Episodes

  • Introduction & Chapter 1 - Back to the Front
    Nov 30 2021

    This episode was written using the following references:

    • Eksteins, M. (1980). War, Memory, and Politics: The Fate of the Film All Quiet on the Western Front. Central European History, 13(1), 60-82.
    • Eyman, Scott (2005). Lion of Hollywood: the life and legend of Louis B. Mayer (Ied.). New York, United States: Simon & Schuster. P. 117
    • Holden, A. (1993). The Oscars: The Secret History of Hollywood’s Academy Awards. Little Brown and Company.
    • Grainge, P., Jancovich, M., & Monteith, S. (2007). Film histories : an introduction and reader. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press.
    • Kelly, A. (1997). Cinema and the Great War. London: Routledge.
    • Koszarski, Richard. (1990). An Evening’s Entertainment: The Age of the Silent Feature Picture, 1915-1928. New York: Scribner.
    • Paris, M. (2000). The First World War and popular cinema : 1914 to the present. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press.
    • Robinson, D. (1968). Hollywood in the Twenties. London: Zwemmer.
    • Salt, B. (1992). Film style and technology : history and analysis (Second edition.). London: Starword.
    • Suid, Lawrence H. (2002). Guts & Glory: The Making of the American Military Image in Film. University Press of Kentucky.
    • Thompson, Frank T. (2002). Texas Hollywood: Filmmaking in San Antonio since 1910. Maverick Publishing Company.

    To learn more about Hollywood’s representation of the Great War, watch:

    • The Big Parade (1925) dir. King Vidor
    • What Price Glory? (1926) dir. Raoul Walsh
    • Hell’s Angels (1930) dir. Howard Hughes
    • The Dawn Patrol (1930) dir. Howard Hawks
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    26 mins
  • Chapter 2 - 20th Century Blues
    Dec 31 2021

    This episode was written using the following references:

    • Balio, T. (1993). Grand design : Hollywood as a modern business enterprise, 1930-1939. New York: Scribner.
    • Banita, G. (2013). Fossil Frontiers: American Petroleum History on Film. In Rosenstone, R. & Parvulescu, C. (eds), A companion to the historical film (pp. 301-327). Chichester: Wiley-Blackwell. Rosenstone, R. & Parvulescu, C. (2013).
    • Fenin, G., & Everson, W. (1962). The Western, from silents to cinerama. New York: Orion Press.
    • Geraghty, C. (2008). Now a major motion picture : film adaptations of literature and drama. Lanham: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers.
    • History.com Editors. (2009, October 29). Great Depression History. Retrieved 10 April 2020, from https://www.history.com/topics/great-depression/great-depression-history
    • Smythe. J. E. (2009). The New Western History in 1931: RKO and the Challenge of ‘Cimarron’. In Rollins, P. & O’Connor, J. (eds.), Hollywood’s West : the American frontier in film, television, and history (pp. 37-64). Lexington: University Press of Kentucky.
    • Turner, F. (1914). The West and American Ideals. The Washington Historical Quarterly, 5(4), 243-257. Retrieved April 10, 2020, from www.jstor.org/stable/40474083

    To see more prestige picture and their portrayals of American history, watch:

    • The Conquerors (1932) dir. William Wellman
    • Looking Forward (1933) dir. Clarence Brown
    • Show Boat (1936) dir. James Whale
    • The Grapes of Wrath (1940) dir. John Ford
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    20 mins
  • Chapter 3 - The Boy Wonder
    Jan 31 2022

    This episode was written using the following references:

