The Movie Book (Big Ideas Simply Explained)

A GOLDEN AGE IN BLACK AND WHITE 49

DON’T BE ALARMED
LADIES AND GENTLEMEN
THOSE CHAINS ARE MADE
OF CHROME STEEL

KING KONG / 1933

IN CONTEXT K ing Kong was probably the movie is full of iconic scenes,
first true special-effects including a memorable climax in
GENRE blockbuster. It is the simple which Kong bats away a biplane as
Monster movie story of a huge ape discovered on he clings to the top of the Empire
an uncharted island, which he State Building.
DIRECTORS shares with other giant creatures,
Merian C. Cooper, including dinosaurs. The ape Kong The movie’s secret was to portray
Ernest B. Schoedsack is captured and brought to New the ape sympathetically. Kong is
York for people to stare at, only for protective of his female captive, and
WRITERS him to break free from his chains only attacks when provoked. Kong’s
James Ashmore Creelman, and go on a rampage. tormentor, Carl Denham (Robert
Ruth Rose, Edgar Wallace Armstrong), who exhibits Kong as
The stop-motion effects look the “Eighth Wonder of the World,” is
STARS creaky today. Yet such is the power the movie’s villain. And when Kong
Fay Wray, Robert of the storytelling that it can move finally tumbles from the skyscraper,
Armstrong, Bruce Cabot the viewer in a way that is beyond it is a moment of tragedy—the
many slicker modern movies. The audience is on his side. ■
BEFORE
1925 An adaptation of Arthur Ann (Fay Wray)
Conan Doyle’s novel, The Lost is terrified of Kong
World features humans at first, but later
battling with dinosaurs. tries to save him.
In New York, he
AFTER escapes to look
1949 Cooper and Schoedsack for her, leading his
team up for another adventure captor Denham to
featuring a giant ape with say, “It was beauty
Mighty Joe Young. killed the beast.”

1963 Inspired by King Kong, What else to watch: The Lost World (1925) ■ Mighty Joe Young (1949) ■
animator Ray Harryhausen Clash of the Titans (1981) ■ Jurassic Park (1993) ■ King Kong (2005)
works on stop-motion classic
Jason and the Argonauts.

50

WAR IS DECLARED!
DOWN WITH MONITORS
AND PUNISHMENT!

ZERO DE CONDUITE / 1933

IN CONTEXT J ean Vigo’s On its release,
41-minute Zero de Conduite
GENRE Zero de provoked strong
Surrealist comedy Conduite (Zero for reactions against
Conduct) caused its irreverence
DIRECTOR both outrage and for conventional
Jean Vigo delight when it sensibilities. It
premiered in Paris was banned in
WRITER in April 1933. But France until 1946.
Jean Vigo although its anarchic
spirit was deplored Zero de Conduite
STARS by the Establishment is perhaps best
Jean Dasté, Louis Lefebvre, (it was banned by seen in the context
Coco Golstein the French Ministry of French Surrealist
of the Interior until cinema, following
BEFORE 1946), with hindsight in the tradition of
1924 René Clair’s Surrealist the movie isn’t really all that René Clair and Luis Buñuel, who
short, Entr’acte, plays with political, at least not in the way that threw narrative sense out the
the frame rate to produce a the authorities first perceived it. window, juxtaposed random images,
spooky slow-motion effect. and often morphed into strange
scenarios with bizarre dialogue.
1929 Director Luis Buñuel These were serious works of art,
teams up with artist Salvador aiming to explore the subconscious,
Dalí to make the Surrealist yet also simply irreverent.
movie Un Chien Andalou.
One of the most poetic A child’s-eye view
AFTER films ever made, and one The movie was funded by a private
1934 Vigo’s only full-length patron, who paid Vigo to create
movie, L’Atalante, tells the of the most influential. a story based on his childhood
poetic story of a newly married Pauline Kael experiences of boarding school. This
couple living on a barge. was not to be a nostalgic trip down
memory lane for the director, but an
1968 Lindsay Anderson’s If… attempt to recreate the state of being
depicts a rebellion in a British a child. Some of the movie’s rough
public school.

A GOLDEN AGE IN BLACK AND WHITE 51

See also: Entr’acte (1924) ■ Un Chien Andalou (1929, pp.330–31) ■ À propos de Nice (1930) ■ L’Age d’Or (1930) ■
Jean Taris, Swimming Champion (1931) ■ L’Atalante (1934) ■ The 400 Blows (1959, pp.150–55) ■ If… (1968)

The boys’ revolution against the
school’s stuffed-shirt authorities
takes the form of an anarchic pillow
fight—for Vigo, the essence of the
spirit of childhood.

edges can be attributed to Vigo’s (Delphin), a tiny, ridiculous-looking sequence, he takes them all with
inexperience as a director, but there man with a bushy beard, is also him as he follows a young woman
are many deliberately eccentric pitted against them. On the boys’ who has caught his eye.
flourishes—such as a cartoon side is the young teacher Huguet
sketch that suddenly comes to life. (Jean Dasté), who indulges his The boys themselves are all
charges with impersonations of serial offenders who seem to spend
Diving straight in Charlie Chaplin and plays soccer every Sunday in detention (hence
The beginning of the movie with them. In one especially odd the “zero marks for conduct” implied
dispenses with any sense of by the movie’s title). Throughout the
buildup—a simple title card reads, Jean Vigo Director movie, they plot their revenge, but
“After the holidays, back to school.” when it comes, the revolution starts
A boy, Causset (Louis Lefebvre), on Jean Vigo was born in 1905, not with a grand dramatic gesture
a train with only a sleeping adult for the son of an anarchist. His but with a long pillow fight. Taking
company, welcomes his old friend father spent most of his life on to the school’s rooftop, they hurl
Bruel (Coco Golstein) as they the run and was murdered in objects down at the school board,
prepare to return to the boredom prison when Jean was 12, but a row of mannequins lined up for
of boarding school. The journey he cast a long shadow over the the annual “commemoration day”
is filled with a sense of freedom, director’s short but influential celebration. The joy of Vigo’s movie
curtailed when they arrive at the career. After a series of shorts, is that the boys don’t really try to
station, to be confronted by an Vigo made his lone feature, beat the system—they want to rise
aloof prefect, played by an adult. L’Atalante, in 1934. Although above it, as gallant rebels driven by
initially cut to ribbons by the irrepressible spirit of childhood.
In the battle to control the boys, distributors, the movie’s poetry
the prefect is revealed as a spy who found favor in the 1940s, going Vigo did not live to see his
steals their things. The housemaster movie achieve recognition, but his
legacy went on to inform the works
of directors including François
Truffaut and Lindsay Anderson. ■

on to inspire the founders of the
French New Wave. An ill man
throughout his life, Vigo died of
tuberculosis at just 29. As his
work gained fame in France, the
Prix Jean Vigo was set up in
1951 for first-time directors.

Key movies

1930 À propos de Nice
1933 Zero de Conduite
1934 L’Atalante

52

TO A NEW WORLD OF GODS
AND MONSTERS!

THE BRIDE OF FRANKENSTEIN / 1935

IN CONTEXT T hrough the 1930s, Universal life, only for armed villagers to
Studios made a string of drag him away. He learns to speak,
GENRE hits adapting classic horror saying, “I want friend like me,” but
Horror literature into mainstream movies. even Dr. Frankenstein’s efforts to
What separates James Whale’s provide him with a bride backfire,
DIRECTOR Frankenstein movies from the other when the bride also rejects him. In
James Whale horror movies in the universal the end, The Bride of Frankenstein
canon is its empathy for its monster. feels as much a morality tale as
WRITERS This is never more apparent than a horror movie, suggesting that
William Hurlbut, John L. in The Bride of Frankenstein, in monstrousness might be no more
Balderston (screenplay); which the monster implores Dr. than skin deep. ■
Mary Wollstonecraft Frankenstein to build him a mate.
Shelley (novel)
Morality tale
STARS Much of the movie’s narrative
Boris Karloff, Colin Clive, presents Frankenstein’s monster
Valerie Hobson, Elsa as lost in a world to which he
Lanchester does not belong. He longs for
friendship, but is rejected at
BEFORE every turn. At one point, a
1931 James Whale adapts blind man introduces him to
Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein. the pleasures of domestic
Karloff stars as the monster.
An excited monster
1933 Whale films H. G. Wells’s (Boris Karloff)
story The Invisible Man, about steadies his bride
a scientist who finds a way to (Elsa Lanchester) as
become invisible. she comes to life in
Dr Frankenstein’s
AFTER laboratory.
1936 Whale moves away from
the horror genre, directing a What else to watch: Metropolis (1927, pp.32–33) ■ Frankenstein (1931) ■
musical adaptation of the play Dracula (1931) ■ The Mummy (1932) ■ Gods and Monsters (1998)
Show Boat.

A GOLDEN AGE IN BLACK AND WHITE 53

MAGIC MIRROR ON THE
WALL WHO IS THE FAIREST
ONE OF ALL?

SNOW WHITE AND THE SEVEN DWARFS / 1937

© 1937 Disney R eleased in 1937, Snow audience, while at the same time
White and the Seven investing it with enough jeopardy
IN CONTEXT Dwarfs was the first full- to create tension. Snow White
length movie made by the Walt deliberately terrifies its young
GENRE Disney Company. Disney sought to viewers, from the sequence where
Animation, musical combine the slapstick tone of its Snow White panics in the woods as
successful short movies with an the trees come alive, to the scenes
DIRECTOR injection of the macabre by turning in which the malevolent Queen
David Hand to one of the Grimm Brothers’ most gleefully plots the girl’s death. By
famous fairy tales, the story of an the time the prince awakens the
WRITERS evil queen hunting an innocent girl heroine with a kiss, evil has been
Ted Sears, Richard who is declared “the fairest of all” by vanquished, and fear conquered.
Creedon, Otto Englander, a magic mirror. This set the template Disney realized that, without the
Dick Rickard, Earl Hurd, for Disney movies for the next 80 authenticity of conflict, the happy
Merrill De Maris, Dorothy years, from Cinderella to Frozen. resolution at the end would never
Ann Blank, Webb Smith be heartfelt. ■
(screenplay); Jacob Grimm, Adding jeopardy
Wilhelm Grimm (fairy tale) One of the challenges for filmmakers Snow White
making children’s movies is to keep hides from the
STARS the material appropriate for the
Adriana Caselotti, Lucille wicked Queen
La Verne, Moroni Olsen in the dwarfs’
home. She
BEFORE cooks and
1928 Disney releases the cleans for
Mickey Mouse short Steamboat them, and
Willie, its first sound cartoon. also makes

AFTER them wash
1950 Disney revisits Grimms’ their hands.
fairy tales with Cinderella.
© 1937 Disney
2013 Disney’s Frozen, loosely
inspired by Hans Christian What else to watch: Fantasia (1940) ■ Pinocchio (1940) ■ Dumbo (1941) ■
Andersen’s The Snow Queen, Cinderella (1950) ■ Beauty and the Beast (1991) ■ Frozen (2013)
is an enormous hit.

