The Sounds of Science in Early 1930s American Horror

2025/04/25 by Martin Holtz · 1 voice
Arts and Humanities · Economics, Econometrics and Finance · Social Sciences · #Cinema and Media Studies #Gothic Literature and Media Analysis #Shakespeare, Adaptation, and Literary Criticism

paper · pdf · doi:10.1080/10509208.2025.2494877

openalex publication_date 2025/04/25 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/06/14

Abstract

According to Donald Crafton, in his definitive study of the arrival and establishment of sound in American film, sound cinema was not just the inevitable result of technological developments, it al...

Discussions

• Hark! Martin Holtz's new essay in QJF&V listens to the sounds of mad science in films such as FRANKENSTEIN and DOCTOR X, which evoke a "technological modernity that was presented as utopian in the 20s [bsky, 3 points, 0 comments]

Related

• Uncanny phonosphere. Notes on the soundscapes of Dracula and Frankenstein
• Soundscapes, Sonic Cultures, and American Studies
• Doing anthropology in sound
• Science and film-making
• ‘Scream for your lives!’: the philosophy of horror in William Castle’s The Tingler (1959)