    • Balio, T. (2012). Selling Stars: The Economic Imperative. In Neale, S. (ed.), The classical Hollywood reader (pp. 209-225). London: Routledge.
    • Barrios, R. (1995). A song in the dark : the birth of the musical film. New York;: Oxford University Press.
    • Bradley, E. (1996). The first Hollywood musicals : a critical filmography of 171 features, 1927 through 1932. Jefferson, N.C. : McFarland & Co.
    • CBS. (1959, October 25). The Movies Learn to Talk. The Twentieth Century.
    • Florio, A. & LaVine, W. R. (1980). In a Glamorous Fashion: The Fabulous Years of Hollywood Costume Design. New York: Scribner’s Sons.
    • Grant, B. (2012). The Hollywood film musical. Oxford: Wiley-Blackwell.
    • Herzog, C. C. & Gaines, J. M. Balio, T. (1991). ‘Puffed Sleeves Before Tea-time’: Joan Crawford, Adrian and women audiences. In Gledhill, C. (ed.) Stardom: Industry of desire (pp. 74-91). London: Routledge.
    • "Irving Thalberg." (2020) In Immigrant Entrepreneurship, Retrieved April 10, 2020, from Immigrant Entrepreneurship: http://www.immigrantentrepreneurship.org/entry.php?rec=58
    • Kenrick, J. (2010). Musical theatre : a history. New York, N.Y. ;: Continuum.
    • Kislan, R. (1995). The musical : a look at the American musical theater. New York, NY ;: Applause.
    • McLean, A. L. (2010). Flirting with Terpsichore: Dance, Class and Entertainment in 1930s Film Musicals. In Cohan, S. (ed.) The sound of musicals. London: A BFI book published by Palgrave Macmillan.
    • Rubin, M. (2002). Busby Berkeley and the Backstage Musical. In Cohan, S. (ed.), Hollywood musicals, the film reader (pp. 53-61). London: Routledge.
    • Thomas, Bob. (1984). Thalberg: Life and Legend. Garland.
    • Vieira, M. (2010). Irving Thalberg: Boy Wonder to Producer Prince. University of California Press.

    To see more examples of Irving Thalber's work at MGM, watch:

    • Ben-Hur: A Tale of the Christ (1925) dirs. Fred Niblo and B. Reeves Easton
    • The Divorcee (1930) dir. Robert Z. Leonard
    • The Barretts of Wimpole Street (1934) dir. Sidney Franklin
    • China Seas (1935) dir. Tay Garnett
    • The Good Earth (1937) dir. Sidney Franklin
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    34 mins
  • Chapter 4 - The Johns and the Janes
    Feb 28 2022

    This episode was written using the following references:

    • American Film Institute. (2010, February 5). Frank Capra Accepts the 10th AFI Life Achievement Award in 1982 [Video file]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t746ZVw09P4
    • Balio, T. (1993). Grand design : Hollywood as a modern business enterprise, 1930-1939. New York: Scribner.
    • Capra, F. (1971). The name above the title : an autobiography. New York: Macmillan.
    • Tzioumakis Y. (2006) American independent cinema, an introduction. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press.
    • Mizejewski, L. (2010). It happened one night. Chichester, U.K. ;: Wiley-Blackwell.
    • Hollywoodism: Jews, Movies and the American Dream (1998) dirs. Simcha Jacobovici and Stuart Samuels.
    • Muscio, G. (1998). Roosevelt, Arnold, and Capra, (or) the Federalist-Populist Paradox. In Sklar, R. & Zagarrio, V. (eds.) Frank Capra: Authorship and the Studio System (pp. 164-189). Philadelphia: Temple University Press.
    • Carney, R. (1996). American vision : the films of Frank Capra. Hanover, N.H. ;: Wesleyan University Press.
    • Poague, L. (1994). Another Frank Capra. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
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    25 mins
  • Chapter 5 - The 'J' Word
    Mar 31 2022

    This episode was written using the following references:

    • Balio, T. (1993). Grand design : Hollywood as a modern business enterprise, 1930-1939. New York: Scribner.
    • Behlmer, R., (1985), Inside Warner Bros. (1935-1951).(New York: Viking Press.
    • Denby, D. (2019, July 9). Hitler in Hollywood. Retrieved 10 April 2020, from https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2013/09/16/hitler-in-hollywood
    • Doherty, T. (2009). Hollywood’s censor : Joseph I. Breen and the Production Code Administration. New York ;: Columbia University Press.
    • Doherty, T. (2013). Hollywood and Hitler, 1933-1939. New York ;: Columbia University Press.
    • Miller, F. (1994). Censored Hollywood: Sex, sin & violence on screen. Atlanta, GA: Turner Publishing.
    • Mintz, S. & Roberts, R. (2010). Hollywood’s America : twentieth-century America through film. Oxford: Wiley-Blackwell.
    • Urwand, B. (2013). The collaboration: Hollywood’s pact with Hitler. Cambridge, Mass: Belknap Press of Harvard University Press.
    • Perlman, W. (1936). The movies on trial : the views and opinions of outstanding personalities anent screen entertainment past and present. New York: Macmillan.
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    19 mins
  • Chapter 6 - A Burst of Colour
    May 31 2022

