Paul Grainge, Mark Jancovich, and Sharon Monteith
- Published in print:
- 2007
- Published Online:
- September 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780748619061
- eISBN:
- 9780748670888
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Edinburgh University Press
- DOI:
- 10.3366/edinburgh/9780748619061.003.0004
- Subject:
- Film, Television and Radio, Film
This chapter shows that classical norms were not fixed rules or structures, but set particular boundaries within which innovation could take place. In essence, classical film style rejected formal ...
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This chapter shows that classical norms were not fixed rules or structures, but set particular boundaries within which innovation could take place. In essence, classical film style rejected formal techniques that were purposely disruptive or jarring to the audience. While it is sometimes implied that classical norms emerged simultaneously with the studio system, it is important to note that the aesthetic principles of classical Hollywood cinema preceded the studio system. The development of film style in this sense (classical norms) did not emerge in the very same historical instant as the mode of production that gave it institutional shape (the studio system). Instead, the relation between the two would develop a gradual symbiosis, such that classical norms would become synonymous with the studio system as it emerged more fully after the First World War. The chapter also includes the study, ‘Mass-produced Photoplays: Economic and Signifying Practices in the First Years of Hollywood’ by Janet Staiger, which examines how production practices in the early 1910s influenced the way that films were developed and made.Less
This chapter shows that classical norms were not fixed rules or structures, but set particular boundaries within which innovation could take place. In essence, classical film style rejected formal techniques that were purposely disruptive or jarring to the audience. While it is sometimes implied that classical norms emerged simultaneously with the studio system, it is important to note that the aesthetic principles of classical Hollywood cinema preceded the studio system. The development of film style in this sense (classical norms) did not emerge in the very same historical instant as the mode of production that gave it institutional shape (the studio system). Instead, the relation between the two would develop a gradual symbiosis, such that classical norms would become synonymous with the studio system as it emerged more fully after the First World War. The chapter also includes the study, ‘Mass-produced Photoplays: Economic and Signifying Practices in the First Years of Hollywood’ by Janet Staiger, which examines how production practices in the early 1910s influenced the way that films were developed and made.
John C. Tibbetts
- Published in print:
- 2005
- Published Online:
- October 2013
- ISBN:
- 9780300106749
- eISBN:
- 9780300128031
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Yale University Press
- DOI:
- 10.12987/yale/9780300106749.003.0002
- Subject:
- Music, Theory, Analysis, Composition
This chapter focuses on what many film historians refer to as the “classical period” of the studio system. Not coincidentally, it was also the “golden age” of the composer biopic, both classical and ...
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This chapter focuses on what many film historians refer to as the “classical period” of the studio system. Not coincidentally, it was also the “golden age” of the composer biopic, both classical and popular. The American film industry was dominated by the vertically integrated “Big Five” studios, namely, MGM, Paramount, Warner Bros., RKO, and Twentieth Century-Fox; by the “Little Three” studios, namely, United Artists, Universal, and Columbia; and by smaller, independent studios, such as Republic and Disney. Under these studios, a “consistent system of production and consumption, a set of formalized creative practices and constraints, and thus a body of work with a uniform style, a standard way of telling stories, from camera work and cutting to plot structure and thematics” was established.Less
This chapter focuses on what many film historians refer to as the “classical period” of the studio system. Not coincidentally, it was also the “golden age” of the composer biopic, both classical and popular. The American film industry was dominated by the vertically integrated “Big Five” studios, namely, MGM, Paramount, Warner Bros., RKO, and Twentieth Century-Fox; by the “Little Three” studios, namely, United Artists, Universal, and Columbia; and by smaller, independent studios, such as Republic and Disney. Under these studios, a “consistent system of production and consumption, a set of formalized creative practices and constraints, and thus a body of work with a uniform style, a standard way of telling stories, from camera work and cutting to plot structure and thematics” was established.
Paul Grainge, Mark Jancovich, and Sharon Monteith
- Published in print:
- 2007
- Published Online:
- September 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780748619061
- eISBN:
- 9780748670888
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Edinburgh University Press
- DOI:
- 10.3366/edinburgh/9780748619061.003.0007
- Subject:
- Film, Television and Radio, Film
This chapter describes the rise of the Hollywood studios and advent of sound technology. The Hollywood Studio System would properly take hold by 1930 once five companies — Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, RKO, ...
