex-change. The result,
Glen or Glenda (1953) gave a fascinating insight into Wood's own
personality and shed light on his transvestism. Although devoutly
heterosexual, Wood was an enthusiastic cross-dresser, with a
particular fondness for angora. The film revealed the almost total
lack of talent that would mar all his subsequent films, his tendency
to resort to stock footage of lightning during dramatic moments,
laughable set design, and a near-incomprehensible performance by Bela
Lugosi, as a mad doctor, whose presence is nEVER adequately explained.
The film deservingly flopped miserably but Wood, always upbeat,
pressed ahead. Friends described him as far more interested in
cobbling a project together than learning the craft of filmmaking. All
of his films exhibit illogical continuity, bizarre narratives and give
the distinct impression that his goal was simply to expose the least
amount of film possible due to constant budget constraints. It's not
so much that he made movies badly, the amazing part is that he managed
to get them made at all. His subsequent film with Lugosi, Bride of the
Monster (1955) was no better, and Wood only shot a few seconds of
footage of Lugosi for his next film before the latter died.
Unbelievably, it somehow managed to earn a small profit during it's
original release, undoubtedly more of a testament to how cheaply it
was produced than as entertainment. What few reviews the film received
were awful. Undaunted, Wood based Plan 9 from Outer Space (1959)
around this limited material and microscopic budget, casting it with
his regular band of mostly inept actors. Given the dialog they had to
cope with, though, it's unlikely that better actors would have been an
improvement - in fact, it's "Plan 9"'s semi-official status as the
Worst Film EVER Made that gives it its substantial cult following
today. Plan 9, financed by a local Baptist congregation led by his
landlord, became his legacy. Ironically, the rights to the film were
retained by the church and it is unlikely that Wood EVER realized any
income from it; his epic bombed upon release and remained largely
forgotten for years to come. After this career peak, Wood went into
decline (using relative terms), directing undistinguished soft and
later hardcore pornography, and writing a number of transvestite-
themed pornographic paperbacks before his premature death at only 54.
Wood and his wife were evicted from their apartment shortly before his
death.>>
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Plan 9 from Outer Space (1959)
.....................
[first lines]
Criswell: Greetings, my friend. We are all interested in the future,
for that is where you and I are going to spend the rest of our lives.
And remember my friend, future events such as these will affect you in
the future. You are interested in the unknown... the mysterious. The
unexplainable. That is why you are here. And now, for the first time,
we are bringing to you, the full story of what happened on that
fateful day. We are bringing you all the evidence, based only on the
secret testimony, of the miserable souls, who survived this terrifying
ordeal. The incidents, the places. My friend, we cannot keep this a
secret any longer. Let us punish the guilty. Let us reward the
innocent. My friend, can your heart stand the shocking facts of grave
robbers from outer space?
.....................
Criswell: [narrating] ... All of us on this earth know that there is a
time to live, and that there is a time to die. Yet death is always a
shock to those left behind. It is even more of a shock when Death, the
Proud Brother, comes suddenly without warning. Just at sundown, a
small group gathered in silent prayer, around the newly-opened grave
of the beloved wife of an elderly man. Sundown of the day; yet also
the sundown of the old man's heart, for the shadows of grief clouded
his VERy reason... The funeral over, the saddened group left the
graveside. It was when the gravediggers started their task that
strange things began to take place.
.....................
Criswell: [narrating] At the funeral of the old man, unknown to his
mourners, his DEAD WIFE was watching!
.....................
Gravedigger #1: You hear anything?
.
Gravedigger #2: Thought I did.
.
Gravedigger #1: Don't like hearing noises, especially when there ain't
supposed to be any.
.
Gravedigger #2: Yeah, kinda spooky-like.
.
Gravedigger #1: Maybe we're getting old.
.
Gravedigger #2: Well, whatEVER it is, it's gone now.
.
Gravedigger #1: That's the best thing for us too, gone.
.
Gravedigger #2: Yeah, let's go.
.....................
Criswell: [narrating] ... The grief from his wife's death became
greater and greater agony. The home they had so long shared became a
tomb, a sweet memory of her joyous living. The sky to which he had
once looked was now only a covering for her dead body. The EVER-
beautiful flowers she had planted with her own hands became nothing
more than the lost roses of her cheeks. Confused by his great loss,
the old man left that home... nEVER to return again!
[brakes screech and the old man screams]
.....................
Jeff Trent: Modern women. They've been like that all down through the
ages. Especially in a spot like this.
.....................
Eros: You do not need guns.
.
Jeff Trent: Maybe we think we do.
.....................
Paula Trent: ...A flying saucer? You mean the kind from up there?
.
Jeff Trent: Yeah, either that or its counterpart.
.....................
Paula Trent: Now, don't you worry. The saucers are up there. The
graveyard is out there. But I'll be locked up safely in there.
.....................
Air Force Captain: Visits? That would indicate visitors.
.....................
Colonel Tom Edwards: This is the most fantastic story I've EVER heard.
.
Jeff Trent: And EVERy word of it's TRUE, too.
.
Colonel Tom Edwards: That's the fantastic part of it.
.....................
Lieutenant John Harper: I'll bet my badge that we haven't seen the
last of those weirdies.
.....................
Detective: But one thing's sure. Inspector Clay is dead, murdered, and
somebody's responsible.
.....................
Paula Trent: I've nEVER seen you in this mood before.
.
Jeff Trent: I guess that's because I've nEVER been in this mood
before.
.....................
