American Cinema of the 1930s: Themes and Variations

Screen Decades: American Culture/American Cinema

by Ina Rae Hark (Editor)

Probably no decade saw as many changes in the Hollywood film industry and its product as the 1930s did. At the beginning of the decade, the industry was still struggling with the transition to talking pictures. Gangster films and naughty comedies starring Mae West were popular in urban areas, but aroused threats of censorship in the heartland. Whether the film business could survive the economic effects of the Crash was up in the air. By 1939, popularly called "Hollywood's Greatest Year," films like Gone With the Wind and The Wizard of Oz used both color and sound to spectacular effect, and remain American icons today. The "mature oligopoly" that was the studio system had not only weathered the Depression and become part of mainstream culture through the establishment and enforcement of the Production Code, it was a well-oiled, vertically integrated industrial powerhouse.

The ten original essays in American Cinema of the 1930s focus on sixty diverse films of the decade, including Dracula , The Public Enemy , Trouble in Paradise , 42nd Street , King Kong , Imitation of Life , The Adventures of Robin Hood , Swing Time , Angels with Dirty Faces , Nothing Sacred , Jezebel , Mr. Smith Goes to Washington , and Stagecoach .

296 pages, Paperback

First published June 21, 2007

About the author

Dr. Ina Rae Hark was Professor of English and Film Studies at the University of South Carolina, USA.

Reviews

[Anonymous4999 · Rating 4 out of 5]

A good book for rookie cinephiles wanting to immerse themselves more fully into American cinema of the 1930s.
American Cinema of the 1930s: Themes and Variations contains 10 essays discussing a variety of films released between 1930-1939 that share common thematic threads such as social difference, the concept of stardom, "whistling in the dark" and the annus mirabilis of 1939.
Great reading that offers greater insight into the making-of and thematic depth of some of the most well-known films from the 1930s that is sure to entertain both rookie and veteran film buffs.