Grand Design: Hollywood as a Modern Business Enterprise, 1930-1939 / Edition 1

by Tino Balio

Overview

The advent of color, big musicals, the studio system, and the beginning of institutionalized censorship made the thirties the defining decade for Hollywood. The year 1939, celebrated as "Hollywood's greatest year," saw the release of such memorable films as Gone with the Wind, The Wizard of Oz, and Stagecoach. It was a time when the studios exercised nearly absolute control over their product as well as over such stars as Bette Davis, Clark Gable, and Humphrey Bogart. In this fifth volume of the award-winning series History of the American Cinema, Tino Balio examines every aspect of the filmmaking and film exhibition system as it matured during the Depression era.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780520203341
Publisher:	University of California Press
Publication date:	01/29/1996
Series:	History of the American Cinema , #5
Edition description:	First Edition
Pages:	483
Product dimensions:	7.00(w) x 10.00(h) x 1.20(d)

About the Author

Tino Balio is Program Director of the Arts Institute and Professor of Communication Arts and Academics at the University of Wisconsin, Madison, where he also served as Director of the Wisconsin Center for Film and Theater Research from 1966 to 1982. He is the author of Hollywood in the Age of Television (1990), among other titles.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments
Contributors

1 Introduction
2 Surviving the Great Depression
3 The Production Code and the Hays Office
Richard Maltby
4 Feeding the Maw of Exhibition
5 Technological Change and Classical Film Style
David Bordwell and Kristin Thompson
6 Selling Stars
7 Production Trends
Prestige Pictures
Musicals
The Woman's Film
Comedy
Social Problem Films
Horror Films
8 The B Film: Hollywood's Other Half
Brian Taves
9 The Poetics and Politics of Nonfiction: Documentary Film
Charles Wolfe
10 Avant-Garde Film
]an-Christopher Horak

Appendixes:
Variety's Top-grossing Films
Major Academy Awards
Film Daily's Ten Best Films
List of Abbreviations
Notes
Bibliography
General Index
Index of Films

Editorial Reviews

The six contributors to this volume examine aspects of the filmmaking and film exhibition system as it matured during the Depression era. Topics include the production code and the Hays office, technological change and classical film style, production trends, and avant-garde film. B&w film stills. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

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