SP 471 American Film History Week 3

8/14/2019 SP 471 American Film History Week 3

1/31

The 1920's

Rudolph Valentino, Theda Bara, Roscoe Fatty Arbuckle


2/31

The 1920's

The Motion PicturePatents CompanyTrust, 1908-1915

Edison joined withBiograph, Vitagraph,Essanay, Kalem, SeligPolyscope, Lubin, StarFilm, Pathe Freres &Kleine Optical

Exploited patents, fixedprices, restrict foreignfilm distribution, regulateproduction, licensing &distribution as well as the

flow of film stock fromEastman Kodak


3/31

The 1920's

The Motion PicturePatents Company Trust Vertical and horizontal

monopoly Kodak did not have a

share of the profits &began to sell film stock toothers, namely theMotion Picture

Distributing & SalesCompany

Latham Loop patent wasoverturned in court


4/31

The 1920's

Rise of the

Independents who

became the Moguls

The Move West

Increased need for

product

Avoid MPPC

Year-round production By 1915, most

production had moved to

California

Carl Laemmle of Universal


5/31

The 1920's

The Moguls

Adolph Zukor (Paramount), Marcus Loew (MGM),

William Fox (Fox), Jack Warner (Warner Brothers),


6/31

The 1920's

The Directors

D.W. Griffith, Thomas Ince, Cecil B. DeMille, Mack Sennett,

Charlie Chaplin, Erich von Stroheim


7/31

The 1920's

Cecil B. DeMille

Epics & Melodramas


8/31

The 1920's

King of Kings, 1927
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MXTDbGQxSskhttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MXTDbGQxSsk


9/31

The 1920's

Mack Sennett

Signed Chaplin for a

time Slapstick Comedy

with the Keystone

Cops & Bathing

Beauties


10/31

The 1920's

Mabel Normand, the

female Chaplin

Also directed,produced and wrote

After several

scandals, she died

at 34 or 37

depends on who you

read

Bangville Police
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7_KaR1r2onAhttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7_KaR1r2onA


11/31

The 1920's

Thomas Ince

Architect of the Assembly

Line mode of production

Murder covered up byWilliam Randolph Hearst

(newspaper mogul) who

suspected his mistress,

Marion Davies and Charlie

Chaplin were having anaffair

Inces widow got a trust fund

& gossip columnist Louella

Parsons was given a lifetime

contract with Hearst papers


12/31

The 1920'sThe Birth of the Studios


13/31

The 1920's

Shooting stages

Exterior sets

Back lot for exteriors Film processing

Prop room

Editing suites Zoo


14/31

The 1920's

Erich von Stroheims Blind Husbands (1919)

Middle class solidly intothe theatres

Rural values vs

cosmopolitan views ofwriters such as F. ScottFitzgerald and ErnestHemingway andfilmmakers such as F.W.Murnau, Ernst Lubitsch &Erich von Stroheim

Films became moreexpensive and polished


15/31

The 1920's

A features market

Loew began buying

theatres thusinsuring a place for

product

Production,

Distribution &

Exhibition - sound

familiar?


16/31

The 1920's

The Stars

Started with Griffith

Not only who thepublic paid to see but

the public face of the

industry

Mary Pickford


17/31

The 1920's

Mary Pickford

Married to DouglasFairbanks

Americas Sweetheart Child actress at

Biograph

Gave up career in 1929

Considered the artist ofthe pair


18/31

The 1920's

Douglas Fairbanks

Invented the action

film with The Mark ofZorro (1920)


19/31

The 1920's

Rudolph Valentino

Former tango

dancer Androgynouspersonality

Died suddenly &

young (31) Power shift from

executives to stars


20/31

The 1920's


21/31

The 1920's

Douglas Fairbanks, D.W. Griffith,

Mary Pickford & Charles Chaplin

United Artists

Founded in 1919

Control of work - first

independent filmcompany

Charles Chaplin, MaryPickford, Douglas

Fairbanks & D.W.Griffith

Five pictures a yearproved impossible toproduce, direct and/or

star in


22/31

The 1920s

Contracts withindependent producers

Bought theatres

D.W. Griffith left in 1924 Producing partnersdrifted away withchanging economicsand United Artists

ceased to exist asproducer and distributorways by the late 40s

Howard Hughes, Alexander Korda & Samuel Goldwyn


23/31

The 1920's Scandals &

Censorship

Fatty Arbuckles Mug Shot, William Desmond Taylor,

Mabel Normand, Mary Miles Minter


24/31

The 1920's

1922 - Censorshipbegins Morals clauses inserted

into contracts Established the Motion

Picture Producers &Distributors of Americawith former postmastergeneral, Will Hays

First act was to banArbuckles films

Began to regulatecontent - more powerfullater on in the 1930s


25/31

The 1920's

Directors medium

Harold Lloyd

received 80% ofprofits forSafety

Last

Chaplin also held all

the rights to his films


26/31

The 1920's

until Erich vonStroheim

Serious filmmaker

Legendary excess inbudgets and length

Foolish Wives, the 1stmillion dollar picture, was

6 hours long Lots of trouble withcensors

Was fired mid-productionfor financial reasons

indicating a shift in power


27/31

The 1920's

Greed(1924)

First cut - 47 reels oraround eight hours!

Second cut - sevenhours

Third cut - four hours

Cut down to 2 1/4 hours

1999 Restoration - 4hours

Negative was probablymelted down for thesilver nitrate


28/31

The 1920s

Buster Keaton 1895-1966

So many accidents off stage,his vaudeville parents

decided he would be saferon stage

Got his name from HarryHoudini who watched him falldown a flight of stairs at 6months and arrive unharmed

and slightly bemused Began performing at age 5

being thrown around by hisfather

More laughs if he kept astraight face


29/31

The 1920s

Buster Keaton Began in films w/ Roscoe

Fatty Arbuckle where hesoon became his assistant

director and writer Less than 2 years after WWI,

he was world-famous

Delicate & subtle

Never as successful asChaplin & Lloyd but more

timeless Also performed all his own

stunts

Experiments with the cameraand what it could do


30/31

The 1920s

Buster Keaton Made the mistake of letting himself be

talked into giving up his own studio tosign w/ MGM by his brother-in-law and

he was never able to make films theway he wanted to ever again

Instead of wistful & poetic, he wasmade to be a bumbling fool

In the 30s, he was divorced, bankrupt,alcoholic and dropped by MGM for

unreliability when he refused to makewhat he considered inferior pictures

Worked all through the 30s & 40s inEurope and on stage

Rediscovered in 1949

Worked up until his death in 1966


31/31

The 1920s

The General, 1926

Dir. & starringBuster Keaton

Consistently rankedamong the greatestfilms ever madealthough a box officedisaster

Many questionedusing the Civil Warfor comedy

SP 471 American Film History Week 3

Documents