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Hollywood (1920-1975 Movies)

Submitted to: Sir Shams ul Arifeen

By M.Yasir Arfat

bba059

Contents Hollywood Page

Preface: ---------------------------------------------------------------- 03

Acknowledgement: ------------------------------------------------- 04

Chapter one: ----------------------------------------------------------- 05

Introduction: ------------------------------------------------ 06

History: ------------------------------------------------------ 07

Chapter two: ---------------------------------------------------------- 11

Historical Timeline of 1920 to 1975 Movie Histories: ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 12

Chapter three: ------------------------------------------------------- 25

Classic Oscar Winner: ---------------------------------- 25

Oscar winner movies: ----------------------------- 26

Best actors: ------------------------------------------ 28

Best actresses: -------------------------------------- 29

Chapter four: ------------------------------------------------------- 30

Tips for Enjoying Classic Films: ------------------------ 31

Bibliography -------------------------------------------------------- 33

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Preface:

The purpose of this project is to provide information about Hollywood movies to those who are interested. This will entertain you with classic movies from 1920 to 1975.English language is spoken all over the world so this thesis is also written in English language. In this thesis you will come to know about how hollywoodland became Hollywood as well as relation with motion picture industry. You will gain knowledge about great actors, actresses, directors, producers and writers of classic movies.

Thesis explores the steady globalization of Hollywood's market reach as well as the cultural and political dilemmas posed by this phenomenon. On Hollywood will appeal not only to general readers with an interest in the motion-picture industry, but also to economic geographers, business professionals, regional development practitioners, and cultural theorists as well.

Acknowledgement

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First and foremost, I would like to thank to respected instructor of this project, Sir Shams-ul-Arifeen for the valuable guidance and advice. He inspired us greatly to work in this project. His willingness to motivate us contributed tremendously to our project. He has taken pain to go through the project and make necessary correction as and when needed. Then I would also say thanks to our TA Ms. Mamoona who helped us in completing this project. She had provided us guidance gave information that how to arrange the topics of your project. I would also thank my Institution and my faculty members without whom this project would have been a distant reality. I also extend my heartfelt thanks to my family and well wishers.

I am very thankful to following people also for providing assistance to complete my thesis project:

Librarians Advisors Colleagues Friends

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Chapter #1

1# Introduction

2# History of Hollywood

Hollywood (1920-1975, movies)

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1.1#Introduction:

In the 1920s, America was film-crazed with a boom in the studios and great interest in celebrities. People mistakenly thought the sign, which was HOLLYWOODLAND back then and not HOLLYWOOD, was a giant advertisement for real estate, but it soon became a symbol for the glamour and glitz that the Hollywood sign is known for today.

It all began when the Entertainment Industry moved from the East to the area around Hollywood California. The story of Hollywood film making is that the early motion picture entrepreneurs brought their cinema activities to Los Angeles and Hollywood for the ideal climate that was perfect for year-round filming outdoors, and to escape the control of Thomas Edison, the patent holder for movie making technologies at that time, and also to be as far away as possible from the roving eyes of the newly formed agency of the IRS.(internal revenue service).

In brief:

Until World War I, France was considered the leading film-producing country By the 1920s some three-quarters of films screened around the world came from

the United States America is now the leading country for the exportation of movies The tradition of American cinema is largely, though not exclusively, the tradition

of the Hollywood entertainment industry, the self-proclaimed "dream factory. “ In a classical Hollywood film, the story was primary; with the new technologies,

the special effects seem to become often overwhelming.

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1.2#History of Hollywood: In 1853 only one adobe hut stood on the site where Hollywood now stands. In less than twenty years, a thriving agricultural town began

taking shape where the adobe hut once stood.

The name “Hollywood” is credited as being coined by a man named Hobart Johnstone Whitley. While on their honeymoon, he and wife, Gigi, stood upon a hill overlooking a valley which is now Whitley Heights. Legend has it that Toyon or “California Holly” covered the hillsides, exposing bright red berries in winter. Whitley purchased 500 acres from Mr. Hurd and shared the name “Hollywood” for the new town. Whitley was also credited with establishing over 140 towns.