    This episode was written using the following references:

    • Flamini, R. (1975). Scarlett, Rhett, and a cast of thousands : the filming of ‘Gone With the Wind’. New York: Macmillan.
    • Higgins, S. (2007). Harnessing the Technicolor rainbow : color design in the 1930s. Austin: University of Texas Press.
    • Salt, B. (1992). Film style and technology : history and analysis. London: Starword.
    • Lambert, G. (1976). GWTW : the making of ‘Gone With the Wind’. Toronto (etc.) ;: Bantam.
    • Kalmus, N. (1935). Color Consciousness. Journal of the Society of Motion Picture Engineers, 25(2), 139–147. Retrieved from https://eastman.org/sites/default/files/technicolor/pdfs/ColorConsultants_ColorConsciousness.pdf
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    17 mins
  • Chapter 7 - Propaganda Worth a Hundred Battleships
    Jul 31 2022

    This episode was written using the following references:

    • Leaving Rosebud, Leaving the Valley: Vestiges of Childhood in Two Classic Films from 1941. Kathy Merlock Jackson and Ray Merlock. The Journal of American Culture, Volume 29 Number 3, September 2006
    • Harris, M. (2014). Five Came Back: A Story of Hollywood and the Second World War (Reprint ed.). Edinburgh, Great Britain: Penguin Books.
    • Herman, J. (1997). A Talent For Trouble: The Life Of Hollywood's Most Acclaimed Director, William Wyler. New York: Da Capo.
    • Miller, G. (2013). William Wyler: The Life and Films of Hollywood’s Most Celebrated Director (Screen Classics) (1st ed.). Lexington, Kentucky: University Press of Kentucky.
    • Propaganda in Motion Pictures: Hearings Before a Subcommittee of the Committee on Interstate Commerce, United States Senate, Seventy-seventh Congress, First Session, on S. Res.152, a Resolution Authorizing an Investigation of War Propaganda Disseminated by the Motion Picture Industry and of Any Monopoly in the Production, Distribution Or Exhibition of Motion Pictures; Sept.9-26, 1941
    • Schatz, T., 1999. Boom and Bust: American Cinema in the 1940s. Berkeley: Univ. of California Press.
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    31 mins
  • Chapter 8 - Crossing the Pond
    Sep 30 2022

    This episode was written using the following references:

    • Frank Nugent, “War’s Double-Entry”, New York Times, 17th September 1939, section A, p. 137
    • Robert Sklar, Movie-Made America: A Cultural History of American Movies [New York: Random House, 1975], p. 253
    • University of California Television (UCTV). (2017, April 2). Expanded Hitchcock: Rebecca [Video]. YouTube. Retrieved September 25, 2022, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WY3SKrxnIMo
    • Schatz, T., 1999. Boom and Bust: American Cinema in the 1940s. Berkeley: Univ. of California Press.
    • Holden, Anthony. (1993). The Oscars: The Secret History of Hollywood’s Academy Awards. Little Brown and Company.
    • Kliman, B. W. (1983). A Palimpsest for Olivier’s “Hamlet.” Comparative Drama, 17(3), 243–253. 

    For more British films that carved out overseas success, watch:

    • Brief Encounter (1945) dir. David Lean
    • Caesar and Cleopatra (1945) dir. Gabriel Pascal
    • Great Expectations (1946) dir. David Lean
    • The Red Shoes (1948) dirs. Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger

    And for more examples of European directors used Gothic elements in their noir films, seek out:

    • Shadow of a Doubt (1943) dir. Alfred Hitchcock
    • Double Indemnity (1944) dir. Billy Wilder
    • The Woman in the Window (1944) dir. Fritz Lang  
    • Phantom Lady (1944) dir. Robert Siodmak
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    25 mins