I’VE A FEELING

WE’RE NOT IN

KANSAS

ANYMORE

THE WIZARD OF OZ / 1939



56 THE WIZARD OF OZ P lenty of big movies from the I would watch the movie every
classical Hollywood period day when I was two. I had a
IN CONTEXT have faded into obscurity. hard time understanding that
Other movies remain respected by I couldn’t go into the film,
GENRE the critics, but modern audiences because it felt so real to me.
Musical, adventure struggle to connect with them. Zooey Deschanel
Then there are movies like Victor
DIRECTOR Fleming’s The Wizard of Oz, which in the documentary film
Victor Fleming not only stands the test of time, but These Amazing Shadows, 2011
continues to entertain. The movie
WRITERS is discovered and embraced by a Scarecrow, a Tin Man, and a
Noel Langley, Florence each new generation as passionately Cowardly Lion—she must travel
Ryerson, Edgar Allan as the previous one, and the story along the Yellow Brick Road, while
Woolf (screenplay); has crossed over into a global avoiding the attentions of the
L. Frank Baum (novel) cultural consciousness. Even if they Wicked Witch of the West. Her
have never seen the movie, people destination is the Emerald City,
STARS can sing along to “Somewhere over where the mysterious Wizard of
Judy Garland, Frank the Rainbow,” and will understand Oz himself resides. The story is
Morgan, Ray Bolger, the reference when someone taps probably familiar, but what really
Bert Lahr, Jack Haley, their shoes and says “There’s no sets apart The Wizard of Oz is not
Margaret Hamilton place like home.” The Wizard of Oz so much the “what” as the “how”. It
is now more than 70 years old, but it is a movie in service of spectacle,
BEFORE remains a key picture in the making a movie that sets out to test the
1938 Judy Garland stars of modern cinema. limits of the newly born medium
alongside Mickey Rooney of cinema in every frame.
in Love Finds Andy Hardy. A magnificent spectacle
The movie’s story sees Dorothy
AFTER (played by the 17-year-old Judy
1939 A few months after The Garland), a young girl growing up
Wizard of Oz, Fleming’s Gone on a Kansas farm, caught in the
with the Wind is released. eye of an impressively rendered
twister and magically transported
1954 Garland stars opposite to the Land of Oz. Here, along
James Mason in hit musical with a ragtag trio of misfits—
A Star Is Born, her first movie
in four troubled years.

Minute by minute 00:19 00:58 01:21
The house crashes in Oz, The friends arrive at Toto leads the friends to the
00:11 killing the Wicked Witch the Emerald City, where the Castle where they are trapped
Dorothy runs away from home of the East. The Munchkins Wizard agrees to grant their by the Witch. She sets fire to the
in Kansas to save her dog Toto celebrate. The Wicked Witch wishes if they bring him Scarecrow. Dorothy throws water,
from an officious neighbor, Miss of the West swears revenge. the Wicked Witch’s broom. and in doing so melts the Witch.
Gulch. Professor Marvel, a fortune-
teller, persuades her to return.

00:00 00:15 00:30 00:45 01:00 01:15 01:42

00:17 00:34 01:14 01:28
A mighty twister develops, Dorothy befriends In her crystal ball, the Toto exposes the
lifting Dorothy’s farmhouse the Scarecrow on the Witch watches the friends Wizard as a sham.
into a spin. Miss Gulch on her Yellow Brick Road, enter the Haunted Forest. The Good Witch tells
bicycle is transformed into followed soon after by She sends flying monkeys Dorothy she can return
a witch on a broomstick. the Tin Man and the to capture Dorothy. home by tapping her
Cowardly Lion. ruby slippers together.

A GOLDEN AGE IN BLACK AND WHITE 57

What else to watch: Pinocchio (1940) ■ A Star Is Born (1954) ■ Return to Oz (1985) ■ Wild at Heart (1990) ■
Spirited Away (2001, pp.296–97)

When Dorothy arrives in Oz, viewers time to pan around Munchkinland, be,” dazzling with its no-expenses-
see her open her eyes in faded, lingering on the extravagantly spared production. In that sense,
sepia-toned black and white, the constructed set as its wave of it is very much a forerunner of the
frame crackling with the technical hallucinatory colors hits the viewer modern blockbuster, with musical
imperfections of the time. But from all angles. Then come the numbers in place of action set pieces.
as she opens the door and steps special effects, a musical number
outside, they glimpse Oz and are featuringhundreds of actors, and Character-led story
overwhelmed with Technicolor. In a showdown with the antagonist, Although the story is crafted to be
1939, when it was released, this the Wicked Witch of the West (the the perfect vehicle to show off the
would have been the very first time scenery and costume designers wonderful new toys Hollywood had
many audience members had seen were encouraged to use as much at its disposal, it is nonetheless
a color movie. As the color as possible to take full deeply rooted in character and
scene plays out, the advantage of the Technicolor emotion. While we discover a new
director Victor format). The whole time, viewers are
Fleming is fully adjusting to seeing color for the first world, we do so through
aware of this the prism of a distinct
fact and he time. This is a movie with the framing device. Whereas
takes his approach that “if less is more, most adventure movies
then how much more must more feature a group of ❯❯

When Dorothy first
meets the Tin Man (Jack
Haley), he is in desperate
need of an oiling.

58 THE WIZARD OF OZ

Critics have interpreted motifs sees the orphan Dorothy undergo
a formative transition from a child
and characters from the Wizard of Oz The rusted Tin protected in her home to navigating
a new and dangerous world, relying
as symbolic of US political and Man may be a  on her trio of friends—symbolically,
the emotions, intellect, and courage.
economic issues. metaphor for the state
Dream world
of workers in the stalled Throughout the movie, the action
stays intimate even as it becomes
Dorothy’s steel industry. epic, and each character is already
strangely familiar. The Wicked
slippers (silver in Witch of the West is a dead ringer
for Dorothy’s evil neighbor, Miss
the book) may symbolize The Cowardly Lion Gulch, who wants to have Dorothy’s
a silver standard, while the was a popular dog Toto put down. The Scarecrow,
Tin Man, and Cowardly Lion all
Yellow Brick Road is the caricature of pacifist strongly resemble the farmhands
from back home, while the Wizard
gold standard. politician William of Oz appears to be Professor
Marvel, a phoney fortune-teller. The
Jennings Bryan. most prominent characters in Oz
mirror characters back home in
The Scarecrow The Emerald Kansas, making it clear that this is
may be a metaphor for City, an illusion of Dorothy’s dream world.
its citizens, may be
the dire condition of allegorical of the The movie revels in spectacle, in
Midwest farmers in the greenback, the first US witches and woods, in lions, tigers,
and bears. Yet at its core, it is a tale
Depression era. paper money. of friendship and personal growth,
and balancing the two may be the
characters united by a common that can save them. All four of the secret to its longevity. A memorable
goal, here each of our heroes is travelers are on their own “hero’s story, told with imagination and in
searching for something they lack. journey,” and it is just as important vivid splendor, it is a movie that
Not fame or fortune, but a personal to the viewer that the Tin Man transcends its time. ■
quality, something they believe should get a heart as it is to see
will make them whole. Dorothy the Wicked Witch defeated.
lacks a home, the Tin Man a heart,
the Scarecrow a brain, and the Although the movie marked a
Cowardly Lion his courage. groundbreaking step in terms of
technical achievement, its success
Each character in the magical also lies in keeping close to the
world of Oz is introduced to the principles of simple storytelling and
audience in a location where they in its universal appeal as a “quest”
are vulnerable, where they think movie that follows the rite-of-
the Wizard’s help is the only thing passage trajectory. The audience

Victor Fleming Director

Born in California in 1889, Victor Fleming never again reached
Fleming was a stuntman before those heights, but he went on to
rising through the ranks of the make the critically acclaimed Dr.
camera department to become a Jekyll and Mr. Hyde and A Guy
director. His first movie, When the Named Joe (1943). He died in
Clouds Roll By, was released in 1949, a year after the release
1919. His greatest year was 1939, of his last movie, Joan of Arc.
when he directed The Wizard
of Oz and Gone with the Wind. Key movies
He was hired as a last-minute
substitute on both, replacing 1925 Lord Jim
Richard Thorpe on the former and 1939 Gone with the Wind
George Cukor on the latter. The 1939 The Wizard of Oz
two movies won several Oscars. 1941 Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde

A GOLDEN AGE IN BLACK AND WHITE 59

The movie was a
success on its initial
release, but the cost
of the production
meant that it did not
register a profit for
its producers MGM
until 1949.

60

EVERYBODY HAS
THEIR REASONS

THE RULES OF THE GAME / 1939

IN CONTEXT T he Rules of the Game (La on humanity’s triumph over class.
Règle du jeu) is a biting At its premiere on July 7, 1939, the
GENRE satire about the French audience booed. In October that
Comedy of manners upper classes on the brink of World year, the authorities banned the
War II, who are endlessly frivolous movie, as “depressing, morbid,
DIRECTOR despite, or perhaps because of, the immoral... an undesirable influence
Jean Renoir impending conflict. over the young.”

WRITERS At the time of its release in Rediscovering the movie
Jean Renoir, Carl Koch 1939, The Rules of the Game was During the war, the original
an expensive flop, shunned by the negatives of the movie
STARS public and critics alike—in part were thought to have
Nora Gregor, Marcel Dalio, because of its contrast to director been destroyed in a
Paulette Dubost, Roland Jean Renoir’s previous movie, bombing raid. In the
Toutain, Jean Renoir Grand Illusion (1937), a reflection

BEFORE The poacher
1937 Renoir’s movie about Marceau (Julien
prisoners of war in World Carette, left) is
War I, Grand Illusion is the offered a job by
first foreign-language movie Robert (Marcel
to receive a Best Picture
nomination at the Oscars. Dalio) to help
him catch
1938 Renoir’s adaptation of rabbits.
Émile Zola’s novel The Human
Beast is a huge success.

AFTER
1941 After the critical and
box-office failure of The Rules
of the Game, Renoir makes his
way to Hollywood. His first US
movie is Swamp Water.

A GOLDEN AGE IN BLACK AND WHITE 61

What else to watch: Boudu Saved from Drowning (1932) ■ Grand Illusion (1937) ■ Citizen Kane (1941, pp.66–71) ■
French Cancan (1954) ■ Smiles of a Summer Night (1955) ■ Gosford Park (2001)

late 1950s, two movie enthusiasts passes in front of their guns. Love is a
found them in boxes at the However, it was not Renoir’s game that is played according to
bombed-out film lab. With Renoir’s purpose in this movie to complex, dangerous rules in the
help, they painstakingly pieced the demonize the upper classes. enclosed, upper-class world of the movie.
negatives together. The restored He presents them as children,
version was premiered at the 1959 trapped in a game they feel
Venice Film Festival to acclaim. compelled to play. “The
awful thing about life is this:”
Country retreat says Octave, “Everybody
Renoir’s movie focuses on a has their reasons.”
weekend at the country estate of
society lady Christine (Nora Gregor) In order to heighten the
and her husband Robert (Marcel sense of being trapped—
Dalio). Relationships gradually within the country house
unravel, and the weekend will and in the claustrophobic
end in a tragedy. André (Roland social games of the upper
Toutain), a last-minute invitee, has class—Renoir developed
just flown solo across the Atlantic a new way of filming with
to impress Christine. When she superfast lenses to allow
fails to turn up to greet him, André extreme depth of field.
refuses to play by the rules and act This novel “deep-field”
the hero in interviews, something technique meant that he
for which he will be made to pay. could keep the foreground
His friend Octave (played by action in focus while people
Renoir) obtained the invitation for were seen flitting to and fro in the
André, but he too has ulterior background, carrying on with their
own personal stories. ■
motives. Octave hopes to set
André up with Robert’s erstwhile That’s also part of the times—
mistress Geneviève, distracting today everyone lies.
André from Christine and
Geneviève from Robert. André / The Rules of the Game

