Lecture 4:
Hollywood Hegemony
Flying Down to Rio (1933)
Directed by Thornton Freeland
Professor Michael Green
1
Previous Lecture
•
“The Imperial
Imaginary”
•
Nanook of the North
and Romantic
Ethnography
•
Writing about Film
Lesson #2
2
This Lecture
•
The Good Neighbor
Policy and Hollywood
Censorship
•
Hollywood’s Imagined
Latin America
•
Dolores del Rio and
Racialized Sexuality
•
Writing about Film
Lesson #3
3
The Good Neighbor Policy and
Hollywood Censorship
Weekend in Havana (1941)
Directed by Walter Lang
Lecture 4: Part I
4
Summary of Hegemony
•
•
Hegemony refers to the way that the
political and social domination of the power
class in capitalist society is expressed not
only in ideologies but in all realms of
culture and social organization.
This kind of power takes the form of
influence rather than domination, as well
as an appearance of naturalness and
inevitability that removes it from
examination, criticism and challenge.
5
MMPDA
•
•
The The Motion Picture Producers and
Distributors of America (MPPDA),
established in 1922, was the industry
trade organization concerned with
promoting self-censorship among
producers in order to stave off calls for
state regulation.
The MPPDA regularly issued general
guidelines for producers to follow. But no
true enforcement mechanism existed.
6
Will Hays
•
Will Hays was
president of the
MPPDA (later the
MPAA) from 1922 to
1945. Because of his
pervasive influence on
the censorship office
of the association, it
was known as the
Hays Office.
Will Hayes
7
The PCA
•
•
•
The Production Code (aka the Hays
Code) was a set of industry guidelines
governing the content of America movies.
The MPPDA adopted the code in 1930,
began effectively enforcing it in 1934, and
abandoned it in 1967 for the MPAA film
rating system, which is still in effect today.
The Production Code determined what
was and was not considered “morally
acceptable” in Hollywood film production.
8
Purpose of the PCA
•
•
The PCA was developed in response to
objections by The Catholic Legion of
Decency and other conservative groups to
sexual content and “provocative themes” in
Hollywood movies.
By enforcing the code on their own films,
Hollywood studios hoped to avoid
government intervention and regulation, as
well as the growing influence of the Legion
of Decency and other groups on allowable
film content.
9
Effects of the PCA
•
•
•
No film could get wide distribution without
the Code’s approval, so code enforcers
had great influence over movie content.
This influence extended not only to sex
and violence, but also to representations of
foreign nationals.
The PCA screened each film for possible
“foreign offense” during its reviews of
storylines, scripts, and finished films.
10
“The Good Neighbor Policy”
• The Good Neighbor
Policy developed as
a result of the shared
economic interests of
the studios and the
current geopolitical
imperatives of the
U.S. government.
11
Profiting from the Neighbors
• 35 percent of the motion picture industry’s
gross revenue in the 1930s came from
international box office, 60 percent of which
was from Europe.
• The looming war in Europe led the studios
to search for other foreign markets,
• In early 1939, all the major studios began
actively producing Latin-themed ‘good
neighborly’ films aimed at pleasing - and
profiting from - Latin American audiences.
12
Examples
The CIAA
• At the same time the U.S. was concerned
about Nazi influence in Latin America
• Nelson Rockefeller urged President
Roosevelt to align the U.S more closely with
countries in the Western Hemisphere.
• Roosevelt appointed Rockefeller head of
the Office of the Coordinator of InterAmerican Affairs (CIAA), which was to
harmonize, through propaganda, all official
relations with Latin America ties for
economic and political purposes.
14
Movies as Propaganda
• Rockefeller created a Motion Picture
Division within the CIAA and selected John
Hay Whitney as its head.
• Whitney persuaded Hollywood to begin to
incorporate more Latin American talent into
its movies, arguing that the film industry
needed to be persuaded to create filmic
representations of Latin America that would
not be objectionable to Latin Americans.
15
Addison Durland
• A number of Hollywood films were banned in
Latin America during the 1920s and early
1930s, prompting the industry to re-evaluate
its representational approach.
