African Queen Research Articles

Sayyida Alhurra: A forgotten North African queen and war leader

In this study I will focus on a forgotten North African queen of Andalusian origin, Sayyida al-Hurra, the governor of Tetouan in the sixteenth century. During a critical political period when the country had suffered from fragmentation and the attacks by both the Portugal and Spain, Alhurra emerged as a well-trained governor and ruler and the first Moroccan woman to rule the North for thirty years (Mernissi, 2000) without an objection.
 I adopted both historic and ethnographic approach. Available data demonstrates that Alhurra is the daughter of the founder and governor of Chafchouan (Haki, 1983). Factors that helped her to be an exceptional leader include her Shariff decent, her family leadership in the region, excellent education in religion and science, as well as her intelligence, flexibility, fluency in Arabic and Spanish, and, finally, her strong personality. Both her marriages served as means to bring stability to the North. After her first husband death (1519), she became the governor of Tetouan. When Sultan Ahmad Al-watassi felt that his reign was threatened by the rise of Saadi dynasty, he married her (1541) because of her political status and her active role in the North. Marine warfare was central to her government.

Transposable Element Insertions Are Associated with Batesian Mimicry in the Pantropical Butterfly Hypolimnas misippus.

Hypolimnas misippus is a Batesian mimic of the toxic African Queen butterfly (Danaus chrysippus). Female H. misippus butterflies use two major wing patterning loci (M and A) to imitate three color morphs of D. chrysippus found in different regions of Africa. In this study, we examine the evolution of the M locus and identify it as an example of adaptive atavism. This phenomenon involves a morphological reversion to an ancestral character that results in an adaptive phenotype. We show that H. misippus has re-evolved an ancestral wing pattern present in other Hypolimnas species, repurposing it for Batesian mimicry of a D. chrysippus morph. Using haplotagging, a linked-read sequencing technology, and our new analytical tool, Wrath, we discover two large transposable element insertions located at the M locus and establish that these insertions are present in the dominant allele responsible for producing mimetic phenotype. By conducting a comparative analysis involving additional Hypolimnas species, we demonstrate that the dominant allele is derived. This suggests that, in the derived allele, the transposable elements disrupt a cis-regulatory element, leading to the reversion to an ancestral phenotype that is then utilized for Batesian mimicry of a distinct model, a different morph of D. chrysippus. Our findings present a compelling instance of convergent evolution and adaptive atavism, in which the same pattern element has independently evolved multiple times in Hypolimnas butterflies, repeatedly playing a role in Batesian mimicry of diverse model species.

Art and the Power of Goodness: A Collection of John Agyekum Kufuor, Ivor Agyeman-Duah

