CLASSIC HOLLYWOOD

1920s through 1940s

THIS IS THE ERA OF THE STUDIO

1928 – 1947 (World War II – beginning of Cold

War).

Distinguished by an approach to filmmaking that

stove for an “invisible style” that allowed viewers to

become by the world of the film.

Studios start to take dominance in the 1940s –

Columbia, MGM, Paramount, RKO, Twentieth

Century Fox, United Artists, Universal and Warner

Bros. They made 75% of films.

TOP THREE STUDIOS

Made $100 million

MGM, Paramount and Fox

Average slate of movies released per year from the

major 8 studios was about 45 movies a year (a new

movie per week).

STUDIOS

Large studios were built to accommodate large

orchestras.

There were about 20,000 Movie Theaters in the 1920s.

Studio system was based on contracts – instead of hiring

creative and technical talent, they would make each film on

a project by project basis.

Actors, hairdressers, writers, set designers and directors

were contracted with one studio.

THROUGH CONTRACTS

Each studio developed its own style.

Warner Bros., known for its gritty, urban

melodramas.

They had a contract with Humphrey Bogart, James

Cagney, and Edward Robinson.

MGM was known for its musicals – Judy Garland

and choreographer Busby Berkeley.

STYLES DIFFER BUT

The studios strove to produce films that held a narrative

continuity – that had a story.

A set of genres were developed • Westerns, the gangster films, the horror films and romantic

comedy.

Movies then were known for their directors as well:

John Ford (Stagecoach); Victor Flemming (Gone with the

Wind); Michale Cutiz (The Adventures of Robin Hood); Orson

Welles, Frank Capra; Howard Hawks; and Ernst Lubitsch.

DIRECTORS

Welles was known for not playing well with others.

Most of his films would be compromised by the

studios, he’d walk out on films and they would finish

it for him; or he would be asked to recut and reshoot

a film, like, “The Magnificent Ambersons,” (1942).

He had problems raising $$$

Described as arrogant.

DIRECTORS

John Ford – known for his westerns and dramatic

films.

Grapes of Wrath (1940)

The Informer (1935).

He did a variety of genres including Scar Face.

THERE WAS A SERIES OF SCANDALS

In the 1920s with the changing of morals and

values and the speed of the industrial revolution –

there were scandals at the theater.

Movie stars would host parties, use drugs and

commit crimes creating a public relations nightmare

for the studios.

FATTY ARBUCKLE

FATTY ARBUCKLE:

Comedian of the silent

era,

Was charged with the

murder of actress Virginia

Rappe at a party.

He wasn’t convicted but it

ended his career.

EROL FLYNN

Charged with more than

two counts of statutory rape,

and was known to like

teenaged girls.

The body of John Barrymore

was found in Flynn’s home

after Flynn and his friends

stole it from the morgue.

CHARLIE CHAPLIN

Forced to leave the country

because of alleged communist

sympathies and IRS $$$ problems.

Liked young girls who he mentored

and even married some of them.

Involved in the mysterious death of

producer Thomas Ince. They were

on the yacht William Randolph

Hearst having an argument.

Mysterious death. Said to have

been suicide – carbon monoxide

poisoning but there was blood at

the scene.

Many said it could have been her

jealous husband, director Ronald

West or gangster Lucky Luciano

who wanted to involve Todd’s club

in illegal gambling.

West was said to later confess.

THELMA TODD

JEAN HARLOW

Nude photos were taken of her at 17.

Her father was a mobster.

Had an abortion of her child.

Was said to be involved in the death

of her second husband, Paul Bern. He

found shot in the head, sprawled on

the bedroom mirror and had Harlow’s

perfume on him. It was suicide. Bern

suffered from impotence.

1930 PRODUCTION CODE

General Principles

1. No picture shall be produced which will lower the moral standards of

those who see it. Hence the sympathy of the audience should never be

thrown to the side of crime, wrongdoing, evil or sin.

2. Correct standards of life, subject only to the requirements of drama

and

entertainment, shall be presented.

3. Law, natural or human, shall not be ridiculed, nor shall sympathy be

created

for its violation.

1930 PRODUCTION CODE

The following production code was a regime of censorship that regulated

on screen images and narratives through 1968.

