Creating an "epic" film in the 1950s was a high risk strategy because: - The cinema industry was in decline due to the rise of television - Novelty gimmicks like 3D and Smell-O-Vision were short-lived fads that did not guarantee financial success - Epics had huge production budgets, large sets, and big star casts, making them extremely expensive to produce - There was no guarantee that such a costly film would be a financial success, as audience tastes and trends were changing rapidly during this period of transition for the film industry.

1. The 1940s
• Dip in profits and
productivity in the wake of
Pearl Harbor and
involvement in WWI around
1941
• However, between the years
of 1943 and 1946, Hollywood
was at it’s most efficient and
most profitable
• 1946 saw theatres
admissions at an all time
high

2. The 1940s
• Hollywood responded to the
war effort whether as
combatants, propagandists,
documentary, newsreel or
short film-makers,
educators, fund-raisers for
relief funds or war bonds,
entertainers, or morale-
boosters
• Films started to take on a Clarke Gable joined the Air
more realistic and escapist Force in 1943
tone
• Male actors were in short
supply as many of them
enlisted or were called up for
duty

3. The 1940s
• Anti-fascist films were one
way of attacking the Nazi
dictators and fascism
• Baring in mind, many of the
top dogs at the big
Hollywood studios were from
oppressed countries or were
Jewish, undertones of anti-
fascism and even blatant
propaganda was not
uncommon
• Even German actors risked
their own popularity by
playing detestable Nazi
characters

4. The Birth of Film Noir
• Film Noir films depicted the
way Hollywood felt as it faced
its greatest challenges during
the war and post-war periods -
darker and more cynical
• The somber, pessimistic
'genre', literally meaning
"black film,” was already
germinating and evolving from
30s gangster films - with dark
plots, untrustworthy femme
fatales, and tough, but
cynical, fatalistic heroes
• Has its roots in German
expressionism

5. The Birth of Film Noir
• Classic Hollywood film has always
provided viewers with a happy
ending
• Specifically, the FAMILY has
always been promoted as a
sanctuary, a safe haven
• This is promoted through American
culture in general
• Often in Hollywood films, men and
their female love interest would
marry
• WWII encouraged the idea of the
nuclear family further

6. The Birth of Film Noir
• Film Noir however, begins to
readdress the typical values
promoted by Hollywood for
decades
• They also sought to craft a
new visual style which, until
now, had rarely been seen in
Hollywood film
• In many of these films, the
criminal justice system is
incompetent, the white-collar
office is dull and
dehumanizing, the police force
is corrupt and even the
The Maltese Falcon (1941) federal government is
threatening and oppressive

7. Bringing Darkness To Light

8. Women in Noir
With few variations, noir films divide women into three
categories:
1. The femme fatale, an independent, ambitious woman who
feels confined within a marriage or a close male-female
relationship and attempts to break free, usually with violent
results;
2. The nurturing woman, who is often depicted as dull,
featureless, and, in the end, unattainable — a chance at
conventional marriage that is denied to the hero;
3. The "marrying type," a woman who threatens the hero by
insisting that he marry her and accept his conventional role
as husband and father. Each type of film noir woman
functions in a way that undermines society's image of the
traditional family.

9. Women in Noir
• Noir films usually stop short of rejecting the family altogether.
• While criticizing the family and marriage in a fairly overt
way, film noir cannot resist the urge to restore or reinforce the
family, even if it is only at the last minute.
• This restoration involves punishing or destroying women (and
men) who transgress the boundaries of "normal" family
relations or providing a tacked-on "happy ending" in which the
hero marries the nurturing woman or even a converted femme
fatale who has learned to accept her proper role.
• In either case, the ending contradicts the content and style of
the film itself.

10. Women American Culture
• Nina Leibman:
‘The dominant social imperative
of post-war America with its
emphasis on the importance of
nuclear family life, the proper role
of the sexes, the superiority of
suburbia. . . .
McCall's magazine launched an
issue on family "togetherness" as
the crucial factor in the family
enclave.

11. Women American Culture
• Nina Leibman:
‘Housewifery became professionalized
with a plethora of books and articles
extolling the virtues of domesticity and
urging women to leave their "Rosie-the-
Riveter" jobs for the less tangible
rewards of child-rearing and
housekeeping.
In addition, these articles cautioned
both men and women to assume their
proper roles lest their aberrant
behaviour result in untold psychological
trauma’
On The Big Heart (1953) ‘…very much
constructed along traditional lines: the
working father, the helpmate mother,
the child who is both nuisance and
source of comfort.’

