American Cinema Post 4: The Studio System

MGM was billed as the studio with the most stars. Among them were Greta Garbo, Joan Crawford, Norma Shearer, Louise Rainer, Myrna Loy, and Greer Garson. It had an image of refinement, making mostly films that were more restrained and calculated. Although it sometimes went against this stereotype, such as the immediately controversial Freaks, it put out refined comedies such as A Night at the Opera and A Day at the Races with the Marx brothers. The studio also did many operettas and musical romances as well as melodramas. A couple of notable directors from this studio are Andy Hardy, who did comedies and teen musicals and Tod Browning, who directed Freaks. This studio's "golden age" can be said to be between the late 1920's and the 1940's.
Paramount had an image of European stylishness and, at the same time, that of a down to earth and anti-pretentious image. Comedies featuring the Marx brothers, such as Duck Soup and Animal Crackers were less restrained than that of the ones they did for MGM. The comedies directed by Ernst Lubitsch, such as The Love Parade and Monte Carlo employed subtle irony and European flair. Josef von Sternberg directed exotic fantasies such as Morocco and Shanghai Express. Some notable stars from this studio were Maurice Chevalier and Marlene Dietrich. Its heyday may be best described as around the same time as MGM's.
Warner Brothers was the studio for the blue collar types. Its films were gritty and realistic. It put out gangster films, such as Little Caesar, The Public Enemy, and The Petrified Forest. It also put out action films and costume dramas that championed lower class values. Examples of these can be seen in their Captain Blood and The Adventures of Robin Hood. The studio also put out films that were taken straight from sensational headlines, such as I Was a Fugitive from the Chain Gang, Wild Boys of the Road, and Confessions of a Nazi Spy. Notable actors from this studio include Ruby Keeler, Joan Blondell, Bette Davis, Olivia de Havilland, Ida Lupino, Ann Sheridan, Lauren Becall, Errol Flynn, James Cagney, Edward G. Robinson, and Humphrey Bogart.
20Th Century Fox targeted a rural audience and was known for its many period, costumes films as well as, in its 1940's years, for its socially conscious films. It had an image for conveying grassroots, timeworn values. It was the only studio not owned and operated by Jews (first by an Irish Catholic named Winfield Sheehan and then by a Methodist named Darryl Zanuck). Some of the studio's stars were Will Rogers, Stephin Fetchit, Shirley Temple, Henry Fonda, Tyrone Power, Betty Grable, and Don Ameche. Its major films were Gentleman's Agreement, The Grapes of Wrath, Tobacco Road, The Ox-Bow Incident, Boomerang, The Snake Pit, and Pinky.
RKO had not thematic or stylistic image like its major contemporaries. It was headed by many people over a short time such as David Selznick, Merian C. Cooper, George Schafer, Charles Koerner, Dore Schary, and lastly, Howard Hughes. The studio put out such films as Citizen Kane, King Kong, What Price Hollywood?, Bill of Divorcement, The Lost Patrol, The Cat People, I Walked with a Zombie, Crossfire, Vendetta, Jet Pilot, and I Married a Communist. Important directors included Orson Welles, John Ford, George Stevens, Robert Siodmak, and Jacques Tourneur. Some stars who appeared in RKO films were Katharine Hepburn, Cary Grant, and Robert Mitchum.