Comebacks: The Return of the Aging Film Star (Contemporary Approaches to Film and Media Studies)

While the comeback film is a well-recognized phenomenon inspiring excitement (or dismay) for cinemagoers and has been consequential to furthering or ending the careers of aging actors, this book is the first to analyze the cultural significance of these films. In this collection of essays, scholars follow the late-career revival projects of international film stars from 1957 to 2019, including renowned actors Joan Crawford, John Travolta, Bette Davis, Amitabh Bachchan, Sessue Hayakawa, Wesley Snipes, and Linda Hamilton. Combining close textual analysis of film moments with the critical reception of each performance, the contributors examine cinematic aging in relation to gender and sexuality, camp and consumption, star continuity and discontinuity, and nostalgia and longing. Their work reveals the unique circumstances of each actor's comeback trajectory as they seek to understand the consequences of aging in a largely sexist and ageist film industry, while providing new ways of conceptualizing films featuring comeback stars.

Gloria Monti is associate professor of film studies in the Department of Cinema and Television Arts at California State University, Fullerton, where she has been the recipient of the Faculty Recognition Program Award for Scholarly and Creative Activity (2013) and for Outstanding Teaching (2016). Her research is focused on Italian, American, and French cinema. Martin Shingler is a former senior lecturer in film and media at the University of Staffordshire and senior lecturer in film and radio at the University of Sunderland. He is the coauthor of On Air: Methods and Meanings of Radio and Melodrama: Genre, Style, Sensibility and the author of Star Studies: A Critical Guide; When Warners Brought Broadway to Hollywood, 1923–1939; and Diana Dors: Film Star and Actor.