There is intrigue both upstairs Jean Renoir Director
and down. Later, a gun will be
fired and tragedy will strike after The son of the reception of The Rules of the
a bloody case of mistaken identity. impressionist Game, Renoir moved to the US,
But Renoir makes sure to let viewers painter Pierre- where he enjoyed only limited
Auguste success for movies such as
know that even this changes Renoir, Jean Swamp Water (1941). He died in
nothing in the cloistered lives Renoir was born in 1894 in Beverly Hills, California, in 1979.
of his characters. They just Montmartre, Paris, and grew up
keep playing on as before. among artists. He started out as Key movies
The movie depicts a ceramicist, then tried his hand
the callousness of the at screenwriting in the 1920s. 1931 La Chienne
ruling class—no His early movies were flops, but 1937 Grand Illusion
more tellingly than he scored major successes in the 1938 The Human Beast
during a rabbit late 1930s. After the poor 1939 The Rules of the Game
hunt, in which the
men blast away at
any animal that

62

TOMORROW IS
ANOTHER DAY

GONE WITH THE WIND / 1939

IN CONTEXT Now viewed nostalgically Dressing Scarlett (Vivien Leigh) for
as a relic of a long-gone the ball, Mammy (Hattie McDaniel)
GENRE Hollywood, Gone with the upbraids her newly widowed mistress
Historical romance Wind was itself a rose-tinted portrait for trying to ensnare a married man.
of a bygone age. Its preamble pays
DIRECTOR tribute to a lost America, in a paean Depression, and audiences were
Victor Fleming to the Old South: “Here in this pretty swept off their feet by the movie’s
world, Gallantry took its last bow. sheer scale, romance, and blazing
WRITERS Here was the last ever to be seen color palette.
Sidney Howard of Knights and their Ladies Fair, of
(screenplay); Margaret Master and of Slave. Look for it only Epic adaptation
Mitchell (novel) in books, for it is no more than a What is now regarded as a great
dream remembered, a Civilization historical epic was a work of fiction
STARS gone with the wind...” In 1939, by Margaret Mitchell, whose best-
Vivien Leigh, Clark America was still smarting from selling Civil War love story was first
Gable, Leslie Howard, the grinding poverty of the Great published in 1936. Before the year
Olivia de Havilland

BEFORE
1915 D. W. Griffith’s The Birth
of a Nation (or The Clansman),
an epic chronicle of the Civil
War, is condemned as racist.

1933 George Cukor directs
Little Women, a Civil War era
family drama adapted from the
novels by Louisa May Alcott.

AFTER
1948 Vivien Leigh takes the
title role in Alexander Korda’s
adaptation of Anna Karenina
by Leo Tolstoy.

A GOLDEN AGE IN BLACK AND WHITE 63

What else to watch: The General (1926) ■ Little Women (1933) ■ A Streetcar
Named Desire (1951, pp.116–17) ■ Cold Mountain (2003) ■ 12 Years a Slave (2013)

A landmark in movie novel’s more openly racist passages Vivien Leigh Actress
history, and only the very are simply sidestepped. Hattie
blasé can say of it that frankly McDaniel, who played Scarlett’s Born in Darjeeling, India, in
they don’t give a damn. house slave Mammy, won one of the 1913, Vivien Leigh shot to
movie’s 10 Oscars—the first African- international fame with Gone
Philip French American to be so honored. with the Wind, becoming the
first British actress to win a
The Observer, 2010 Ultimately this is Scarlett’s story. Best Actress Oscar. She was
While the movie ends with her alone, equally accomplished on stage
was out, producer David O. Selznick undone by her own selfishness, it is and on screen, and won her
had committed to making the also a metaphor for America as a second Oscar for playing
movie version. It was a gargantuan land of hope and regeneration. Blanche DuBois in A Streetcar
task. The draft screenplay ran to six Although she is rebuffed by Rhett, Named Desire, a role she had
hours and took four writers to edit. who shuns her desperate pleas for
It is said that 1,400 unknowns and reconciliation with a curt, “Frankly, first played in the
dozens of stars were seen for the my dear, I don’t give a damn,” the theater. Described by
role of its heroine, Scarlett O’Hara. last line of the movie belongs to director George Cukor
Having waited a year for actor Scarlett. “I’ll go home,” she says, as “a consummate
Clark Gable to be free, Selznick thinking of her home at Tara, her actress, hampered by
then fired director George Cukor family, and her roots, “and I’ll think beauty,” Leigh had a
just three weeks into filming and of some way to get him back. After troubled private life;
replaced him with Victor Fleming. all... tomorrow is another day.” ■ her fragile mental
and physical health
Love, loss, and longing resulted in a limited
The movie is, at heart, a love output. She succumbed
triangle writ large: Scarlett (Vivien to tuberculosis in 1967,
Leigh) is in love with Ashley Wilkes and died at 53.
(Leslie Howard), who is engaged to
marry his cousin. On the rebound Key movies
she catches the eye of Rhett Butler
(Clark Gable). The violence of war 1939 Gone with
aptly reflects the tortured love the Wind
affair between Rhett and Scarlett, 1951 A Streetcar
captured in stunning Technicolor Named Desire
by cinematographer Ernest Haller.
The movie’s premiere in
The movie’s depiction of, and 1939 in Atlanta, Georgia, drew
open nostalgia for, the slave- one million people to the city.
based society of the Old South This poster dates to 1967, when
betrays many questionable the movie was rereleased in a
assumptions, but some of the wide-screen print.

64

YOU’RE WONDERFUL,
IN A LOATHSOME
SORT OF WAY

HIS GIRL FRIDAY / 1940

IN CONTEXT H oward Hawks’s sharply have exclaimed, “Hey, it’s even
scripted screwball comedy better with a woman and a man
GENRE about the daily newspaper than with two men.” And so, in
Screwball comedy world is one of the smartest movies Charles Lederer’s screenplay, the
of the black-and-white era. Famous two newspapermen
DIRECTOR for its overlapping, machine-gun- become a
Howard Hawks fast dialogue, it portrays journalists recently
who will stoop to anything in their divorced
WRITERS hunt for a good story. The movie’s couple: hard-
Charles Lederer press hotshot leads lie, cheat, and boiled editor
(screenplay); Ben Hecht, connive, yet they win the viewer Walter Burns
Charles MacArthur (play) over with their charm, energy, and
brilliant comic timing.
STARS
Cary Grant, Play adaptation
Rosalind Russell His Girl Friday was based
on a 1928 play about the
BEFORE corrupt world of the press,
1931 The first movie version The Front Page, of
of the stage play The Front which a movie version
Page is directed by Lewis had already been
Milestone, and stars Adolphe made. In The Front
Menjou and Pat O’Brien. Page, the battle of
wits is between two
AFTER newspapermen, but Hawks made
1941 Grant and Russell a key change. After reading
reprise their roles for a radio scenes from the play with his
version of the movie, broadcast girlfriend, Hawks is said to
by The Screen Guild Theater.
Walter (Cary Grant) schemes
1974 Billy Wilder directs a to prevent his ex-wife Hildy
remake of The Front Page, (Rosalind Russell) from marrying
starring Jack Lemmon and another by reminding her how
Walter Matthau. much she loves her job.

A GOLDEN AGE IN BLACK AND WHITE 65

What else to watch: Bringing Up Baby (1938) ■ The Philadelphia Story (1940) ■ Roman Holiday (1953) ■
The Seven-Year Itch (1955) ■ The Apartment (1960)

and Hildy Johnson, his ex-wife, Howard Hawks Director
who is an ace journalist. This
switch added a romance angle to Howard Hawks the silent Road to Glory. When
the satire, playing with ideas of directed more he moved into talkies, his 1932
what men and women want in life. than 40 classic gangster thriller Scarface was a
Hollywood huge success, and there followed
A woman’s dilemma movies, but it a string of movies, among them
In the opening scene, Rosalind was only late in his life that he “screwball” comedies with Cary
Russell’s Hildy, struggling to get came to be recognized as one Grant such as Bringing Up Baby
a word in edgewise in a quick-fire of the directing greats. Born and His Girl Friday. Later movies
verbal sparring match with her in Goshen, Indiana, in 1896, included movie noir classics
ex-husband and ex-boss Walter Hawks moved with his family such as The Big Sleep, and the
(Cary Grant), announces that she to California in 1910 and was Western Rio Bravo (1959).
is about to marry insurance man drawn into the movie business,
Bruce Baldwin (Ralph Bellamy). working briefly as a prop man Key movies
on a handful of movies such as
Bruce is dull, but Hildy says The Little American (1917). 1932 Scarface
that she wants to escape from the After serving in World War I 1938 Bringing up Baby
beastly, corrupt world of journalism as an airman, he returned to 1940 His Girl Friday
to become “a human being” who Hollywood, where he wrote and 1944 To Have and Have Not
lives a “normal” life as a wife and directed his first movie in 1926, 1946 The Big Sleep
mother. It’s a choice between home
and career, but Walter is sure that

the thrill of the press world is Hildy matches him every step of
too alluring for her to quit as star the way, which is why, of course,
reporter. The movie revolves around they are made for each other. ■
his efforts to remind her of this,
as he involves her in an unfolding
news story about the upcoming
execution of convicted murderer
Earl Williams (John Qualen).

Walter behaves outrageously
in his efforts to win Hildy back.
He barely misses a beat when
Molly, the girl who has befriended

Williams, leaps to her death from
a window. Yet Grant endows
Walter with such panache and
sheer cleverness that the viewer
roots for him as he reels Hildy
in. No wonder Hildy says to him,
“Walter, you’re wonderful, in a
loathsome sort of way.” And yet

Who do you think The movie uses much of the script
I am, a crook? from the original play, but Hawks also
encouraged the actors to ad-lib.
Walter / His Girl Friday

IT ISN’T ENOUGH TO

TELL US

WHAT A MAN DID.

YOU’VE GOT TO TELL US

WHO HE WAS

CITIZEN KANE / 1941



68 CITIZEN KANE I don’t think any word can Your faithful bystander reports
explain a man’s life,” says that he has just seen a picture
IN CONTEXT Charles Foster Kane, the which he thinks must be the
towering press-baron protagonist of
GENRE Citizen Kane. And yet the genius best picture he ever saw.
Mystery drama of this movie—cowritten, starring, John O’Hara
and directed by Orson Welles at the
DIRECTOR age of just 25—is that it does just Newsweek, 1941
Orson Welles that: takes a single word that
captures the origin and essence of temporal devices. The narrative
WRITERS the mercurial Kane, and teases the then switches to a newsreel clip
Orson Welles, audience with it for nearly two that recalls the life and deeds of the
Herman J. Mankiewicz hours, before offering an enigmatic great Kane. It shows the building
clue to its meaning. of his stately home, Xanadu, a
STARS sprawling mansion that he fills with
Orson Welles, Joseph Shot in secrecy to preempt art (“Enough for ten museums—the
Cotten, Dorothy legal attempts to block production, loot of the world”). It shows Kane’s
Comingore and ambiguously billed as a love influence spreading across the US
story, Welles braced himself for and then across the world, as he
BEFORE trouble upon its release. Kane’s stands on a balcony next to Adolf
1938 Welles directs a radio character was not only based on a
adaptation of H. G. Wells’s living person, but one who was
War of the Worlds, about an extremely powerful.
invasion from Mars. Its news-
bulletin style is said to have Citizen Kane is a murder
caused some listeners to mystery without a murder, even
believe that it was real. though it famously opens with
Kane, in old age, as a dying man.
AFTER Starting his movie at the end is just
1958 Welles’s noir thriller Touch the first of Welles’s many innovative
of Evil tells a story of corruption
in a Mexican border town. Old age. It’s the only disease…that you
don’t look forward to being cured of.
1962 Welles makes a visually
stunning adaptation of Franz Bernstein / Citizen Kane
Kafka’s novel The Trial.