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This chapter describes the rise of the Hollywood studios and advent of sound technology. The Hollywood Studio System would properly take hold by 1930 once five companies — Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, RKO, Fox (later Twentieth-Century Fox), Warner Bros. and Paramount — had emerged victorious from increasing competition and a scrimmage of mergers and takeovers of production and distribution companies. By 1930 it is estimated that there were around 24,000 cinemas in the US with the five major studios controlling at least 50 per cent of the total industry output. By 1931, D. W. Griffith had made his last film and the film industry was primed to establish the classical Hollywood era with the new technology of sound. In fact, the era from the coming of the sound film to the end of the 1940s is often called Hollywood's ‘Golden Age’. The chapter also includes the study, ‘Translating the Talkies: Diffusion, Reception and Live Performance’ by Mark Jancovich and Lucy Faire. Their study of spectatorship and film consumption in a single British city, Nottingham, at the moment in which the talkies came to Nottingham's Elite cinema in June 1929, is significant in its interrelation of the local with a global phenomenon — the coming of sound.Less
This chapter describes the rise of the Hollywood studios and advent of sound technology. The Hollywood Studio System would properly take hold by 1930 once five companies — Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, RKO, Fox (later Twentieth-Century Fox), Warner Bros. and Paramount — had emerged victorious from increasing competition and a scrimmage of mergers and takeovers of production and distribution companies. By 1930 it is estimated that there were around 24,000 cinemas in the US with the five major studios controlling at least 50 per cent of the total industry output. By 1931, D. W. Griffith had made his last film and the film industry was primed to establish the classical Hollywood era with the new technology of sound. In fact, the era from the coming of the sound film to the end of the 1940s is often called Hollywood's ‘Golden Age’. The chapter also includes the study, ‘Translating the Talkies: Diffusion, Reception and Live Performance’ by Mark Jancovich and Lucy Faire. Their study of spectatorship and film consumption in a single British city, Nottingham, at the moment in which the talkies came to Nottingham's Elite cinema in June 1929, is significant in its interrelation of the local with a global phenomenon — the coming of sound.
Jerod Ra'Del Hollyfield
- Published in print:
- 2018
- Published Online:
- May 2019
- ISBN:
- 9781474429948
- eISBN:
- 9781474453561
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Edinburgh University Press
- DOI:
- 10.3366/edinburgh/9781474429948.003.0002
- Subject:
- Film, Television and Radio, Film
Serious scholarly attention to Gunga Din(1939) has largely been neglected as allegations of condescending and one-dimensional depictions of its Indian characters have disrupted its reputation as one ...
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Serious scholarly attention to Gunga Din(1939) has largely been neglected as allegations of condescending and one-dimensional depictions of its Indian characters have disrupted its reputation as one of the greatest epics of the studio era.However, George Stevens’ adaptation of Rudyard Kipling’s poem extends its source text’s colonial ambivalence to American anxieties stemming from the death rattle of Manifest Destiny and the traumas of the Great Depression. Seizing upon the popularity of late Victorian Empire narratives, Hollywood integrated its own ideology into a final product that was a hybrid of imperial narrative and American western. This chapter argues that the film’s loose resemblance to its source material demonstrates a fissure in the American valorization of British culture. Gunga Din completely dismantles Kipling’s poem, recreating it as an example of a uniquely American form: the seamless studio system product that led to Hollywood’s international dominance in cultural production. While the politics of the adaptation resemble textual strategies of resistance common in postcolonial texts, the film’s retention of colonial literature’s representations of its native characters addresses an America beginning to assert a distinct national culture while positioning itself as a future imperial power in the tradition of the faltering British Empire.Less
Serious scholarly attention to Gunga Din(1939) has largely been neglected as allegations of condescending and one-dimensional depictions of its Indian characters have disrupted its reputation as one of the greatest epics of the studio era.However, George Stevens’ adaptation of Rudyard Kipling’s poem extends its source text’s colonial ambivalence to American anxieties stemming from the death rattle of Manifest Destiny and the traumas of the Great Depression. Seizing upon the popularity of late Victorian Empire narratives, Hollywood integrated its own ideology into a final product that was a hybrid of imperial narrative and American western. This chapter argues that the film’s loose resemblance to its source material demonstrates a fissure in the American valorization of British culture. Gunga Din completely dismantles Kipling’s poem, recreating it as an example of a uniquely American form: the seamless studio system product that led to Hollywood’s international dominance in cultural production. While the politics of the adaptation resemble textual strategies of resistance common in postcolonial texts, the film’s retention of colonial literature’s representations of its native characters addresses an America beginning to assert a distinct national culture while positioning itself as a future imperial power in the tradition of the faltering British Empire.
Steven Cohan
- Published in print:
- 2018
- Published Online:
- October 2018
- ISBN:
- 9780190865788
- eISBN:
- 9780190865818
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/oso/9780190865788.003.0005
- Subject:
- Literature, Film, Media, and Cultural Studies
This chapter is the mirror image of the previous one. It looks at narratives about has-been female stars in the context of the studio system’s demise during the 1950s and 1960s. These somewhat later ...