Reviewed by: Art and the Power of Goodness: A Collection of John Agyekum Kufuor by Ivor Agyeman-Duah Nana Abena Amoah-Ramey BOOK REVIEW of Agyeman-Duah, Ivor. 2021. Art and the Power of Goodness: A Collection of John Agyekum Kufuor. Tema: Digibooks Ghana. 208 pp. $34.07 (hardcover). Art and the Power of Goodness: A Collection of John Agyekum Kufuor has been expertly authored by Ivor Agyeman-Duah, a Ghana-born development specialist who specializes in economics, international development cooperation, and literary histories. He is a well-known producer of documentaries, including the documentary series Yaa Asantewaa: The Heroism of an [End Page 135] African Queen and The Return of a King to Seychelles. He was on the BBC and PBS team that produced Wonders of the African World, a documentary presented by Henry Louis Gates Jr. of Harvard University. Agyeman-Duah accepts that art has been a feature of Africa’s culture from time immemorial and adds in his introduction that “art has always been part of Africa’s power exhibitions”; for example, carved stools and chairs meant for palaces, household elders, family heads, and individuals “could be classified as institutional or leadership art” (1). Embedded in African art are other aspects of culture, science, and social information; and visual images document and communicate events. Agyeman-Duah quotes Amoah Labi, an art historian at the Institute of African Studies, University of Ghana, Legon, as affirming in 2013 that “African art has always been important icons, embodiments of aesthetic expression, representations of cultural values and records of history” (390). Gordon Brown, a former British prime minister, in his foreword, offers compelling reflections on the beauty of the “selected art collections and the telling companion” (x). He suggests that the accompanying essays provide a vivid account of the taste and history of art. Agyeman-Duah confirms that Ghana’s former president Kufuor is “an art enthusiast, who appreciates music composition, visual expression, and photography” (18). He cites Kufuor’s achievements and accomplishments in collecting art as seen in a selection of more than seventy artworks in Kufuor’s “unintended gallery in a double-chamber space” (20). Inside this gallery, where Kufuor receives visitors and international diplomats, is a fascinating mixture of art and history. Impressively surrounded by these artworks are compelling historical moments attached to them, including a portrait of Kufuor at Exeter College of the University of Oxford, his alma mater, and a vivid description of a “garden pot, made of wood and ceramic material that has a picture of Mr. Kufuor and an adjacent color embossment of Ghana’s Coat of Arms” (89). This book is divided into ten chapters, coupled with detailed notes and a handy index. Chapter 1, “A Sorcerer’s Apprentice: Lesson in Portrait Painting,” highlights Kufuor’s accomplishments in pictures and showcases a 2018 “photographic portrait decoration” at Exeter College (34). Chapter 2, “A Woman’s Tender Care,” summarizes Kufuor’s family life, giving insights into when and where he met his wife, Madam Theresa, as well as her love for music and devotion to him while he was in political detention. “Faith and the Testimonies of the Martyrs” constitutes chapter 3, which delves into Kufuor’s connection with faith, appreciation, and tolerance in the so-called politics of indulgence. As Agyeman-Duah tells it, Kufuor was consulted by the Vatican to help with “reforms of sclerotic civil structure and to create more efficient bureaucracy” (52); featured is a picture of Kufuor and Pope John Paul II in 2002 (59). The other chapters are “Africa of Our Forebears” (chapter 4), “Between South of the Orient and Occident is Our Abode” (chapter 5), and “Before the Better Angels of Our Nature” (chapter 6). The last listed vaunts Africa as the [End Page 136] birthplace of humanity and adds information on languages, economic and cultural livelihoods, the discovery of oil on the continent, and Chinese influence in the twenty-first century. Undeniably masterful artworks in Kufuor’s gallery weave beautifully into the narrations in these chapters. Agyeman-Duah discusses African artworks as icons, embodiments of aesthetic expression, and records of history in four additional chapters: “Ethnography of Art and Cosmopolitan Aspirations” (chapter 7), “Not for Its...

Tau(n)tology: Tannie Evita’s stewardship of South Africa’s national transitions

ABSTRACT In this essay, I describe how white South African drag queen Evita Bezuidenhout uses multiple performance platforms – a television series, a cookbook, and a political party to queer the temporality of national political transition. She does so by combining elements of tautological reasoning with her performance persona as an Afrikaner tannie, or aunty. I call this formation tau(n)tology to name the temporal and performative logics of aunties that assert an alternative reality, one that might often be deemed “needless,” redundant, excessive. At various moments of political transition, Tannie Evita’s aunty performances establish a particular relationship to time that reflect the sociopolitical context and teach her audience, particularly white South Africans, how to navigate shifting race, gender, and class politics.