Orson Welles Director

Welles’s life mirrors that of including the final cut for Citizen
Charles Foster Kane, in that he Kane. His next movie The
was taken in by a family friend, Magnificent Ambersons, was
having lost both parents at 15. In butchered by RKO, the first of
1934, he began working on radio many creative quarrels that
plays and in 1937 founded the would plague his career. He died
Mercury Theater—two things that at 70 in 1985.
would bring him great notoriety in
1938 when the company performed Key movies
War of the Worlds as a live news
broadcast. Welles was approached 1941 Citizen Kane
by RKO Studios in Hollywood, 1942 The Magnificent Ambersons
where he was given unheard of 1958 Touch of Evil
privileges for a new director, 1962 The Trial

A GOLDEN AGE IN BLACK AND WHITE 69

What else to watch: The Magnificent Ambersons (1942) ■ The Lady from Shanghai (1947) ■
The Third Man (1949, pp.100–03) ■ Touch of Evil (1958, p.333) ■ The Trial (1962) ■ Me and Orson Welles (2008)

Minute by minute 00:33 01:26 01:36
Bernstein tells Thompson of Thompson speaks to Susan. Susan takes an overdose,
00:12 the early days at the Inquirer, She describes her marriage to saying that she does not
Following a newsreel of in which Kane wrote his Kane, and how he forced her want to sing any more.
Kane’s life, reporter Jerry “Declaration of Principles.” to continue singing. Kane slaps her, and she
Thompson is charged with walks out on him.
discovering the meaning of
Kane’s final word, “Rosebud.”

00:00 00:15 00:30 00:45 01:00 01:15 01:30 01:59

00:18 00:49 01:32 01:49
Thompson reads Thatcher’s Leland recounts After Susan’s first night, The butler tells
memoirs, which tell the story of Kane’s unhappy first Kane writes Leland’s review Thompson that Kane
the young Charles Kane, whom marriage, and how he for him, truthfully describing trashed the room after
Thatcher had adopted, and began the affair with her performance as terrible. Susan left, and said
how Kane first took over the Susan that would end He then fires Leland and they “Rosebud” on seeing
Inquirer newspaper. his political career. never speak again. a snow globe.

Hitler (cutting to a shot of Kane
declaring, pompously, “You can
take my word for it, there will be
no war”). Next come the women
in his life, and how an illicit affair
cut short his political career. The
audience is shown his rise, fall,
and withdrawal from public life.

The riddle of Rosebud
When the newsreel ends, its
producer isn’t satisfied: he wants
to know who Charles Foster Kane
was, not what he did, and sends
reporter Jerry Thompson (William
Alland) to discover the meaning of
the word Kane uttered with his last
breath: “Rosebud.” At this point,
Citizen Kane essentially becomes
two movies. The framework is
Kane’s life as recounted by his
friends and enemies, as Thompson
squares up to this extraordinary
riddle wrapped in a larger-than-life
enigma. But Welles also slyly
offers the audience other scenes
from Kane’s life in flashback, a ❯❯

In happier days, Kane and Leland
stand surrounded by copies of the
Inquirer. Kane intends to use the paper
to campaign for ordinary folk, a pledge
that Leland will later throw back at him.

70 CITIZEN KANE

technique that will finally allow Kane through the window, playing Welles.) Yet Welles took his camera
him to reveal the truth that will in the snow, oblivious. It is a simple so far down that, for a scene in
elude Thompson and all the others. perspective trick imported from which Kane talks with his friend
theater, and it is used to capture Leland after losing his first election,
A good deal of the movie’s the tragedy that befalls Kane. It a hole had to be dug in the concrete
artistic success can be attributed to is the moment in which the life studio floor.
Welles’s experience of working in he should have led ends.
theater. Citizen Kane is a movie that Toland’s input is a vital part of
not only uses temporal devices in Innovative shots Citizen Kane’s legacy, since,
the narrative, but spatial ones, too, Welles and cameraman Gregg although it would seal Welles’s
so that it can sometimes almost Toland employed such spatial status as one of America’s first
seem like a 3D movie. In a crucial devices throughout the movie, a feat auteur directors, this was very
early scene, Thompson discovers achieved with deep-focus lenses much a collaborative effort. Also
how Kane was born to a poor family and camera angles so low that Kane vital was the risk Welles took with
who discovered gold on their land may appear, variously, as a titan his cast and production team—for
and, as part of a business deal, and as a gangster. This in itself whom Citizen Kane launched their
handed the boy over to a wealthy was a novelty, since prior to Citizen careers in movies. Many of the actors
guardian. As the bargain is made in Kane filmmakers rarely used such were unknown to audiences—they
the foreground, we see the young upward shots, for the simple reason came from Welles’s Mercury Theatre
that few studios had ceilings due to group. His editor, Robert Wise,
Leland (Joseph Cotten) speaks at the lighting and sound equipment. would soon begin a successful
Kane’s political rally. Ultimately the (“A big lie in order to get all those directing career of his own; and the
campaign, and their friendship, will terrible lights up there,” said score marked a debut for Bernard
be derailed by Kane’s obsessive affair. Herrmann, later to form an

A GOLDEN AGE IN BLACK AND WHITE 71

Parallel lives all too clear. It is a common fallacy
that the movie flopped on release
The character of Charles Foster Kane was a brutal portrait of newspaper (it was the sixth-highest grossing
magnate William Randolph Hearst. Determined to shut the movie down, movie of the year and nominated
Hearst had negatives burned and waged a campaign to discredit Welles. for nine Oscars), but a blanket ban
by Hearst’s vast media empire
Kane vs Hearst ensured that its success was short-
lived. Although it satirizes several
Kane owns the New York Kane collects “enough for ten cherished ideals, including the
Inquirer; the New York Journal museums”; Hearst amassed American dream (Kane sees no irony
is in Hearst’s media empire thousands of art objects in being an autocratic capitalist who
claims to fight for the common man),
The fictional Kane aspires Kane has a mistress, singer Citizen Kane does have sympathy
to be US president, as did Susan Alexander; Hearst’s for its subject. With Kane dead and
the real-life Hearst was actress Marion Davies Thompson unable to finish his
quest, Welles’s camera takes viewers
Kane lives on the vast Xanadu Kane’s mother finds a gold through the clutter of Xanadu, where
estate in Florida; Hearst lived mine; Hearst was the son of Kane’s vast and gaudy art collection
at Hearst Castle, California a gold-mining millionaire is being packed away.

extensive creative partnership moment, having his affair Finally, the shot settles on the
with Alfred Hitchcock. But more discovered by his wife, Kane simply sled, named Rosebud, that Kane
than anything, the movie’s says, dryly, “I had no idea you had was playing with in the snow
brilliance is due to its script, which this flair for melodrama, Emily.” outside his parents’ shack. No one
Welles cowrote with screenwriter knows but us, and Kane, that this
Herman J. Mankiewicz. Although Parallels with Hearst sled represents the key moment of
Mankiewicz’s exact contribution Despite the arguments over who his life: the moment he lost his
has been disputed, often by Welles, wrote what, it is agreed that it innocence and happiness. ■
the movie does bear extensive was Mankiewicz who first came up
traces of Mankiewicz’s satirical with the idea for the movie. Having
style: at one particularly loaded attained some success as a writer
in the silent era, Mankiewicz
The film’s style was became a sought-after script
made with the ease and doctor, and it was in this capacity
boldness and resource of that he came to know the press
one who controls and is not tycoon William Randolph Hearst
controlled by his medium. and his mistress, the movie actress
Marion Davies. Although everyone
Dilys Powell denied it—including Hearst, who
behaved with a very Kane-like
The Sunday Times, 1941 determination to destroy the
movie and its makers’
reputations—the parallels
between Hearst and Kane were

Welles’s eye for publicity was
evident in the posters for the original
release, which talked up the movie
without giving anything away.

72

OF ALL THE GIN JOINTS IN ALL
THE TOWNS IN ALL THE WORLD,
SHE WALKS INTO MINE

CASABLANCA / 1942

IN CONTEXT M ade at the height of World choice, was anxious to move on
War II, Casablanca is a to For Whom the Bell Tolls (1943);
GENRE romance set in neutral and by all accounts, there was no
Romantic drama Morocco, just as the fighting is love lost between Humphrey Bogart
getting uncomfortably close.
DIRECTOR Warner Bros. promoted the movie
Michael Curtiz Few of those working on the as a typical romance of its time, little
production thought they were making thinking that it would become one of
WRITERS a great movie. Ingrid Bergman, who the most popular movies ever made.
J. J. and P. G. Epstein, had not been the producers’ first
Howard E. Koch,
Casey Robinson

STARS
Humphrey Bogart, Ingrid
Bergman, Paul Henreid

BEFORE
1938 Algiers, a romantic
thriller starring Hedy Lamarr,
is set in North Africa.

1941 The Maltese Falcon
makes Humphrey Bogart a star.

AFTER
1944 In To Have and Have
Not, Bogart and Lauren Bacall
star in another Resistance story.

A GOLDEN AGE IN BLACK AND WHITE 73

What else to watch: Only Angels Have Wings (1938) ■ The Maltese Falcon (1941, p.331) ■ To Have and Have Not (1944) ■
Brief Encounter (1945, p.332) ■ Notorious (1946) ■ Key Largo (1948) ■ Charade (1963) ■ Play It Again, Sam (1972)

Sam, the pianist at Rick’s Café imagine. As we discover part way It is a movie
(center), was played by Dooley Wilson. through the movie, Rick, the cynical, to play again,
He was a band leader and a drummer, hard-drinking owner of Rick’s Café
but not a piano player, and had to mime. Américain, an upmarket nightclub, and again.
has been stung in Paris by the Sheila Johnston
and Paul Henreid, who played his sudden desertion of his lover, Ilsa
rival for Bergman’s heart. And yet (Bergman), as the Germans were The Daily Telegraph, 2014
the movie was an instant success. invading. Hurt, he has retreated to
Casablanca, a town full of spies, But in a telling parallel with the
At the end of the movie, Nazi collaborators, Resistance real war, such a neutral stance
Bogart’s character Rick says, “It fighters, and desperate refugees. proves impossible. In his bar,
doesn’t take much to see that the different factions end an evening
problems of three little people don’t The shadow of war competing with their national ❯❯
amount to a hill of beans in this “I stick my neck out for nobody,”
crazy world.” Casablanca manages says Rick. In reply to Major Strasser’s
to make its audience feel that the question, “What is your nationality?”
problems of these people are the Rick’s reply is, “I’m a drunkard.”
most important thing they can

Play it, Sam. Play As Time Goes By.

