The Hollywood Studios: House Style in the Golden Age of the Movies

by Ethan Mordden

A detailed account of Hollywood during the Golden Age of the 1930s and 1940s defines individual styles of the six major studios and several independents

Genres: Film, History, Nonfiction, Audiobook, Media Tie In

387 pages, Hardcover

First published May 12, 1988

Reviews

[Jill H. · Rating 3 out of 5]

I am a great fan of the golden age of film including silent films and this book had a plethora of information about the major studios of Hollywood during those early years. The author concentrates on the main six of these studios....Paramount, MGM, Warner Brothers, Fox, RKO, and Universal. He also gives some space to the smaller organizations such as Republic which kept itself solvent with westerns and serials.

It was a dog-eat-dog environment and the owners could make or break an actor with a snap of the finger. They were not nice people although they would protect their big stars when scandal raised its head.

The reason for my three star rating is based on two things: (1) the author repeatedly mentioned that the studio heads were Jewish which was totally unnecessary. I realize that the majority of these pioneers came from poverty but why hammer the fact that they were Jewish. And: (2) the writing style. The author must have had a thesaurus in his hand since he threw around words that are seldom, if ever, used in narrative which could have a reader reaching for a thesaurus him/herself. (There were at least two words with which I was unfamiliar and I consider myself fairly well-read). That may sound silly but it set a particular tone to the writing that was disconcerting.

Putting my personal gripes aside, the book is interesting and well researched. It gives the reader an inside look at the studio system which is no longer prevalent in the movie industry. If you are a golden age film fan, the book is worth reading.

[W. Frazier · Rating 4 out of 5]

Whew, this is one dense textbook. It takes me back to college, squirreled away in a distant carol, working hard to digest each page. Yes, this book is packed with content. It’s an extensive history of the Hollywood studio system. But it’s also geared to analysis, not facts. The text highlights each of the studios and their branding. The details - stars, directors, writers, producers - roll out fast and furiously if only to solidify the author’s conclusions. It’s an encyclopedia of knowledge marked by firm opinions. The author also loves his vocabulary. I stalled out early with the ebook, so changed up to the audio book. Much better. The advanced vocabulary glides through, and the narrator Barrett Whitener - be it at .8x speed - turns the heavy text into a good lecture. This book begs for multiple readings to take it all in.

[Ricky Balas · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a great overview of the old Hollywood studios--Paramount, MGM, Universal, Fox, Warner Brothers, Columbia, RKO--in their golden age. At times Mordden bogs it down with example upon example, but an interesting glimpse into a bygone era of power and money in entertainment.

[Brenden Gallagher · Rating 3 out of 5]

We talk a lot about how works of art can feel dated and "not age well." The same is true of history and criticism. "The Hollywood Studios" by Ethan Mordden is a prime example of how a text can fail to serve a next generation of readers.

Published in 1988 and feeling more like something written in the 60s or 70s, Mordden's history of the Hollywood Studio System suffers from a number of fatal flaws. The text assumes too much familiarity with the films and filmmakers of the era, the prose style is alternately too casual and too flowery, and the Mordden's focus is oddly distributed: spending lots of time on forgotten subgenres of film and glossing over more important moments in film history.

All of this being said, Mordden's text is useful. He does a decent enough job of listing the accomplishments and analyzing the style of the various players in the studio era. However, the brisk, galloping pace will leave anyone who isn't already an expert in classic film at a loss. I had a degree in film and work in the industry, and the text was sometimes hard for me to track.

I listened to this as an audiobook and there are few audiobooks available with this scope, but this subject either needs to be narrower (perhaps focusing on one studio or genre) or given maybe double the pages to really do it justice.

Overall, I don't regret listening to the book -- it definitely filled in some holes in my understanding of classic cinema -- but I couldn't help thinking throughout that there must be a more thorough, fresh, or timeless text out there that covers the same topic.

[Francesca Penchant · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a great intro to how each Hollywood studio developed its particular expertise, and the moguls connected with each. I was annoyed, though, that the author can't appreciate the campiness of such monstrosities as, say, Crawford's later films, and spends too much time expressing his cynical opinions about the industry. The occasional film theory jargon and use of $10 words were also annoying.

[Jerry Jares · Rating 5 out of 5]

For a complete understanding of the studio system, this is the book.  The author starts at the very beginning and goes through the three stages of the silent films before heading into the golden age of the movies.  He knows his stuff because he includes the small as well as major studios (from Paramount to RKO).  I liked the way the author divided things, talking about the 'house style' of each studio -- how it began and then blossomed.

