Overview:
Hollywood in Transition
The years between 1948 and 1963 were a period of transition for the Hollywood industry primarily because of two reasons:
US courts rule that the film industry’s methods of distribution represent an illegal restraint of open trade (block booking, major studio owned chains) and the development of television.
1946 was the peak box office year in the American film industry up to that point. Even the tickets sales of later years (9.6 billion in 2008) cannot match the sales of 1946 if we adjust for inflation. By 1953, weekly attendance at film theaters had fallen by 25% compared to ticket sales in the late 1940s. But, by the late 1960s, the American box office had recovered.
By the mid-1930s television had been developed, and by the late 1940s, television was in competition with Hollywood. National television broadcasting emerged in the United States between 1944-1948. The film industry denied television its products until 1956. In other words, no Hollywood film could be shown on television and no working film star could appear on a television program until 1956.
The Hollywood Ten and the Blacklist
Notes:
The Cold War years (late 40s-early 90s) produced a distrust of certain institutions within the United States. In the period pre-World War II, American suspicion had concentrated on Hollywood’s sexual and moral excesses, but in the late 1940s and 1950s this distrust shifted to Hollywood’s political and social positions. Some believed that subversive, procommunist propaganda was allegedly woven into Hollywood’s entertainment films. The House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC) was formed in 1938 to investigate the alleged disloyalty of U.S. citizens. In 1947, the committee held nine days of hearings investigating alleged communist influence in the Hollywood industry. A group known as The Hollywood Ten including Edward Dmytryk, Ring Larder Jr., Dalton Trumbo, and Herbert Biberman were cited for contempt of Congress for refusing to provide information about their alleged involvement with the Communist Party.
*From late 40's and 50's the cold war there was political distrust of communism.
*The Hollywood Ten list is a group of 10 directors accused of communist activities
and banned from working in Hollywood.
This is a clip of Walt Disney Testifying at HUAC against his employees Click Here
3-D, Cinerama, & CinemaScope
3D
One of industry’s first attempts at gimmickry was 3D, a three-dimensional, stereoscopic effect produced by shooting with two lenses simultaneously at a specified distance apart. Two interlocked projectors then threw the two perspectives on a single screen simultaneously. The audience used cardboard glasses to read the two overlapping, flat images as a single three-dimensional one. The first 3D feature was Harry K. Fairall’s The Power of Love (1922). Hollywood rushed into 3D production in 1952 with films like The House of Wax, It Came From Outer Space, and The Creature from the Black Lagoon. Some blame the death of 3D on the headache inducing glasses that it required, but the more obvious cause of its downfall was simply the novelty wore out. Furthermore, because 3D required theater owners to make costly additions and renovations, the exhibitors lost interest. Alfred Hitchcock's Dial M for Murder (1954) was shot in 3D but released in most locations in 2D.
Another technical innovation was Cinerama. Cinerama originally used three interlocked cameras and four interlocked projectors (the fourth one used for the soundtrack). The final prints were projected not on top of one another (like 3D), but side-by-side. The result was an immense wraparound image that was really three images. Like 3D, the idea was not new. Abel Gance had incorporated triple screen effects into his film Napoleon in 1927. Fred Waller, invented Cinerama and produced the film This is Cinerama in 1952. Cinerama remained commercially viable longer than 3D because it was more carefully marketed. Only a few theaters in major cities were equipped for the process. After the Cinerama travelogue programs, the process was used for narrative films such as It’s a Mad Mad Mad Mad World (1963) and How the West Was Won (1963). 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968) was shot with a single camera but projected on a Cinerama screen.
"a three-dimensional, stereoscopic effect produced by shooting with two lenses simultaneously at a specified distance apart. Two interlocked projectors then threw the two perspectives on a single screen simultaneously."
*The first 3D feature was Harry K. Fairall’s The Power of Love (1922).
*In the 50's they used it for House of Wax and The Creature from the Black Lagoon etc.
*3D required theater owners to make costly additions so they lost interest.
Cinerama
"Cinerama originally used three interlocked cameras and four interlocked projectors (the fourth one used for the soundtrack). The final prints were projected not on top of one another (like 3D), but side-by-side."
"Abel Gance had incorporated triple screen effects into his film Napoleon in 1927."
"Fred Waller, invented Cinerama and produced the film This is Cinerama in 1952."
"Only a few theaters in major cities were equipped for the process."
Here's a trailer for Cinerama Click Here
CinemaScope (20th Century Fox), also in the 50's
"requiring no extra projectors, special film, or special glasses. It did require theater owners to invest in “scope” or anamorphic projection lenses, wide, curved screens, and stereophonic sound systems. The special anamorphic lens squeezed the image horizontally to fit the width of the standard film. When projected with a corresponding anamorphic lens on the projector, the distortions disappeared and a wide image stretched across the curved screen. "
* The first CinemaScope feature was Henry Koster’s The Robe (1953).
