This text charts the real story of the Warner brothers and contains all the drama of a big screen production. The book tells of tension and strife among four brothers, love and marriage, death and divorce, and plotting and betrayal.

From the earliest years of sound film in America, Hollywood studios and independent producers of "race films" for black audiences created stories featuring African American religious practices. In the first book to examine how the movies constructed images of African American religion, Judith Weisenfeld explores these cinematic representations and how they reflected and contributed to complicated discourses about race, the social and moral requirements of American citizenship, and the very nature of American identity. Drawing on such textual sources as studio production files, censorship records, and discussions and debates about religion and film in the black press, as well as providing close readings of films, this richly illustrated and meticulously researched book brings religious studies and film history together in innovative ways.

More than any other studio, Warner Bros. used edgy, stylistic, and brutally honest films to construct a view of America that was different from the usual buoyant Hollywood fare. The studio took seriously Harry Warner’s mandate that their films had a duty to educate and demonstrate key values of free speech, religious tolerance, and freedom of the press. This attitude was most aptly demonstrated in films produced by the studio between 1927 and 1941—a period that saw not only the arrival of sound in film but also the Great Depression, the rise of crime, and increased concern about fascism in the lead-up to World War II. In From the Headlines to Hollywood: The Birth and Boom of Warner Bros.,Chris Yogerstexplores how “the only studio with any guts” established the groundwork and perfected formulas for social romance dramas, along with gangster, war, espionage, and adventure films. In this book, the author discusses such films as ThePublic Enemy, Little Caesar, G-Men, The Life of Emile Zola, Angels with Dirty Faces,and Confessions of a Nazi Spy, illustrating the ways in which their plots truly were “ripped from the headlines.” While much of what has been written about Warner Bros. has focused on the plots of popular films or broad overviews of the studio’s output, this volume sets these in the larger context of the period, an era in which lighthearted fare competed with gritty realism. From the Headlines to Hollywood will appeal to readers with interests in film history, social history, politics, and entertainment.

“This passionate, carefully researched, richly detailed, well-written study” reveals the political motives behind WWII Hollywood’s portrayal of Poles (Choice). During World War II, Hollywood studios supported the war effort by making patriotic movies designed to raise the nation's morale. Often the characterizations were as black and white as the movies themselves: Americans and their allies were heroes, while everyone else was a villain. The peoples of Norway, France, Czechoslovakia, and England were all good because they had been invaded or victimized by Nazi Germany. Yet Poland—the first country to be invaded by the Third Reich—was repeatedly represented in a negative light. In this prize-winning study, Polish historian M. B. B. Biskupski explores why. Biskupski presents a close critical study of prewar and wartime films such as To Be or Not to Be, In Our Time, and None Shall Escape. Through memoirs, letters, diaries, and memoranda written by screenwriters, directors, studio heads, and actors, Biskupski examines how the political climate, and especially pro-Soviet sentiment, influenced Hollywood films of the time. Winner of the Oscar Halecki Prize A Choice Outstanding Academic Title

Using Lars von Trier's 2003 film Dogville as a launchpad for his ideas, Jake Horsley aims to discuss the conflict between "artistic" and "commercial" movie-making that he believes exists in the film industry today. He proposes that the term "independent," when applied to filmmaking, be considered an artistic term relating to sensibility and vision and not simply a question of backing or funds. Can an "independent" film also be a commercial success in Hollywood? Charting the history of independent cinema from early pioneers Jean-Luc Godard and Sam Peckinpah to modern masters such as David Lynch, this book provides a critical analysis of the state of today's film industry.