Screening a Lynching: The Leo Frank Case on Film and Television (Paperback)

Matthew Bernstein's "Screening a Lynching" is an impeccably researched and consistently enlightening inquiry into the media backfire from a notorious instance of a commonplace practice--the lynching in 1915 of the convicted rapist-murderer Leo Frank, a Jew from New York, by a mob of outraged Georgians. A marvelously synoptic work of cultural history that illuminates issues of race, ethnicity, religion, law, and cinematic representation (to name a few), Bernstein's penetrating study offers unique insights into a case that continues to haunt the American imagination.--Thomas Doherty "author of "Hollywood's Censor: Joseph I. Breen and the Production Code Administration" "

"Screening a Lynching" examines four Hollywood treatments of the infamous Leo Frank affair. Equally enlightening on the motivations of the producers and directors behind each project--two for film, two for TV--and the actual facts of the case, the book takes as its deeper concern the inherent tension between creative license and historical accuracy in reality-based dramas. This is a rich topic, and Bernstein handles it with aplomb.--Steve Oney "author of "And the Dead Shall Rise" "

Matthew Bernstein has written a detailed study of four very different mediums--two television shows, and two films--all based on the same actual murder case and its aftermath. "Screening a Lynching" is provocative, compelling and utterly original. I highly recommend it.--Alfred Uhry "Pulitzer Prize winning author of "Driving Miss Daisy" "

An amazingly original analysis of how this tragic case has been interpreted in fiction and film.--Leonard Dinnerstein "author of "The Leo Frank Case" "

Bernstein's strong book effectively places these four films within their historical context. . . .[His] work is a valuable addition to a growing body of work on the Phagan-Frank case and its impact on American Culture.--Kirsten Fermaglich ""Journal of American Ethnic History" "

In this brilliant examination, [author Matthew H.] Bernstein examines the racist thread that kept open the case and its treatments in the media. . . . Searching through daunting but uncommonly rich archival material, the author tracked court cases bent on uncovering new evidence for pardoning Frank. As a Jew in 1913 he loomed as guilty, yet as a white man his case plead for reopening (in prior years Americans had, on average, lynched more than 100 victims, most of them black). This book deserves the widest possible audience.--"Choice"