Harvey Henderson Wilcox of Kansas also moved into the area around the same time. Although he had lost the use of both legs due to typhoid, he was a successful real estate investor. Wilcox bought 160 acres in the same general area.

On February 1, 1887, Wilcox filed a map for a town with the county recorder’s office. The map of the town was given the name “Hollywood.” It was originally begun as a temperance colony to provide a wholesome alternative to downtown Los Angeles, only seven miles east through citrus groves. With a population already of 100,000, Los Angeles was considered undesirable and even “raunchy” by some standards.

By 1900, Hollywood had its own newspaper, post office, hotel, two markets and a population of around 500 people. Hollywood Hotel was opened in 1902 by H. J. Whitley. In 1903, it was incorporated as a municipality. One of the ordinances of the new town was no liquor sales except by pharmacists. Another prohibited the driving of cattle through the streets in herds of more than 200.

A trolley car system connecting Hollywood to Los Angeles was implemented in 1904, making trips between the two more accessible. The system was called “the Hollywood

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boulevard.” The original name of the main street (which is now Hollywood Boulevard) was Prospect Avenue.

By 1910, due to necessary water and sewer usage, Hollywood was annexed into the city of Los Angeles. Once annexed, street numbers in Hollywood were changed from three digits to four.

1.3#Filming in New Jersey:

In 1878, Thomas Alva Edison, with the help of his employee W.K.L. Dickson, invented and patented the Kinetograph, the forerunner of today’s cinematic cameras. Edison also invented the Kinetoscope in 1891. This was a viewer and by looking through a small peephole, people could watch short films. The Kinetoscope became a very popular form of entertainment at the time. It created a use for the Kinetograph as well as opening up a new industry - making movies.

In 1892, Thomas Armat, also an employee of Edison, invented the Vita scope which was used to project film images onto a projection screen. Between the Kinetograph and the Vita scope an entirely new industry began to grow. Now there was a need for auditoriums, or movie theaters, in which to show the films.

Edison lived in Menlo Park, New Jersey, so it was only logical that the filmmaking industry began in New Jersey. Fort Lee, New Jersey was a popular area in which to film because it was ideal for Wild West scenes and other outdoor shots. Directors such as D.W. Griffith and Alice Guy-Blaché began their successful film careers shooting in and around Fort Lee, New Jersey. D.W. Griffith made an appearance as an actor in Edison’s “Rescued from an Eagle’s Nest” in Fort Lee in 1907. Griffith also directed Mary Pickford in “The Lonely Villa” in Fort Lee in 1909.

1.4#Moving the Film Industry to Hollywood:

After World War I, the film industry underwent drastic changes. Film companies found themselves under financial strains and it was no longer cost-effective to film on the east coast due to inclement weather. Edison himself was a key factor in many decisions to move filmmaking to the west. Edison owned almost all of the patents related to filmmaking. Any independent filmmakers ended up being sued by Edison or incorporated into his corporation.

If word of Edison’s agents traveling to the west coast reached the filmmakers, all they needed to do was hide out in nearby Mexico to avoid them.

In 1910, the Biography Company sent D.W. Griffith, along with stars such as Mary Pickford, Lionel Barrymore and others, to the west coast to investigate the moviemaking

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atmosphere. Griffith and his company began filming in downtown Los Angeles and decided to do some exploring. They happened upon the town of Hollywood north of Los Angeles. Griffith filmed the first movie ever made in Hollywood, “In Old California.”

Upon Biography’s return to New York, after months of shooting movies on the west coast, word got around about this wonderful place and movie makers began migrating west.

The Selig Studio, built in 1909, was the first motion picture studio built near Hollywood. In 1911, Nestor Studios was the first studio built in Hollywood proper.

The years 1927 to 1948 are considered the “Golden Age” of Hollywood when major studios, such as 20th Century Fox, Paramount, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, RKO and Warner Bros. were the biggest names in the film industry.

1.5#Hollywood Today:

Today, Hollywood is a thriving, bustling city of its own. Although movies can be made in any location, Hollywood continues to symbolize the movie industry. Over 20 million people visit Hollywood and Los Angeles annually. It’s a long way removed from that lone adobe hut.

