Our focus this unit is on the ways that the film industry in the Golden age was a reflection of the times.

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Jocelin Lawson
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1 1920s & 1930s Film

2 Our focus this unit is on the ways that the film industry in the Golden age was a reflection of the times. While you re watching today s movies, Consider HOW these movies reflect some of the themes of the 1920s & 1930s.

Safety Last (1923) Country boy (Harold Lloyd) heads to the big city to seek success (and make enough $ to marry his sweetheart) and finds that life in the big city is more difficult than he imagined.

3 Safety Last (1923) Country boy (Harold Lloyd) heads to the big city to seek success (and make enough $ to marry his sweetheart) and finds that life in the big city is more difficult than he imagined. While working as a clerk in a department store, he talks the manager into offering $1000 to anyone who can bring more customers to the store. He then arranges for a friend to climb the face of the store building as a publicity stunt. Unfortunately, the friend is a wanted man, and when police show up, Lloyd must make the climb, himself.

Modern Times (1936) Charlie Chaplin's last silent film Chaplin got the idea for the film from a young reporter who told him about the production line system in Detroit, which was turning its workers

5 Modern Times (1936) Charlie Chaplin's last silent film Chaplin got the idea for the film from a young reporter who told him about the production line system in Detroit, which was turning its workers into nervous wrecks. PLOT: The story follows the life of a factory worker on the assembly line. His job sees him screwing nuts at an ever-increasing rate as part of the assembly line as well as being subjected to new, untested inventions designed to increase efficiency. The daily monotony pushes him over the edge. The film was a commentary on the challenges of modern society, the machine age and progress.

8 It (1927) It is that peculiar quality which some persons possess, which attracts others of the opposite sex. The possessor of "IT" must be absolutely unselfconscious, and must have the magnetic "sex appeal" which is irresistible. Shop girl Betty Lou Spence (Clara Bow) has a crush on her handsome employer, Cyrus Waltham, Jr., the new manager of and heir to the "world's largest store." They belong to different social classes and he is already romantically linked to a blonde socialite. A bit of scheming on Bow s part and a lot of smouldering glances have their intended effect and they find themselves on a date at Coney Island and later talking marriage. Unsurprisingly, misunderstandings ensue. The question is, can a woman who loves Coney Island hot dogs and a man who dines at the Ritz ever meet halfway?

10 Scarface: The Shame of the Nation (1932) The film was based on the 1930 novel Scarface. The novel was inspired by the exploits of Chicago s Depression Era underworld vice lord/gangster Alfonso Capone (nicknamed Scarface. ) Tony Camonte is a violent and ambitious gangster determined to rise in the Chicago underworld. After Tony kills his boss, Big Louie, on behalf of South Side mobster Johnny Lovo, he's promoted to #2 under Lovo. Tony later steals Lovo s girlfriend, takes out North Side boss O'Hara and pushes Lovo out. The film s opening was delayed due to squabbles with industry censors over its sensationalism and glorification of the gangster menace. Al Capone himself, according to the director, threw the director a special party in Chicago, honoring him for making Scarface. (Not only did Capone see Scarface five or six times, but he had his own print of it.)

Swing time (1936) Ginger Rogers & Fred Astaire were iconic dance partners who made 10 motion pictures together from 1933 to 1949.

13 Swing time (1936) Ginger Rogers & Fred Astaire were iconic dance partners who made 10 motion pictures together from 1933 to PLOT: After professional dancer Lucky Garnett (Astaire) arrives so late for his wedding that all of the guests have left, the bride's father tells him he can only marry his daughter if he can demonstrate that he can make money and take care of her. They agree that $25,000 would be a reasonable sum and Lucky heads off to New York City. There he meets a dance instructor, Penny Carroll (Rogers) and they put together a successful nightclub act. The two fall in love and find themselves held back by their commitments to significant others. The dance sequences for Swing Time are considered to be the high point of their art. One dance scene in the film took 47 takes to perfect and by the end of the shoot, Rogers' feet were reportedly bleeding. Tribute to Fred & Ginger

PLOT: An orphaned girl (Temple) is taken in by a snobbish family at the insistence of their rich, crotchety uncle, even as her devoted aviator godfather fights for custody.

15 Bright Eyes (1934) Shirley Temple was a beloved child actress who starred in a series of films in the 1930s and early 1940s. Bright Eyes was the first feature film crafted specifically for Temple s talents as a singer, dancer and actress. PLOT: An orphaned girl (Temple) is taken in by a snobbish family at the insistence of their rich, crotchety uncle, even as her devoted aviator godfather fights for custody. To put Temple s films in context, her biographer, Anne Edwards, said, "This was mid-depression, and schemes proliferated for the acare of the needy and the regeneration of the fallen. But they all required endless paperwork and demeaning, hours-long queues, at the end of which an exhausted, nettled social worker dealt with each person as a faceless number. Shirley offered a natural solution: to open one's heart."

18 Wizard of Oz (1939) The movie was based on a 1900 book. Legendary for its use of Technicolor, fantasy storytelling, musical score and memorable characters, the film has become an icon of American popular culture. It was nominated for six Academy Awards, including Best Picture, but lost to Gone with the Wind. PLOT: Dorothy Gale (Judy Garland) is swept away from a farm in Kansas to a magical land of Oz in a tornado. She embarks on a quest with her new friends to see the Wizard who can help her return home to Kansas and help her friends as well.

21 The film is widely believed to have been a parable about the rise of Populism in the 1890s and the national debate over monetary policy. Regardless of its intended meaning, consider how the characters would have resonated with Americans in the 1930s: Dorothy Scarecrow Cowardly Lion Tin Man

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