King Vidor in Focus

King Vidor (1894-1982) had the longest career of any Hollywood director, and his works include some of the most dramatic, sublime moments in the history of American cinema. Regarded by many film historians as one of the greatest of silent era filmmakers--especially for masterworks The Big Parade, The Crowd, and Show People--Vidor is nonetheless one of the most underrated of Hollywood's "old masters" in terms of his overall career. His sound era films include Hallelujah, Street Scene, The Champ, The Stranger's Return, Our Daily Bread, Stella Dallas, The Citadel, Northwest Passage, Duel in the Sun, Beyond the Forest, The Fountainhead, Ruby Gentry and War and Peace. He also helped to establish the Screen Directors Guild and served as its first president.

This book charts the ways in which Vidor's vast, complex body of work ranges over diverse genres and styles while also expressing his recurring personal interests in spirituality (especially Christian Science), aesthetics, metaphysics, social realism, and the myth of America. The first book since 1988 to give a comprehensive view of Vidor's career, it discusses his artistic evolution in a way that appeals to the general reader as well as to the film scholar.

"Film aficionados and scholars will welcome this informative and sympathetic book-length Vidor study"-Library Journal
"In this new book, the first in-depth look at [Vidor's] career in more than 30 years, the authors reappraise [his] films, especially his lesser-known films and those dismissed by critics, and, through sharp critical analysis, show how Vidor's personal beliefs (in particular Christian science) informed the stories of many of his earlier films. ...Stoehr and Gallagher balance their subject's professional life with his personal life, exploring not just the way he made his movies but the reasons why he made them. A first-rate book that should become the standard Vidor reference for years to come."-Booklist

Kevin L. Stoehr is an associate professor of humanities and the chair of the Division of Humanities in the College of General Studies at Boston University. He lives in Wells, Maine. Cullen Gallagher is a writer, film scholar, literary critic, and musician living in Brooklyn, New York. His nonfiction has appeared in the Los Angeles Review of Books, Paris Review, and Not Coming to a Theater Near You.

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