COM 221, Introduction to Film
The U.S. Studio System
(1920s-1950s)
*The greatest movie-producing system the world has
ever known.
Key sources:
Gabler, N. (1988). An empire of their own: How the Jews invented Hollywood. New
York: Crown Publishers, Inc.
Mordden, E. (1988). The Hollywood studios: House style in the golden age of the
movies. New York: Simon & Schuster.
Schatz, T. (1996). The genius of the system: Hollywood filmmaking in the studio era.
New York: Henry Holt.
What distinguished the
Hollywood Studio System?
1. An Oligopoly:
A limited number of studios--5
"majors" (#1-#5 on list),
3 "minors" (#6-#8), Disney
(#9), and two independent
producers (#10, #11); others
not listed included such small
“poverty row” studios as
Monogram, Hal Roach, and
Republic. During the
Depression, the U.S. Justice
Dept. encouraged this; later,
the 1948 Paramount Case
decision ended it.
What distinguished the
Hollywood Studio System?
2. Moguls: The importance of a
handful of similar men in
formulating the system
What distinguished the
Hollywood Studio System?
Carl Laemmle Sr. & Jr.,
Universal
2. Moguls: The importance of a
handful of similar men in
formulating the system
Jack Warner,
Warner Bros.
Harry Cohn,
Columbia
William Fox,
Fox Films (later,
20th Century Fox)
Louis B. Mayer,
MGM
Adolph Zukor,
Paramount
What distinguished the
Hollywood Studio System?
3. A large physical plant:
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soundstages and backlots
other facilities that
ensured the independence
of the studio (e.g., fire
station, medical center,
sleeping
bungalows, restaurants)
What distinguished the
Hollywood Studio System?
4. A stable of crew and contract
players (both stars and bit
players); e.g., Donna Reed,
Jimmy Stewart, Thomas
Mitchell, Beulah Bondi, Lionel
Barrymore, Ward Bond, Frank
Faylen from It’s a Wonderful
Life (1946)
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Donna Reed (“Mary Bailey”)—50 films & TV series/appearances
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The Getaway (1941)
The Human Comedy (1943)
The Picture of Dorian Gray (1945)
They Were Expendable (1945)
From Here to Eternity (1953)
The Caddy (1953)
The Donna Reed Show (TV, 1958-1966)
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Jimmy Stewart (“George Bailey”)—100 films & TV series/appearances
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The Murder Man (1935)
After the Thin Man (1936)
You Can’t Take it With You (1938)
Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (1939)
The Philadelphia Story (1940)
Rear Window (1954)
Vertigo (1958)
How the West Was Won (1962)
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Thomas Mitchell (“Uncle Billy”)—103 films & TV appearances
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Craig’s Wife (1936)
Lost Horizon (1937)
Stagecoach (1939)
Gone with the Wind (1939)
Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (1939)
The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1939)
Only Angels Have Wings (1939)
High Noon (1952)
All 1939!! All 5 Classics!!
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Beulah Bondi (“Ma Bailey”)—85 films & TV appearances
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Street Scene (1931)
Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (1939)
Our Town (1940)
Penny Serenade (1941)
Back to Bataan (1945)
The Snake Pit (1948)
A Summer Place (1959)
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Lionel Barrymore (“Mr. Potter”)—214 films
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The Paris Hat (1908) and 131 other silent films
Dinner at Eight (1933)—one of 7 films that year
The Little Colonel (1935)
Camille (1936)
You Can’t Take it With You (1938)
Young Dr. Kildare (1938)—and 14 sequels
Duel in the Sun (1946)
Lone Star (1952)
Variety!!
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Henry Travers (“Clarence the Angel”)—52 films
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Reunion in Vienna (1933)
The Invisible Man (1933)
Death Takes a Holiday (1934)
Dark Victory (1939) (7 films that year)
High Sierra (1941)
Ball of Fire (1941)
Mrs. Miniver (1942)
Shadow of a Doubt (1943)
The Bells of St. Mary’s (1945)
Look at the variety of genres!
(Horror, Dark comedy, Melodrama,
Western, Screwball comedy, War
drama, Hitchcock thriller, Comedy,
plus the Fantasy of IAWL)
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Ward Bond (“Bert the Cop” of “Bert & Ernie)—272 films & TV series/appearances
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Salute (1929)
It Happened One Night (1934)
Gone With the Wind (1939)
The Maltese Falcon (1941)
Fort Apache (1948) and 21 other John Ford-directed films!
Wagon Train (TV, 1957-1961)
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Frank Faylen (“Ernie Bishop” the cab driver, of “Bert & Ernie)—215 films & TV
series/appearances
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Romance in the Air (1936)
Gone with the Wind (1939)
The Grapes of Wrath (1940)
Sergeant York (1941)
The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis (TV, 1959-1963)
Funny Girl (1968)
MOST of his film appearances are “uncredited”—but he’s memorable!!
What distinguished the
Hollywood Studio System?
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5.
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The star system
the "grooming" of stars under
contract
star vehicles
What distinguished the
Hollywood Studio System?
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5.
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The star system
the "grooming" of stars under
contract
star vehicles
What distinguished the
Hollywood Studio System?
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5.
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The star system
the "grooming" of stars under
contract
star vehicles
What distinguished the
Hollywood Studio System?
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6. Studios as family or
"protectorates"
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studio head as patriarch (e.g.,
Louis B. Mayer)
What distinguished the
Hollywood Studio System?
