World Film History II
ÚSA after the Second World War
Films made after the war
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WILLIAM WYLER: The Best Years of Our Lives (1946)
EDWARD DMYTRYK: Crossfire (1947)
MARK ROBSON: Home of the Brave (1949)
BILLY WILDER: The Lost Weekend (1945)
NICHOLAS RAY: Knock on any Door (1949)
ROBERT ROSSEN: Body and Soul (1947)
ROBERT WISE: Set Up (1949)
HENRY HATHAWAY: The House on 92nd Street (1945)
ELIA KATZAN: Boomerang! (1947), On the Waterfront
(1954)
• JULES DASSIN: The Naked City (1948)
Film noir according to Robert Sklar
The hallmark of the film noir is its sense of people
trapped - trapped in webs of paranoia and fear, unable to
tell guilt from innocence, true identity from false. Its
villains are attractive and sympathetic, masking greed,
misanthropy, malevolence. Its heroes and heroines are
weak, confused, susceptible to false impressions. The
environment is murky and close, the setting vaguely
oppressive. In the end, evil is exposed, through often just
barely, and the survival of good remains troubled and
ambiguous.
Film noir masterpieces
• JOHN HUSTON: The Maltese Falcon (1940), Asphalt
Jungle (1950)
• ROBERT SIODMAK: Phantom Lady (1944), The Suspect
(1944), The Killers (1946)
• OTTO PREMINGER: Laura (1944)
• BILLY WILDER: Double Indemnity (1944)
• JACQUES TOURNEUR: Out of the Past (1947)
• EDWARD DMYTRYK: Murder My Sweet (1945)
• ROBERT ALDRICH: Kiss Me Deadly (1955)
Joseph R. McCarthy’s black list (I)
• In the spring of 1947 House Committee on Un-American Activites (HUAC)
begins investigations on ”communism in cinema”
• Of the 41 interrogated 19 appeal to the 1st amendment of US constitution
and refuse to testify
• Producers such as Jack L. Warner, Louis B. Mayer and Walt Disney name
persons they believe to have leftist sympathies
• Liberals such as John Huston, William Wyler, Gene Kelly, Danny Kaye,
Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall establish the Committee for the First
Amendment (CFA)
• 11 of those who refused to testify are summoned to a new hearing
accused of belonging to the Communist Party. 10 receive 6 months
sentences for contempt of the Congress – the 11th, Bertol Brecht escapes
from the country
Joseph R. McCarthy’s black list (II)
• HUAC decisions are ratified almost unanimously in the House of
Representatives
• Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) and Association of
Motion Picture Producers denounce “The Ten” and pledge that the film
industry will not employ them or other communists → the black list
• CFA is dispersed, Bogart and Bacall among others publicly apologize for
their ”stupidity”. Formerly liberal Screen Actors Guild under its new
leader Ronald Reagan requires that all its members must give an oath
of loyalty and endorses the black list.
• In March 1951 HUAC begins new hearings. Of the 110 interrogated 58
confess having had connections with communists and/or name 212
others as communists. Those who refuse to do so are put under
extreme pressure both in the hearings and in public by organizations
such as the American Legion.
New technical dimensions
• Wide screen
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How the West Was Won (1952, Cinerama)
The Robe (1953, CinemaScope)
Oklahoma! (1955, 70 mm:n Todd-AO
Spartacus (1960, Ultra-Panavision 70)
• 3-D
– Bwana Devil (1952)
– House of Wax (1953)
– Dial M for Murder (1954)
• Olfactory dimensions
– Behind the Great Wall (1959, Aroma-Rama)
– Scent of Mystery (1960, Smell-o-vision)