Crouse, Jeffrey Dennis (1997) Representations of screen heterosexuality in the musicals of Fred Astaire and Vincente Minnelli. PhD thesis, University of Warwick.

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Abstract

This thesis examines the ways in which heterosexuality
is rendered in the Hollywood genre where its existence
is most privileged: musicals of the studio era (c. 1930 -
c. 1960). In this popular film category, heterosexuality
is expressed in a framework of "boy-meets-girl" amatory
coupling that is remarkably amplified and insistent. In
analysis that is at once sympathetic and critical of the
subject matter, I show that heterosexuality in the
Hollywood musical is constructed in a way that is far
from monolithic. On the contrary, I find that there are
in fact varieties of heterosexual identity that exist in
the genre, and that they are most succinctly revealed
through romantic engagement. Yet heterosexuality is
depicted along divergent formulations owing to
contrasting relational aims and assumptions. Building on
Richard Dyer's 1993 essay, "'I Seem to Find the
Happiness I Seek': Heterosexuality and Dance in the
Musical," I will discuss how the basis of these separate
models is traceable to different approaches related to
power distributions between men and women. These
processes, in turn, arise from different notions
concerning masculinity and femininity. In this way, a
mix of gender expressions inhabit the Hollywood musical
leading to an assortment of heterosexual models. Textually these models become visible not only through
an analysis of characterization and the position of the
man and woman within the narrative, but in the camera
work, all aspects of the mise-en-scene, and most
cogently, in the arrangement of the central heterosexual
couple in the song-and-dance sequences.
For my examination of heterosexuality in the Hollywood
musical, I will concentrate on the work of two of its
greatest auteurs: Fred Astaire (star) and Vincente
Minnelli (director). The impact each man made on this
genre is hard to overestimate. In terms of methodology
I divide my analysis between these two artists, and
ascertain what model(s) of heterosexual identity are
communicated by them. Then after establishing what
design(s) of heterosexual life each one suggests (for
Astaire I analyse Top Hat (1935] as well as Carefree
[1938] and The Sky's the Limit [1943], while for
Minnelli I look at Meet Me in St. Louis (1944) and The
Pirate (1948]), I conclude this thesis by examining
their most acclaimed joint effort (The Band Wagon
(1953]) to discern what, if any, change one might have
had on the other. A phenomenon tied to the US musical
(whether stage or screen) is that although it is the
most heterosexual of genres, it is also one
traditionally both crafted and appreciated by gay men. Though it does not fall within the scope of this thesis,
it is worth speculating for future work if Astaire's
heterosexuality and Minnelli's homosexuality had any
significant bearing on the way they represented the
standard boy meets-girl plot device upon which the
Hollywood musical relies.

Item Type:	Thesis (PhD)
Subjects:	P Language and Literature > PN Literature (General) > PN1993 Motion Pictures
Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCSH):	Heterosexuality in motion pictures, Musical films -- History and criticism, Astaire, Fred -- Criticism and interpretation, Minnelli, Vincente -- Criticism and interpretation
Official Date:	November 1997
Dates:	Date Event November 1997 Submitted
Institution:	University of Warwick
Theses Department:	Department of Film and Television Studies
Thesis Type:	PhD
Publication Status:	Unpublished
Supervisor(s)/Advisor:	Dyer, Richard, 1945-
Sponsors:	Overseas Research Students Awards Scheme (ORSAS)
Extent:	iii, 354 p.
Language:	eng

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