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This chapter is the mirror image of the previous one. It looks at narratives about has-been female stars in the context of the studio system’s demise during the 1950s and 1960s. These somewhat later backstudios depict the agency and sexuality of an older female star, who no longer has the safe haven of the studio to control or at least cushion her excessive behavior, as a “monstrous” perversion of femininity. In these films the mature female star personifies the incoherence of the Hollywood brand as a result of the studio system’s implosion, just as her excessive figure is treated as its cause, not its symptom. The chapter closes with a glance at the millennial backstudio, S1m0ne (2002), which takes as its premise the possibility of a computer-generated star and which registers the same anxieties about powerful female actors that these midcentury backstudios enact.Less
This chapter is the mirror image of the previous one. It looks at narratives about has-been female stars in the context of the studio system’s demise during the 1950s and 1960s. These somewhat later backstudios depict the agency and sexuality of an older female star, who no longer has the safe haven of the studio to control or at least cushion her excessive behavior, as a “monstrous” perversion of femininity. In these films the mature female star personifies the incoherence of the Hollywood brand as a result of the studio system’s implosion, just as her excessive figure is treated as its cause, not its symptom. The chapter closes with a glance at the millennial backstudio, S1m0ne (2002), which takes as its premise the possibility of a computer-generated star and which registers the same anxieties about powerful female actors that these midcentury backstudios enact.
Jennifer Frost
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- March 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780814728239
- eISBN:
- 9780814728482
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- NYU Press
- DOI:
- 10.18574/nyu/9780814728239.003.0009
- Subject:
- History, Social History
This chapter describes the decline of the Hollywood studio system in the in 1950s and 1960s, and with it the decline of Hedda Hopper's career. The studio system provided Hopper with regular and ...
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This chapter describes the decline of the Hollywood studio system in the in 1950s and 1960s, and with it the decline of Hedda Hopper's career. The studio system provided Hopper with regular and consistent products as subject matter for her column, with the “behind-the-scenes” access to films and film stars that gave her column cachet and made it more than just another studio press release, and with a large, national movie audience potentially interested in reading it. With the decline of the studio system Hopper's subject matter and potential readership narrowed. Her power and relevance worked in tandem with the major studios, and she saw her power and relevance shrink over time. By the 1960s Hopper was no longer seen as all-powerful within the film industry or celebrity journalism. The placement of her column in newspapers became less prominent over time, with some papers dropping her column altogether.Less
This chapter describes the decline of the Hollywood studio system in the in 1950s and 1960s, and with it the decline of Hedda Hopper's career. The studio system provided Hopper with regular and consistent products as subject matter for her column, with the “behind-the-scenes” access to films and film stars that gave her column cachet and made it more than just another studio press release, and with a large, national movie audience potentially interested in reading it. With the decline of the studio system Hopper's subject matter and potential readership narrowed. Her power and relevance worked in tandem with the major studios, and she saw her power and relevance shrink over time. By the 1960s Hopper was no longer seen as all-powerful within the film industry or celebrity journalism. The placement of her column in newspapers became less prominent over time, with some papers dropping her column altogether.
Christina Rice
- Published in print:
- 2013
- Published Online:
- May 2014
- ISBN:
- 9780813144269
- eISBN:
- 9780813144474
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University Press of Kentucky
- DOI:
- 10.5810/kentucky/9780813144269.003.0015
- Subject:
- Film, Television and Radio, Film
This chapter details Ann’s 1936 lawsuit against the Warner Bros., in which she attempted to secure an early release from her long-term contract. Ann set the stage for Bette Davis and James Cagney, ...
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This chapter details Ann’s 1936 lawsuit against the Warner Bros., in which she attempted to secure an early release from her long-term contract. Ann set the stage for Bette Davis and James Cagney, who also took Warner Bros. to court in 1936, though their cases have been discussed often while Ann’s has been largely ignored. Also covered is the aftermath of the court’s decisions and Ann’s continued battles with her studio as well as the early cancelation of her contract.Less
This chapter details Ann’s 1936 lawsuit against the Warner Bros., in which she attempted to secure an early release from her long-term contract. Ann set the stage for Bette Davis and James Cagney, who also took Warner Bros. to court in 1936, though their cases have been discussed often while Ann’s has been largely ignored. Also covered is the aftermath of the court’s decisions and Ann’s continued battles with her studio as well as the early cancelation of her contract.
