American cinema of the 1930s: themes and variations

Abstract

Probably no decade saw as many changes in the Hollywood film industry its product as the did. At the beginning of the decade, the industry was still struggling with the transition to talking pictures. Gangster films 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 Wizard of Oz used both color sound to spectacular effect, remain icons today. The mature oligopoly that was the studio system had not only weathered the Depression become part of mainstream culture through the establishment 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, Public Enemy, Trouble in Paradise, 42nd Street, King Kong, Imitation of Life, Adventures of Robin Hood, Swing Time, Angels with Dirty Faces, Nothing Sacred, Jezebel, Mr. Smith Goes toWashington, Stagecoach .