Burning Bright is a 1950 novella by John Steinbeck written as an experiment with producing a play in novel format. Rather than providing only the dialogue and brief stage directions as would be expected in a play, Steinbeck fleshes out the scenes with details of both the characters and the environment. The intention was to allow the play to be read by the non-theatrical reader while still allowing the dialogue to be lifted and performed with little adaptation by acting companies. While Steinbeck could see that providing little information in the way of physical description or stage direction allowed the director and actors greater freedom and scope for imaginative interpretation, he weighed this against the benefit of making the players aware of the author’s intent and making the play accessible to the general reader.

The story is a simple morality play concerning Joe Saul, an ageing man desperate for a child. His young wife, Mordeen, who loves him, suspects that he is sterile, and in order to please him by bearing him a child, she becomes pregnant by Saul’s cocky young assistant, Victor. The fourth character in the story is Friend Ed, a long time friend of Saul and Mordeen, who helps the couple through the ordeal after Joe discovers that he is indeed infertile and the child can not be his. The story is meant to be that of an everyman (early in its development Steinbeck had thought of calling the play Everyman), so the setting for each of the three acts recasts the four characters in different situations: the first act is set in a circus, Saul and Victor are trapeze artists and Friend Ed, a clown; in the second act, Saul and Friend Ed become neighbouring farmers and Victor appears as Saul’s farmhand. In the final act Saul is the captain of a ship, Mr. Victor, his mate, and Friend Ed a seaman about to put out on a different ship. Act three is divided into two scenes; the final scene is set in a hospital where the child is delivered; it makes no reference to any of the settings of the three acts, and so serves equally as a conclusion for any of the stories.

Burning Bright was Steinbeck’s third attempt at writing what he called a “play-novelette”. He had tried something similar with Of Mice and Men in 1937 and The Moon Is Down in 1942, but, of the three, Burning Bright was the most complete attempt at the form. Steinbeck believed that he may have been the first person to attempt the style. At the time of writing the introduction, in which he explained his intentions, he believed it was a form that would bear further experimentation. In a continuation of the experiment, a stage production was planned to open at the same time the book was published. The original title of the book, In the Forests of the Night, was a line from The Tyger by William Blake, but complaints that it was too long and too literary by the producers of the play led to the change to the shorter excerpt from the same poem: Burning Bright.

The stage production had Rodgers and Hammerstein as producers, Guthrie McClintic as director, Kent Smith as Joe Saul, Barbara Bel Geddes as Mordeen, Howard Da Silva as Friend Ed, and Martin Brooks as Victor. The production had a short run at New Haven during which Steinbeck tightened up the second act, but despite his work on the play, confidence in it was fading. When the production moved to Boston for the main run the critical reviews were terrible, and the play closed after only thirteen performances. One of the co-producers admitted that he had known the production was doomed after the first night. Steinbeck was later upbeat about the failure of the play and stated he was still keen to continue working in the theatre:

“I’m just determined I’m going to learn something about the theatre. Last time we were kicked around like dogs, but I still want to do it. This shows a truly pure quality of stupidity. Just nuts. I’m so fascinated by everything about the theatre I don’t really care if the show’s a flop.”—Talk with John Steinbeck. New York Times Book Review 28 September 1952

Despite his apparent continued enthusiasm after the failure of Burning Bright, Steinbeck never made another attempt at producing anything for the theatre. In reality he had been deeply hurt by its failure and some of the acerbic notices it had received from the New York critics:

“Most of the criticism seemed emotional beyond the importance and danger of the play”—John Steinbeck October 1950

1.45GB | 1h 40m | 700×540 | mkv

https://nitro.download/view/6F4F852019AB1FE/Burning_Bright__John_Steinbeck__(Curt_Conway_1959).mkv
or
https://tezfiles.com/file/cd10c3a3602fc/Burning_Bright_%5BJohn_Steinbeck%5D_%28Curt_Conway_1959%29.mp4

Language(s):English
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The post Curt Conway – Play of the Week: John Steinbeck’s Burning Bright (1959) first appeared on Cinema of the World.

The fight for the freedom of Loyalist Spain during the 1936-39 civil war pitted an International Brigade of 35,000 civilian soldiers from more than 50 nations against the well-equipped insurgents of Generalissimo Francisco Franco. Aid to Franco came via Italian fighter planes from Mussolini and from the Nazi Condor Legion of Junker bombers sent by Hitler, who wanted to try out his new weaponry in anticipation of the larger war to come. Spurred by their government s failure to aid Spanish democracy, 2,800 American volunteers fought with distinction in the Abraham Lincoln Brigade within the international volunteer army. Lincoln veterans (over 750 were killed in Spain) returned home after the Loyalist defeat to encounter suspicion as premature anti-fascists. Branded Communist sympathizers, blacklisted for years and unable to get work, many paid dearly for their good fight. Narrated by Studs Terkel, The Good Fight explores a significant gap in our history through its use of newsreels, photographs, interviews with Lincoln veterans and Depression-era music. The eleven surviving veterans of the war who appear in this tough, stirring film share a common pride in their sacrifices of seventy years ago when the rise of world fascism crushed the spirit of democracy in a tragic rehearsal for World War II.

698MB | 1h 38m | 576×320 | avi

https://nitro.download/view/A3D71E4ABB35FBD/The_Good_Fight_CG.avi
or
https://tezfiles.com/file/3002046801b8c/The_Good_Fight_CG.avi

Language:English
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The post Mary Dore & Noel Buckner – The Good Fight: The Abraham Lincoln Brigade in the Spanish Civil War (1984) first appeared on Cinema of the World.

Plot:
Renowned director Andre De Toth (House of Wax) actually got permission to go into East Berlin and Moscow to film much of this pulse-pounding Cold War thriller, based on actual events. Academy Award®-winner Ernest Borgnine (1955, Best Actor, Marty) gives one of his finest performances as a Russian-born movie producer (inspired by composer Boris Morros) whose background makes him an ideal counterspy for the “CBI.” He agrees to the deception, and, aided by agent Avery (Kerwin Mathews, The 7th Voyage of Sinbad), he pretends to defect — but how long can he keep up the charade? The crackerjack cast also includes Colleen Dewhurst, Alexander Scourby, Glenn Corbett and in bit parts, Ted Knight (in his film debut) and Seymour Cassel. Newly remastered. From Warner Brothers Website!

https://nitro.download/view/531A8C23A230282/Man_on_a_String_(1960)_CMOD_DVDRip_BBM.avi

Language(s):English
Subtitles:None

The post André De Toth – Man on a String (1960) first appeared on Cinema of the World.