The Hollywood system, good and bad, ended when the Supreme Court decided that companies could not create and then exhibit films in their own closed system.  Because this constituted a monopoly, the studios had to sell off their theater chains after the case ended in 1948.  Most of the studios are still functioning but in a very different way than in the early days of their inception.

On the other hand, Ethan Mordden is not gushy about Hollywood, its stars, directors, etc.  He offers critical analysis.  He talks about the strengths and weaknesses of each of the movie moguls, studios, and even stars.  It makes for fascinating reading.  

[Michael P. · Rating 4 out of 5]

The premise of this book is that each of the studios that made A pictures had it own style distinct for the most part from the others. It is an interesting idea and Mordden makes his case well. He allows that on occasion studio 1 made a film like those made by studio 2, but his argument seem generally convincing. I have some disappointments. Mordden is perhaps too judgmental of the films, actors, and directors he does not like so he occasionally seems mean. He thinks he is very, very clever. This is revealed in some "clever" turns of phrase. Mordden is certainly capable of clever phrasing, but too often such passages seem designed to impress and for this reason fail to do so. He hardly mentions the B picture units at the studios discussed and their short subjects receive even shorter shrift. I can't help but wonder how these would affirm or muddy his argument. Finally, while I acknowledge his right to only consider the studios that made A pictures I could not help but wonder what Mordden's method would reveal about Republic, Monogram, First National, PRC, and other budget studios.

[Andrew Galloway · Rating 3 out of 5]

As entertaining and informative as this book is—its pages just detail the basic premise you read on the back cover, the well-known caricatures of what studios were "known for" in their heyday—Ethan's prose is so speckled with a florid vocabulary that obscures rather than elucidates his meaning. He also does That Thing whereby an author thinks he's clever by Capitalizing Every Word. But, really, aren't movies there to entertain? And I wouldn't appreciate them nearly as much without such a devoted and charming guide as Mr. Mordden. So... if you like old films, this book is Enjoyable!

[Riq Hoelle · Rating 5 out of 5]

- A very interesting taxonomy of the studios
- Interesting ideas around making a "Big One" type of film. (Even studios that were in denial about it realized that eventually they had to try for a Big One. It was risky though, not just because it might not work, but also because if it succeeded you had a new standard you had to maintain.)
- Sometimes his romp from topic to topic gets a bit much. Too fast and skimmy, especially in the MGM chapter.
- He proves he owns a thesaurus, or rather his editor does. This does not good writing make. Someone tell him please that it's only vanity.
- My biggest point of all though: instead of a chapter each, I wish he had written a whole book on each studio in order to do them justice.

[Debbie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Mordden gives a brief history of the Hollywood studios that were there at the beginning during the silent movies or shortly there after. The leadership of each studio gave it its flavor. Did it give free reign to its directors, cultivate big stars, have a social conscious, fly by the seat of its pants? Fun to read but rather too erudite for the average reader interested in the topic. It also helps to have a familiarity of silent movies and early stars.

[Santiago Vazquez · Rating 2 out of 5]

This is the spanish edition and I don't understand how is possible to sale a book with this translation from english to spanish language. And also there is a mistake in the printed name of the book: "Los Estudios de Hollywwod" instead of "Los Estudios de Hollywood".

For this reason, my rating is 2. I am sure that the original english version is fantastic...But the spanish one, with this very very very bad translation, is awful.

[Lauren · Rating 4 out of 5]

One word comes to mind: pretentious. This was an enjoyable book overall because of the content (which is why I gave it four stars) however the author spends so much time focused on his own opinions about certain films, and dismisses the value of films he doesn’t like. What’s more, his puzzling obsession with using the word “eroticism” whenever he can got old.

[James Euclid · Rating 3 out of 5]

Since Mordden presents one studios after the other and yet tells about them in relation to each other, there is endless repetition. After that, you at least have internalized the identities enough to be woken up at night and answer questions about them without any problems. The downside: he lets the Broadway expert hang out too much.

[Phil Atteberry · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is an interesting discussion of how and why various Hollywood studios developed differently and produced films of such different styles and thematic focus. It is an academic book, but it is readable for a general audience (like me) with an interest in the subject.

[Paul Adams · Rating 2 out of 5]

I wanted more. Seemed like ramblings from an elder statesman clamoring about the good ole days.

[Patrick Wikstrom · Rating 1 out of 5]

(Audio-book). I found this boring from the get go. Turned it off after a half hour — Zero stars

[Pocket Watch Purveyor · Rating 2 out of 5]

Dreadful.

[Autumn Rybin]

10/31/2025 DNF at 8%. Bored.