Freedom of Speech, Preminger, and the End of the Blacklist
A landmark Supreme Court ruling, the Miracle case of 1952, declared that movies were part of the nation’s press and entitled to constitutional guarantees of freedom of speech. Roberto Rossellini’s short film The Miracle (1948) was condemned as sacrilegious by the archdiocese of New York. The Miracle is part of the Italian compilation film L’Amore, which also includes contributions from Federico Fellini and Jean Cocteau. The entire film is directed by Rossellini. L’Amore’s distributor, Joseph Burstyn, took the case to the Supreme Court, won, and undermined the legitimacy of the production code. The case proved that sacrilegious had no clear meaning. In this scene from The Miracle, a religious woman identifies a wanderer as Saint Joseph. The man gives her wine, the woman falls asleep and later finds she is pregnant. She believes both the appearance of the wanderer and her pregnancy are miracles.
"A landmark Supreme Court ruling, the Miracle case of 1952, declared that movies were part of the nation’s press and entitled to constitutional guarantees of freedom of speech. Roberto Rossellini’s short film The Miracle (1948) was condemned as sacrilegious by the archdiocese of New York." Part of the film L'Amore.
The Miracle (Roberto Rossellini, 1948):
Clip of The Miracle Click Here
The war against the code officially began in 1953 when Otto Preminger released The Moon is Blue without the Code’s approval. Moon included words like “virgin” and “mistress.” The code was eliminated in 1968 and the MPAA rating system was established.
The Moon is Blue (Otto Preminger, 1953):
"In in 1953 when Otto Preminger released The Moon is Blue without the Code’s approval. Moon included words like “virgin” and “mistress.” The code was eliminated in 1968 and the MPAA rating system was established."
Message Pictures: Kazan and Others
Socially committed films began to surface in the 1950s. Elia Kazan, originally a Cold War liberal in the era of Hollywood blacklisting, had the problem of making social problem films that neither offended the audience nor cost him his job. Mast and Kawin explain that he turned social statements into human statements, bringing the Method acting style of the Group Theatre (co-founded by Lee Strasberg) and of the Actor’s Studio to the screen. Method acting derives from the “system” conceived by Constantin Stanislavski. Method acting asks actors to tap into the thoughts and feelings of their characters. On the Waterfront (1954) perhaps is one of the best known examples of a film employing method acting in the late Classical Hollywood era. In this famous scene from On the Waterfront, Charley (Rod Steiger) tries to convince his brother Terry (Marlon Brando) to accept a job and continue to work for the mob to keep him quiet.
*Elia Kazan made pictures with issues of social problems
*He used method acting in On the Waterfront.
On the Waterfront (Elia Kazan, 1954):
The Pawnbroker by Sidney Lumet.
In his review of Sidney Lumet's The Pawnbroker, Nathan Rabin observes that "Cinematographer Boris Kaufman and production designer Richard Sylbert turn the pawnshop where Nazerman (Rod Steiger) joylessly plies his trade into a grim urban echo of the concentration camps that never leave his tormented imagination, a capitalist prison with him as its primary prisoner. Kaufman shoots the film like a noir, full of shadows, bars, and stylized angles that reflect the subjective point of view of a man who feels the world crashing down around him. In a sense, The Pawnbroker is a noir, with a secondary plot involving a scheme to steal $5,000 from the pawnshop that brings a bitter Jesus Ortiz together with some unsavory characters. But the crime plot comes second to character and mood."
In the following clip, notice how Nazerman talks directly to camera/audience so there is no escape or distraction from what he is saying. We must face what Nazerman and Jesus (Jaime Sánchez) are facing: the cold, hard, and early truths facing the Holocaust and its ripple effects.
Noir & Social message of concentration camps it mirrors his job of a pawnbroker. The shop is a capitalist prison with him as its prisoner.
Clip from the film The Pawnbroker Click Here
The Pawnbroker (Sidney Lumet, 1964):
Adaptations and Values: John Huston and Others
A moralist with a taste for irony and for great literature, John Huston also faced the tension between cinematic style and significant statement. Some of his films, like The Maltese Falcon (1941), match style and statement so unobtrusively that the results have classical status. Huston's adaptation of Dashiell Hammett's novel is often considered the beginning of the classic period of Hollywood noir. In this clip, notice the hard-boiled, rapid-fire delivery of dialogue as Marlowe (Humphrey Bogart) recovers the Maltese Falcon.
The Maltese Falcon (John Huston, 1941):
Trailer of film Click Here
"Huston's adaptation of Dashiell Hammett's novel (The Maltese Falcon)
considered the beginning of the classic period of Hollywood noir."
John Huston uses "cinematic style and significant statement."
The combination made a Hollywood classic.
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