Ilsa Lund / Casablanca

74 CASABLANCA

anthems, and Rick must choose You’re getting on that plane with
sides. He allows the band to Victor where you belong.
play the Marseillaise to drown
out the Germans. At the very time Rick / Casablanca
Casablanca was being filmed, a
previously neutral US joined the November 1942, the Allies were abandoned Rick. When Rick
fight against Germany and Japan, advancing on the Axis powers to discovers that Ilsa and Laszlo need
and, as it premiered in New York in capture Casablanca for real. his help, he is forced to make a
choice. Does he keep the papers
Rick tells Ilsa at the airport that When Ilsa arrives at his club, they need, and so keep Ilsa, or does
she must get on the plane with her Rick is decidedly cool toward her, he let her go? In the end, Rick does
Resistance-fighter husband, commenting wryly: “Of all the gin the noble thing, and puts Ilsa on a
Victor Laszlo. joints in all the towns in all the plane to freedom with Laszlo. In
world, she walks into mine.” a heartrending parting, as they
stand by the plane, he explains
But Ilsa still loves Rick. Her why she would regret it if she
Resistance-fighter husband, stayed with him: “Maybe not today,
Victor Laszlo (Henreid), turned
maybe not tomorrow,
up alive when she believed but soon and for
him to be dead, and the rest of
that is why she your life.”
It’s a

A GOLDEN AGE IN BLACK AND WHITE 75

Humphrey Bogart
Actor

It is about a man and Actors Henreid, Bogart, and Humphrey Bogart was
a woman who are in love, Bergman did not know, until the final renowned for playing world-
day of shooting, who would get on the weary outsiders with a noble
and who sacrifice love plane. This uncertainty contributed streak. Born on Christmas Day
for a higher purpose. to the emotional ambivalence of 1899 to a wealthy New York
Bergman’s performance. family, he had a privileged, if
Roger Ebert lonely, childhood. He served
for the greater good. Clearly a in the US Navy during World
Chicago Sun-Times, 1996 powerful message at the time of the War I, after which he struggled
movie’s release, it has not lost any for a decade to establish his
deeply poignant moment. While the of its power over the years. Indeed, acting career before finally
audience longs for the romance to audiences today may be tempted to making a name for himself
endure, it recognizes that nobility look back on a better, albeit fictional, playing gangsters and villains
must win the day. world, in which personal gratification in Hollywood B-movies. His big
appeared less likely to prevail over breakthrough came when he
Enduring appeal the common cause, while the on- played the damaged hero in
When Rick tells Ilsa, “You’re getting screen chemistry of the movie’s The Maltese Falcon. A string
on that plane with Victor where you stars enhances the viewer’s of great movie roles followed,
belong,” the audience vicariously pleasure at identifying with them. including To Have and Have
shares his heroism and her self- Not, The Big Sleep, and Key
denial—basking in the reflected However, the movie’s appeal Largo (1944), with his wife
glory of renouncing romantic love does not lie in the passion and Lauren Bacall. The African
selflessness of its leads alone. It has Queen won Bogart his only
a strong cast of minor characters, Academy Award, for Best
including a black-marketeer played Actor, in 1951. He appeared
by Peter Lorre and a police chief by in more than 75 movies over
Claude Rains. Both play morally a 30-year career and died,
ambiguous roles in a corrupt world, at 57, in 1957.
yet are ultimately redeemed along
with cynical, hard-drinking Rick. ■ Key movies

1941 The Maltese Falcon
1944 To Have and Have Not
1946 The Big Sleep
1951 The African Queen

76

HOW DARE YOU
CALL ME A HAM?

TO BE OR NOT TO BE / 1942

IN CONTEXT I t’s astonishing The movie’s release in
now to realize March 1942 was marred by
GENRE that Ernst tragedy. Carole Lombard
War comedy Lubitsch’s hilarious had died in a plane crash
satire of the Nazis weeks earlier, while work
DIRECTOR began production was in postproduction.
Ernst Lubitsch in 1941, when the
US had not yet actors remain actors, no
WRITERS entered World matter what situation
Melchior Lengyel, War II and was they’re in. But the story
Edwin Justus Mayer still maintaining quickly became much
neutrality. German- darker than that.
STARS born Lubitsch set out Although it was
Jack Benny, Carole to challenge that neutrality. made in Hollywood, the movie
Lombard, Robert Stack Knowing the political risk he was is set in Warsaw, Poland,
taking, he took himself out of the in 1939, just as Germany
BEFORE studio system for the first time in is about to invade. The
1940 The Shop Around the his career and signed a deal with highly strung members
Corner, Lubitsch’s hit romantic United Artists. This paid him less of a theater company—
comedy, is also set in Europe than his usual fee but gave him led by Joseph Tura
on the eve of World War II. artistic control. (Jack Benny) and the
leading lady who is
AFTER The story was unusual for also his wife, Maria
1943 After the disappointing Lubitsch in that it was not taken (Carole Lombard)—
initial reception of To Be or from an existing source, but was are rehearsing an
Not to Be, Lubitsch returns to developed by him with two anti-Nazi spoof by
more conventional comedies trusted collaborators, Hungarian day and performing
with Heaven Can Wait. screenwriter Melchior Lengyel, and Shakespeare’s Hamlet
US playwright Edwin Justus Mayer. by night. When Maria
1983 To Be or Not to Be is becomes romantically
remade, with husband-and- Actors’ vanity involved with a dashing
wife comedy actors Mel The starting point was Lubitsch’s young admirer, pilot
Brooks and Anne Bancroft memories of the vanity of actors Lieutenant Stanislav
in the lead roles. during his years on the Berlin Sobinski (Robert
stage, and his observation that

A GOLDEN AGE IN BLACK AND WHITE 77

What else to watch: Trouble in Paradise (1932) ■ Ninotchka (1939) ■ The Shop Around the Corner (1940) ■
Heaven Can Wait (1943) ■ That Lady in Ermine (1948)

Stack), she is drawn into a plan Ernst Lubitsch Director
to track down a German spy who

is about to endanger the Polish Born in Berlin Paradise (1935) he found ways to
Resistance network. In a rapidly in 1892, Ernst smuggle risqué ideas past the
escalating farce, the actors (many Lubitsch joined censor: a trick known as “the
of them Jewish) use their skills at the Deutsches Lubitsch touch.” This paid off
disguise to fool the invading Nazis. Theater in 1911. Two years later in comedies such as Ninotchka

Dark comedy he made his screen debut in The (1939). He died in 1947 at 55.
Ideal Wife, but by 1920 his focus

This sounds as much like the shifted to directing. He left for Key movies

premise of a dark, intricate spy the US in 1922 to direct Mary

thriller as the light, romantic Pickford in the hit movie Rosita, 1940 The Shop Around

comedies for which Lubitsch was and made a smooth transition the Corner
known, which is exactly what the into sound. With Trouble in 1942 To Be or Not to Be

director intended: a satire/comedy

with dark intent. Lubitsch claimed made up my mind to make a bizarrely, a showbiz satire (the self-

that he wanted to steer clear of picture with no attempt to relieve obsessed Tura consoles himself

two traditional comedic formulas: anybody from anything at any with the thought that an audience

“Drama with comedy relief and time.” The movie succeeds in being member who walks out during his

comedy with dramatic relief. I had both an anti-Fascist tract and, Hamlet soliloquy may have been

I don’t know, it’s not convincing. suffering from a heart attack).
The war provides the sobering

To me, he’s just a man with a counterpoint to the comedy:
people die. There is a double edge

little moustache. to the code message that Sobinski
passes to Maria, unwittingly via a
Stage manager / To Be or Not to Be double agent. “To be, or not to be,”

it says, and as the Turas bravely

lead their theater troupe in

a deadly game of double

bluff, it is clear that Lubitsch

is using Hamlet’s famous

line to question a

complacent United

States. To fight or

not to fight, and let

the Nazis get away

with it? For Lubitsch,

this was no question

at all. ■

Jewish actor Bronski
(Tom Dugan) and the
other members of Tura’s
cast fool the Germans by
disguising themselves as
Hitler and his entourage.

78

IT’S HOT IN HERE
BY THE STOVE

OSSESSIONE / 1943

IN CONTEXT O n its release in Italy, A movie that stinks of latrines.
Luchino Visconti’s debut Gaetano Polverelli
GENRE as director had to contend
Film noir, romance with the disapproval of the Fascist Mussolini’s Culture Minister
regime. It was beset by copyright
DIRECTOR problems, too, yet his unauthorized
Luchino Visconti adaptation of James M. Cain’s 1934
crime novel The Postman Always
WRITERS Rings Twice has endured as well
Luchino Visconti, Mario as the later Hollywood versions.
Alicata, Guiseppe De
Santis, Gianni Puccini A study of jealousy Neither of the protagonists is a
(screenplay); James M. Although Visconti would become straightforward hero or heroine. The
Cain (novel) known for the lush, baroque, and drifter Gino (Massimo Girotti) is
melodramatic style of later movies filthy and broke, and the beautiful,
STARS such as Senso (1954), Ossessione put-upon Giovanna (Clara Calamai),
Clara Calamai, Massimo reflects his training as an assistant married to slovenly restaurant owner
Girotti, Juan de Landa to French director Jean Renoir, who Giuseppe (Juan de Landa), is never
first gave him Cain’s book. It has allowed the trappings of the femme
BEFORE been heralded as the first of the fatale. In Visconti’s eyes, Giovanna
1935 Visconti’s movie career Italian neorealist movies, shot in is no temptress, and Gino no villain;
begins as an assistant director the torrid flatlands of the Po delta it is the oppression of capitalism
on Jean Renoir’s drama Toni. in order to capture the texture of that leads the working class astray.
everyday life. It was this view that offended the
AFTER Fascists, leading the censor to
1946 Tay Garnett’s The While Ossessione is nominally butcher the master copy. Happily,
Postman Always Rings Twice a crime yarn, Visconti plays those Visconti kept a secret print. ■
is the first US adaptation of the elements down, creating a story
novel. It stars Lana Turner and about desperation and jealousy.
John Garfield. Both main characters are stuck: one
in a marriage, another on the road.
1981 The second US version
stars Jack Nicholson and What else to watch: The Postman Always Rings Twice (1946) ■ The Bicycle
Jessica Lange. Thief (1948, pp.94–97) ■ The Leopard (1963) ■ Death in Venice (1971)

A GOLDEN AGE IN BLACK AND WHITE 79

HOW SINGULARLY
INNOCENT I LOOK
THIS MORNING

LAURA / 1944

IN CONTEXT A lthough it is synonymous McPherson’s investigation checks
with film noir, Laura works all the requisite boxes for a
GENRE best when viewed as a gumshoe movie—Laura’s wayward
Film noir, romance twisted romance. Otto Preminger’s playboy beau, her two-faced aunt,
movie plays out as a love triangle and her overprotective best friend—
DIRECTOR within a murder mystery, as New but Preminger adds a strange,
Otto Preminger York detective Mark McPherson dreamlike quality to the movie.
(Dana Andrews) falls for the The femme-fatale formula is
WRITERS title character (Gene Tierney), a slightly subverted: Tierney plays
Jay Dratler, Samuel beautiful advertising executive Laura as an unwitting siren,
Hoffenstein, Elizabeth apparently gunned down on her unaware of the spell she is casting.
Reinhardt (screenplay); doorstep at the start.
Vera Caspary (novel) The movie’s witty script
still sparkles today, and it
STARS
Gene Tierney, Dana features a sumptuous
Andrews, Clifton Webb original score by David
Raksin, whose main
BEFORE
1940 Tierney makes her theme became a
screen debut in Fritz Lang’s jazz standard. ■
The Return of Frank James.
Writer Waldo
AFTER Lydecker (Clifton
1955 Preminger’s The Man Webb, center)
With the Golden Arm deals and playboy
with drug addiction, one of
several controversial topics Shelby
that he will tackle. Carpenter
(Vincent Price)
1959 In Anatomy of a Murder, are two of the
Preminger depicts rape more suspicious
frankly than it had ever been
shown in Hollywood movies. men in
Laura’s life.