Christina Rice
- Published in print:
- 2013
- Published Online:
- May 2014
- ISBN:
- 9780813144269
- eISBN:
- 9780813144474
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University Press of Kentucky
- DOI:
- 10.5810/kentucky/9780813144269.003.0009
- Subject:
- Film, Television and Radio, Film
This chapter details Ann’s sudden departure from Los Angeles to New York, and ultimately to Europe, for an extended honeymoon. Included in the discussion are the reactions of Warner Bros. and Anna ...
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This chapter details Ann’s sudden departure from Los Angeles to New York, and ultimately to Europe, for an extended honeymoon. Included in the discussion are the reactions of Warner Bros. and Anna Lehr to Dvorak walking out on her contract, along with the immediate media backlash to Ann publicly disputing her salary and the studio system in general under the advisement of Leslie Fenton and her agent Charles Feldman. Also included are Dvorak’s justifications for her actions, many of which came retroactively.Less
This chapter details Ann’s sudden departure from Los Angeles to New York, and ultimately to Europe, for an extended honeymoon. Included in the discussion are the reactions of Warner Bros. and Anna Lehr to Dvorak walking out on her contract, along with the immediate media backlash to Ann publicly disputing her salary and the studio system in general under the advisement of Leslie Fenton and her agent Charles Feldman. Also included are Dvorak’s justifications for her actions, many of which came retroactively.
J. E. Smyth
- Published in print:
- 2018
- Published Online:
- March 2018
- ISBN:
- 9780190840822
- eISBN:
- 9780190840853
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/oso/9780190840822.003.0001
- Subject:
- Literature, Film, Media, and Cultural Studies
Traditional histories of studio-era Hollywood contend that the film industry offered little more than acting and secretarial jobs to women; however, industry trade papers and syndicated press of the ...
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Traditional histories of studio-era Hollywood contend that the film industry offered little more than acting and secretarial jobs to women; however, industry trade papers and syndicated press of the time reveal a different picture. Women worked as producers, executives, writers, script readers, production and costume designers, film and sound editors, set dressers, make-up artists, publicists, agents, researchers, actors, and directors. They worked for their unions and on industry committees. Although they didn’t always agree politically, Hollywood’s women shared a commitment to the Equal Rights Amendment and often helped each other’s careers. This chapter provides an overview of the diverse professions open to women in the Hollywood studio system and challenges the “great man” theories of authorship and female disempowerment that have driven conventional histories of old Hollywood.Less
Traditional histories of studio-era Hollywood contend that the film industry offered little more than acting and secretarial jobs to women; however, industry trade papers and syndicated press of the time reveal a different picture. Women worked as producers, executives, writers, script readers, production and costume designers, film and sound editors, set dressers, make-up artists, publicists, agents, researchers, actors, and directors. They worked for their unions and on industry committees. Although they didn’t always agree politically, Hollywood’s women shared a commitment to the Equal Rights Amendment and often helped each other’s careers. This chapter provides an overview of the diverse professions open to women in the Hollywood studio system and challenges the “great man” theories of authorship and female disempowerment that have driven conventional histories of old Hollywood.
Jeff Jaeckle
- Published in print:
- 2015
- Published Online:
- May 2017
- ISBN:
- 9781474406550
- eISBN:
- 9781474416146
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Edinburgh University Press
- DOI:
- 10.3366/edinburgh/9781474406550.003.0009
- Subject:
- Film, Television and Radio, Film
This chapter illustrates some of the untapped riches of Preston Sturges’s unproduced screenplay for the musical Song of Joy, both in terms of its pivotal timing in his filmmaking career and its ...
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This chapter illustrates some of the untapped riches of Preston Sturges’s unproduced screenplay for the musical Song of Joy, both in terms of its pivotal timing in his filmmaking career and its unappreciated achievements in screenwriting. When compared with Sturges’s other written-and-directed films, Song of Joy often shows less restraint and more exuberance in testing the boundaries of the Hollywood studio system, especially in terms of plotting, meta-cinema, and dialogue. Tracing these extremes clarifies why the script was so disliked and why so many studios rejected it. These analyses also illustrate the intensity of Sturges’s creative ambitions at this point in his career—that period between his roles as playwright and writer-director when he took an even more over-the-top approach to screenwriting.Less
This chapter illustrates some of the untapped riches of Preston Sturges’s unproduced screenplay for the musical Song of Joy, both in terms of its pivotal timing in his filmmaking career and its unappreciated achievements in screenwriting. When compared with Sturges’s other written-and-directed films, Song of Joy often shows less restraint and more exuberance in testing the boundaries of the Hollywood studio system, especially in terms of plotting, meta-cinema, and dialogue. Tracing these extremes clarifies why the script was so disliked and why so many studios rejected it. These analyses also illustrate the intensity of Sturges’s creative ambitions at this point in his career—that period between his roles as playwright and writer-director when he took an even more over-the-top approach to screenwriting.
