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Beginning in the early 1930s, argues Lancaster University lecturer Munby, gangster films reflected the urban masses' discontent with the Horatio Algeresque conservatism of Depression-era America. By the end of this genre's heyday, in the early 1950s, the films mirrored the changing sociopolitical order adjusting to corporatism. Munby's wide-ranging overview is most useful in examining the genre's response to the Production Code, the Legion of Decency, and the House Un-American Activities Committee as these groups threatened to muzzle dissent on the silver screen. Recommended for all film collections as a companion to Eugene Rosow's Born To Lose: The Gangster Film in America (1978. o.p.).AAnthony J. Adam, Prairie View A&M Univ. Lib., Houston, TX
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Product Description
Beginning in the early 1930s, argues Lancaster University lecturer Munby, gangster films reflected the urban masses' discontent with the Horatio Algeresque conservatism of Depression-era America. By the end of this genre's heyday, in the early 1950s, the films mirrored the changing sociopolitical order adjusting to corporatism. Munby's wide-ranging overview is most useful in examining the genre's response to the Production Code, the Legion of Decency, and the House Un-American Activities Committee as these groups threatened to muzzle dissent on the silver screen. Recommended for all film collections as a companion to Eugene Rosow's Born To Lose: The Gangster Film in America (1978. o.p.).AAnthony J. Adam, Prairie View A&M Univ. Lib., Houston, TX
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Product Description
In this study of Hollywood gangster films, Jonathan Munby examines their controversial content and how it was subjected to continual moral and political censure.
Beginning in the early 1930s, these films told compelling stories about ethnic urban lower-class desires to "make it" in an America dominated by Anglo-Saxon Protestant ideals and devastated by the Great Depression. By the late 1940s, however, their focus shifted to the problems of a culture maladjusting to a new peacetime sociopolitical order governed by corporate capitalism. The gangster no longer challenged the establishment; the issue was not "making it," but simply "making do."
Combining film analysis with archival material from the Production Code Administration (Hollywood's self-censoring authority), Munby shows how the industry circumvented censure, and how its altered gangsters (influenced by European filmmakers) fueled the infamous inquisitions of Hollywood in the postwar '40s and '50s by the House Committee on Un-American Activities. Ultimately, this provocative study suggests that we rethink our ideas about crime and violence in depictions of Americans fighting against the status quo.
Beginning in the early 1930s, these films told compelling stories about ethnic urban lower-class desires to "make it" in an America dominated by Anglo-Saxon Protestant ideals and devastated by the Great Depression. By the late 1940s, however, their focus shifted to the problems of a culture maladjusting to a new peacetime sociopolitical order governed by corporate capitalism. The gangster no longer challenged the establishment; the issue was not "making it," but simply "making do."
Combining film analysis with archival material from the Production Code Administration (Hollywood's self-censoring authority), Munby shows how the industry circumvented censure, and how its altered gangsters (influenced by European filmmakers) fueled the infamous inquisitions of Hollywood in the postwar '40s and '50s by the House Committee on Un-American Activities. Ultimately, this provocative study suggests that we rethink our ideas about crime and violence in depictions of Americans fighting against the status quo.
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Inside This Book
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First Sentence:
On July 15, 1935, Will Hays, head of the Motion Picture Producers and Distributors of America (MPPDA), declared a moratorium on all gangster film production in Hollywood. Read the first page Key Phrases - Statistically Improbable Phrases (SIPs): (learn more)
talking gangster film, postwar crime cycle, postwar gangster film, moral interest groups, civic pressure groups, gangster formula, important story point, civic interest groups, gangster narrative, gangster cycle, fallen woman film, gangster stars, ethnic gangster, crime film, term film noir, exile directors, contemporaneous audiences, mass cinema, crime features, film cycle, gangster films, film talent, film scholarship, big heat Key Phrases - Capitalized Phrases (CAPs): (learn more)
Little Caesar, New York, New Deal, Manhattan Melodrama, Public Enemy, United States, Force of Evil, World War, State Department, Brute Force, James Cagney, Key Largo, Los Angeles, Warner Brothers, Fritz Lang, Will Hays, Robert Siodmak, White Heat, Eric Johnston, Tommy Powers, Joseph Breen, Red Scare, University of Chicago Press, Wall Street Crash, John Garfield New!
Books on Related Topics | Concordance | Text Stats Browse Sample Pages:
Front Cover | Table of Contents | First Pages | Index | Back Cover | Surprise Me!
On July 15, 1935, Will Hays, head of the Motion Picture Producers and Distributors of America (MPPDA), declared a moratorium on all gangster film production in Hollywood. Read the first page Key Phrases - Statistically Improbable Phrases (SIPs): (learn more)
talking gangster film, postwar crime cycle, postwar gangster film, moral interest groups, civic pressure groups, gangster formula, important story point, civic interest groups, gangster narrative, gangster cycle, fallen woman film, gangster stars, ethnic gangster, crime film, term film noir, exile directors, contemporaneous audiences, mass cinema, crime features, film cycle, gangster films, film talent, film scholarship, big heat Key Phrases - Capitalized Phrases (CAPs): (learn more)
Little Caesar, New York, New Deal, Manhattan Melodrama, Public Enemy, United States, Force of Evil, World War, State Department, Brute Force, James Cagney, Key Largo, Los Angeles, Warner Brothers, Fritz Lang, Will Hays, Robert Siodmak, White Heat, Eric Johnston, Tommy Powers, Joseph Breen, Red Scare, University of Chicago Press, Wall Street Crash, John Garfield New!
Books on Related Topics | Concordance | Text Stats Browse Sample Pages:
Front Cover | Table of Contents | First Pages | Index | Back Cover | Surprise Me!
Citations (learn more)
This book cites 96
books:
See all 96 books this book cites
10
books
cite this book:
See all 10 books citing this book
- The Movies in Our Midst by Gerald Mast on 6 pages
- In a Lonely Street: Film Noir, Genre, Masculinity by Frank Krutnik on 6 pages
- Film Genre Reader by Andrew Tudor on 6 pages
- Film Noir by Alain Silver on 5 pages
- Princeton University by Alison Fraser on 5 pages
See all 96 books this book cites
- The Big Tomorrow: Hollywood and the Politics of the American Way by Lary May in Back Matter (1), Back Matter (2), and Back Matter (3)
- Film as Religion: Myths, Morals, and Rituals by John Lyden in Back Matter (1), and Back Matter (2)
- Film as Religion: Myths, Morals, and Rituals by John C. Lyden in Back Matter (1), and Back Matter (2)
- Black & White & Noir by Professor Paula Rabinowitz in Back Matter (1), and Back Matter (2)
- The Big Tomorrow: Hollywood and the Politics of the American Way by Lary May in Back Matter (1), and Back Matter (2)
See all 10 books citing this book
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84% buy the item featured on this page: Public Enemies, Public Heroes: Screening the Gangster from Little Caesar to Touch of Evil $19.80 |
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16% buy The Gangster Film Reader (Softcover) $15.60 |
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