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American Cinema of the 1930s: Themes and Variations


American Cinema of the 1930s: Themes and Variations

Paperback by Hark, Ina Rae

American Cinema of the 1930s: Themes and Variations

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ISBN:
9780813540825
Publication Date:
21 Jun 2007
Language:
English
Publisher:
Rutgers University Press
Pages:
296 pages
Format:
Paperback
For delivery:
Estimated despatch 22 - 24 May 2024
American Cinema of the 1930s: Themes and Variations

Description

Probably no decade saw as many changes in the Hollywood film industry and its product as the 1930s did. At the beginning of the decade, the industry was still struggling with the transition to talking pictures. Gangster films and naughty comedies starring Mae West were popular in urban areas, but aroused threats of censorship in the heartland. Whether the film business could survive the economic effects of the Crash was up in the air. By 1939, popularly called "Hollywood's Greatest Year," films like Gone With the Wind and The Wizard of Oz used both color and sound to spectacular effect, and remain American icons today. The "mature oligopoly" that was the studio system had not only weathered the Depression and become part of mainstream culture through the establishment and enforcement of the Production Code, it was a well-oiled, vertically integrated industrial powerhouse. The ten original essays in American Cinema of the 1930s focus on sixty diverse films of the decade, including Dracula, The Public Enemy, Trouble in Paradise, 42nd Street, King Kong, Imitation of Life, The Adventures of Robin Hood, Swing Time, Angels with Dirty Faces, Nothing Sacred, Jezebel, Mr. Smith Goes toWashington, and Stagecoach .

Contents

1930 : Movies and social difference / Aaron Baker 1931 : Movies and the voice / Cynthia Erb 1932 : Movies and transgression / David Lugowski 1933 : Movies and the New Deal in entertainment / Martin Rubin 1934 : Movies and the marginalized / Charlene Regester 1935 : Movies and the resistance to tyranny / Ina Rae Hark 1936 : Movies and the possibility of transcendence / Susan Ohmer 1937 : Movies and new constructions of the American star / Allen Larson 1938 : Movies and whistling in the dark / Sam B. Girgus 1939 : Movies and American culture in the annus mirabilis / Charles Maland Select Academy Awards, 1930-1939

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