"Paramount: The Sophisticate": Adolph Zukor: the directors' studio

• TROUBLE IN PARADISE (1932): uniquely Paramount film:
  • 3 stars: Herbert Marshall, Miriam Hopkins, Kay Francis
  • Lubitsch: director: German-born & trained
  • Raphaelson: writer: sophisticated raconteur
  • European accent of film: set in Venice & Paris
• b/g of story: rich folks set upon by thieves
  • society comedy: droll sexuality; boudoir satire
  • amused view of various transactions of sex: courtship, marriage, infidelity
  • agile camera
  • gently radiant lighting
• Paramount's respect for directors:
  • Ernst Lubitsch: sophisticated comedy w/sexual overtones
  • Cecil B. DeMille: self-willed, independent: given lifetime tenure at Paramount
  • Joseph Von Sternberg: Dietrich: exoticism
  • Preston Sturges: witty comedies:
    • PALM BEACH STORY, SULLIVAN'S TRAVELS
  • Billy Wilder: noir: DOUBLE INDEMNITY set style; SUNSET BLVD.
• New York talent: vaudevillians: comedy: Marx Bros., W.C. Fields, Mae West
• Paramount's prestige: not in big casts, spectacle
  • in elegance, imagination, beauty

"MGM: The Supreme": Louis B. Mayer: the producers' studio

• Mayer very hands-on: authoritarian studio:
  • producer supervises: everyone kept in line: Thalberg, Freed, Goldwyn
    • no free spirits: everyone had to fit in: team spirit
  • but use of some individualists: directors: Lubitsch,Vidor, Minnelli
  • MGM director's essential talent: treatment of stars: Cukor: women's director
• charisma of stars important: motto: "More stars than there are in the heavens":
  • Gable, Crawford, Harlow, Garbo, Tracy
  • building stars: Garland
  • GRAND HOTEL: all-star ensemble film
  • complete control over stars' lives: language, habits, leisure time, professional lives
• many films built around women: THE WOMEN
• "the family studio": post-Thalberg: Mayer's directive:
  • sacrament of marriage valued: worst sin: "sexual browsing"
  • no film noir
  • Mayer's favorite project: Andy Hardy series
• musicals: among MGM's 1st sound films:
• MGM took concept of the big number from Warners
  • before Freed: 3 basic forms: backstage musical, dance musical, operetta
  • Freed unit: Richard Roud: "The most glorious string of musicals in the history of the cinema"
    • strength: in freedom w/which artisans made use of tools invented by predecessors
    • state-of-the-art musicals: marked by diversity

"Warner Bros: The Slicker": Jack Warner: tight budgets & hoodlums

• instituted the talkie: THE JAZZ SINGER: 1927
• Warners' style: "hit& run, mordern-dress smarts laced w/a touch of sentiment but a grab of honesty"
  • lighting: clear, unbiased
  • decor: terse, sparse
  • "the cynicism of the sociopolitically disinherited"
  • specch & language: that of the city
  • tight-budget philosophy::
    • 1st stars: dog & kid: cheap, profitable
    • the remake: revise & reshoot old property
• LITTLE CAESAR (1931): all elements of early WB film in place:
  • urban setting: urban focus: often immigrants; urban noise; urban fast pace
  • clear cross-section of class: like real American city:
    • from nightclubs to flophouses
  • film itself: fast, cheap & furious: made the same way:
    • Jack Warner: "I don't want it good. I want it Tuesday."
  • only major lot run on quickie lot's budget: little glamorizing
• the crime film: took different forms: gangster, prison, newspaper, detective, etc.
  • new kind of actor: the tough guy: Robinson, Cagney: ethnicity
  • character & good story favored over politics:
    • attractive gangsters: dynamic personalities
  • class as fate
• the social problem film: I WAS A FUGITIVE FROM A CHAIN GANG
• WB's musicals: backstage format: 42ND STREET, FOOTLIGHT PARADE
  • Busby Berkeley: camera-conscious choreographer-director
    • exploitation of camera, women as robotic dancers
    • fast, hip, contemporary, political, urban
• WB a man's studio: tough guy directors: Walsh, Curtiz, Bacon
  • Cagney: essential WB star: lovable hoodlum
  • but: Bette Davis: grew as star w/studio: rebellious re: studio
• MALTESE FALCON (1941]: conversion of crime film into film noir

"Fox: The Rube": Darryl Zanuck: the mogul in control

• really, 2 studios: separate but connected: merged in 1935:
  • 1. Fox Film: Wm. Fox: medium budgets, secondary stars, conservative:
    • Theda Bara's "silent" vamp films; then:
    • Americana: family, land, history: SUNRISE
      • attractive but uncomplicated stars: Gaynor, Farrell
      • country people/themes: even in talkie years
      • folk heroes: Will Rogers, Henry Fonda
  • 2. 20th Century: Zanuck's studio:
    • big budgets, major stars, conservative but some social criticism
  • difference in 2 studios: the mogul: Zanuck
• Zanuck in control of every facet of studio operation:
  • preferred to create his own stars: Young, Power, Ameche, Henie (created genre for her)
    • but used some stars already at Fox: Faye, Fonda, Temple
  • Zanuck's "pool" of actors:
    • big dark men: Power, Ameche, Payne, Wilde
    • soft blonde women: Grable, Haver, Monroe
  • tendency to lock certain stars into formats so rigid all films series of remakes: Temple
• Fox musicals: when in doubt, go backstage: Faye: always performing: not much spontaneous song:
  • everything filtered thru values contemporary to time of filming: costumes, songs, etc.
  • vaudeville acts brought in to fill out thin stories: Ritz Bros., Carmen Miranda
  • Betty Grable: her musicals often set backstage: w/pop tunes:
    • she moves from bit to bit: love scene to specialty number
    • male talent: slim: big dark men weigh musicals down
  • non-Grable musicals: follow Grable format
  • not classy like MGM's musicals
• political problem films: OX-BOW INCIDENT, GRAPES OF WRATH
• main link between 2 studios: John Ford: director: "silents" thru 1952: WHAT PRICE GLORY?
  • Americana: rustic family studies: 19th C worldview: HOW GREEN WAS MY VALLEY