Paul Grainge, Mark Jancovich, and Sharon Monteith
- Published in print:
- 2007
- Published Online:
- September 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780748619061
- eISBN:
- 9780748670888
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Edinburgh University Press
- DOI:
- 10.3366/edinburgh/9780748619061.003.0003
- Subject:
- Film, Television and Radio, Film
This chapter discusses the international scope and status of early cinema, and the particular significance of European production companies. While Europe dominated world film markets in the first ...
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This chapter discusses the international scope and status of early cinema, and the particular significance of European production companies. While Europe dominated world film markets in the first decade of the twentieth century, the situation began to change as the business organisation of the American film industry was streamlined, and the Hollywood studio system developed. In the emerging history of Hollywood, the established powers of the Motion Picture Patents Company positioned themselves against a growing lobby of independent producers, distributors, and exhibitors in a fight for market control. It was from this struggle that the industrial and aesthetic dominance of the American studio system would emerge and come to assert itself in national and international terms. The chapter also includes the study, ‘The Perils of Pathé, or the Americanization of Early American Cinema’ by Richard Abel, which examines the means by which cinema became a contested site of Americanization.Less
This chapter discusses the international scope and status of early cinema, and the particular significance of European production companies. While Europe dominated world film markets in the first decade of the twentieth century, the situation began to change as the business organisation of the American film industry was streamlined, and the Hollywood studio system developed. In the emerging history of Hollywood, the established powers of the Motion Picture Patents Company positioned themselves against a growing lobby of independent producers, distributors, and exhibitors in a fight for market control. It was from this struggle that the industrial and aesthetic dominance of the American studio system would emerge and come to assert itself in national and international terms. The chapter also includes the study, ‘The Perils of Pathé, or the Americanization of Early American Cinema’ by Richard Abel, which examines the means by which cinema became a contested site of Americanization.
Christina Rice
- Published in print:
- 2013
- Published Online:
- May 2014
- ISBN:
- 9780813144269
- eISBN:
- 9780813144474
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- University Press of Kentucky
- DOI:
- 10.5810/kentucky/9780813144269.001.0001
- Subject:
- Film, Television and Radio, Film
Ann Dvorak may not have been the best-known actress of Hollywood’s golden age, but she certainly made her mark. She blazed onto screens in 1932 as Paul Muni’s doomed sister in Scarface, and seemed ...
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Ann Dvorak may not have been the best-known actress of Hollywood’s golden age, but she certainly made her mark. She blazed onto screens in 1932 as Paul Muni’s doomed sister in Scarface, and seemed poised for stardom as a darling of the daring pre-Code era. However, poor business decisions, studio battles with Warner Bros., extended absences, and overbearing husbands torpedoed Ann’s chances of rising to the heights within the structure of the Hollywood studio system like contemporaries Bette Davis and Jean Harlow. Dvorak sued Warner Bros. to get out of her long-term contract, inspiring Davis and James Cagney to follow in her footsteps with their similar, and more well-known cases. Just as her freelance career began gaining steam, she instead choose to literally fly into a war zone, becoming a correspondent and London ambulance driver during World War II. After the war, Dvorak’s career limped along into the early 1950s, as she gave bright performances in generally dim films, then abruptly opted for retirement, and obscurity, in Hawaii. Now, for the first time, the fascinating life and career of Ann Dvorak is explored by Christina Rice, who presents an in-depth look at this complicated woman who briefly took Hollywood by storm but seemed determined to throw away success with both hands and instead became Hollywood’s forgotten rebel.Less
Ann Dvorak may not have been the best-known actress of Hollywood’s golden age, but she certainly made her mark. She blazed onto screens in 1932 as Paul Muni’s doomed sister in Scarface, and seemed poised for stardom as a darling of the daring pre-Code era. However, poor business decisions, studio battles with Warner Bros., extended absences, and overbearing husbands torpedoed Ann’s chances of rising to the heights within the structure of the Hollywood studio system like contemporaries Bette Davis and Jean Harlow. Dvorak sued Warner Bros. to get out of her long-term contract, inspiring Davis and James Cagney to follow in her footsteps with their similar, and more well-known cases. Just as her freelance career began gaining steam, she instead choose to literally fly into a war zone, becoming a correspondent and London ambulance driver during World War II. After the war, Dvorak’s career limped along into the early 1950s, as she gave bright performances in generally dim films, then abruptly opted for retirement, and obscurity, in Hawaii. Now, for the first time, the fascinating life and career of Ann Dvorak is explored by Christina Rice, who presents an in-depth look at this complicated woman who briefly took Hollywood by storm but seemed determined to throw away success with both hands and instead became Hollywood’s forgotten rebel.
