ABSTRACT
One of the major limitations of Richard Dyer’s monograph Stars (London, British Film Institute, 1979) arises from his discussion of the relation between stars and genre. Consider, for example, his account of the star ‘vehicle’.
The vehicle might provide (a) a character of the type associated with the star (e.g. Monroe’s ‘dumb blonde’ roles, Garbo’s melancholic romantic roles), (b) a situation, setting or generic context associated with the star (e.g. Garbo in relationships with married men, Wayne in Westerns… ); or (c) opportunities for the star to do her/his thing (most obviously in the case of musical stars… but also, for instance, opportunities to display Monroe’s body and wiggle walk, scenes of action in Wayne’s films). Vehicles are important as much for what conventions they set up as for how they develop them, for their ingredients as for their realisation. In certain respects a set of star vehicles is rather like a film genre such as the Western, the musical, the gangster film. As with genres proper, one can discern across a star’s vehicles continuities of iconography… visual style… and structure. Of course, not all films made by the star are vehicles, but looking at their films in terms of vehicles draws attention to those films that do not fit, that constitute inflections, exceptions to, subversions of the vehicle pattern and the star image. (Dyer, Stars, 70–1)