What else to watch: Leave Her To Heaven (1945) ■ The Killers (1946) ■
Build My Gallows High (1947, p.332) ■ Anatomy of a Murder (1959)

80

A KICK IN THE REAR,
IF WELL DELIVERED,
IS A SURE LAUGH

CHILDREN OF PARADISE / 1945

IN CONTEXT A mong the many great Shooting in Vichy France
landmarks of French The ambition and scale of the
GENRE cinema, Children of movie required a large cast
Romantic drama Paradise (Les enfants du paradis), and production team. The cast
made at the height of the German included Nazi collaborators, whom
DIRECTOR occupation in 1943 and 1944, is the producers had been coerced
Marcel Carné now seen as among the very into hiring. But what the Vichy
greatest. With a compelling overseers didn’t know was that
WRITER script by the poet Jacques Prévert, Carné had found a place for
Jacques Prévert director Marcel Carné turned Resistance fighters among the
a story set in 1830s Paris about 1,800 extras, using the movie as
STARS four different men’s love for the daytime cover for their clandestine
Arletty, Jean-Louis Barrault, enigmatic courtesan Garance into
Pierre Brasseur, Marcel a profound and romantic drama. A film poem on the
Herrand, Louis Salou nature and varieties of
The movie itself is glorious. love—sacred and profane,
BEFORE But what makes the achievement selfless and possessive.
1939 US historical romance of Carné and Prévert all the more
Gone with the Wind is released. extraordinary is the degree of Pauline Kael
difficulty they overcame even
1942 Set in 1485, The Night making it in occupied France. 5001 Nights at the Movies, 1982
Visitors is the first movie made Practically, materials for sets
during World War II by Carné and costumes were almost
and Prévert with Arletty. nonexistent: fruit and loaves of
bread intended to be used on
AFTER camera were eaten by half-starved
1946 Carné and Prévert crew members. Under the eye of
reunite to make Gates of the the Nazis and the Vichy French
Night, but it is a flop and they regime, every move was monitored.
never work together again. And yet Carné’s invention—and
independence—triumphed.

A GOLDEN AGE IN BLACK AND WHITE 81

What else to watch: Le jour se lève (1939) ■ Gone with the Wind (1939, p.62–63) ■ Le Colonel Chabert (1943) ■
Phantom of the Opera (1943) ■ An American in Paris (1951) ■ The Last Metro (1980)

I’d spill torrents of blood to give
you a river of diamonds.

Pierre François Lacenaire / Children of Paradise

The mime sequences were developed in its lowbrow theaters. At one sexual allure in her portrayal of
by Jean-Louis Barrault (who plays point during the shoot, when Garance, entrancing the four men
Baptiste, left), and his teacher, Étienne an Allied invasion of southern who are competing for her love.
Decroux (who plays Baptiste’s father). France was expected, the
production was forced to abandon Historical suitors
Nice and move to Paris, only to Three of these suitors are based on
find on their return that the real historical figures: Jean-Louis
set had been ruined by storms. Barrault plays the mime artist
It had to be completely rebuilt. Baptiste Deburau, who transformed
the role of Pierrot into a poignant,
Despite these problems, childlike character; Pierre Brasseur
Carné and his team succeeded in plays the actor Frédérick Lemaître;
creating a lavish and technically and Marcel Herrand the suave
brilliant movie, and in coaxing criminal Pierre François Lacenaire.
unforgettable performances from The fourth character, the cynical
the cast. The star, Arletty, oozes aristocrat Édouard de Montray, ❯❯

heroism. The production team also
included Jews in hiding, whose
identities were kept secret—in
particular designer Alexandre
Trauner and composer Joseph
Kosma. Trauner lived with Carné
during filming under an assumed
name, while Kosma’s work was
credited to Maurice Thiriet, who
arranged the music for orchestra.

Boulevard du Crime The movie opened in liberated
There were endless logistical Paris in 1945, and proved such a
headaches assembling the success that it played for more than
movie’s gigantic set, which a year. It was credited with helping
Carné built in Nice, in southern to restore French national pride.
France. It was 1,300 ft (400 m)
long, and while building
materials were scarce, he
somehow recreated a street that
resembled the famous Boulevard du
Temple in Paris during the early
19th century. The street was
nicknamed the Boulevard du Crime
for the crime melodramas popular

82 CHILDREN OF PARADISE

To be a producer, one
must be a gambler,
and the greatest French
producers were gamblers.

Marcel Carné

like a stage, jostled through and
caroused on by a vast and rowdy
army of colorful figures, courtiers,
and lowlifes alike. The movie opens
with a theater curtain that parts as
the camera glides down a Boulevard
du Crime crowded with extras, and
enters a carnival display where
another curtain labeled “The Naked
Truth” opens to reveal Garance
bathing in a barrel of water, visible
only from the shoulders up, and
staring at her reflection in a mirror.

played by Louis Salou, was inspired Rejected by Garance, Baptiste Elusive love
by Charles Auguste, Duc de Morny, marries Nathalie, played by Maria Garance becomes involved with
half brother of Napoleon III. Casares, an exiled Spanish Republican each of her suitors in turn: first
associated with the Resistance. with Baptiste, the mime, who
The world’s a stage saves her from a false charge of
From the outset, the movie blurs balcony in the theater, known as theft; then with Frédérick, who
the line between the stage and “paradise” (in Britain they call it steps in confidently after Baptiste
real life. Everything is about the “the gods”), where the cheapest realizes that Garance can’t return
theatrical show of life. Even the title seats in the house are situated. The his love; thirdly, with the criminal
of the movie refers to the highest Boulevard du Crime itself seems Lacenaire; and finally, de Montray,
who offers Garance protection
Jealousy belongs to all if a woman when she is drawn unwittingly
belongs to no one. into Lacenaire’s crimes.

Frédérick Lamaître / Children of Paradise Garance is briefly intrigued by
all four men, bestowing her affection
on each of them in her own way,
yet she remains utterly elusive, and
cannot love them in the way that
they dote upon her. In the first half
of the story, as each receives some
measure of attention from her, the

A GOLDEN AGE IN BLACK AND WHITE 83

Cinema and poetry are the ends in tragedy as he dies on the Marcel Carné Director
same thing, Prévert said. scaffold for killing de Montray. For
Not always, alas. But it’s Garance, too, there is no happy Born in Paris in 1906, Marcel
resolution: the man she finally sets Carné began his movie career
surely true here. her heart upon – Baptiste – is as a critic, while working in
Derek Malcolm ultimately out of her reach. his spare time as a cameraman
on silent movies. By 1931, he
The Guardian, 1999 Much of this drama unfolds was directing his own short
before the eyes of the “children movies. In 1936, Carné teamed
men are content, but, as the movie of paradise,” the working-class up with surrealist poet
progresses, her hold over each of audience in the cheap seats. They Jacques Prévert for the first
them changes their lives. are the most boisterous characters time on the movie Jenny. Over
in the story—like the cinema the next decade, the pair made
Ultimate disappointment audience, furthest from the stage a series of “poetic realist”
In the movie’s second half, the yet also the most demanding. movies, casting a fatalistic eye
suitors’ dissatisfaction breeds The paradise crowd cries out for over the lives of characters on
resentment. Frédérick achieves his entertainment. They are eager to the margins of society, which
dream of playing Othello since at see suffering and pain. As Baptiste’s established Carné as a star in
last he understands the pain of father says, “A kick in the rear, if French cinema.
jealousy. For Lacenaire, the story well delivered, is a sure laugh.” They
want novelty, too. But “novelty,” he In the 1950s, Carné’s
says, “is as old as the hills.”■ reputation was eclipsed as
the younger generation of the
Baptiste’s father plays for laughs French New Wave demanded
from the “children of paradise,” even as a less artificial style. However,
Baptiste reinvents the role of Pierrot he remained in high regard
as a childlike, disappointed lover, whose among his fellow directors,
pain tugs at the audience’s heartstrings. and François Truffaut once
said that he “would give up
all my movies to have directed
Children of Paradise.” Carné
continued to make movies into
the 1970s. He died in 1996.

Key movies

1938 Hôtel du Nord
1942 Night Visitors
1945 Children of Paradise
1946 Gates of the Night

84

CHILDREN BELIEVE
WHAT WE TELL THEM

LA BELLE ET LA BÊTE / 1946

IN CONTEXT F or some critics, Jean For almost 40 years before
Cocteau’s La Belle et la Bête he made La Belle et la Bête,
GENRE (Beauty and the Beast) is Cocteau was a poet, and poetry
French fantasy one of the most poetic movies ever had been the theme of his first,
made. It is the story of a young girl 55-minute experimental movie in
DIRECTOR (Josette Day) trapped in the palace 1930, The Blood of a Poet, about
Jean Cocteau of a beastly creature (Jean Marais). the mythical poet Orpheus.
Though repelled by the beast at Cocteau was eager to deny that
WRITER first, the girl can see the goodness there was any symbolism in
Jean Cocteau within him and falls in love with La Belle et la Bête, which was
him. Cocteau tells the tale with his first full-length feature movie,
STARS such serious honesty that it is although he also believed that
Jean Marais, Josette Day elevated from bedtime story into poetry was an unconscious
something morally profound. process. Contemporary US critic
BEFORE Bosley Crowther was struck by the
1902 Georges Méliès’s A Trip
to the Moon is an early special- movie’s “gorgeous visual
effects fantasy movie. metaphors.” At the same time,
it is striking how plainly the
1930 The Blood of a Poet, story is told.
Cocteau’s first movie, explores
the power of visual metaphors. Supernatural simplicity
Tellingly, the movie opens not
1933 King Kong portrays with the story, but with Cocteau
a sympathetic relationship writing on a school blackboard.
between a beast and a girl. He is making it clear that this
is a story with a moral lesson,
AFTER
1950 Orphée is the second of not a fantasy to be indulged
Cocteau’s movies about the in. “Children believe what
Greek legend of Orpheus. we tell them,” he writes.

1991 Disney’s Beauty and the On the movie’s release,
Beast is one of the company’s critics praised its exquisite
most successful movies. and imaginative costumes,
designed by Christian Bérard.

A GOLDEN AGE IN BLACK AND WHITE 85

What else to watch: A Trip to the Moon (1902, pp.20–21) ■ King Kong (1933, p.49) ■ Vasilissa the Beautiful (1939) ■
The Red Shoes (1948, p.332) ■ The Night of the Hunter (1955, pp.118–21)

The secret to it all is that
Cocteau set out to make a
movie that would stir adults;
along the way he discovered
the child’s imagination, too.

David Thomson

Have You Seen...?, 2008

The Beast’s palace is more like adult and more moving. With Fainting at the sight of the Beast,
a stage set than a fantasy world. settings inspired by the engravings Beauty is carried to her bed chamber.
The magic in the palace is surreal, of Gustave Doré and paintings of He tells her that he will ask her to marry
rather than fantastic. Real hands Jan Vermeer, and exteriors shot at him every day that they are together.
and arms emerge from walls and Château de la Roche Courbon and
tables to hold candles and pour Raray in France, cinematographer himself credited Alekan for
drinks, and caryatids have real Henri Alekan created a world achieving “a supernatural quality
human faces that roll their eyes of Gothic enchantment. Cocteau within the limits of realism.” ■
and blow smoke. It is reminiscent
of the art of Salvador Dalí, rather
than the fairy tales of the Brothers
Grimm—unsettling, but also more

Jean Cocteau Director

Writer, artist, and director Jean not until 1946, at the age of 57,
Cocteau was born in 1889, near that he made his first full-length
Paris. He published his first book movie, La Belle et la Bête. Four
of poetry when he was 19, which years later, he made a second
gave him an entrée to the literary movie about Orpheus, Orphée.
and artistic avant-garde in Paris. He combined movies, poetry, and
theater until his death, in 1963.
In 1917, Cocteau wrote Parade,
the story for a ballet composed by Key movies
Erik Satie for the Ballets Russes.
His most famous novel was Les 1930 The Blood of a Poet
Enfants Terribles (1929). Cocteau 1946 La Belle et la Bête
directed his first short movie in 1950 Orphée
1930, about the mythical ancient 1962 The Testament of Orpheus
Greek poet Orpheus, but it was

86

THIS IS THE UNIVERSE.
BIG ISN’T IT?