Morph frequencies, sex ratios and infections in Danaus chrysippus populations in Rwanda

AbstractThe African Queen butterfly (Danaus chrysippus) is noted for its colour pattern polymorphism despite its aposematic and chemically defended lifestyle and for its infection with a male‐killing endosymbiont (Spiroplasma). The polymorphism is largely restricted to east and central Africa where three different colour forms meet and interbreed in a large contact or hybrid zone. The primary objective of this study is to present recent data on the polymorphism, sex ratio and the incidence of male killing in D. chrysippus populations in Rwanda. We also report previously unpublished data from a random sample collected in 1914 in Bujumbura in Burundi and on the differential effects of weather on males and females in Ghana from 1972 to 1974. We sampled butterflies using butterfly nets and either marked, recorded and released them or kept specimens for subsequent examination. We used PCR/microscopy on the preserved specimens to detect Spiroplasma and the presence of a protozoan parasite (Ophryocystis). Our findings suggest that Rwanda lies close to the western edge of the joint distribution of both Spiroplasma and the polymorphism. Further biogeographical studies are recommended to test the hypothesis that male killing is restricted to the contact zone in which polymorphism is commonly observed.

Genome assembly of Danaus chrysippus and comparison with the Monarch Danaus plexippus.

Milkweed butterflies in the genus Danaus are studied in a diverse range of research fields including the neurobiology of migration, biochemistry of plant detoxification, host–parasite interactions, evolution of sex chromosomes, and speciation. We have assembled a nearly chromosomal genome for Danaus chrysippus (known as the African Monarch, African Queen, and Plain Tiger) using long-read sequencing data. This species is of particular interest for the study of genome structural change and its consequences for evolution. Comparison with the genome of the North American Monarch Danaus plexippus reveals generally strong synteny but highlights 3 inversion differences. The 3 chromosomes involved were previously found to carry peaks of intraspecific differentiation in D. chrysippus in Africa, suggesting that these inversions may be polymorphic and associated with local adaptation. The D. chrysippus genome is over 40% larger than that of D. plexippus, and nearly all of the additional ∼100 Megabases of DNA comprises repeats. Future comparative genomic studies within this genus will shed light on the evolution of genome architecture.

The status of the African Queen butterfly, Danaus chrysippus (Linnaeus, 1758) (Lepidoptera: Nymphalidae, Danainae), in the Canary Islands, including an irruption on Fuerteventura

Examination of museum collections and field work have established that Danaus chrysippus once inhabited five of the seven Canary Islands but is probably now confined to La Palma, La Gomera and Fuerteventura. It may be extinct on Gran Canaria and Tenerife. Before colonisation by the Spanish in the 14th century the food-plants of the relict Canary Island populations were undoubtedly scarce endemic milkweeds (Apocynaceae: Asclepiadoideae). However, on Fuerteventura the recent establishment and subsequent explosive spread of the alien milkweeds Calotropis procera (especially) and Gomphocarpus fruticosus have enabled a massive irruption of the butterfly over the last 20 years. The butterfly population is presently, as it appears always to have been, polymorphic at two unlinked genetic loci which control its colour and are under strong selection. In the African Humid Period of the Holocene, 14,000–5,000 years ago, the Sahara Desert region was green and the island populations were in close proximity to those of North Africa. Thus, there is no evidence that the Canary Island populations of the butterfly have been subject to Founder Effects or prolonged bottlenecks – as is so often the case with isolated island populations. It is suggested that the relict island populations have been periodically introgressed from North Africa and the Cape Verde Islands. There is insufficient evidence to support subspecific status (as D. chrysippus kanariensis Fruhstorfer, 1898) for the present dark-bodied butterflies from the Canary Islands (and St. Helena).

Understanding the origins of the ring‐necked parakeet in the UK

AbstractThe ring‐necked parakeet Psittacula krameri is one of the best‐known invasive species in the UK. It is also arguably the species whose origins as an invasive have been the subject of the greatest speculation, with explanations ranging from birds escaping from the set of the film ‘The African Queen’ to animals being released in Carnaby Street in London by Jimi Hendrix in the 1960s. Here, we use geographic profiling – a statistical technique originally developed in criminology to prioritise the large lists of suspects typical in cases of serial crime such as murder, rape and arson, but more recently applied to ecology and conservation biology – to analyse the spatial patterns of the ring‐necked parakeet, from the first detailed records in the 1960s to the 21st century and ask whether spatial analysis supports these hypotheses. We show that, despite the undoubted appeal of the different hypotheses concerning their origin, spatial analysis provides no support for any of them, leading us to conclude that the birds' establishment in Britain is more likely to be a consequence of repeated releases and introductions, a view supported by a detailed search of the British Newspaper Archive. More generally, our study shows how geographic profiling can be used to understand the spatial patterns of biological invasions over time.

