And who remembers these critics today? - the living Fay Wray fan -
-- In faywray@yahoogroups.com, "Beverly Anne" <isa48_17@...> wrote:
>
> http://theeveningclass.blogspot.com/2006/12/film-criticism-
blogathonphillip-
> lopate.html
>
> An Exceprt from "Phllip Lopate: American Movie Critics: An
Anthology from the Silents
> Until Now"
>
> "Lopate then compared what Cecilia Ager had to say about King
Kong. "Another writer of
> the 1930s, Cecilia Ager, covered what was considered the woman's
angle. She would write
> movie criticism with a great emphasis on women's fashions, on
women's parts. She was
> really writing about the parts that women were assigned and the
ways that they were
> construed." He quoted Ager: "Despite all her experience with
picture beasties, Fay Wray
> can't seem to condition herself against the horrid old things.
She's just as terrified at King
> Kong, she screams quite as shrilly as if she couldn't remember from
her past encounters
> that she will surely be saved at the end. She won't learn, Miss
Wray, she won't learn. All
> that's come of her former run-ins with monsters is the overnight
change of her hair from
> black to blonde, but it doesn't help. The curious attraction she
has for man-beast combos
> is not to be denied by superficial hair-color transformation. It's
made matters even worse
> for her. Blonde, she looks even more the part of Beauty in the
fable, Beauty and the Beast,
> so what can the beast do but act good and beasty." (2006:79)
>
> ***VERY GOOD TO SEE YOU BACK UP STEVE...It seems some critics can
only criticize
> Our Lady Fay because she appeared in some (actually very few
monster movies). They
> have concentrated on only this aspect of the career of a serious
and talented actress and
> have her penalized for all cinema history as the blonde woman from
K.K.
>
> Unfortunately for them, they have just helped immortalized her
even more...
>