A MATTER OF LIFE AND DEATH / 1946

IN CONTEXT A Matter of Life and Death is amid the twinkling. “Big, isn’t it?”
the story of a young British Eventually, we home in on a view
GENRE bomber pilot, Peter Carter of Europe from space, then zoom
Wartime fantasy (David Niven), whose aircraft is into the interior of the bomber.
damaged over the English Channel, The camera pans to reveal Peter
DIRECTORS leading him into an epic fight to live. sending a final radio message
Michel Powell, before he must jump without a
Emeric Pressburger In the memorable opening parachute. He jumps… and to
sequence, the camera tracks across his and our surprise, wakes on
WRITERS stars and distant galaxies. “This is a deserted beach.
Michel Powell, the universe,” a narrator informs us
Emeric Pressburger
Peter fights for his life
STARS after surviving the crash. The
David Niven, Kim Hunter, movie plays with the possibility
Roger Livesey, Raymond that heaven is a product of
Massey, Marius Goring, Peter’s delirious mind.
Katherine Byron

BEFORE
1943 Powell and Pressburger’s
The Life and Death of Colonel
Blimp is based on a British
comic-strip character.

AFTER
1947 Black Narcissus is a
psychological drama set in
a convent in the Himalayas.

1960 Powell’s dark thriller
Peeping Tom is savaged
by the critics. His career
never recovers.

A GOLDEN AGE IN BLACK AND WHITE 87

What else to watch: Between Two Worlds (1944) ■ It’s a Wonderful Life
(1946, pp.88–93) ■ Black Narcissus (1947) ■ Heaven Can Wait (1978)

It was released in
the US as Stairway to
Heaven, a reference to
the escalator linking
Earth to the afterlife.

amphitheaters and Michael Powell and
shiny spaces. It is, in Emeric Pressburger
fact, all quite soulless. Directors
But on Earth, life goes
on in Technicolor. Michael Powell (above, right)
was born in Kent, UK, in 1905.
The angelic guide Conductor 71 Wartime message Emeric Pressburger (left)
(Marius Goring), sent to bring him Originally developed was born in Hungary in 1902.
to Heaven, has missed him, and during World War II, Pressburger worked in
he has survived by mistake. After the British Ministry of Germany as a screenwriter
meeting and falling in love with the Information encouraged before fleeing the Nazis in
American radio operator June (Kim Powell and Pressburger to use the 1935 and moving to Britain,
Hunter) he was speaking to just movie to promote Anglo-American where he began a productive
before jumping, Peter appeals relations, frayed by the presence of collaboration with Powell.
to the celestial authorities against US servicemen in the UK. As such, Their production company,
the attempt to elevate him to “the the heavenly legal battle is less The Archers, made 24 movies,
Other World.” The rest of the movie about the merits of Peter’s case sealing their reputations with
shows Peter negotiating his appeal than easing transatlantic tensions. classics such as The Life and
before a heavenly court. When the American prosecutor Death of Colonel Blimp, Black
questions whether an Englishman Narcissus, and The Red Shoes.
Special effects and a Boston girl could really ever Their last movie was the
The transitions between Heaven be happy together, the answer wartime story Ill Met by
and Earth inspire a host of may not surprise you—but it’s Moonlight (1957). In 1960,
still a wonderfully human note Powell made the psychological
dizzyingly inventive special in a deceptively strange movie, thriller Peeping Tom. Now
effects. A ping-pong match brimming with imagination. ■ considered a masterpiece, it
is frozen mid-action. A was vilified on its release and
Life, empowered by love, all but ended Powell’s career.
spilled table of books triumphs over everything, He made one more movie, Age
rights itself. Can any of Powell seems to conclude. of Consent (1969), and died in
this be real, or is Peter 1990. Pressburger had died
imagining it all? In a J. G. Ballard two years earlier.

reversal of expectations, The Guardian, 2005 Key movies
heaven is portrayed not
as a colorful paradise, 1943 The Life and Death
but in subtle silvery of Colonel Blimp
monochrome— 1947 Black Narcissus
streamlined and 1948 The Red Shoes
modernist, with bright

GEORGE REMEMBER

NO MAN IS A

FAILURE

WHO HAS FRIENDS

IT’S A WONDERFUL LIFE / 1946



90 IT’S A WONDERFUL LIFE

IN CONTEXT I ronically, the release of Frank George Bailey (James Stewart) woos
Capra’s most enduring motion Mary (Donna Reed), just before tragedy
GENRE picture was one of his greatest strikes: George’s father dies. He has to
Fantasy drama disappointments. Despite being take over the family business, and
amply praised by his peers, who never leaves Bedford Falls.
DIRECTOR appreciated the movie’s craft, and
Frank Capra winning five Oscar nominations best-loved movies of all time.
plus a Golden Globe for its director, Today, It’s a Wonderful Life has
WRITERS the movie flopped at the box become a festive favorite that seems
Frances Goodrich, Albert office. Through the years, however, to embody the Christmas spirit.
Hackett, Frank Capra popular perceptions of the movie
changed, and over the course of his In the 1930s, Capra had been the
STARS life Capra saw it become one of the voice of Hollywood. He refined the
James Stewart, Donna screwball comedy genre with
Reed, Lionel Barrymore

BEFORE
1934 Frank Capra has
his first major hit with
the screwball comedy
It Happened One Night.

1939 In Capra’s Mr. Smith
Goes to Washington, James
Stewart plays a naive but
honest man who takes a place
in the US Senate.

AFTER
1950 In Henry Koster’s Harvey,
Stewart has a big hit playing a
likeable man who speaks to an
invisible human-sized rabbit.

Minute by minute 00:51 01:20 01:44
George marries his At the end of the war, Clarence shows
00:04 sweetheart, Mary. They are with Harry due to return George what the world
George saves his brother about to go on honeymoon, home, Uncle Billy accidentally would have been like
Harry from drowning in an when there is a run on the gives Potter $8,000 on the if George had never
icy lake. In the process, bank. George stays, and day the bank examiner is existed. This leads
George suffers an ear saves the bank with his visiting. Potter keeps the George to beg to be
infection that leaves him own money. money to ruin George. allowed to live again.
partially deaf, and will later
keep him out of the war.

00:00 00:20 00:40 01:00 01:20 01:40 02:00 02:10

00:25 01:10 01:36 02:02
After his father dies, Potter offers George a In a bar, George implores George runs home,
George gives up his travel $20,000-a-year job. George God to help; then he drives to where he discovers
plans to manage the family’s turns it down and returns the bridge, where he intends that the townspeople
Bailey Building and Loan, home to hear from Mary to end his life. Clarence, his have made a collection
the only way he can stop that she is pregnant. angel, saves him by jumping to save him. Harry
Mr. Potter, a slum landlord, into the water first so that returns as they all
taking over the business. George can rescue him. sing Auld Lang Syne.

A GOLDEN AGE IN BLACK AND WHITE 91

What else to watch: It Happened One Night (1934) ■ You Can’t Take It With You (1938) ■ Mr. Smith Goes to
Washington (1939) ■ The Philadelphia Story (1940) ■ Harvey (1950) ■ Vertigo (1958, pp.140–45)

the peerless It Happened One Night Born George saves He creates He stops He has a
(1934), starring Clark Gable and his brother Bailey Park, Mr. Gower, happy wife
Claudette Colbert, but he became an affordable the pharmacist, and children
best known for feel-good movies in from drowning housing project from poisoning
which the common man triumphs
over cynical corporations or corrupt a boy
politicians—themes that resonated
strongly with audiences during
the Great Depression.

A new mood Not born George’s Bailey Park is Mr. Gower kills Uncle Billy
Had it been made 10 years earlier, brother drowns never built and the boy and is committed
It’s a Wonderful Life might have been remains an old goes to jail to an insane
another hit for Capra, but in 1946 he asylum and
was out of step with the prevailing cemetery Mary is alone
mood in the US. World War II had
robbed the nation’s young of any After George makes the wish that he had
sense of innocence, and audiences never been born, an angel, Clarence, shows him
no longer had an appetite for pure what would happen if he had never existed
escapism. Film noir was on the
rise, in which morally ambiguous Capra’s masterstroke is to begin tender age of 200, has yet to earn
detectives were little better than with a series of whispered prayers his wings. As Clarence studies
the criminals they chased. for help, heard by heavenly beings George’s life in flashback, from
who decide to intervene in the boyhood to adulthood, Capra paints
Yet to the modern eye, It’s a life of one George Bailey (James a portrait of a loyal townsman who
Wonderful Life seems surprisingly Stewart). They send an angel, but has sacrificed his dreams of travel
dark, an attempted suicide being the only one available is Clarence and career in order to follow in his
the central premise for a story in Odbody (Henry Travers) who, at the father’s footsteps, helping the local
which a man discovers the true community and working at a small
worth of his own life. bank in Bedford Falls, New York. ❯❯

James Stewart Actor

James Stewart was born in 1908 third Oscar nomination. The I made mistakes
in Indiana, PA. After a brief movie epitomized Stewart’s in drama. I thought drama
stint on Broadway, he followed quiet, folksy charm, which was
his old roommate Henry Fonda again brought to the fore in was when actors cried.
to Hollywood. His movie career the 1950 hit Harvey. He also But drama is when the
took off in 1938 when Frank made a number of Westerns,
Capra cast him in the comedy and collaborated with Alfred audience cries.
You Can’t Take It With You. The Hitchcock. He died in 1997. Frank Capra
following year, the pair made
Mr. Smith Goes to Washington, Key movies
which earned Stewart an Oscar
nomination. He took time off 1938 You Can’t Take It With You
to join the war effort, but his 1939 Mr. Smith Goes to
popularity did not fade, and Washington
his first postwar movie, It’s 1946 It’s a Wonderful Life
A Wonderful Life, brought a 1958 Vertigo

92 IT’S A WONDERFUL LIFE

In the process, George protects the While contemporary audiences may the townspeople’s money, he goes
community from the greedy bank have been put off by the story’s to Potter—his lifelong enemy—to
director and slum landlord, Henry divine intervention, Capra’s movie negotiate a loan. George has
F. Potter (Lionel Barrymore). wasn’t so much about magic nothing but a life insurance policy
realism as tragic realism: the angel to offer as collateral, and Potter
Shocking decline doesn’t appear at the bridge until sneers at him: “You’re worth more
George’s rapid transition from saint the movie’s final quarter. Another dead than alive.” Within this loaded
to suicidal drunk is shocking and director might have focused more insult lies one of the movie’s main
credible, perhaps rooted in Capra’s on the drama that makes George tenets: just as one life can make all
own struggle with depression in his want to end his life, but Capra the difference, so can its absence.
early twenties, when, as an Italian keeps it from us, not so that it
immigrant, he found work difficult becomes a mystery but because, In despair, George drives to the
to come by. Years of self-sacrifice when we do find out, it adds to the toll bridge to jump to his death. The
and disappointment lie behind pathos of a man trying to do right. movie’s most famous moment
George’s breakdown, and as a doesn’t occupy much of its running
portrait of despair his downward On the brink time but it sticks in the memory for
spiral is utterly compelling. Potter is the villain of the piece. its darkness. Wishing aloud that
When George realizes that his he’d “never been born,” George is
George and Uncle Billy (Thomas uncle Billy has mislaid $8,000 of taken by Clarence to a parallel
Mitchell, second from right) celebrate reality, one in which George
at the close of business on the day of never existed, and where
the bank run. With $2 left, they are still
in business.

A GOLDEN AGE IN BLACK AND WHITE 93

The movie opened in
1946 and was a box-office
flop. Postwar America
was in the mood for
morally ambiguous noir,
not feel-good small-town
sentimentality.

