Hollywood in the Post-War Era

The Paramount Case

  • US v. Paramount et al.:
    • Instigated by the Justice Department under Roosevelt in 1938.
    • Initiated by independent exhibitors.
    • Defendants included all 8 major studios.
    • Big 5: Paramount, Loew’s/MGM, Warner Bros, RKO, 20th Century Fox.
    • Little 3: Universal, Columbia, United Artists.
    • Charged with violating the Sherman Antitrust Act.
  • The Charges:
    • Vertical Integration:
      • 5 studios were totally vertically integrated (production, distribution, and exhibition).
      • Controlled 95% of screen time.
    • Block Booking:
      • Required independent theaters to rent more films than they could show.
      • Had to rent B films to get A films (blocks of 10).
  • The Verdict:
    • 1948: Supreme Court found the majors guilty.
  • The Consent Decrees:
    • Divorce (6-10 years):
      • Required to end vertical integration.
      • Divorced production & distribution from exhibition.
    • Divest (6-10 years):
      • Resulting theatre companies required to sell theaters.
      • Aimed to reduce control by these companies.
    • Block Booking Prohibited:
      • Ended immediately.
  • Consequences:
    • Studios lost guaranteed outlets for films.
    • Lost expensive downtown properties.
    • Began to view TV as a customer, not a competitor.
    • Today, studios function primarily as distributors, not producers.

Television

  • 1946 saw record profits for the movie industry.
  • TV took off in 1947-48, and box office revenue fell steadily.
  • Changes in the US in the Postwar Years:
    • Population moved to suburbs.
    • Mass transit was used less.
    • Veterans married and had children.
    • New suburbanites bought homes & consumer goods, leaving less money for entertainment.
  • The Growth of TV:
    • 1947: 14,000 sets in the US.
    • 1953: Over 32 million sets.
    • 1959: 90% of homes had TV sets.
    • Today: About 98%.
  • Cooperation with the TV Industry:
    • TV Production:
      • TV wanted 35mm material, which could be reused.
      • 1954: Warner Bros. made 1-hour, 35mm Westerns for ABC-TV.
      • By 1960, 40% of Warner Bros.' production was for TV.
    • Feature Films on TV:
      • Initially, studios resisted renting films to TV, fearing it would cut into theater attendance.
      • TV couldn’t afford the movies initially.
      • Ended in 1955 when RKO sold its films to TV.
      • TV revenues compensated for theater revenues.

The Paramount Case & TV: Long-Term Effects

  • “B” pictures disappeared.
  • Training occurred on TV.
  • Decrease in the number of films produced:
    • 50-60 per studio in 1941.
    • 10-12 per studio in the 1950s.
  • The contract system died.
  • Conglomeration occurred.

The Transformation

  • Movies & Budgets:
    • Big-budget films:
      • Offered big profits due to large audiences if successful.
      • Incurred huge losses otherwise.
      • Often 3-4 hours long.
    • Small-budget films:
      • Made with very low overheads.
    • Middle-budget films disappeared.
  • Film Content & Influences:
    • Red Scare, blacklisting, Cold War themes.
    • Narratives involved turning against friends or being abandoned by friends.
    • Anti-communist films were common.
    • Threats resulted from “criminal conspiracy” or groups of outsiders.
    • Technology in the nuclear age was explored in sci-fi films.
    • Efforts to attract younger audiences led to more films about teenagers.
    • Competition from TV resulted in an increase in sex & violence in films.

New Technologies

  • Color:
    • Previously confined to less “realistic” genres.
    • 3 developments:
      • Monopack by Eastman Kodak.
      • Need to differentiate movies from TV.
      • Anticipation of color TV.
    • Adapted to CHC (Classical Hollywood Cinema), used to further the narrative.
  • Widescreen (Cinerama, CinemaScope, VistaVision):
    • Originally had narrowly defined uses.
    • Hard to use deep focus, close-ups, etc.
    • With technological developments & cinematographers growing more skilled, limitations eliminated.
    • Deep focus, close-ups, & standard editing returned.
  • Other Technological Alternatives to TV:
    • 3-D processes
    • Smell-O-Vision
    • Aromarama

The Transformation

  • Movies on Television:
    • The increase in movies shown on TV changed movies also.
      • Action was limited to the center of the screen.
      • Narratives became tighter & more redundant.
  • European Competition:
    • Europe challenged Hollywood with the European Art Cinema.
    • Captured only a small part of the audience, but CHC felt the need to tame or absorb it.
    • Many stylistic & narrative conventions of the EAC found their way into the CHC.

Directors of the Postwar Era

  • Old Directors:
    • Directors of the “Golden Age” began to disappear.
    • Some did their finest work in the Postwar Era:
      • Alfred Hitchcock
      • John Ford
      • Howard Hawks
  • New Directors:
    • New directors appeared in the Postwar Era.
    • Many trained in Hollywood in the 1940s and came into their own in the postwar years (Samuel Fuller, John Huston, Stanley Kramer, Otto Preminger).
    • Others emerged from the NY stage &/or TV (Sidney Lumet).
    • Some from other fields (Stanley Kubrick from still photography).
    • Younger directors brought about the Contemporary Era (Arthur Penn, Francis Ford Coppola).

Genres of the Postwar Era

  • Old Genres:
    • Some old genres were successful in the Postwar Era but changed.
      • Reflected concerns of the Cold War & Nuclear Age.
      • Relied on new technologies.
      • Had reached advanced stages in the life-cycle of the genre.
  • New Genres:
    • Spy movies
    • Rock n’ Roll, youth-oriented films, etc.
    • Science fiction came into its own in the Postwar Era and was reborn in the Contemporary Era.