1.6# Hollywood Sign:

The sign which now displays the word “Hollywood” overlooking the valley originally displayed “Hollywoodland.” Erected near the top of Mount Lee, originally the sign was used to advertise a new housing development in the hills above Hollywood. Left for years to deteriorate, the Hollywood Chamber of Commerce stepped in 1949 and took over the refurbishing of the sign, dropping the last four letters. The text used to create the sign is copyrighted for commercial use.

1.7#Hollywood and the motion picture industry:

The famous Hollywood Sign originally read "Hollywoodland". It was erected in 1923 to advertise a new housing development in the hills above Hollywood. For several years, the sign was left to deteriorate. In 1949, the Hollywood Chamber of Commerce stepped in and offered to remove the last four letters and repair the rest. The shape of the text on the sign, which is located near the top of Mount Lee, has been registered as a trademark by the Hollywood Chamber of Commerce for certain uses, including cosmetics, clothing, and souvenirs. The same organization also manages the venerable Walk of Fame.In the early 1900s, motion picture production companies from New York and New Jersey started moving to California because of the reliable weather. Although electric lights existed at that time, none were powerful enough to adequately expose film; the best

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source of illumination for movie production was natural sunlight. Besides the moderate, dry climate, they were also drawn to the state because of its open spaces and wide variety of natural scenery which could, of course, come in handy during film-making. In 1913, Cecil B. DeMille, in association with Jesse Lasky, leased a barn with studio facilities on the southeast corner of Selma and Vine Streets from the Burns and Revier Studio and Laboratory, which had been established there. DeMille then began production of The Squaw Man (1914). It became known as the Lasky-DeMille Barn and is currently the location of the Hollywood Heritage Museum.The Charlie Chaplin Studios, on the northeast corner of La Brea and De Longpre avenues just south of Sunset Boulevard, was built in 1917. It has had many owners after 1953, including Kling Studios, who produced the Superman TV series with George Reeves; by Red Skelton, who used the sound stages for his CBS TV variety show; and by CBS, which filmed the TV series Perry Mason with Raymond Burr there. It has also been owned by Herb Alpert's A&M Records and Tijuana Brass Enterprises. It is currently The Jim Henson Company, home of the Muppets. In 1969, The Los Angeles Cultural Heritage Board named the studio and historical cultural monument.The first Academy Awards presentation ceremony took place on May 16, 1929 during a banquet held in the Blossom Room of the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel on Hollywood Boulevard. Tickets were $10.00 and there were 250 people in attendance.

1.8#Hollywood and the movie industry of the 1930:

Hollywood and the movie industry of the 1930s are described in P. G. Wodehouse's novel Laughing Gas (1936) and in Budd Schulberg's What Makes Sammy Run? (1941), and is parodied in Terry Pratchett's novel Moving Pictures (1990), which is a takeoff of Singin'in therain.

From about 1930, five major "Hollywood" movie studios from all over the Los Angeles area, Paramount, RKO, 20th Century Fox, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer and Warner Bros., owned large, grand theaters throughout the country for the exhibition of their movies. The period between the years 1927 (the effective end of the silent era) to 1948 is considered the age of the "Hollywood studio system", or, in a more common term, the Golden Age of Hollywood. In a landmark 1948 court decision, the United States Supreme Court ruled that movie studios could not own theaters and play only the movies produced by their studios and only with their movie stars. With that, an era of Hollywood history had unofficially ended. By the mid-1950s, when television proved a profitable enterprise that was here to stay, movie studios started to produce programming in that TV, which is still the norm today.

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Chapter #2

Historical Timeline of 1920 to 1975 Movie Histories

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Historical Timeline of 1920 to 1975 Movie Histories

2.1# 1920's Movie History:The Gold Rush:

Is the quintessential Chaplin/Little Tramp film, with a balance of slapstick comedy and pantomime, social satire, and emotional and dramatic moments of tenderness? It was Chaplin's own personal favorite film, that showcases the classic Tramp character (referred to as "The Little Fellow" in the re-release version) as a romantic idealist and lone gold prospector at the turn of the century, with his cane, derby, distinctive walk, tight shabby suit, and mustache.