Danaus chrysippus chrysippus (Linnaeus, 1758) ff. 'alcippus' and 'alcippoides' (Lepidoptera: Nymphalidae, Danainae) from Cyprus

We report a recent observation of D. c. chrysippus f. 'alcippus' in Cyprus, a variant of the Plain Tiger or African Queen butterfly infrequently seen in the Mediterranean, especially in the east of the region. D. c. chrysippus f. 'alcippus' appears to have been recorded from Cyprus on just one previous occasion, by R. E. Ellison, in 1939. However, a specimen of the similar f. 'alcippoides' collected by D. M. A. Bate in Cyprus in 1901 could perhaps be the source of Ellison's otherwise undocumented claim. These records are assessed in relation to the known distributions of the various forms of D. chrysippus across the Mediterranean, North Africa and Middle East, and more briefly with respect to the vast range of this butterfly across much of the Old World tropics and subtropics. The ambiguity and potential confusion caused by using an available name to designate both a geographically circumscribed subspecies or semispecies, and a genetically controlled phenotype that can be found far beyond the range of the putative subspecies or semispecies, is also discussed.

Karyotypes versus Genomes: The Nymphalid Butterflies Melitaea cinxia, Danaus plexippus, and D. chrysippus

The number of sequenced lepidopteran genomes is increasing rapidly. However, the corresponding assemblies rarely represent whole chromosomes and generally also lack the highly repetitive W sex chromosome. Knowledge of the karyotypes can facilitate genome assembly and further our understanding of sex chromosome evolution in Lepidoptera. Here, we describe the karyotypes of the Glanville fritillary Melitaea cinxia (n = 31), the monarch Danaus plexippus (n = 30), and the African queen D. chrysippus (2n = 60 or 59, depending on the source population). We show by FISH that the telomeres are of the (TTAGG)_n type, as found in most insects. M. cinxia and D. plexippus have “conventional” W chromosomes which are heterochromatic in meiotic and somatic cells. In D. chrysippus, the W is inconspicuous. Neither telomeres nor W chromosomes are represented in the published genomes of M. cinxia and D. plexippus. Representation analysis in sequenced female and male D. chrysippus genomes detected an evolutionarily old autosome-Z chromosome fusion in Danaus. Conserved synteny of whole chromosomes, so called “macro synteny”, in Lepidoptera permitted us to identify the chromosomes involved in this fusion. An additional and more recent sex chromosome fusion was found in D. chrysippus by karyotype analysis and classical genetics. In a hybrid population between 2 subspecies, D. c. chrysippus and D. c. dorippus, the W chromosome was fused to an autosome that carries a wing colour locus. Thus, cytogenetics and the present state of genome data complement one another to reveal the evolutionary history of the species.

A neo-W chromosome in a tropical butterfly links colour pattern, male-killing, and speciation.

Sexually antagonistic selection can drive both the evolution of sex chromosomes and speciation itself. The tropical butterfly the African Queen, Danaus chrysippus, shows two such sexually antagonistic phenotypes, the first being sex-linked colour pattern, the second, susceptibility to a male-killing, maternally inherited mollicute, Spiroplasma ixodeti, which causes approximately 100% mortality in male eggs and first instar larvae. Importantly, this mortality is not affected by the infection status of the male parent and the horizontal transmission of Spiroplasma is unknown. In East Africa, male-killing of the Queen is prevalent in a narrow hybrid zone centred on Nairobi. This hybrid zone separates otherwise allopatric subspecies with different colour patterns. Here we show that a neo-W chromosome, a fusion between the W (female) chromosome and an autosome that controls both colour pattern and male-killing, links the two phenotypes thereby driving speciation across the hybrid zone. Studies of the population genetics of the neo-W around Nairobi show that the interaction between colour pattern and male-killer susceptibility restricts gene flow between two subspecies of D. chrysippus. Our results demonstrate how a complex interplay between sex, colour pattern, male-killing, and a neo-W chromosome, has set up a genetic ‘sink' that keeps the two subspecies apart. The association between the neo-W and male-killing thus provides a ‘smoking gun' for an ongoing speciation process.

