1939 is vastly considered the niceest 12 months in Hollywooden history. Again then, writes 1939: The Yr in Films writer Tom Flannery, the so-called “Huge Eight” main American studios “had a combined 590 actors, 114 directors and 340 writers beneath contract, every of whom labored an eight-hour shift each weekday,” plus half a day on Saturday. “It took an average of twenty-two days to shoot a film, at an average value of $300,000.” Annual grosses exceeding $700 million “made it easier to take an opportunity on ‘dangerous’ or commercially untested material.” From this industrial environment got here forth one new feature for each single day of the 12 months, including Gone With the Wind, The Wizard of Oz, Mr. Smith Goes to Washington, Stagecoach, and Younger Mr. Lincoln.
There’s one problem with this framing: The Philadelphia Story didn’t come out till 1940. In his new video above, Evan Puschak, wagerter often called the Nerdauthor, makes use of that celebrated picture — and in reality, simply one in every of its scenes in particular — to disclose the commercial-artistic genius of outdated Hollywooden.
This was not, we should be aware, an individual genius: “We’re used to supposeing about films because the imaginative and prescient of 1 person, an auteur director, however the studio system of Hollywooden’s golden age didn’t actually work like that.” Regardless of the talent of George Cukor, who went on to direct A Star Is Born and My Honest Woman, “there’s actually no auteur right here, however relatively a collection of top-tier artists and craftsmales coming together to actualize an amazing story and elevate nice performances,” all of who make important contributions to the scene examinationined right here.
The collaborators identified by Puschak embody cinematographer Joseph Ruttenberg, artwork director Cedric Gibbons (designer of the Oscar statuette), and costume designer Adrian Inexperiencedberg (identified mononymously as Adrian). Nor can he ignore the work of the movie’s three principal perkinders, a certain Cary Grant, James Stewartwork, and Katharine Hepburn. It could have been Stewartwork who gained the Academy Award for Finest Actor for The Philadelphia Story, however it was Hepburn who ultimately gained essentially the most: having been unhappydled with a reputation as “box-office poison” within the thirties attributable to her well-knownly chilly display presence, she seized the prospect to portray a character who suffers for similar qualities of personality and is ultimately redeemed. She obtained her comeagain — and we have now a shimmering, witty monument to essentially the most golden of Hollywooden’s ages.
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Based mostly in Seoul, Colin Marshall writes and broadcasts on cities, language, and culture. His tasks embody the Substack newsletter Books on Cities and the e-book The Statemuch less Metropolis: a Stroll by way of Twenty first-Century Los Angeles. Follow him on the social webwork formerly often called Twitter at @colinmarshall.