[David Fiore · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a must-read experience for any old movie buff (I've probably been through it nearly a hundred times since I first picked it up when I was a kid - any time I encounter a movie from the 1930s for the first time, I dive into this book's index and wind up staying with it for about 50 pages before I have to return to the rest of my life). As has been noted, Mordden is no scholar, and he makes no pretense of writing like one. That said, his thesis (that the studios can/sometimes-should be treated as "auteurs") IS definitely of interest to scholars, and there's a lot of very strong American socio-cultural analysis lurking in these pages, behind the irresistibly inviting "let's gab about old movies" tone. As with any conversation that I get into with a knowledgeable friend, there's much to agree and disagree with in this book (I am particularly resistant to Mordden's characterization of Carl Laemmle Jr.'s Universal as "backward" -- to me, Universal during that period was, if anything, way ahead of its time). But more than anything, the book communicates the author's incredible lifelong love for and exploration of the entire cinematic landscape of the 1920s and 1930s (with some analysis that edges into the 40s and 50s, as the studios crumble).

[Taylor · Rating 4 out of 5]

First off - I love Ethan Mordden's books. He's not a scholar and is incredibly opinionated, which is actually refreshing. He knows the subject matter, all the names and details, but doesn't get bogged down in cinema studies jargon (you can also tell he's not from the cinema studies world because he seems to hate Douglas Sirk's movies). He writes like someone who loves movies and is trying to get at why these films still remain to vital today.

His analysis of the studio system is interesting but deals predominantly with the late silent period and the early sound period. If you want a book about 40s and 50s studio film or about the demise of the studio system this is not the place to find it. However, it is a great source for experiencing Mordden's unique take on the late silents and the sound films of the 30s. Mordden's analysis is essentially focused on developing an idea of studio identity. Paramount is the director's studio, Warner Bros. the writer's, MGM the producer's, etc. Mordden's analysis of the stars of the 30s is particuarly good.

[Lizabeth Tucker · Rating 5 out of 5]

Subtitled: House Style in the Golden Age of the Movies.

Mordden takes you through the various studios who were the beginning of Hollywood as well as the moguls who shaped them. He discusses how each studio had their individual strengths as well as a unique focus. Paramount, MGM, RKO, Universal, Warner Brothers and more are discussed and compared. They all struggled to make films that would bring in the audiences, that generated respect and prestige, and ultimately make money.

I love Mordden's style of writing, informative yet accessible, a bit snarky with the research and knowledge to back up his criticisms. Anyone with an interest in the development of the studios should read this book. Yes, because so many studios are included in this book there may not be the depth you would get in a single studio focused book, but you wouldn't really know it while reading this book. The author has done a marvelous job. From character tropes to film types, from genres to financial considerations, we are given examples of all. Definitely a 5 out of 5.

[Scott Martin · Rating 2 out of 5]

(Audiobook) When I first checked this book out, I thought I might learn a bit more about the Golden Age of Hollywood and the classic studios, in which I have some interest. Yet, this book, while providing some insight, was not quite what I expected. It really had the feel of a college textbook written for a mid-level film study class. It really assumed that the reader had a working knowledge of not only the Golden Age of the power studios, but of the silent era and the first days of the movie business. I think this one more for the serious film student, but if no more than holding some minor interest in the era, I would probably pass on this one. The narrator was not the best I've ever heard, but not the worst either.

[Greta · Rating 4 out of 5]

Really has an eye for the characteristics of each studio’s films and says it with wit. Snarky but often accurate, though I think he’s too hard on quite a few people. More convincing argument on why he thinks Goldwyn is a loser than Carol Easton manages in a whole book, and he’s a contrarian on Sirk.

[Chuck Williamson · Rating 3 out of 5]

Far too conversational, digressive, and prone to misguided grousing. But it does provide a comprehensive, reader-friendly introduction to the studio system. Recommended only if you don't mind Mordden's sometimes-frothy breadth-over-depth approach and oddball opinions on certain canonical films (The Band Wagon, Imitation of Life, etc.)

[Peter M. B. · Rating 4 out of 5]

A fascinating book for anyone interested in classic Hollywood, as it analyzes the styles and films of each of the old studios. There's no narrative story but the author's writing and occasional opinionated flourish keep things lively. And perhaps best of all, I learned about so many films that I now want to see.

[Ed · Rating 3 out of 5]

A nifty overview of the studios that snowballed through the early twentieth century to produce the 'classics' we know and love. Mordden's frequent first-person narration may not be for those seeking a more scholarly approach, but I enjoy his tell-it-as-I-see-it take on whatever happens to come up.