The Birth of a Nation:

A controversial, explicitly racist, but landmark American film masterpiece - these all describe ground-breaking producer/director D. W. Griffith's The Birth of a Nation (1915). The domestic melodrama/epic originally premiered with the title The Clansman in February, 1915 in Los Angeles, California, but three months later was retitled with the

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present title at its world premiere in New York, to emphasize the birthing process of the US.

The Jazz Singer:

Warner Bros.' and director Alan Crosland's The Jazz Singer (1927) is an historic milestone film and cinematic landmark. [Most people associate this film with the advent of sound pictures, although Don Juan (1926), a John Barrymore silent film, also had a synchronized musical score performed by the New York Philharmonic and sound effects using Vita phone’s system.] It should be made clear that this film was not the first sound film, nor the first 'talkie' film or the first movie musical.

The Sheik:

The Sheik is a 1921 silent movie produced by Famous Players-Lasky, directed by George Melford and starring Rudolph Valentino, Agnes Ayres and Adolphe Menjou. It was based on the bestselling romance novel The Sheik by Edith Maude Hull.

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2.2# 1930's Movie History:

City Lights:

City Lights (1931), subtitled "A Comedy Romance in Pantomime," is generally viewed as Charlie Chaplin's greatest film - a "silent film" released three years after the start of the talkies era of sound. The melodramatic film, a combination of pathos, slapstick and comedy, was a tribute to the art of body language and pantomime - a lone hold-out against the assault of the talking film.

Duck Soup:

The Marx Brothers' greatest and funniest masterpiece - the classic comedy Duck Soup (1933) is a short, but brilliant satire and lampooning of blundering dictatorial leaders, Fascism and authoritarian government. The film, produced by Herman Mankiewicz, was prepared during the crisis period of the Depression. Some of its clever gags and routines were taken from Groucho's and Chico's early 1930s radio show Flywheel, Shyster & Flywheel. Working titles for the film included Oo La La, Firecrackers, Grasshoppers, and Cracked Ice.

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Frankenstein:

The classic and definitive monster/horror film of all time, director James Whale's Frankenstein (1931) is the screen version of Mary Shelley's Gothic 1818 nightmarish novel of the same name (Frankenstein; Or, The Modern Prometheus). The film, with Victorian undertones, was produced by Carl Laemmle Jr. for Universal Pictures, the same year that Dracula (1931), another classic horror film, was produced within the same studio - both films helped to save the beleaguered studio.

Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs:

Is the first full-length animated feature (83 minutes in length) in color and with sound, one of Disney's greatest films, and a pioneering classic tale in film history? It was financed due in part to the success of Disney's earlier animated short, The Three Little

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Pigs (1933). Although dubbed "Disney's Folly" during the three-four year production of the musical animation, Disney realized that he had to expand and alter the format of cartoons.

2.3# 1940's Movie History:

Citizen Kane:

The fresh, sophisticated, and classic masterpiece, Citizen Kane (1941), is probably the world's most famous and highly-rated film, with its many remarkable scenes and performances, cinematic and narrative techniques and experimental innovations (in photography, editing, and sound).

Casablanca:

The classic and much-loved romantic melodrama Casablanca (1942), always found on top-ten lists of films, is a masterful tale of two men vying for the same woman's love in a love triangle. The story of political and romantic espionage is set against the backdrop of the wartime conflict between democracy and totalitarianism.

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The Third Man:

The Third Man (1949) is a visually-stylish thriller - a paranoid story of social, economic, and moral corruption in a depressed, rotting and crumbling, 20th century Vienna following World War II. The striking film-noirish, shadowy thriller was filmed expressionistically within the decadent, shattered and poisoned city that has been sector-divided along geo-political lines.

It's A Wonderful Life:

It's A Wonderful Life (1946), originally made for Liberty Films, is one of the most popular and heartwarming films ever made by director Frank Capra. Frank Capra

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regarded this film as his own personal favorite - it was also James Stewart's favorite of all his feature films.

