American Cinema of the 1930s : : Themes and Variations / / ed. by Ina Rae Hark.

• Superior document: Title is part of eBook package: De Gruyter Rutgers University Press Backlist eBook-Package 2000-2013
• MitwirkendeR: Baker, Aaron,; Erb, Cynthia,; Girgus, Sam B.,; Hark, Ina Rae,; Larson, Allen,; Lugowski, David,; Maland, Charles,; Ohmer, Susan,; Regester, Charlene,; Rubin, Martin,
• HerausgeberIn: Hark, Ina Rae,
• Place / Publishing House: New Brunswick, NJ : : Rutgers University Press, , [2007]; ©2007
• Year of Publication: 2007
• Language: English
• Series: Screen Decades: American Culture/America
• Physical Description: 1 online resource (296 p.) :; 33

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 .

Table of Contents

Frontmatter -- Contents -- Acknowledgments -- Timeline: The 1930s -- Introduction: Movies and the 1930s -- 1930 Movies and Social Difference -- 1931 Movies and the Voice -- 1932 Movies and Transgression -- 1933 Movies and the New Deal in Entertainment -- 1934 Movies and the Marginalized -- 1935 Movies and the Resistance to Tyranny -- 1936 Movies and the Possibility of Transcendence -- 1937 Movies and New Constructions of the American Star -- 1938 Movies and Whistling in the Dark -- 1939 Movies and American Culture in the Annus Mirabilis -- Select Academy Awards, 1930 -1939 -- Works Cited and Consulted -- Contributors -- Index