Colonel Tom Edwards: Why is it so important that you want to contact
the governments of our earth?
.
Eros: Because of death. Because all you of Earth are idiots.
.
Jeff Trent: Now you just hold on, Buster.
.
Eros: No, you hold on. First was your firecracker, a harmless
explosive. Then your hand grenade: you began to kill your own people,
a few at a time. Then the bomb. Then a larger bomb: many people are
killed at one time. Then your scientists stumbled upon the atom bomb,
split the atom. Then the hydrogen bomb, where you actually explode the
air itself. Now you can arrange the total destruction of the entire
UNIVERSe served by our sun: The only explosion left is the Solaranite.
.
Colonel Tom Edwards: Why, there's no such thing.
.....................
Jeff Trent: Ah, what's the use of makin' a fuss. Last night I saw a
flyin' object that couldn't a possibly been from this planet, but I
can't talk about it. I'm muzzled by Army Brass. I can't even admit I
saw the thing!
.....................
Jeff Trent: They here, they're a fact. And the Public oughta know
about it!
.....................
Paula Trent: What friends?
.....................
Patrolman Kelton: ...From all I've seen tonight, guns won't do any
good. Clay's dead, and we buried him. How are we gonna kill someone
who's already dead? *Dead*! And yet there he stands!
.....................
Paula Trent: Now toddle off and fly your flying machine.
.....................
Colonel Tom Edwards: ...Why, a particle of sunlight can't even be seen
or measured.
.
Eros: Can you see or measure an atom? Yet you can *explode* one. A ray
of sunlight is made up of *many* atoms!
.
Jeff Trent: So what if we *do* develop this Solanite bomb? We'd be
even a stronger nation than now.
.
Eros: [with disgust] Stronger. You see? You see? Your stupid minds!
Stupid! Stupid!
.
Jeff Trent: That's all I'm taking from you!
[pistol-whips Eros upside the head]
.....................
Tanna: Eros, do we *have* to kill them?
.
Eros: Yes.
.
Tanna: It seems such a waste.
.
Eros: Well, wouldn't it be better to kill a few now than, with their
meddling, permit them to destroy the entire UNIVERSe?
.
Tanna: You're always right, Eros.
.
Eros: Of course. But those are not my words; those are the words of
the Ruler.
.....................
Jeff Trent: You fiend.
.
Eros: I, a fiend? I am a soldier of our planet. I, a fiend? We did not
come here as enemies.
.....................
Eros: It's because of men like you that all must be destroyed.
.....................
Colonel Tom Edwards: You speak of Solaranite. But just what is it?
.
Eros: Take a can of your gasoline. Say this can of gasoline is the
sun. Now, you spread a thin line of it to a ball, representing the
earth. Now, the gasoline represents the sunlight, the sun particles.
Here we saturate the ball with the gasoline, the sunlight. Then we put
a flame to the ball. The flame will speedily travel around the earth,
back along the line of gasoline to the can, or the sun itself. It will
explode this source and spread to EVERy place that gasoline, our
sunlight, touches. Explode the sunlight here, gentlemen, you explode
the UNIVERSe. Explode the sunlight here and a chain reaction will
occur direct to the sun itself and to all the planets that sunlight
touches, to EVERy planet in the UNIVERSe. This is why you must be
stopped. This is why any means must be used to stop you. In a friendly
manner or as (it seems) you want it.
.
Lieutenant John Harper: He's mad.
.
Tanna: Mad? Is it mad that you destroy other people to save
yourselves? You have done this. Is it mad that one country must
destroy another to save themselves? You have also done this. How then
is it "mad" that one planet must destroy another who threatens the
VERy existence-...
.
Eros: [shoves her roughly aside] That's enough.
.
[to the humans]
Eros: In my land, women are for advancing the race, not for fighting
man's battles.
.....................
Lieutenant John Harper: It was a saucer.
.
Patrolman: A flying saucer?
.....................
The Ruler: Plan 9? Ah, yes. Plan 9 deals with the resurrection of the
dead. Long distance electrodes shot into the pineal and pituitary
gland of the recently dead.
.....................
Colonel Tom Edwards: For a time we tried to contact them by radio but
no response. Then they attacked a town, a small town I'll admit, but
nEVER the less a town of people, people who died."
.....................
Inspector Clay: I'm a big boy now, Johnny.
.....................
Criswell: My friend, you have seen this incident, based on sworn
testimony. Can you prove that it didn't happen?
.....................
Criswell: Perhaps, on your way home, someone will pass you in the
dark, and you will nEVER know it... for they will be from outer space.
.....................
Jeff Trent: You promise you'll lock the doors immediately?
.
Paula Trent: I promise. Besides, I'll be in bed before a half hour's
gone... with your pillow beside me.
.
Jeff Trent: My pillow?
.
Paula Trent: Well, I have to have something to keep me company while
you're away. Sometimes in the night, when it does get a little lonely,
I reach over and touch it. Then it doesn't seem so lonely anymore.
.....................
Patrolman Larry: Well, that's why you're a detective, Lieutenant, and
I'm still a uniformed officer.
.....................
The Ruler: With your ancient, juvenile minds you have developed
explosives too fast for your minds to conceive what you are doing. You
are on the VERgE of destroying the entire UNIVERSe. We are a part of
that UNIVERSe. This is our last...[cuts off]
.....................
General Roberts: [the General is explaining why a transmission from
the aliens has been cut short] "Thats the end of that one. Atmospheric
conditions in outer space often interfere with transmitting"
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Art Neuendo...[cuts off]