2.4# 1950's Movie History:

On The Waterfront

On the Waterfront (1954) is a classic, award-winning, controversial film directed by Elia Kazan - a part drama and part gangster film. The authentic-looking, powerful film is concerned with the problems of trade unionism, corruption and racketeering. And it is set on New York's oppressive waterfront docks, where dock workers struggled for work, dignity, and to make ends meet under the control of hard-knuckled, mob-run labor unions that would force them to submit to daily 'shape-ups' by cruel hiring bosses

The Bridge on the River Kwai

The Bridge on the River Kwai (1957), the memorable, epic World War II adventure/action, anti-war drama, was the first of director David Lean's major multi-

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million dollar, wide-screen super-spectaculars (his later epics included Lawrence of Arabia (1962) and Doctor Zhivago (1965)).

The African Queen

The African Queen (1951) is the uncomplicated tale of two companions with mismatched, "opposites attract" personalities who develop an implausible love affair as they travel together downriver in Africa around the start of World War I. This quixotic film by director John Huston, based on the 1935 novel of the same name by C. S. Forester, is one of the classics of Hollywood adventure filmmaking, with comedy and romance besides. It was the first color film for the two leads and for director Huston.

An American in Paris

An American in Paris (1951) is one of the greatest, most elegant, and most celebrated of MGM's 50's musicals, with Gershwin lyrics and musical score (lyrics by Ira and music by composer George from some of their compositions of the 20s and 30s), lavish sets and costumes, tremendous Technicolor cinematography, and a romantic love story set to music and dance. Gene Kelly served as the film's principal star, singer, athletically-

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exuberant dancer and energetic choreographer - he even directed the sequence surrounding "Embraceable You." The entire film glorifies the joie de vivre of Paris, but it was shot on MGM's sound stages in California, except for a few opening, establishing shots of the scenic city. Nonetheless, it remains one of the most optimistic American films of the post-war period - with Paris at its center.

2.5# 1960's Movie History:

Easy Rider

Easy Rider (1969) is the late 1960s "road film" tale of a search for freedom (or the illusion of freedom) in a conformist and corrupt America, in the midst of paranoia, bigotry and violence. Released in the year of the Woodstock concert, and made in a year of two tragic assassinations (Robert Kennedy and Martin Luther King), the Vietnam War buildup and Nixon's election, the tone of this 'alternative' film is remarkably downbeat and bleak, reflecting the collapse of the idealistic 60s. Easy Rider, one of the first films of its kind, was a ritualistic experience and viewed (often repeatedly) by youthful audiences in the late 1960s as a reflection of their realistic hopes of liberation and fears of the Establishment.

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The Apartment:

The sophisticated yet cynical film of the early 60s is a bleak assessment of corporate America, big business and capitalism, success, and the work ethic, when a lowly but ambitious accountant enables his climb up the corporate ladder by ingratiating himself to his superiors - he literally prostitutes his own standards and moral integrity and allows himself to be exploited.

Psycho:

Alfred Hitchcock's powerful, complex psychological thriller, Psycho (1960) is the "mother" of all modern horror suspense films - it single-handedly ushered in an era of inferior screen 'slashers' with blood-letting and graphic, shocking killings (e.g., Homicidal (1961), The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (1974), Halloween (1978), Motel Hell (1980), and DePalma's Dressed to Kill (1980) - with another transvestite killer and shower scene). While this was Hitchcock's first real horror film, he was mistakenly labeled as a horror film director ever since.

Lawrence of Arabia:

Lawrence of Arabia (1962) is the filmic retelling of Britishman T. E. Lawrence's heroic, autobiographical account of his own Arabian adventure, published in "The Seven Pillars

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of Wisdom" (originally published with the title Revolt in the Desert). The cinematic "men's film" (with first-time screenwriter Robert Bolt's screenplay) is a superb character study of a compelling cult hero, who exhibits homo-erotic tendencies in his relationship with Arab blood brother Sherif Ali (Omar Sharif), a dark personal nature, and an obsession with Arabia itself.

2.6# 1970's Movie History:

A Clockwork Orange:

A Clockwork Orange (1971) is producer-director-screenwriter Stanley Kubrick's randomly ultra- violent, over-indulgent, graphically-stylized film of the near future. It was a terrifying, gaudy film adaptation of Anthony Burgess' 1962 satiric, futuristic novel of the same name.

Jaws:

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Jaws (1975) is a masterful, visceral and realistic science-fiction suspense/horror-disaster film that taps into the most primal of human fears - what unseen creature lurks below the dark surface of the water beyond the beach? The tagline for the tensely-paced film, "Don't go in the water," kept a lot of shark-hysterical ocean-swimmers and 1975 summer beachgoers wary (similar to the effect that Hitchcock's Psycho (1960) had on shower-taking).

