The Studio System

Part 1 Historical reseach and the studio system: notes on Columbia Pictures Corporation 1926-41. Part 2 Key workers and the system: how Howard Hawkes brought "Baby" up - and apologia for the studio system; my name is Joseph H. Lewis; "a triumph of bitchery" - Warner Bros., Bette Davis and "Jezebel"; deep-focus cinematography. Part 3 Product conventions: William Fox presents "Sunrise"; narrative authority and social narrativity - the cinematic reconstruction of Bronte's "Jane Eyre"; the Tarzan films - an analysis of determinants of maintenance and change in conventions. Part 4 Middle-line workers and the system: women in the early film industry; standards and practices - aesthetic norm and technological innovation in the American cinema; crime pays - the studios' labour deals in the 1930s. Part 5 External determinations and the system: "Baby Face" or how Joe Breen made Barbara Stanwyck atone for causing the Wall Street crash; what to show the world - the office of war information and Hollywood, 1942-1945; teenagers and teenpics, 1955-1957 - a study of exploitation filmmaking.