• Whitney encouraged Hays to place Addison
Durland on the staff of the PCA for his for
his “Latin American point of view.”
• Durland, who had lived and worked in Cuba,
was to to ensure that Hollywood movies be
free from anything potentially offensive to
Latin sensibilities.
16
Your Author’s Point
“After the turn toward the Latin American
market in 1939, Hollywood’s Good Neighbor
agenda demanded a new approach, one that
emphasized ‘authenticity’ and ‘realism’ [in the
hopes of] greater mutual understanding
between Americans and Latin Americans,
and, most importantly, greater box office
receipts for the studios.
– Brian O'Neil, “The Demands of Authenticity: Addison
Durland and Hollywood's Latin Images During WWII”
17
Hollywood’s Imagined Latin
America
That Night in Rio (1941)
Directed by Irving Cummings
Lecture 4: Part II
18
A Major Effort
•
•
From 1941-45, as part of the Good
Neighbor Policy, the studios produced
scores of Latin-themed films, often
featuring imported Latin American stars.
In an effort to be responsive to Latin
American sensibilities, studio research
departments helped lend “authenticity” to
films set in foreign lands, acting as
ethnographic resource centers for
scriptwriters and producers.
19
Enforcing Western Ideas
•
•
These researchers helped shape movie
imagery of other peoples and cultures
through the use of picture books, tour
guides, and magazines such as Colliers
and National Geographic.
These sources often depicted other
regions in Western terms as “exotic”
lands; consequently they were often
inauthentic, colonial and racist.
20
Durland’s Mandate
•
As part of a “sincere
crusade,” Durland’s
job was to make sure
that Hollywood’s Latin
American content was
free of all negative
imagery, and he
looked for “mistakes”
in such elements as
script, costume, props,
language and casting.
Carmen Miranda
21
O’Neil’s Argument
“Durland’s primary function was to prevent
Hollywood’s Latin-themed films from offending
the Latin American censor boards, whose
members held the keys to film distribution in
their respective countries. The criteria he
used to shape these films tended to conform
to the image that Latin American elites liked to
convey of the region: light-skinned, modern,
and civilized.”
– Brian O'Neil, “The Demands of Authenticity: Addison
Durland and Hollywood's Latin Images During WWII”
22
Durland’s Results
•
•
Ironically, Durland helped construct an
unrealistic Hollywood representation of
Latin America as clean, modern,
prosperous and European in complexion.
Durland’s racial censorship targeted not
only depictions of blacks, but also of all
darker-skinned Latin Americans. He
routinely commented on skin color in script
notes to studios, insisting that characters
not appear too “shabby,” “swarthy,” or
“negroid in color.”
23
Whitening Racial Representation
•
•
In carrying out such an agenda, the need
to visually maintain racial hierarchies
superseded Durland’s concern over
realism and ‘authenticity.’
As a result, a “whitening” took place in
Hollywood’s Latin-themed films, in which
everyone, including the background extras,
appears white.
Pause the lecture and watch the first clip from That Night in Rio.
24
Reinforcing Class and Gender
•
•
Durland also helped enforce elite
conventions about gender and class
relations in Latin America.
While he eliminated depictions of Latin
women of ill repute, insuring that Latin
women exhibited ‘ladylike’ qualities
onscreen, he allowed films to continue to
stereotype them as fiery and tempestuous
(Lupe Velez and Carmen Miranda).
Pause the lecture and watch clip #2 from That Night in Rio.
25
Trading Stereotypes
“The newer films largely replaced Latin
stereotypes of alternately docile, stupid, and
villainous ‘greasers’ with new, supposedly
more ‘positive,’ images of Latinos as funseekers, flirts, and flamboyant dancers [in
movies such as] Down Argentine Way
(1940), to spend That Night in Rio (1941),
and to book a Week-End in Havana (1941).”
Brian O'Neil, “The Demands of Authenticity”
Pause the lecture and watch clip #3 from That Night in Rio.
26
Contradictions in Approach
•
•
•
Whatever his motivations, Durland
consistently made little or no censorial
interventions in films with major Latin
performers such as Lupe Velez, Carmen
Miranda and Cesar Romero.