The Deer Hunter:

It is a powerful, disturbing and compelling look at the Vietnam War through the lives of three blue-collar, Russian-American friends in a small steel-mill town before, during, and after their service in the war. Its title recalls the adventure novels and frontier heroes in the works of James Fenimore Cooper - in fact, only one of the characters found peace in hunting (before experiencing the effects of the psychologically- wounding war).

The French Connection:

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The French Connection (1971) is director William Friedkin's brilliant, fast-paced, brutally-realistic police/crime film - his commercial break-through film. The true-to-life film about the largest narcotics seizure of all time in 1962 - with an innovative semi-documentary-style technique that conveys the story with very few words, was produced by Phillip D'Antoni who had made the exciting police film Bullitt (1968).

Chinatown:

Chinatown (1974) is a superb, private eye mystery and modern-day film noir thriller. Its original, award-winning screenplay by Robert Towne is a throwback that pays homage to the best Hollywood film noirs from the pens of Dashiell Hammett and Raymond Chandler in the 30s and 40s. The film declined to provide a tagline, instead choosing imagery over words on its poster, which featured in 40's art deco, the detective - his back facing the viewer, smoking a cigarette, with the smoke emanating from it forming the visage of the heroine, signifying the setting, the mood, and symbolism of the film without uttering a single phrase.

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Chapter #3

Classic Oscar Winners (movies, actors, actresses)

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3.1# Classic Oscar Movies Folks in the entertainment industry love to hand out awards, and the Oscar, the Academy Award, are the great-grand-daddy of them all. Since the early days of classic movies, Oscar has honored Hollywood’s best, and the big three have always been part of the program: Best Movie, Best Actor, and Best Actress. Here are some classic Oscar winner movies:

1940’s Best Picture – ‘Rebecca’

Alfred Hitchcock’s first American-made film captured the top prize, beating out such wonderful competitors as Charlie Chaplin’s first “talkie," The Great Dictator; the funny, sophisticated Philadelphia Story; and the dust-bowl epic The Grapes of Wrath.

'Around the World in 80 Days' – 1950’s

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A charming adventure film that feels like a gorgeous, wide-screen travelogue at times, Around the World in 80 Days is great fun, with urbane David Niven in the lead and Shirley MacLaine shoehorned in to provide a love interest not found in the book. It’s dated by racial characterizations and boss/servant relationships that feel offensive today. An old-time Hollywood spectacle, it won over the luscious musical The King and I, the biblical epic The Ten Commandments, and dramas Giant and Friendly Persuasion. Snubbed: Lust for Life and Bus Stop.

1960’s Best Picture –‘A Man for All Season:

The historical drama of one courageous man standing up against King Henry VIII’s desire for a divorce is a fine film, but A Man For All Seasons beat out the superior Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf, and the touching Cold War comedy The Russians are Coming, the Russians are Coming. It also defeated the war epic The Sand Pebbles and the cynical adventures of Michael Caine’s nasty, womanizing Alfie. Snubbed were A Man and a Woman, John Huston’s epic The Bible and Orson Welles’ much-honored, little-seen Chimes at Midnight.

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3.2# Best actors:

1940’s Best Actor – Fredric March in ‘The Best Years of Our Lives’

Once again an affecting portrayal of an alcoholic won out, with Frederic March as one of the three troubled veterans returning from WWII in The Best Years of Our Lives.

1950’s Best Actor – Humphrey Bogart in ‘The African Queen’

Humphrey Bogart, ignored by Oscar for his famous roles in the 1940s, finally scored with memorable boat captain Charlie Allnut in the adventure/love story The African Queen.

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1960’s Best Actor - John Wayne in ‘True Grit’

The Duke won in 1969 for a film that was not his best performance, and certainly nowhere near the best film in a year packed with classics. The sentimental favorite was seen as long overdue for an Oscar, and beat out both young stars of the gritty, groundbreaking Midnight Cowboy, Jon Voight and Dustin Hoffman, who was simply outstanding.

