[HIGHAM, CHARLES . HOLLYWOOD IN THE FORTIES series
Call#: Van Pelt Library PN/1993.5/U65/H5]

Higham, Charles, and Joel Greenberg. Hollywood in the Forties. New York: Tantivy, 1968.

As Higham and Greenberg phrase it, Hollywood films produced in the 1940s were a "world of
their own" (11). This book describes in detail the themes that grabbed hold of many
of the best-remembered plots of the 1940s screen. The introduction preceding these chapters
gives an explanation of how the film industry of the 1930s set the scene for this period. For
example, page 68 contains a passage that details how the leftist ideology and themes, resultant
from the Great Depression, were expressed in 1930s films; this left the 1940s to picked up
where the 1920s left off, celebrating decadence and the enjoyments of life.
A brief outline of the studio system and star system follows. This period
of American film would prove to be quite successful, boasting some of the funniest, wittiest,
and memorable films in the American cinematic canon. Something interesting to note in regard
to this book is the year it was published: 1968. At this time the Hollywood culture that
had produced films like "The Philadelphia Story" was beginning to get scoffed at or looked
down on in comparison to more artistic or avant-garde films.


"The Philadelphia Story" is mentioned by title here and the authors note that "today [the film]
feels empty" (162); the film which had been celebrated in its time for being
entertaining and snappy loses some of its original appeal in the onslaught of the
French New Wave and other more artistically oriented film movements. Chapters on "Problem and
Sociological Films", "War Propaganda", and "Comedy" are all of interest here in order to
understand how movies like "The Philadelphia Story", in some ways an archetypal 1940s film, was perceived
in the late 1960s-- only a decade after "High Society" was released.

Schatz, Thomas, 1948- . Boom and bust : the American cinema in the 1940s / Thomas Schatz. 0684191512 (alk. paper) series New York : Charles Scribner's Sons ; London : Simon & Schuster and Prentice Hall International, 1997.
Call#: Van Pelt Library PN1993.5.U6 H55 1990 v.6
Call#: Van Pelt Library PN1993.5.U6 H55 1990 v.6
Call#: Annenberg Library Reference Ann Ref PN1993.5.U6 H55 1990 v.6
Call#: Annenberg Library Reference Ann Ref PN1993.5.U6 H55 1990 v.6