Shelly Stamp,
Movie-Struck Girls: Women and Motion Picture Culture after the Nickelodeon.
Princeton University Press, Princeton, 2000.
ISBN 0 69104 457 0
320pp
US$22.95
(Review copy supplied by Princeton University Press)

Uploaded 1 December 2001
Following the decline of the nickelodeon boom, a number of profound changes took place within the American film industry. Cinema’s visual syntax, its narrative structure and even its social standing all solidified during this era, transforming movie-going from a tawdry visual novelty into a respectable form of mass entertainment. Shelly Stamp’s Movie-Struck Girls: Women and Motion Picture Culture after Nickelodeon exists as an articulate homage to the intricate and contradictory roles that female audiences played during the volatile years of transitional cinema: 1908-1915.

Stamp’s central premise is that the inclusion of women in early film culture profoundly complicated movie-going. Through an investigation of women’s participation in film culture (the types of films they were offered and the types of visual pleasure that they enjoyed) Stamp works to liberate early female audiences from the confines of historical (and ultimately patriarchal) discourse. Central to her project is a direct questioning of the assumed connections that have been made between early female audiences and refined social behaviour. She contends that although early film exhibitors actively courted women patrons in the hope of adding a degree of cultural legitimacy to their venues, the outcomes were far more disruptive than helpful. Rather than infusing picture houses with social respectability and moral conscience, female audiences proved to be an unsettling force in cinema’s founding years.

In elaborating on this thesis, Stamp argues that the films which consistently attracted female audiences were not the ones most easily associated with lady-like behaviour. Through an investigation into White Slave films, Women’s Suffrage photoplays and Action-Adventure serials Stamp uncovers a female viewing practice that was abundant in themes of sexuality, thrill-seeking and female protest. She writes: “women were not always enticed to the cinema by dignified and uplifting material, and once there, they were not always seamlessly integrated into the social space of theatres” (7).

Movie-Struck Girls is divided into four major chapters. The first chapter offers an examination of the specific industry ploys and promotions that film exhibitors used to attract female audiences. Throughout this chapter Stamp explores the contradictory images of female movie-goers that were being presented during the era. She argues that while film exhibitors actively promoted “respectable lady’s nights”, fan magazines and trade publications were busy lampooning the “new breed” of “narcissistic” female viewers. In exploring the era’s caricatures of the “movie struck girl”, Stamp uncovers a profound cultural anxiety surrounding women’s ability to engage with the complexities of film spectatorship.

The second chapter investigates the prevalence of “vice films” during this period. Stamp argues that White-Slave films depicting lurid suggestions of kidnapping and forced prostitution were immensely popular amongst female audiences of the time. From such observations, Stamp postulates that it was consistently the films that dealt with crude, sensationalist subject matter that attracted female audiences. Chapter three progresses on to an investigation of motion picture serials, which were aimed specifically at women. Shows such as The Perils of Pauline (USA 1914), The Hazards of Helen (USA 1914) and The Exploits of Elaine (USA 1914) are all investigated for their continuation of sensationalist, “nerve-wracking” and “blood boiling” thrills and adventures.

Chapter four is dedicated to investigating the ways in which pro-Suffragette organisations took advantage of emerging female audiences. Through an exploration of feature length feminist photoplays, Stamp outlines the strategies that early feminists used in promoting their political campaigns. Central to Stamp’s argument here is a detailed analysis of the ways in which the cinema became a battleground for women’s rights. She argues that although suffragette films had the potential to offer female audiences serious and educational filmic material, they were largely shunned by exhibitors on the basis of their ability to incite anxieties over women’s emerging visual and vocal social presence.

Movie-Struck Girls offers an important contribution to the fields of film history, gender and spectatorship. In worrying the assumed connections between female audiences and motion picture “respectability”, Stamp offers an empowering account of female movie-going during the silent years of American cinema. Through a keen analysis of women’s films, political activism and movie-going practices, Stamp provides readers with new insights into the development of cinema during its transitional years.

Leanne Downing