JANUARY 2022 - AudioFile
Paul Boehmer’s versatile and highly listenable voice has made him the narrator of choice for scores of audiobooks ranging in subject from demons and dragons to the fiction of William Faulkner. Here, with a crisp analytical tone and a high degree of affection, he reconstructs the Golden Years of Hollywood’s studio system, which crested in the 1930s and ‘40s. Author Schatz’s painstaking research is sometimes too detailed, especially on the subject of budgets and shooting schedules. But Boehmer sustains a firm pace, so this behind-the-scenes history of filmmaking, with its cavalcade of beloved stars and films, will fascinate and delight fans, students, and scholars alike. D.A.W. © AudioFile 2022, Portland, Maine
Publishers Weekly - Publisher's Weekly
In this original, monumental survey of Hollywood's film studios during their most glorious period, Schatz, professor at the University of Texas and author of Hollywood Genres , in contrast with the directorial theories of Andrew Sarris and other film historians, describes the creative give-and-take, the symbiotic accord between creators and front offices, in which the styles of writers, directors and stars fused with studio management structures, production operations, talent pools, narrative traditions and market strategies. Analytically and with anecdote examining the financial as well as creative workings of MGM, Warner Bros., Para mount, Universal and RKO in the era of Thalberg, Selznick, Zanuck and Hitchcock, Schatz demonstrates that at the heart of each studio's house style were the star-genre formulations (Bette Davis melodramas, Humphrey Bogart thrillers, Boris Karloff horror films, Gene Kelly musicals) that nowadays, as they are recirculated and rediscovered by young viewers, are all that remain of the great studios and of the vigorous, dynamic men and women who sustained them. Photos. (Feb.)
Library Journal
Several other histories of Hollywood's studio system have already been published, including Robert Stanley's The Celluloid Empire (LJ 5/15/78), Douglas Gomery's The Hollywood Studio System (LJ 1/86), and Ethan Mordden's The Hollywood Studios (LJ 5/15/88). All these books have some value, but Mordden and Schatz win top honors. Larger libraries should purchase both books, as they complement each other. Mordden's primary interest is aesthetics; Schatz's is business. Mordden's writing is sometimes brilliant, while Schatz's is only good, but Schatz has obviously done a lot of research, and he puts it to good use in a very readable book. John Smothers, Monmouth Cty. Lib., Manalapan, N.J.
From the Publisher
There was much to criticize in the Hollywood system, and much to marvel at. But one can't do either without the means to make sense of it. This book provides that.” —Elizabeth Kendall, The New York Times Book Review
“Brings the pace and confusion and inspiration of filmmaking to life...Schatz has made a lasting contribution to film history.” —Directors Guild of America Newsletter
JANUARY 2022 - AudioFile
Paul Boehmer’s versatile and highly listenable voice has made him the narrator of choice for scores of audiobooks ranging in subject from demons and dragons to the fiction of William Faulkner. Here, with a crisp analytical tone and a high degree of affection, he reconstructs the Golden Years of Hollywood’s studio system, which crested in the 1930s and ‘40s. Author Schatz’s painstaking research is sometimes too detailed, especially on the subject of budgets and shooting schedules. But Boehmer sustains a firm pace, so this behind-the-scenes history of filmmaking, with its cavalcade of beloved stars and films, will fascinate and delight fans, students, and scholars alike. D.A.W. © AudioFile 2022, Portland, Maine