Bedford Falls (now the movie may be a warning that we Frank Capra Director
Pottersville) looks are not all in it together: some people,
very different. “Each happily for those around them, are At the height of his career,
man’s life touches so simply less selfish than others. Frank Capra was the biggest
many other lives,” director in Hollywood, leading
says Clarence, and Accidental classic the escapist assault on the
this ultimately is the The movie’s later popularity involves Depression years with a slew
movie’s message. another twist. Due to a legal error, of Oscar-winning comedies.
it fell out of copyright in 1974, Having moved to Los Angeles
Perceived as an optimistic movie, enabling it to be shown on TV with from Sicily at the age of five
perhaps it can also be seen as one no repeat fees. The oversight has in 1903, he studied chemical
since been corrected by the studio, engineering but struggled to
that shows the world as a glass something George might have had find work. After bluffing his
half empty rather than half full. a few things to say about. ■ way into a movie studio in San
For Capra, George is one man Francisco, he landed work in
who makes all the difference Hollywood, directing silent
in people’s lives; he is not the one-reelers with comedy
Everyman that we all are or mogul Hal Roach. Effortlessly
could be. In that sense, moving into the sound age
thanks to his engineering
It is a story of being trapped, skills, Capra came into his
of compromising, of watching own in the 1930s. After
others move ahead and away, making propaganda movies in
of becoming so filled with rage World War II, he saw his star
that you verbally abuse your begin to wane; his best-
known movie, It’s A Wonderful
children, their teacher and Life, was not a commercial hit.
your oppressively perfect wife. Increasingly disillusioned with
Hollywood, he started making
Wendell Jamieson educational movies on science
in the 1950s. He died in 1991.
The New York Times, 2008
Key movies

1934 It Happened One Night
1938 You Can’t Take It
With You
1939 Mr. Smith Goes to
Washington
1946 It’s a Wonderful Life

94

I MIND MY OWN BUSINESS
I BOTHER NOBODY AND
WHAT DO I GET? TROUBLE

THE BICYCLE THIEF / 1948

IN CONTEXT Vittorio De Sica’s The Bicycle punch and grips so powerfully from
Thief (Ladri di biciclette) first to last that it is regarded as one
GENRE was made using untrained of the most important movies of the
Italian neorealism actors and shot on location on the post-World War II era. It influenced
dusty streets of Rome. It has almost generations of young filmmakers,
DIRECTOR no plot, beyond that of the fruitless who see capturing real life, rather
Vittorio De Sica search by an ordinary man and his than producing a neatly turned plot,
son for a stolen bicycle. The movie’s as the object of their work.
WRITER style contrasts sharply with the
Cesare Zavattini; Luigi glossy Hollywood movies of the day, Cycle of hope
Bartolini (novel) with their sophisticated scripts, Adapted for the screen by Cesare
lavish sets, and slick acting. Yet the Zavattini from a novel by Luigi
STARS movie packs such an emotional Bartolini, the movie focuses on
Lamberto Maggiorani, hard-up father Antonio (Lamberto
Enzo Staiola, Lianella While Hollywood may Maggiorani), who finds a job after a
Carell, Vittorio Antonucci sometimes deal with these long period without work. To do the
facts by analogy, the Italians job, he needs a bicycle, and must
BEFORE deal with the facts, period. redeem his old bicycle from the pawn
1935 French filmmaker Jean shop, Antonio’s wife (Lianella Carell)
Renoir pioneers a realist style Arthur Miller must pawn the family’s only sheets.
using untrained actors in Toni. Despite this, husband and wife are
The New York Times, 1950 overjoyed at the prospect of him
1943 Italian filmmaker Luchino earning at last. But while Antonio is
Visconti directs Ossessione, an up a ladder on his first day at work,
early Italian neorealist movie. sticking posters up around Rome,
the bicycle is stolen by a young thief.
AFTER
1959 François Truffaut’s Taking his young son Bruno
gritty drama The 400 Blows (Enzo Staiola) with him, Antonio
is shot on location in Paris. embarks on a desperate hunt to
recover his bicycle. With the aid

A GOLDEN AGE IN BLACK AND WHITE 95

What else to watch: The Kid (1921) ■ Rome, Open City (1945) ■ Shoeshine (1946) ■ Force of Evil (1948) ■ Pather Panchali
(1955, pp.132–33) ■ Kes (1969, p.336) ■ Slumdog Millionaire (2008, pp.318–19) ■ The Kid with a Bike (2011, p.343)

of friends, they scour the local Porta The thief’s family and friends sequences in cinema, as the
Portese market, which is infamous furiously protest the culprit’s little boy holds hands with his
for selling parts of broken bicycles, innocence, and a policeman admits humiliated father.
until finally, through a mix of there is nothing that can be done
determination and luck, Antonio A universal story
spots the thief and pursues without proof. The brutally simple story of The
him into a brothel. In desperation, Bicycle Thief recounts one man’s
Antonio himself day of misfortune—one of countless
steals a bike, but similar days occurring around the
is quickly caught. world. Yet the realism of its narrow
Only the kindness focus has a message that is
of its owner, after universal—for those struggling to
catching sight of make a livelihood in an unfair
the distressed Bruno, world, a minor crime, such as the
saves Antonio from theft of a bicycle, assumes the scale
prison. The movie of a great tragedy. For some critics,
closes with one of the it is not a political movie, because,
most heart-rending like Chaplin’s City Lights (pp.38–
41), it offers no solutions—just the
For Antonio, transformation of a victim into a
his bicycle tragic hero. For others, this is what
means he is makes it a true socialist movie,
a part of the because it depicts the devastating
world of work, consequences of leaving people to
and a source sink or swim alone. Even before
Antonio’s bicycle has been stolen,
of pride for a beggar foreshadows his later, ❯❯
his son.

96 THE BICYCLE THIEF

troubled, situation: “I mind my own You live and you suffer.

business, I bother nobody,” he says, To hell with it. You want a pizza?

“and what do I get? Trouble.”

Toward realism Antonio Ricci / The Bicycle Thief
The Bicycle Thief is often considered
the high point of Italian neorealism. the white telephones seen in their attempted it in Modern Times
In cinema, the neorealist movement gilded homes—movies such as I (1936) in Hollywood. But Italian
was a reaction against the so-called Will Love You Always (T’amerò neorealists went further. They did
white telephone Italian movies of the sempre, 1933), that, while not overt not simply focus on the poor; they
1930s, which depicted the frivolous tools of propaganda, portrayed an also wanted to make movies in a
lives of the rich, characterized by image of prosperity that implicitly new way that would show the reality
endorsed Italy’s Fascist regime. of people’s lives as they were lived.
Bruno watches his father anxiously
as he sits, despondent, on the roadside, It was not only in Italy that Neorealism took the director’s
all hopes of a new life shattered. filmmakers tried to break from the camera away from the set and out
milieu of high society. Chaplin onto location. The goal was to

A GOLDEN AGE IN BLACK AND WHITE 97

capture real life, and part of On its release in Italy, the movie Vittorio De Sica
the brilliance of The Bicycle met with some hostility for its negative Director
Thief’ cinematography in portrayal of the country. However, it
particular is the sense it received great reviews around the rest Born in 1901 to a poor family,
gives of a world that is of the world. Vittorio De Sica grew up in
continuing beyond the Naples, Italy, working as an
frame—by briefly of its black-and-white photography office boy to support his family.
following incidents away as it follows Antonio and Bruno He got his first movie part at
from the main characters, on their quest give an epic quality just 17. His good looks and
or including real life going that engrosses the viewer in natural screen presence soon
on in the background of a their lives. Directors such as turned him into a matinee idol.
frame. To strip away the Ken Loach and Satyajit Ray have When he met writer Cesare
artificiality of studio cited De Sica’s movie as the most Zavattini, De Sica became a
movies, neorealist important influence on their serious director and a leading
directors often cast careers. Such was its impact on exponent of Italian neorealist
untrained actors, as its release that it was hard for movie. With Zavattini, he made
Vittorio De Sica did in innovative filmmakers not to think Shoeshine (1946) and The
The Bicycle Thief. Enzo in terms of real streets, snatches Bicycle Thief, both heart-
Staiola, the boy who of life, and ordinary people as the breaking studies of postwar
plays Bruno with such stuff of cinema. In the years that poverty in Italy that won
tough and emotional followed, movements such as the special Oscars in years before
directness, was spotted Nouvelle Vague (New Wave) in the foreign movie category was
by the director in the France and the “kitchen sink” established. After the box-
crowd watching him dramas of the UK marked a shift office disaster of relentlessly
film while on location. in filmmaking toward this more bleak Umberto D. (1952), De
naturalistic and candid approach. ■ Sica returned to lighter
Lasting influence movies, such as a trilogy of
Italian neorealism had already been romantic comedies Yesterday,
championed by directors such as Today, and Tomorrow (1963),
Luchino Visconti, with his 1943 and to acting. He died in 1974.
masterpiece Ossessione (p.78).
Yet what gives De Sica’s movie in Key movies
particular its lasting power is the
magnificence of its filmmaking. 1948 The Bicycle Thief
The sweep, design, and movement 1952 Umberto D.
1963 Yesterday, Today,
This is poverty’s authentic and Tomorrow
sting: banal and horrible

loss of dignity.
Peter Bradshaw

The Guardian, 2008

98

IT IS SO DIFFICULT TO MAKE
A NEAT JOB OF KILLING
PEOPLE WITH WHOM ONE IS
NOT ON FRIENDLY TERMS

KIND HEARTS AND CORONETS / 1949

IN CONTEXT K ind Hearts and Coronets that stand between him and the
is one of a series of British D’Ascoyne fortune and dukedom.
GENRE comedies that came out His murder spree begins with the
Ealing comedy of the Ealing Studios in London arrogant young Ascoyne D’Ascoyne,
between 1947 and 1957. Starring and ends with Lord Ascoyne.
DIRECTOR Alec Guinness as all eight members
Robert Hamer of the D’Ascoyne family, each of Comic killings
whom falls victim to a gentleman Guinness is the star of the movie, and
WRITERS murderer, the movie has the urbane each of his absurd characters is so
Robert Hamer harm and light with characteristic sharply drawn that they are instantly
with John Dighton of the Ealing style. The plot centers delineated, to great comic effect. But
on the rise of Louis Mazzini (Dennis Guinness is matched by the movie’s
STARS Price), who is determined to avenge “straight man,” Price. As Mazzini, he
Alec Guinness, Dennis his mother for the shabby treatment is the epitome of manners, exhibiting
Price, Joan Greenwood, she received at the hands of the such courtesy and aplomb that the
Valerie Hobson D’Ascoyne family. One by one, he audience feels a sense of glee as he
plots to remove all family members dispatches each D’Ascoyne in turn.
BEFORE
1942 Went the Day Well? is Alec Guinness Actor
one of the first successful
movies made at Ealing Studios. Sir Alec Guinness was one of more serious movies, winning
the great British actors of the an Oscar for his performance in
1947 It Always Rains on a last century, noted for his subtle The Bridge on the River Kwai.
Sunday is the first of Robert gentlemanly manner. Born in Playing Obi-Wan Kenobi in
Hamer’s three Ealing movies. 1914 in London, he started life the Star Wars movies made
as an advertising copywriter, him hugely famous in the
AFTER before taking up stage acting. 1980s. He died in 2000 at 86.
1951 The Lavender Hill Mob He became acclaimed for his
features Alec Guinness as a Shakespearean roles, and by Key movies
mousy clerk who becomes 1950 was a celebrated actor of
a criminal mastermind. the London stage. He began his 1949 Kind Hearts and Coronets
screen career with a series of 1955 The Ladykillers
1957 Barnacle Bill is the last Ealing comedies before working 1957 Bridge on the River Kwai
of the Ealing comedies. Alec with director David Lean on 1965 Doctor Zhivago
Guinness plays multiple roles.