This page has changed. Prof. Ray Carney wrote program notes to accompany the Criterion Cassavetes Box Set and did voice-over commenary to accompany with the disks, but this material was censored and prevented from being published by Gena Rowlands. Prof. Carney worked as the scholarly advisor for the Criterion box set for more than 8 months, spending more than 300 hours of his time from October 2003 through May 2004 locating material and making recommendations for the contents of the set. When the project was complete in May 2004, Gena Rowlands had him fired and had his name removed from the box set (even though much of his scholarly and planning work is retained in the set: the selection of films and photographs, the choice of supporting material and individuals to be interviewed, the arrangement and presentation of the booklet and the disks).

Click here to read the backstory of Rowlands's Norma Desmond strategy—the philosophy that if you can't control someone, you should attempt to destroy or undermine them with censorship, suppression, firing, threats of law suits. Get ready for a long tale..... Once upon a time, it all began with......

Once you have familiarized yourself with that page, you can learn more by going to two other pages on the site (and by accessing the additional material available through the top menu on any of these three pages).

To read a summary of what Rowlands did to Carney, click here to go to a page titled: "Rowlands, Ruban, and the first version of Shadows: A compilation of frequently asked questions and answers." And to read an interview with Carney about his work on the Criterion John Cassavetes box set, and how Rowlands had him fired and his scholarly advisor credit removed from the box, click here.

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© Text Copyright 2004 by Ray Carney. All rights reserved. May not be reprinted without written permission of the author.