The Dwarf, the Goetzen and C. S. Forester’s African Queen: A Reassessment of Naval Operations in First World War Africa

ABSTRACTPublic awareness of the African theatre in the Great War stems largely from C. S. Forester’s 1935 novel The African Queen, and its subsequent 1951 film adaptation. Long thought to have been inspired by British activities on Lake Tanganyika, Forester’s novel more closely resembles events in Cameroon where German missionary Alphons Hermann attempted to sink HMS Dwarf using homemade torpedoes.

Misfits in the margins: Transgression and transformation on the (South) African Frontier

The story of the European encounter with Africa includes many liminal characters who mostly play little part in the larger sweep of events but everywhere suggest alternative scenarios that might have developed, or at least discordant readings of what did actually happen. They range from the Khoi interpreter Coree, who was taken to England in 1614, to a group of London women sent to Sierra Leone in the 1790s to marry local slave traders, or from various Cape avatars of Shakespeare's Caliban to several picturesque originals for Defoe's African eccentrics; from early African articulants of African independence and dignity, such as the Prince Naimbanna of Sierra Leone, to many intriguing individuals (both African and European) who emerge from the records of Portuguese shipwrecks along the southern African coast and the sixteenth-century Portuguese penetration of south-east Africa. Nor is the story short on the occasional African Queen and Sable Venus who not only enliven events but at times impact significantly on the developing politics of colonialism.

Theo Bikel (1924–2015)

Theodore Meir “Theo” Bikel was a consummate performer and actor, as well as political activist. Born in Vienna, he fled with his family to Palestine in 1938, where he became an actor in Tel Aviv; he moved to London following the war, where he continued as an actor and also budding folk performer. He learned folk songs while involved with Alan Lomax and the American expatriate leftwing community; he appeared on Lomax’s BBC television series Song Hunter. One British police report noted in early 1954, while keeping watch on both Lomax and Ives: “It has recently been learnt that Burl IVES, the well-known broadcaster of hill-billy music, was first given his chance to broadcast on the American radio by LOMAX who also assisted Josh WHITE another American singer to gain public approval.” The Red Scare was alive and well in Great Britain, although much more muted that in the United States. Bikel moved that year to the United States and quickly plunged into the worlds of Broadway theater and commercial folk music. His New York apartment quickly became a gathering spot for folk musicians, including the Clancy Brothers and Cynthia Gooding. For the rest of his life Bikel juggled his acting and singing careers, with great success in both, while always continuing his progressive politics. His Hollywood career began in 1951 with John Houston’s The African Queen, with Bikel playing a World War I German naval officer, soon followed by Moulin Rouge, The Pride and the Passion, The Enemy Below, The Defiant Ones, and My Fair Lady, to name only a few. On Broadway he began with Tonight in Samarkand, then had a string of hits, including The Sound of Music, for which Rodgers and Hammerstein included “Edelweiss” just for him; he appeared as Tevye in Fiddler on the Roof for at least 2,000 performances beginning in 1967. Meanwhile, he appeared in various television productions. He managed to squeeze into this busy schedule dozens of folk-music albums, beginning with An Actor’s Holiday, Folk Songs of Israel, and a Young Man and a Maid with Cynthia Gooding, all for Elektra in 1956. Two years later Songs of a Russian Gypsy appeared, then many more albums for Jac Holzman’s label during the following decade. With his facility for languages, Bikel’s albums added to the numerous international recordings of the 1950s, which deftly countered the Cold War’s suspicion of foreigners. As if his acting and performing careers were not enough, in 1956 Bikel opened two pioneering folk venues in Los Angeles with Herb Cohen. The first, the Unicorn, seating fewer than 100, launched the career of the folk duo Bud and Travis. Soon thereafter Bikel and Cohen opened Cosmo Alley, behind the Ivar Theater in Hollywood, which seated 150 and served beer and wine, and where Maya Angelou