3.3# Best actresses:

1940’s Best Actress – Joan Fontaine in ‘Suspicion’

Oscar continued to snub Alfred Hitchcock, but Joan Fontaine won for starring in his film Suspicion as a new bride who suspects her husband is trying to kill her. She beat her sister, Olivia de Havilland, in the little-remembered Hold Back the Dust and Greer Garson as an orphanage director in Blossoms in the Dust.

1950’s Best Actress - Audrey Hepburn in 'Roman Holiday'

Lovely Audrey Hepburn took the honors as a rebellious princess escaping her duties and tooling around on a Vespa in the beloved romance Roman Holiday. She knocked out Deborah Kerr’s steamy performance in the Hawaiian surf in From Here to

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Eternity, the year’s Best Picture, and adorable French actress Leslie Caron in the bittersweet musical Lily.

1960’s Best Actress – Anne Bancroft in ‘The Miracle Worker’

Anne Bancroft won her only Oscar of five career nominations for the plucky Irish tutor in the story of deaf-blind Helen Keller, The Miracle Worker. She aced out Katharine Hepburn’s finely tuned performance in Eugene O’Neill’s Long Day’s Journey Into Night, and Bette Davis’ courageously bizarre performance as a former child star gone mad in Whatever Happened to Baby Jane.

Chapter #4

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Tips for Enjoying Classic Films

Tips for Enjoying Classic Films: Great movies appeal to every generation, but over time, techniques, taste, and technology change. Here are some tips to help you get the most from classic movies.

Give it Time:

Modern audiences expect quick edits, rapid-fire action and a fast pace. When the movies were young, the pace of life and the pace of movies were both a lot slower than they are today. If classic movies seem to drag, hang in there. Try to see that it's part of their charm, and enjoy the respite from your hectic life.

Forget the Paint Job:

Some studios have "colorized" older films in an attempt to bring new audiences who won't watch black and white movies. It's like smearing pink day-glo blush on a

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beautiful old lady. See these movies the way the filmmakers did, in nuanced shades of gray.

Understand the Context:

Many classic films were made long before the civil rights era, and even longer before the days of women's liberation. Some moments are so politically incorrect they can you make you squirm, and some are so awful they all but ruin the rest of the movie. View these moments as snapshots in history. Be grateful about how far we've come, and consider what will make viewers wince 50 years from now.

Find a Fave Director:

If you find a classic movie you love, check out other movies by the same director. Filmmakers leave their own distinctive stamp on their movies, and it's fascinating to watch them mature from their early films to more recent offerings. Try Alfred Hitchcock, Billy Wilder, Frank Capra, Ernst Lubitsch or Howard Hawks.

Follow the Stars:

Find a favorite actor or actress to trace through the years. You can watch Katharine Hepburn from her days as an ingénue through her golden years On Golden Pond, or see if you can become the first person in history to get enough of Cary Grant.

Get Wide-Eyed:

As often as possible, try to see classic films on the big screen at festivals and in art houses. Many were made before television was invented. Citizen Kane can be almost too dark to see on the small screen, but breathtaking when it's 40 feet wide. College campuses, film festivals and art houses are a good bet. In the meantime, try to make friends with someone who has a gigantic TV and a great sound system!

Do a Bit of Research:

Check out web sites like the one you're reading right now, or the Internet Movie Database, or ReelClassics.com to do a little research before you watch the movie. They'll put the movie in its proper historic context, and provide bits of trivia that will make the film more fun.

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Try, Try Again:

Don't expect to like classic movies right off the bat. They're an acquired taste, and you may need more than one viewing to get into the rhythm. And don't expect to love a classic film just because a bunch of critics say it's a masterpiece. Find out what you like. In the end, you're the only critic that matters.

-----------------------Thank you--------------------------

Bibliography

http://www.bfi.org.uk/filmtvinfo/library/collections/special/film-society.pdfhttp://www.filmsite.org/afi100filmsA.htmlhttp://www.historyplace.com/films/index.htmlhttp://www.1920-30.com/movies/http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/12165/1/RS040101.pdfhttp://filmtvindustry.suite101.com/article.cfm/how_hollywood_became_hollywoodhttp://www.filmsite.org/afi100filmsA.html

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