Spyscreen

Espionage on Film and TV from the 1930s to the 1960s

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by Toby Miller

Type: Studies
Subject: Genre > Adventures
Keywords: spy films, adventures, ideology
Publishing date: 2003
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Language: English

Relative size

Physical desc.

Hardcover • 240 pages
5 ½ x 8 ½ inches (14 x 21.5 cm)

ISBN-10 ISBN-13

0-19-815952-8
978-0-19-815952-0

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Book Presentation:
• Discusses many well-known films and series, such as James Bond, Gilda, The Man From U.N.C.L.E., and The Avengers
• Uses a wide variety of methods of analysis, including textual interpretation, audience studies, and cultural history
• Highlights important links between socio-political history and films/TV shows
• Includes a chapter on the importance of women to the genre

Spyscreen is a genre study of English-language spy fiction film and television between the 1930s and 1960s. Taking as his focus many well-known films and television series, Toby Miller uses a wide range of critical approaches - from textual interpretation, audience studies, and cultural history, through auteurism, imperial history, class, and governmentality, to genre, cultural imperialism, and gender.

Beginning with an overview of the social and political background to the history, production, and analysis of spy fiction, topics discussed include the first canonical espionage movie, The 39 Steps, key film noir texts such as Gilda and The Third Man, the figure of popular spies, including James Bond, and the importance of women to the genre. The result is not just an insightful new study of key texts in this popular genre; it is an important intervention in the methodology and practice of Screen Studies.