He usually decided that they would
“present no problem from the Latin
American point of view.”
He also rarely took into account the
sensibilities of U.S. Latinos.
27
America as Superior
•
Despite the efforts of Hollywood to
represent Latin American more positively
and to promote a new sense of hemispheric
solidarity, studio films nevertheless
perpetuated idea that U.S culture and
people were superior to their neighbors.
•
Hollywood found it difficult to change the
constructs of ethnicity and and national
identity that it had already developed over
several decades of film production.
28
Durland’s Compromise
“In the end, a compromise prevailed: the
Latin America imagined by Hollywood
became more prosperous and modern than
ever before, but its inhabitants symbolized
in the roles of Lupe Velez, Carmen
Miranda, and Cesar Romero still functioned
as subordinate entertainers . . . who, while
not the villainous brutes of old, would
remain props of light entertainment,
intellectually and romantically inferior.”
– Brian O'Neil, “The Demands of Authenticity: Addison
Durland and Hollywood's Latin Images During WWII”
29
O’Neil’s Final Point
“The fictional neighbors [depicted by
Hollywood] were perfectly suited to the
imperialist, yet war-weary heart of the early
1940s United States. Although lively, vivid,
and infinitely entertaining, Hollywood’s Good
Neighbor is ultimately nonthreatening and
compliant under America’s tutelage.”
– Brian O'Neil, “The Demands of Authenticity: Addison
Durland and Hollywood's Latin Images During WWII”
30
Dolores del Rio and Racialized
Sexuality
Flying Down to Rio (1933)
Directed by Thornton Freeland
Lecture 4: Part IV
31
Dolores Del Rio
• Dolores Del Rio was a Mexican actress who
became a Hollywood movie star in the 1920s
and ’30s in such films as Bird of Paradise
(1932), Flying Down to Rio (1933) and In
Caliente (1935).
• She was considered a great beauty and in
1933 was voted by a prominent movie
magazine as having the “most perfect
feminine figure in Hollywood.”
32
Your Author’s Question
“Given the particular environment of social
attitudes and beliefs in the 1930s around
questions of racialized sexuality, how is it that
a foreign star like del Rio was elevated above
popular white stars such as Irene Dunne, Fay
Wray, and Norma Shearer?”
–
Joanna Hershfield, “Dolores Del Rio, Uncomfortably Real: The
Economics of Race in Hollywood’s Latin American Musicals”
33
Del Rio on Top
Fay Wray
Dolores del Rio
Irene Dunn
Available Roles
• Mexicans were generally relegated to a
lower status in the U.S. racial hierarchy,
including in the way they were represented
in the movies.
• The kinds of roles available to non-white
actors at the time were largely based on
ethnicity and color of skin. Due to the
system of Anglo-American racism of the
time, light-skinned Hispanics moved in and
out of ethnic roles more easily.
35
Racialized Casting
• Actors considered ‘Spanish’ because of
hair, skin or other features had more access
to roles than darker-skinned actors who
were racialized in stereotypical “greaser,”
bandido, or “Native” roles.
• Mexican women, such as those played by
Del Rio, were generally represented as
docile, sensual, and light-skinned with
Spanish (European) rather than Indian or
mestizo features.
36
An “Acceptable” Other
• Though Del Rio’s Mexican heritage made
her an “Other,” Hollywood represented her
in terms of North American conceptions of
femininity and female beauty, making her
an “acceptable other” to audiences.
• Such conceptions of acceptable beauty
included the “naturalness” of her straight
hair and her traditional conservative
bearing.
Pause the lecture and watch clip #1 from Flying Down to Rio.
37
Del Rio’s Star Text
“Del Rio’s star text was distinguished by a
historically situated image of an exotic foreign
woman who is attracted to (and attractive to)
white men. This image was transmitted
through a range of symbolic and economic
practices, which included fan and trade
magazines and the popular press.”
– Joanna Hershfield, “Dolores Del Rio, Uncomfortably Real: The
Economics of Race in Hollywood’s Latin American Musicals”
Pause the lecture and watch clip #2 from Flying Down to Rio.