"RKO: The New Yorker": (no mogul): sophisticated B's

• Radio-Keith-Orpheum: Radio Corp. of America: wanted to sell sound equipment: joined with:
  • Keith-Albee-Orpheum: vaudeville theaters: situated in N.E.; targeted public: NYC
• RKO Radio Pictures: 1928: formed specifically to market talkies: no b/g in "silents": Eastern money
  • no overwhelming mogul in place: Selznick briefly, Pandro Berman, Dore Schary:
    • no clear & lasting stylist
  • (studio no longer exists: only major to collapse totally: 1957)
• RKO had the occasional successful quality film:
  • STAGE DOOR (1937): Broadway story, careful direction, sophisticated, sharp:
    • like RKO: it knows too much
• studio survived mainly because of:
  • distribution deals: Disney, Capra's Liberty Films, etc. and:
  • B-films: really kept RKO alive:
    • a real mix: westerns, comedies, mysteries: recycling
    • lot almost always in chaos: scrambling for money
• RKO excelled in unusual movies:
  • BRINGING UP BABY (1938): reinvented screwball comedy: originally lost $: typical of RKO
  • KING KONG (1933): made money: technology the star of film
  • GUNGA DIN (1939): new style of war film
  • producer Val Lewton's horror unit: CAT PEOPLE (1942): subtle, intelligent suspense
  • melodramas: reinvented: incorporating some meaner truths than usual
  • queen of lot: Katharine Hepburn: non-conformist who played strange roles: SYLVIA SCARLET
  • Astaire-Rogers films: unusual genre: avant-garde at the time:
    • musicals that use dance characterologically and narratively:
    • set in place RKO loved best: art deco NYC
• RKO formed & tried to survive on belief that art mattered as much as pop
  • idea more suited to elite stage production company
• 1941: CITIZEN KANE
• 1948: Howard Hughes bought studio: destroyed it: it became Desilu: TV's I Love Lucy

"Universal: The Old Monster": Carl Laemmle: reactionary horrors

• oldest surviving studio: also least ambitious aesthetic of all majors
  • these 2 facts connected: conservative stylistics: reactionary: rooted in past
• studio not eager to keep pace w/new developments: kept making 2-reelers, didn't buy theater chains;
  • directors, actors went to other studios; dowdy subject matter; old-fashioned stories
• Carl Laemmle: founding mogul: 1st big studio: cultural outpost: he just wanted to make 2-reelers
• HUNCHBACK OF NOTRE DAME (1923): Lon Chaney: except for him, dated acting
  • "A good cast is worth repeating": closing credit for more than 2 decades:
    • but continuing lack of star power
• talkies: Universal already inadequate in "silent" era:
  • really tested w/talkies: recreated other studios' films: not so well
• SHOWBOAT (1936): remake of their "silent": a classic faithfully adapted & successful
  • studio had no musical genre: so faithful adaptation of hit show worked
• Universal's history in studio era: old-fashioned: primarily; imitative: generally; unique: occasionally
• 1936: Laemmle family's regime ended because of money problems:
  • but the effect lingered on: tendency to follow, not lead
• Universal: innovator in 1 way: horror: early: Chaney; 1927: CAT AND CANARY: haunted house classic
  • Expressionism: German influence: James Whale/Karl Freund: skewed angles, light & shadow
  • above all, monster films: Karloff, Lugosi, Rains
    • thru 1935: DRACULA, FRANKENSTEIN, MUMMY, INVISIBLE
      MAN, BLACK CAT; BRIDE OF FRANKENSTEIN: high point of Universal horror
  • affected genre thruout film industry: then & since:
    • supernatural & real: don't coexist: gave us fantasy of the grotesque
• post-1936: 2nd wave of horror films: replaying old characters/themes: directors & stars gone:
  • INVISIBLE MAN RETURNS, SON OF DRACULA
• other genre: women's pictures: "weepie": Stahl & Sirk: directors
• shortage of bankable stars: series of films: Ma & Pa Kettle, Abbott & Costello
  • Deanna Durbin: distinguished casts, at least: Stokowski
  • resistance to star system
• 1950s: Ross Hunter: producer: slick: melodramas
  • uncomplicated people: perky women; dull stalwart men
  • "sex comedy": studio catching up w/times: PILLOW TALK (1959)

Columbia: The House that Capra Built: Harry Cohn: screwballers & populism

• Harry Cohn: mogul: relished being the meanest, the rudest
• Frank Capra elevated Columbia from quickie studio to a major studio that excelled in:
  • screwball comedies: 20TH CENTURY, AWFUL TRUTH, YOU CAN'T TAKE IT WITH YOU, IT HAPPENED ONE NIGHT
    • tight budgets: screwball, by nature, small in scope
    • basically, an unruly & subversive form:
      • studio disorderly by Hollywood standards: cheaper
  • little people Americana: Capra & his populist cinema:
    • MR. DEEDS GOES TO TOWN, MEET JOHN DOE, MR. SMITH GOES TO WASHINGTON, etc.

other studios: Selznick, Republic

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