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Pennies From Heaven: Death And The Afterlife In World War Ii Fantasy Films, Elise Williamson
Pennies From Heaven: Death And The Afterlife In World War Ii Fantasy Films, Elise Williamson
Film and Media Studies (MA) Theses
Wartime fantasy films produced by major Hollywood studios during World War II integrate the supernatural (i.e., ghosts, angels, and the afterlife) into wartime settings with relevant protagonists and themes to address the psychological trauma of wartime death and loss. Three case studies – The Human Comedy (Clarence Brown, 1943), A Guy Named Joe (Victor Fleming, 1943), and Between Two Worlds (Edward A. Blatt, 1944) – explore fantasy narratives and conventions unconventionally blended with the war film genre, and illustrate how the war film setting (home front vs. combat front vs. war zone) influences character focus (civilians vs. military), the …