THE GENIUS OF THE SYSTEM: Hollywood Studio Production 1920-1955

by Thomas Schatz ‧ RELEASE DATE: Feb. 24, 1988

Schatz (Hollywood Genres, 1981) limits this study of the Hollywood factory system to four giants: Universal Pictures, MGM, Warner Brothers, and David O. Selznick International Pictures. Having vastly researched these four through industry documents, interoffice memos, corporate correspondence, budgets, schedules, story-conference notes, daily production reports, censorship files, etc., he locates the ""genius"" he seeks without overloading his study with encyclopedic comprehensiveness. Schatz has a fine time presenting the house styles of these companies and their trade-offs between economics and aesthetics, but the book is very much a study of economics, not a pile of juicy stories or rich show of ideas about talent and genius, and many eager readers will fade under the flow of production figures and analyses. Those who stick will find Schatz's producers getting the lion's share of attention, especially Irving Thalberg (""the man who first learned to calculate the whole equation of pictures, who understood the delicate balance of art and commerce in moviemaking"") and Selznick, with Alfred Hitchcock as the director who gets the most space. Many truly obscure Films (e.g., A Letter of Introduction, 1938), part of a new treasure trove now being shown on TNT's late-night cable, get as much attention as famous hits or such studio staples as the Andy Hardy series, the Gene Kelly and Busby Berkley musicals, Bette Davis programmers, or Universal's low-budget horror and Deanna Durbin flicks. In the end, Schatz does prove his point--that talent confronting the factory system actually produced the genius later killed by TV, diversification, and conglomeration. An original theme that should raise hackles.

Pub Date: Feb. 24, 1988

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: Pantheon

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 1988

Categories: NONFICTION