Source:

"The Motion Picture Production Code of 1930," as quoted in Leonard J.

Jeff and Jerold Simmons, eds., The Dame in the Kimono: Hollywood,

Censorship, and the Production Code from the 1920s to the 1960s (New

York: Grove Wiedenfeld, 1990), 283–286.) via History Matters: The U.S.

Survey Course on the Web: developed by the American Social History

Project/Center for Media & Learning, City University of New York, and the

Center for History and New Media, George Mason University.

Crimes: These shall never be presented in such a way as

to throw sympathy with the crime as against law and justice

or to inspire others with a desire for imitation.

1. Murder : The technique of murder must be presented

in a way that will not inspire imitation. Brutal killings are

not to be presented in detail. Revenge in modern times

shall not be justified.

2. Methods of Crime should not be explicitly presented.

Theft, robbery, safe-cracking, and dynamiting of trains,

mines, buildings, etc., should not be detailed in method.

The use of firearms should be restricted to essentials.

Methods of smuggling should not be presented.

3. Illegal drug traffic must never be presented.

4. The use of liquor in American life, when not required by the plot or for proper characterization will not be shown.

SexThe sanctity of the institution of marriage and the home shall be upheld. Pictures shall not infer that low forms of sex relationship are the accepted or common thing. 1. Adultery, sometimes necessary plot material, must not be explicitly treated, or justified, or presented attractively.

2. Scenes of Passion - Should not be introduced when not essential to the plot. Excessive and lustful kissing, lustful embraces, suggestive postures and gestures, are not to be shown.

SEDUCTION AND RAPE

They should never be more than suggested, and only when essential for

the plot, and even then never shown by explicit method. They are never

the proper subject for comedy.

4. Sex perversion or any inference to it is forbidden.

5. White-slavery shall not be treated.

6. Miscegenation (sex relationships between the white and black races) is

forbidden.

7. Sex hygiene and venereal diseases are not subjects for motion pictures.

8. Scenes of actual child birth, in fact or in silhouette, are never to be

presented.

9. Children’s sex organs are never to be exposed.

VULGARITY AND OBSCENITY

The treatment of low, disgusting, unpleasant, though not

necessarily evil, subjects should be subject always to the dictates

of good taste and a regard for the sensibilities of the audience.

Obscenity in word, gesture, reference, song, joke, or by

suggestion (even when likely to be understood only by part of

the audience) is forbidden.

Pointed profanity (this includes the words, God, Lord, Jesus,

Christ—unless used reverently—Hell, S.O.B. damn, Gawd), or

every other profane or vulgar expression, however used, is

forbidden.

COSTUME

1. Complete nudity is never permitted. This includes

nudity in fact or in silhouette, or any lecherous or

licentious notice thereof by other characters in the picture.

2. Undressing scenes should be avoided, and never used

save where essential to the plot.

3. Indecent or undue exposure is forbidden.

4. Dancing costumes intended to permit undue exposure

or indecent movements in the dance are forbidden.

DANCES AND TITLES

Dances suggesting or representing sexual actions

or indecent passion are forbidden.

Dances which emphasize indecent movements are

to be regarded as obscene.

Titles: Salacious, indecent, or obscene titles shall

not be used.

RELIGION

No film or episode may throw ridicule on any

religious faith.

2. Ministers of religion in their character as

ministers of religion should not be used as comic

characters or as villains.

3. Ceremonies of any definite religion should be

carefully and respectfully handled.

LOCATIONS AND FEELINGS

The treatment of bedrooms must be governed by

good taste and delicacy.

The use of the Flag shall be consistently respectful.

2. The history, institutions, prominent people and

citizenry of other nations shall be represented fairly.

REPELLENT SUBJECTS

The following subjects/characters had to be used

with caution and with good taste:

Hangings, or electrocutions by death; third degree

methods; brutality and gruesome scenes; Cruelty to

children or animals; Branding of people; sale of

women; surgical operations.

FOR TUESDAY

Read Classic Hollywood – Chapter 9 and Chapter 2

– Narrative and Genre.

Review the lecture and your lecture notes from

Chapter 1 and this class. There will be a quiz.