MGM 1943
What distinguished the
Hollywood Studio System?
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7.
Properties developed from within the studios
8. The importance to most studios of the
development of one or more genres
*From the 1950s on, this system fell apart with
competition from TV, and buyouts by huge
conglomerates.
*Each studio had its own "personality" profile:
The 5 Majors:
MGM (“The Supreme”)
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Moguls: Louis B. Mayer, Irving
Thalberg
Genres: Musicals, comedies
Stable: Joan Crawford, Clark
Gable, Gene Kelly, Judy Garland,
Spencer Tracy, James Stewart,
Elizabeth Taylor, Vincente
Minnelli
Other: Mottos--"The Greatest
Motion Picture Studio the World
Has Even Known," "More Stars
Than There Are in Heaven";
prestigious and flashy
Roots: A merger of Metro, Goldwyn & Mayer Pictures in 1924
The 5 Majors:
Paramount (“The Sophisticate”)
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Mogul: Adolph Zukor
Genres: Romantic comedies,
epics
Stable: Cecil B. DeMille, Ernst
Lubitsch, Preston Sturges, Bing
Crosby, Marlene Dietrich
Other: The studio with a
European accent; its stars had
"sexy elegance, wit and dinner
clothes"
Roots: Evolved out of Famous Players-Lasky (founded by Jesse
Lasky in 1912; Paramount was the leading film studio by 1917),
The 5 Majors:
RKO (“The New Yorker”)
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Mogul: Pandro Berman, Howard
Hughes (later)
Genres: Musicals (early), film
noir
Stable: Fred Astaire, Ginger
Rogers, Katharine Hepburn,
Irene Dunne
Other: The urban counterpart
to Fox; only studio to actually
disappear, after Hughes
bankrupted it and Lucy bought
it ("Desilu")
Roots: Merger of RCA, Keith-Albee-Orpheum, & Pathe Pictures
(RKO stands for Radio-Keith-Orpheum) in 1928
The 5 Majors:
20th Century Fox (“The Rube”)
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Mogul: Darryl Zanuck (the only
non-Jewish mogul)
Genres: Social message films,
action/adventure, soaps,
disaster films
Stable: Shirley Temple, Betty
Grable, Tyrone Power, Henry
Fonda
Other: Rural in focus
Roots: Merger of Fox and 20th Century in 1935
The 5 Majors:
Warner Brothers (“The Slicker”
or “The Cynic”)
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Mogul: Jack L. Warner
Genres: Film noir, gangster,
weepies, "women's films," war
films
Stable: James Cagney, Bette
Davis, Humphrey Bogart,
Edward G. Robinson, Erroll
Flynn, Olivia de Havilland, John
Garfield, Ida Lupino
Other: The "factory" studio,
made movies "fast, cheap and
furious"; featured themes of
prejudice and inequities, "the
cynicism of the sociopolitically
disinherited"
Roots: The merging of several small nickelodeon studios
The 3 Minors:
Columbia (“Capra-corn & More”)
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Mogul: Harry Cohn
Genres: Screwball comedies,
"Capra-corn"
Stable: Frank Capra, the 3
Stooges
Other: "Poverty Row" studio,
borrowed stars from other
studios; was first to adapt to TV,
via Screen Gems
Roots: Established by the Cohn Bros. in 1924
The 3 Minors:
United Artists (“Films of Merit”)
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Mogul: Joseph Schenck
Genres: "Quality" films
Stable: The four founders-Mary Pickford, Douglas
Fairbanks, Sr., Charlie Chaplin,
D.W. Griffith
Other: The first "logo without a
lot," just like today's model
Roots: Four powerhouses of the 1920's formed their own
company in order to achieve artistic freedom—
Mary Pickford, Douglas Fairbanks Sr., Charles Chaplin, D.W. Griffith
The 3 Minors:
Universal (“The Old Monster”)
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Mogul: Carl Laemmle Sr.
Genres: Horror, weepies
Stable: Deanna Durbin, Boris
Karloff, Bela Lugosi, Abbot &
Costello, Rock Hudson, Tony
Curtis
Other: Old-fashioned, often
behind the times; last studio to
survive intact
Roots: The combination of several nickelodeon companies in 1912
The Independents:
Disney
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Mogul: Walt Disney
Genres: Animated features,
live-action family films
Stable: Mickey & Minnie, Fred
MacMurray
Other: Has continued to
diversify, e.g., development of
Touchstone Films for live action
in 1984, acquisition of Miramax
in 1993 and Pixar in 2006
Roots: Walt, Ub Iwerks, and a rabbit--no, a mouse
The Independents:
Samuel Goldwyn
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Mogul: Samuel Goldwyn
Genres: Classics, drama
Stable: William Wyler, Ronald
Colman, Gary Cooper, Gregg
Toland
Other: The mogul hired the
elite, but was rough himself,
known for "Goldwynisms" (e.g.,
"Include me out")
Roots: An independent producer, releasing primarily through RKO
The Independents:
Selznick International
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Mogul: David O. Selznick
Genres: Mysteries, epics
Stable: Ingrid Bergman,
Gregory Peck, Joseph Cotten,
Joan Fontaine, Jennifer Jones,
Hitchcock (early)
Other: Produced many star
vehicles for the stars under
"personal" contract
Roots: Truly an independent producer
END