The old African queen lending a hand to improve health in Malawi.

The old African queen lending a hand to improve health in Malawi.

Commemorating an African Queen: Ghanaian Nationalism, the African Diaspora, and the Public Memory of Nana Yaa Asantewaa, 1952–2009

Commemorating an African Queen: Ghanaian Nationalism, the African Diaspora, and the Public Memory of Nana Yaa Asantewaa, 1952–2009

Lessons for a young naturalist, or, how Jack Vallentyne launched my career

My first contact with Jack was disconcerting. It was about 1955, and for young readers, there were no ipods, cell phones, or internet, and when you picked up a telephone you could get an operator, ...

Progress Priced Too Dear: Appalachia and Appalachian Pastoral in the Work of James Agee

Abstract While the screenplays for "The African Queen" and "The Night of the Hunter," the strikingly uncategorizable Let Us Now Praise Famous Men, and the Pulitzer Prize-winning autobiographical novel, A Death in the Family, provide the most frequent points of connection between James Agee (1909-1955) and an appreciative audience, these works (ironically, even the last) tend to obscure the full effect of his boyhood in Knoxville, Tennessee, and his Appalachian mountain heritage upon his writing. A wider reading of his work reveals that over the course of his career Agee presents an Appalachian pastoral along an axis of conflict that ranges from an idealized agrarian past beset with the harsh realities of mountain life to artificially created pastoral moments in which desire and imagination contend with growing industrialization. These efforts to negotiate an Appalachian pastoral receive their most sustained treatment in the newly restored manuscript edition of A Death in the Family, a significantly different version of the novel than that published posthumously in 1957. This "new" novel captures the full sense of the complications that mark Knoxville and Appalachia as zones in transition, but also are, in Agee’s final judgment, places where at least partial transcendence is still possible.

Cinema Ritrovato: Bologna, Italy, June 26-July 3, 2010

O staggering number of film festivals crowd the global arts calendar today. The majority are slick, bloated, and unnecessary, with precious few worthy of regular attendance. Among the rare and important exceptions is the Cinema Ritrovato held each June in Bologna, Italy. Organized by the Cineteca de Bologna, the Cinema Ritrovato is one of the few major film events that is driven both by a genuine and infectious cinephilia and by a clearly defined pedagogical ambition. Dedicated to the exploration of film history's unwritten chapters, each year the festival's chief curators, Peter von Bagh, Guy Borlee, and Gian Luca Farinelli, organize a broad selection of exciting thematic programs that gather treasures from around the world, combining the discovery of obscure and neglected films and filmmakers with, as the festival's title declares, the rediscovery of more familiar works. The bulk of the screenings take place during the day in the Cineteca's two theaters, with widescreen films usually reserved for a grand old movie palace nearby, the beloved Arlecchino, which boasts wonderful sight lines and plush seats. But each evening at ten o'clock, the magnificent Piazza Maggiore, at the heart of the medieval city and framed by gorgeous palazzos and the massive Basilica of San Pietro, is transformed into an incredible outdoor cinema thanks to the Cineteca's superb state-of-the-art projection. One of the highlights of the Cinema Ritrovato is the thrilling spectacle of beautiful prints of classics such as The Leopard (II gattopardo; Luchino Visconti, 1963), The African Queen (John Huston, 1951), and Roma (Federico Fellini, 1972)