Christina Rice
- Published in print:
- 2013
- Published Online:
- May 2014
- ISBN:
- 9780813144269
- eISBN:
- 9780813144474
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University Press of Kentucky
- DOI:
- 10.5810/kentucky/9780813144269.003.0011
- Subject:
- Film, Television and Radio, Film
This chapter discusses Ann and Leslie’s return to Hollywood, her hiring Myron Selznick as her new agent, and Warner Bros. choosing to maintain her long-term contract within the studio system. This ...
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This chapter discusses Ann and Leslie’s return to Hollywood, her hiring Myron Selznick as her new agent, and Warner Bros. choosing to maintain her long-term contract within the studio system. This chapter also begins to explore Ann and Leslie’s private lives and notes their early attempts at living a fairly isolated existence by moving to a ranch in the Van Nuys neighborhood of the San Fernando Valley and engaging in peculiar hobbies like bacteriology. Also covered is Ann’s loanout Paramount Pictures for The Way to Love, costarring Maurice Chevalier along with College Coach, the first film Ann had made with Warner Bros. in well over a year.Less
This chapter discusses Ann and Leslie’s return to Hollywood, her hiring Myron Selznick as her new agent, and Warner Bros. choosing to maintain her long-term contract within the studio system. This chapter also begins to explore Ann and Leslie’s private lives and notes their early attempts at living a fairly isolated existence by moving to a ranch in the Van Nuys neighborhood of the San Fernando Valley and engaging in peculiar hobbies like bacteriology. Also covered is Ann’s loanout Paramount Pictures for The Way to Love, costarring Maurice Chevalier along with College Coach, the first film Ann had made with Warner Bros. in well over a year.
Christina Rice
- Published in print:
- 2013
- Published Online:
- May 2014
- ISBN:
- 9780813144269
- eISBN:
- 9780813144474
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University Press of Kentucky
- DOI:
- 10.5810/kentucky/9780813144269.003.0014
- Subject:
- Film, Television and Radio, Film
This chapter discusses the renewed promise of Ann’s career in 1935 with higher-budget, higher-profile Warner films like Sweet Music with Rudy Vallee and “G” Men with James Cagney, only to have this ...
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This chapter discusses the renewed promise of Ann’s career in 1935 with higher-budget, higher-profile Warner films like Sweet Music with Rudy Vallee and “G” Men with James Cagney, only to have this momentum halted by illness and dissatisfaction over a loan-out to another studio. Also detailed is the battle of wills between Ann and her studio after she refuses to visit an approved studio doctor, and Warner Bros. refuses to lift a suspension until she does so.Less
This chapter discusses the renewed promise of Ann’s career in 1935 with higher-budget, higher-profile Warner films like Sweet Music with Rudy Vallee and “G” Men with James Cagney, only to have this momentum halted by illness and dissatisfaction over a loan-out to another studio. Also detailed is the battle of wills between Ann and her studio after she refuses to visit an approved studio doctor, and Warner Bros. refuses to lift a suspension until she does so.
J. E. Smyth
- Published in print:
- 2016
- Published Online:
- January 2018
- ISBN:
- 9780748699926
- eISBN:
- 9781474426749
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Edinburgh University Press
- DOI:
- 10.3366/edinburgh/9780748699926.003.0004
- Subject:
- Film, Television and Radio, Film
This shows how Hollywood was more effective than any other institution in America in challenging gender roles and portraying a positive image of working women both on and off screen. It reviews the ...
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This shows how Hollywood was more effective than any other institution in America in challenging gender roles and portraying a positive image of working women both on and off screen. It reviews the importance of women within the studio system not only as actors and stars but also as screenwriters, film editors, costume and make-up design, research, and production (but significantly not as directors). It then analyses a set of highly successful films that were significant for promoting a positive image of working women. These are: A Woman Rebels (RKO, 1936); A Star is Born (Selznick International, 1937); Gone With the Wind (Selznick International-MGM, 1939); and Kitty Foyle (RKO, 1940). What these films have in common is an awareness of generations of women working in front of and behind the scenes that is rendered through their working-women heroines.Less
This shows how Hollywood was more effective than any other institution in America in challenging gender roles and portraying a positive image of working women both on and off screen. It reviews the importance of women within the studio system not only as actors and stars but also as screenwriters, film editors, costume and make-up design, research, and production (but significantly not as directors). It then analyses a set of highly successful films that were significant for promoting a positive image of working women. These are: A Woman Rebels (RKO, 1936); A Star is Born (Selznick International, 1937); Gone With the Wind (Selznick International-MGM, 1939); and Kitty Foyle (RKO, 1940). What these films have in common is an awareness of generations of women working in front of and behind the scenes that is rendered through their working-women heroines.