38
Justified by Capitalism
• Because the most important thing to the
studios was making money, the issues of
race could be surmounted if it meant
profiting from a star like Del Rio.
• Hollywood chose to negotiate cinematic
representations of racialized sexuality –
rather than simply avoid them – partially
because of its dependence on foreign
markets.
39
Final Points
“Del Rio was more than an image: she was a
vessel that circulated cultural conceptions
and values between producers and
consumers of popular culture about beauty,
feminine sexuality, national identity, and race.
While female stars are primarily defined along
a scale of sexual desirability, the color of del
Rio’s skin and her facial characteristics
marked her above all as not white.”
–
Joanna Hershfield, “Dolores Del Rio, Uncomfortably Real The
Economics of Race in Hollywood’s Latin American Musicals”
40
Final Points
“The case of del Rio evidences the ways in
which economic and political concerns often
compete with ideological ones . . . The
Mexican-born star appealed to Latin American
audiences while her light skin, European
features, upper-class roles, and a star text that
recognized her as beautiful by U.S. standards,
appeased the American public.”
– Joanna Hershfield, “Dolores Del Rio, Uncomfortably Real The
Economics of Race in Hollywood’s Latin American Musicals”
41
Writing About Film Lesson #3
In Caliente (1935)
Directed by Lloyd Bacon
Lecture 4: Part IV
42
Three Types of Film Writing
• Remember, there are three major types of
film writing:
– Descriptive – a neutral account of the basic
characteristics of the film.
– Evaluative – which presents a judgment or
opinion about a film’s value.
– Interpretive – which presents an argument
about a film’s meaning and significance.
43
Summary of Descriptive Writing
• As it suggests, descriptive writing describes
a film, without evaluation or judgment.
• Most descriptions of narrative films relay
plot events, while a description of a
documentary might describe not only the
topic of the film, but also the approach.
• While descriptions do not offer judgments,
they may go beyond plot summary to
describe genre.
44
Summary of Evaluative Writing
•
•
•
An evaluative claim presents a judgment,
expressing the author’s belief that the film
is bad, good, mediocre, flawed, etc.
Reviewer’s grades – A, B or C, two thumbs
up, number of stars, etc. – often
summarize the critic’s judgment, while a
longer review lays out the specific reasons.
“The Birth of a Nation is a great film” is an
example of an evaluative claim.
45
Evaluative vs. Interpretive
• Evaluative criteria is most often seen in the
movie review, which takes a number of forms
in print, on TV and on the Internet.
• Though some critics bring a sophisticated
level of film discourse to the culture, their
discussion of a film generally comes down to
whether they think it is “good or bad,” i.e
worth your time and money.
• These evaluations are often ahistorical and
not very analytical.
46
Interpretive Writing
•
•
•
An interpretive claim presents an argument
about a film’s meaning and significance.
These kind of claims address a film’s
themes and abstract ideas, its social
relevance, its historical context, and its
influence, among other topics.
But they do more than identify themes;
they go further, making an argument about
what a film does with those themes.
47
Examples
• After careful critical analysis, a viewer
might conclude that one theme in Nanook
of the North relates to how people and
cultures use technology.
• An interpretive claim might suggest:
– “Nanook of the North questions the notion of
technological progress by showing that
technology actually controls people rather
than the other way around.”
48
Examples
• Another theme of the film is people working
together to achieve goals. Are the themes
related? Can we connect them in our claim?
• A more complex interpretive claim might be:
– “Although an over-reliance on technology
proves dangerous, Nanook of the North finally
assures viewers that a small group of people
united by a common purpose can avoid
dehumanization by the most powerful
technological system.”
49
The Importance of Interpretation
• While description and evaluation can be
helpful when deciding whether to see a film,
interpretive claims are important because
they seek to understand the ways in which
film art produces meaning.
• Interpretive claims can be important socially
and culturally.
• Finally, they can help us develop logical
thinking and writing skills.
50
End of Lecture 4
Next Lecture: Classic White Women
51