Comebacks: The Return of the Aging Film Star

Film scholars Monti and Shingler (Diana Dors) deliver a wide-ranging collection of essays on the career declines and resurrections of actors, from Hollywood Golden Age stars like Joan Crawford and Bette Davis to Bollywood’s Amitabh Bachchan. Rather than studying well-documented comebacks, like Gloria Swanson’s 1950 return to the screen in Sunset Boulevard, the contributors focus on films that have garnered little academic attention, including the 1970 psychological thriller The Comeback, which scholar Gabrielle Stecher argues allowed actor Miriam Hopkins “to unapologetically perform the plight of the aging star.” There are a number of novel insights, such as when film historian Lisa Duffy notes how John Travolta’s dancing in his 2007 comeback film Hairspray links him to earlier roles in Saturday Night Fever and Grease. The anthology’s broad lens also takes in the emerging subgenre of geriaction, or films featuring aging action stars, which often evoke nostalgia and allow older actors to reassert their professional worth. Despite some disappointing omissions, this will appeal to film studies scholars and students. (Dec.)