Anthony Slide
- Published in print:
- 2010
- Published Online:
- March 2014
- ISBN:
- 9781604734133
- eISBN:
- 9781621034322
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University Press of Mississippi
- DOI:
- 10.14325/mississippi/9781604734133.003.0011
- Subject:
- Film, Television and Radio, Film
This chapter describes the changes to fan magazines brought about during the 1960s, by which time the studio system was dying and the studios’ publicists were no longer peddling stories to the fan ...
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This chapter describes the changes to fan magazines brought about during the 1960s, by which time the studio system was dying and the studios’ publicists were no longer peddling stories to the fan magazines. Editors and writers were on their own in unearthing stories and unchecked as to the content of such stories. Press agents were still active, but stars dictated to whom they could and could not speak. The rise of the independent filmmaker created a new brand of films and a new brand of stars, uninterested in furnishing the fan magazines with the same old fluff. Fan magazines complained that stars now wanted to talk about issues of no interest to readers, such as the environment, women’s liberation, and liberal politics.Less
This chapter describes the changes to fan magazines brought about during the 1960s, by which time the studio system was dying and the studios’ publicists were no longer peddling stories to the fan magazines. Editors and writers were on their own in unearthing stories and unchecked as to the content of such stories. Press agents were still active, but stars dictated to whom they could and could not speak. The rise of the independent filmmaker created a new brand of films and a new brand of stars, uninterested in furnishing the fan magazines with the same old fluff. Fan magazines complained that stars now wanted to talk about issues of no interest to readers, such as the environment, women’s liberation, and liberal politics.
J. E. Smyth
- Published in print:
- 2018
- Published Online:
- March 2018
- ISBN:
- 9780190840822
- eISBN:
- 9780190840853
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/oso/9780190840822.001.0001
- Subject:
- Literature, Film, Media, and Cultural Studies
Looking back on her career in 1977, Bette Davis remembered with pride, “Women owned Hollywood for twenty years.” She had a point. During the 1930s and 1940s, the press claimed Hollywood was a ...
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Looking back on her career in 1977, Bette Davis remembered with pride, “Women owned Hollywood for twenty years.” She had a point. During the 1930s and 1940s, the press claimed Hollywood was a generation or two ahead of the rest of the United States in terms of gender equality and employment, with women constituting 40% of film industry employees. Mary C. McCall Jr. was elected president of the Screen Writers Guild three times, and a quarter of all screenwriters were women. Barbara McLean was known as “Hollywood’s Editor-in-Chief.” She and her colleague Margaret Booth supervised their studios’ feature outputs and could order retakes on any director’s work. One woman ran MGM behind the scenes. Over a dozen women worked as producers of major feature films. Edith Head told American women what to wear for decades. Executive Anita Colby, “ ‘the Face with a brain to match,” told them how to do everything else. But historians, critics, and the public have largely forgotten this period and persist in seeing studio-era Hollywood as a place where the only careers open to women were passive, pretty directors’ dummies on-screen or underpaid, anonymous secretaries off-screen. This book tells another story of a “golden age” for women’s employment in the film industry and of Hollywood’s ranks of powerful organization women.Less
Looking back on her career in 1977, Bette Davis remembered with pride, “Women owned Hollywood for twenty years.” She had a point. During the 1930s and 1940s, the press claimed Hollywood was a generation or two ahead of the rest of the United States in terms of gender equality and employment, with women constituting 40% of film industry employees. Mary C. McCall Jr. was elected president of the Screen Writers Guild three times, and a quarter of all screenwriters were women. Barbara McLean was known as “Hollywood’s Editor-in-Chief.” She and her colleague Margaret Booth supervised their studios’ feature outputs and could order retakes on any director’s work. One woman ran MGM behind the scenes. Over a dozen women worked as producers of major feature films. Edith Head told American women what to wear for decades. Executive Anita Colby, “ ‘the Face with a brain to match,” told them how to do everything else. But historians, critics, and the public have largely forgotten this period and persist in seeing studio-era Hollywood as a place where the only careers open to women were passive, pretty directors’ dummies on-screen or underpaid, anonymous secretaries off-screen. This book tells another story of a “golden age” for women’s employment in the film industry and of Hollywood’s ranks of powerful organization women.
