Interpreting Heroes, Villains, and Victims

Abstract

Beginning with global market domination after World War I, American film has carried American culture to the world at large. At the same time, the press-and not only the American press-has been an accomplice in the campaign to sell Hollywood film to a world market.1 An important figure in this symbiotic relationship has been British-born Alistair Cooke. A prolific interpreter of American culture, Cooke has for more than half a century turned to film for images and metaphors to describe American life. Through his printed work and his Letter from America, the longest-running radio program in history, Cooke has given his international audience not only a inside glimpse of the motion picture industry, but also a special perspective on America. Cooke wrote his first film review for the Manchester Guardian in 1929 and became the BBC's film critic shortly thereafter. He visited America on an academic fellowship in 1932 and moved to the United States permanently five years later, becoming a U.S. citizen in 1941. He wrote for The Times of London and the Daily Herald, then shared duties with Raymond Gram Swing on a sporadic basis for a fifteen-minute radio program, American Commentary, during the war years. Cooke's solo endeavor, at first titled American Letter, subsequently Letter from America, began in 1945 with an invitation from the BBC to do thirteen segments. The series is still being broadcast, each program airing twice over the BBC in Great Britain-nn Friday evenings and repeated on Sunday morning.2 Hollywood, the movies, and especially those appearing in them have been the subject of much of Cooke's writing from the start of his journalism career. And even though Hollywood heroes and villains may have become anachronisms, outliving their usefulness or purpose, Cooke continues to use them in a variety of commentaries in which popular film is central to his message. This study examines Cooke's writing about Hollywood, focusing especially on his interpretive role and the figures that have been the subject of his Letter from America. Cooke was one of the first film critics to emerge after the ed of the silent film era, an individual who had grownup with the internationalization of the movie industry, first as an outsider from Great Britain, then as a resident and friend of Hollywood. As he subsequently became an eminent symbol of international reporting, he frequently used what he had learned about the public's interest in film as a sounding board for ideas and for providing important representative images and insights into the national character. Cooke examined specific themes in film that reflected American values including a love of fair play and the rugged individualism of the frontier, healthy political cynicism, and an aversion to informers as well as to effete snobs. As someone initially viewed as an outsider, he speaks with added objectivity and authority. Cooke was also one of the first American writers to recognize the extent of public fascination with film celebrity, and he saw how, in the absence of an American monarchy, motion picture actors receive special, quasi-regal status. Their actions are imitated and, for no reason other than the celebrity status they hold, they are sometimes listened to on important policy matters, even by the President of the United States. Acknowledging the significance of film stars as individuals, Cooke frequently focused his broadcasts on the relationship men mythical film images and the personal history of Hollywood's key movie performers.3 In order to better understand the motivations and challenges fame brings to major performers, Cooke set out to build personal relationships in Hollywood. He developed connections to the industry, and his participant-observation method, together with his longevity as a writer in both print and broadcast, has complemented his ability to examine conditions in Hollywood critically. At the same time, recognizing the international impact of Hollywood, he has explored mores, values, and behavior of film stars and their influence beyond national boundaries. …