For anyone interested in connections between film and modern American 
history and politics, I highly recommend NIXON AT THE MOVIES (Univ. of 
Chicago, 2004) by Mark Feeney.  It's an original and brilliant 
discourse on the Nixon Era (that is, much of mid-20th Century America) 
using the extensive log of films Nixon and his family watched in the 
White House movie theater (far more than any other president; who'd 
have thought?)  The connections Feeney makes between Nixon's own 
upbringing in Whittier, CA, in the shadow of Hollywood, his ambitions 
and appeal to middle America ring true.  The chapter on DOUBLE 
INDEMNITY as a text on Southern California during the rise of Richard 
Nixon is alone worth picking up the book for.
--
Dennis Bingham
Associate Professor and Director of Film Studies
Dept. of English Indiana University School of Liberal Arts
IUPUI
501V Cavanaugh Hall
425 University Blvd.
Indianapolis, IN 46202
(317) 274-9825 (phone)
(317) 278-1287 (fax)

----
To sign off Screen-L, e-mail [log in to unmask] and put SIGNOFF Screen-L
in the message.  Problems?  Contact [log in to unmask]