Christina Rice
- Published in print:
- 2013
- Published Online:
- May 2014
- ISBN:
- 9780813144269
- eISBN:
- 9780813144474
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University Press of Kentucky
- DOI:
- 10.5810/kentucky/9780813144269.003.0012
- Subject:
- Film, Television and Radio, Film
This chapter covers the remarkable number of films Dvorak made in the year following her return to Warner Bros., such as Heat Lightning and Housewife, costarring Bette Davis. Included are her final ...
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This chapter covers the remarkable number of films Dvorak made in the year following her return to Warner Bros., such as Heat Lightning and Housewife, costarring Bette Davis. Included are her final films of the pre-Code era, which was winding down due to the enforcement of the Hays Code. This chapter not only chronicles Dvorak’s career at the time, it also reflects what life was like for may Warner Bros. contract players during the studio system era.Less
This chapter covers the remarkable number of films Dvorak made in the year following her return to Warner Bros., such as Heat Lightning and Housewife, costarring Bette Davis. Included are her final films of the pre-Code era, which was winding down due to the enforcement of the Hays Code. This chapter not only chronicles Dvorak’s career at the time, it also reflects what life was like for may Warner Bros. contract players during the studio system era.
Carolina Rocha
- Published in print:
- 2018
- Published Online:
- September 2018
- ISBN:
- 9781786940544
- eISBN:
- 9781786944955
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Liverpool University Press
- DOI:
- 10.5949/liverpool/9781786940544.003.0003
- Subject:
- Film, Television and Radio, Film
Relying on Valentina Vitali and Paul Willemen’s statement that ‘both as an industry and a discursive practice, cinema is an adjunct of capitalism’ (2006, 7), I explain that to offset competition from ...
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Relying on Valentina Vitali and Paul Willemen’s statement that ‘both as an industry and a discursive practice, cinema is an adjunct of capitalism’ (2006, 7), I explain that to offset competition from American films, the Argentine state persistently sought to protect national film production through several laws, the most crucial of which was Law 62/57. Nevertheless, in the transition from the studio system to independent filmmaking, the Argentine film industry had an uneven success in its attempt to gain a considerable share of the domestic market. Through trial and error, the Argentine state, directors, and producers came up with different solutions to strengthen the production and circulation of national films, which in many cases were resisted by exhibitors and distributors.Less
Relying on Valentina Vitali and Paul Willemen’s statement that ‘both as an industry and a discursive practice, cinema is an adjunct of capitalism’ (2006, 7), I explain that to offset competition from American films, the Argentine state persistently sought to protect national film production through several laws, the most crucial of which was Law 62/57. Nevertheless, in the transition from the studio system to independent filmmaking, the Argentine film industry had an uneven success in its attempt to gain a considerable share of the domestic market. Through trial and error, the Argentine state, directors, and producers came up with different solutions to strengthen the production and circulation of national films, which in many cases were resisted by exhibitors and distributors.
Adam Bingham
- Published in print:
- 2015
- Published Online:
- January 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780748683734
- eISBN:
- 9781474412162
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Edinburgh University Press
- DOI:
- 10.3366/edinburgh/9780748683734.003.0001
- Subject:
- Film, Television and Radio, Film
This short chapter introduces the subjects and methodologies to be employed throughout the study, as well as offering a comprehensive look at why 1997 was particularly significant for Japanese cinema ...
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This short chapter introduces the subjects and methodologies to be employed throughout the study, as well as offering a comprehensive look at why 1997 was particularly significant for Japanese cinema and how Kitano Takeshi’s Hana-Bi fits into this in some ways watershed year. It further analyses Hana-Bi’s formal and stylistic strategies, as well as providing an analysis of Aoyama Shinji’s debut film Helpless, which is contrasted with Hana-Bi as regards the ways in which both films may be seen to allegorise different eras and socio-political contexts (1989 and 1997, respectively). The introduction also offers an overview of both English language and Japanese language criticism and discourse on recent Japanese cinema, and introduces the particular concepts of genre and style that will permeate the subsequent chapters.Less
This short chapter introduces the subjects and methodologies to be employed throughout the study, as well as offering a comprehensive look at why 1997 was particularly significant for Japanese cinema and how Kitano Takeshi’s Hana-Bi fits into this in some ways watershed year. It further analyses Hana-Bi’s formal and stylistic strategies, as well as providing an analysis of Aoyama Shinji’s debut film Helpless, which is contrasted with Hana-Bi as regards the ways in which both films may be seen to allegorise different eras and socio-political contexts (1989 and 1997, respectively). The introduction also offers an overview of both English language and Japanese language criticism and discourse on recent Japanese cinema, and introduces the particular concepts of genre and style that will permeate the subsequent chapters.
