American cinema of the 1930s : themes and variations / edited by Ina Rae Hark.

Format:

Book

Contributor:

Hark, Ina Rae.

Series:

Screen decades.

Screen decades

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Motion pictures--United States--History.

Motion pictures.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (296 pages)

Edition:

1st ed.

Place of Publication:

New Brunswick, N.J. : Rutgers University Press, c2007.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

Probably no decade saw as many changes in the Hollywood film industry and its product as the 1930's 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 1930's 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 to Washington, 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.

Notes:

Description based upon print version of record.

Includes bibliographical references (p. 257-265) and index.

ISBN:

9786611151416

9781281151414

1281151416

9781780348735

1780348738

9780813543031

0813543037

OCLC:

476126493