DVD Chronicle: The Graham Greene Film Reader: Reviews, Essays, Interviews and Film Stories , and: Agee on Film: Criticism and Comment on the Movies , and: The General Died at Dawn , and: Pépé le Moko , and: Hands of Orlac , and: Ninotchka (review)

Reviewed by: DVD Chronicle: The Graham Greene Film Reader: Reviews, Essays, Interviews and Film Stories, and: Agee on Film: Criticism and Comment on the Movies, and: The General Died at Dawn, and: Pépé le Moko, and: Hands of Orlac, and: Ninotchka Jefferson Hunter (bio) The Graham Greene Film Reader: Reviews, Essays, Interviews and Film Stories, edited by David Parkinson (Applause Books, 2000); Agee on Film: Criticism and Comment on the Movies (Modern Library, 2000); The General Died at Dawn, directed by Lewis Milestone (in the Gary Cooper Collection, Universal, 2005); Pépé le Moko, directed by Julien Duvivier (Criterion, 2003); Hands of Orlac, also known as Mad Love, directed by Karl Freund (in the Hollywood's Legends of Horror Collection, Warner Home Video, 2006); Ninotchka, directed by Ernst Lubitsch (Warner Home Video, 2005). Of that large number of twentieth-century authors who wrote film reviews on the side, whether for a little extra money or for the pleasure of exploring another art form, who were the best, the most perceptive? My vote would go to Graham Greene and James Agee. In England, Greene reviewed films steadily through the 1930s, for the Spectator and for Night and Day, the weekly that tried to be London's counter-part to The New Yorker, had a glittering six-month run, then went out of business—a demise accompanied by the successful lawsuit brought against Greene by the nine-year-old Shirley Temple, who resented his calling her, in the course of a pan of her 1937 film Wee Willie Winkie, "a fancy little piece . . . a complete totsy." In the 1930s Greene also wrote his first screenplays and saw the first screen adaptation of one of his own fictions (Orient Express): it was the start of what would be a nearly career-long involvement with the cinema. In America, Agee did his film reviewing in the 1940s, for The Nation and Time, an experience later to be useful in writing his screenplays for The African Queen (1951) and The Night of the Hunter (1955) and in the meantime catering to his love for the cinema. That love could be backward-looking, nostalgic, as in his famous Life magazine piece "Comedy's Greatest Era," on the lost art of American silent comedy, but Agee had his enthusiasms for films of the moment, too. And his amused disdain: in a 1945 review for The Nation, he sums up the Shirley Temple vehicle Kiss and Tell in terms nearly as contemptuous as Greene's ("the audience, pimpishly helped out by the camera . . . develops an almost pathological interest in the girl's hind quarters"); Agee and The Nation escaped without litigation. The pleasure of browsing through Greene's and Agee's reviews can be fully indulged in two collections, The Graham Greene Film Reader: Reviews, [End Page 587] Essays, Interviews and Film Stories, edited by David Parkinson, and Agee on Film: Criticism and Comment on the Movies, in Martin Scorsese's new series Modern Library the Movies. For anyone interested in the art of criticism, I recommend a prolonged immersion in Greene's and Agee's prose, and for anyone interested in the art of film, a willingness to follow their leads to what, sixty or seventy years later, is still worth watching. One could do worse than take them as guides to old movies, which is what I propose to do with Greene here (on a later occasion, I will do the same with Agee). Nowadays, of course, films of the 1930s have to be seen on DVD, rather than in what Greene called "the Pleasure Dome—all those Empires and Odeons of a luxury and a bizarre taste which we shall never see again." Often enough we're lucky that there are DVDs to watch: many of Greene's favorites are out of print or otherwise unattainable. We must take on trust his estimation of the Soviet propaganda film We from Kronstadt or Jacques Feyder's English melodrama Knight Without Armour, William Wyler's These Three or Jack Conway's The Trunk Murder ("a comedy of astonishing intelligence and finish"). Even so important a film in its day as Buñuel's documentary Land Without...