12. 1950s America…
• Post-war affluence
• Increased choice in
leisure time activities
• The Korean War
• Middle class values
• Rise of fast food
• Drive-ins
• Jazz music
• White racism in the
South
McDonalds had their first
• Advent of television…
franchise in 1955

13. Television
• By the start of the 1950s, television was becoming popular
and more readily available
• In 1951, NBC became America’s first nationwide TV network
• A few years later, 50% of American households had a TV
• In 1953, the Academy Awards were broadcast for the first
time, receiving the networks largest audience in TV history
• By 1954, NBC's Tonight Show was becoming one of the
most popular late-night TV shows

14. The Studios
• In 1955, the ABC TV show Warner Brothers Presents was
the first television program produced by Warner Brothers
Pictures, and marked the introduction of the major
Hollywood studios into television production
• In the same year, Twentieth Century-Fox Hour played on
CBS and MGM Parade on ABC
• Warner Bros made the most of the television boom,
producing more TV shows, such as: their first hit series
Cheyenne (1955-1963 with Clint Walker), Maverick (1957-
1962, first with James Garner) and 77 Sunset Strip (1958-
1964)

15. The Studios
• One positive aspect of television was that it was giving
many directors a platform to show off their talents
• Because of the emergence of television as a major
entertainment medium, many studios converted their sound
stages for use in television production.
• Because labor was cheaper abroad, many producers were
taking their film production overseas

16. The War Against Television
• The width-to-height aspect ratio of most Hollywood films
before the 50s was 4:3
• This is same as early television sets
• So in its war against television, the film industry had three
major campaigns involving technical advances with wide-
screen experiences, color, and scope:
• Cinerama
• 3-D and Smell-O-Vision
• CinemaScope
• Other Widescreen Formats and Processes

17. • Paramount's wrap-around, big-screen Cinerama debuted in
1952, a break-through technique that required three
cameras, three projectors, interlocking, semi-curved (at 146
degrees) screens, and four-track stereo sound. It made
audiences feel that they were at the center of the action
• The first film using the three-strip cinerama process was
This is Cinerama (1952), a travelogue of the world's
vacation spots, with a thrilling roller-coaster ride
• Popular for about a decade but was costly and the novelty
wore off

18. 3D Movies
• In the same year as the debut of
Cinerama (1952), showmanship and
gimmicks like 3-D were used to bring
audiences back
• Special polarized, 'stereoscopic'
goggles or cardboard glasses worn by
viewers made the action jump off the
screen
• In reality, the glasses were unpopular,
clunky and the viewing was blurry,
although it was difficult (and
expensive) for theatre owners to get
cinema-goers to give them back. The
3-D effect was unable to compensate
for the inferior level of most of the
films

19. 3D Movies
• The first full-length 3-D feature sound
film was UA's cheaply-made jungle
adventure Bwana Devil (1952)) by
writer/director Arch Oboler, and
starring Robert Stack - its taglines
advertised: "A Lion in Your Lap" and
"A Lover In Your Arms.”
• in horror films (Warners' and B-film
maker Andre de Toth's House of Wax
(1953) with horror master Vincent
Price, a remake of Warners' The
Mystery of the Wax Museum (1933)) -
the first 3-D horror film to be in the
top ten box office hits in its year of
release

20. Aroma-rama and Smell-O-vision
• Other short-lived film fads in this decade and afterwards,
that were designed to tear viewers away from their TVs,
included Charles Weiss' 1959 system of pumping "Oriental"
scents into the theatre through the air-conditioning system -
it was dubbed Aroma-Rama
• Smell-O-Vision was a similar process that came slightly later
in 1960, developed by the Swiss-born Hans Laube, in which
30 different smells were injected into a movie theatre's
seats when triggered by various points in the film's
soundtrack
• Only one film was made with this gimmicky process -
Michael Todd Jr.'s' Scent of Mystery (1960)

21. CinemaScope
• When Cinerama and stereoscopic 3-D
died almost as soon as they were
initiated, 20th Century Fox's
CinemaScope became cheaper and
more convenient because it used a
simple anamorphic lens to create a
widescreen effect
• The aspect ratio (width to height) of
CinemaScope was 2.35:1
• The first film released commercially in
CinemaScope was 20th Century Fox's
and director Henry Koster's Biblical
sword-and-sandal epic The Robe
(1953)

22. EPICS!
• The 1950s saw several ‘epics’ created
• These had huge sets, large budgets,
popular stars and were often
extremely long
• Why do you think creating an ‘epic’
film was a high risk strategy at the
time?
• Cinema in decline
• Novelties (3D, Aromarama…
• High cost
• No guarantee of a solid financial
return
The Egyptian (1954)