Sp 471 American Film History Week 3

The 1920's

Rudolph Valentino, Theda Bara, Roscoe ‘Fatty’ Arbuckle

The 1920's • The Motion Picture Patents Company Trust, 1908-1915 – Edison joined with Biograph, Vitagraph, Essanay, Kalem, Selig Polyscope, Lubin, Star Film, Pathe Freres & Kleine Optical – Exploited patents, fixed prices, restrict foreign film distribution, regulate production, licensing & distribution as well as the flow of film stock from Eastman Kodak

The 1920's • The Motion Picture Patents Company Trust – Vertical and horizontal monopoly – Kodak did not have a share of the profits & began to sell film stock to others, namely the Motion Picture Distributing & Sales Company – Latham Loop patent was overturned in court

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

The 1920's

The Moguls Adolph Zukor (Paramount), Marcus Loew (MGM), William Fox (Fox), Jack Warner (Warner Brothers),

The 1920's

The Directors D.W. Griffith, Thomas Ince, Cecil B. DeMille, Mack Sennett, Charlie Chaplin, Erich von Stroheim

The 1920's • Cecil B. DeMille • Epics & Melodramas

The 1920's • King of Kings, 1927

The 1920's • Mack Sennett • Signed Chaplin for a time • Slapstick Comedy with the Keystone Cops & Bathing Beauties

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

The 1920's • • •

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Thomas Ince Architect of the “Assembly Line” mode of production Murder covered up by William Randolph Hearst (newspaper mogul) who suspected his mistress, Marion Davies and Charlie Chaplin were having an affair Ince’s widow got a trust fund & gossip columnist Louella Parsons was given a lifetime contract with Hearst papers

The 1920's The Birth of the Studios

The 1920's • • • • • • •

Shooting stages Exterior sets Back lot for exteriors Film processing Prop room Editing suites Zoo

The 1920's • Middle class solidly into the theatres • Rural values vs cosmopolitan views of writers such as F. Scott Fitzgerald and Ernest Hemingway and filmmakers such as F.W. Murnau, Ernst Lubitsch & Erich von Stroheim • Films became more expensive and polished Erich von Stroheim’s Blind Husbands (1919)

The 1920's • “A” features market • Loew began buying theatres thus insuring a place for product • Production, Distribution & Exhibition - sound familiar?

The 1920's • The Stars – Started with Griffith – Not only who the public paid to see but the public face of the industry

Mary Pickford

The 1920's • Mary Pickford • Married to Douglas Fairbanks • “America’s Sweetheart” • Child actress at Biograph • Gave up career in 1929 • Considered the artist of the pair

The 1920's • Douglas Fairbanks • Invented the action film with The Mark of Zorro (1920)

The 1920's • Rudolph Valentino • Former tango dancer • Androgynous personality • Died suddenly & young (31) • Power shift from executives to stars

The 1920's

The 1920's

Douglas Fairbanks, D.W. Griffith, Mary Pickford & Charles Chaplin

• United Artists • Founded in 1919 • Control of work - first independent film company • Charles Chaplin, Mary Pickford, Douglas Fairbanks & D.W. Griffith • Five pictures a year proved impossible to produce, direct and/or star in

The 1920’s • Contracts with independent producers • Bought theatres • D.W. Griffith left in 1924 • Producing partners drifted away with changing economics and United Artists ceased to exist as producer and distributor ways by the late 40’s Howard Hughes, Alexander Korda & Samuel Goldwyn

The 1920's • Scandals & Censorship

Fatty Arbuckle’s Mug Shot, William Desmond Taylor, Mabel Normand, Mary Miles Minter

The 1920's • 1922 - Censorship begins – Morals clauses inserted into contracts – Established the Motion Picture Producers & Distributors of America with former postmaster general, Will Hays – First act was to ban Arbuckle’s films – Began to regulate content - more powerful later on in the 1930’s

The 1920's • Directors medium • Harold Lloyd received 80% of profits for Safety Last • Chaplin also held all the rights to his films

The 1920's • … until Erich von Stroheim • Serious filmmaker • Legendary excess in budgets and length • Foolish Wives, the 1st million dollar picture, was 6 hours long • Lots of trouble with censors • Was fired mid-production for financial reasons indicating a shift in power

The 1920's • Greed (1924) • First cut - 47 reels or around eight hours! • Second cut - seven hours… • Third cut - four hours • Cut down to 2 1/4 hours • 1999 Restoration - 4 hours • Negative was probably melted down for the silver nitrate

The 1920’s •

Buster Keaton – 1895-1966 – So many accidents off stage, his vaudeville parents decided he would be safer on stage – Got his name from Harry Houdini who watched him fall down a flight of stairs at 6 months and arrive unharmed and slightly bemused – Began performing at age 5 being thrown around by his father – More laughs if he kept a straight face

The 1920’s •

Buster Keaton – Began in films w/ Roscoe “Fatty” Arbuckle where he soon became his assistant director and writer – Less than 2 years after WWI, he was world-famous – Delicate & subtle – Never as successful as Chaplin & Lloyd but more timeless – Also performed all his own stunts – Experiments with the camera and what it could do

The 1920’s •

Buster Keaton – Made the mistake of letting himself be talked into giving up his own studio to sign w/ MGM by his brother-in-law and he was never able to make films the way he wanted to ever again – Instead of wistful & poetic, he was made to be a bumbling fool – In the 30’s, he was divorced, bankrupt, alcoholic and dropped by MGM for “unreliability” when he refused to make what he considered inferior pictures – Worked all through the 30’s & 40’s in Europe and on stage – “Rediscovered” in 1949 – Worked up until his death in 1966

The 1920’s • The General, 1926 • Dir. & starring Buster Keaton • Consistently ranked among the greatest films ever made although a box office disaster • Many questioned using the Civil War for comedy