Warner Bros. was quick to take advantage of its sound technology. The introduction of sound made a genre that was popular on stage possible in film: musicals. Warner Bros.' first musical feature film, The Singing Fool, premiered on September 19 1928 in New York City. Like The Jazz Singer before it, it was only part talkie, more or less a silent movie with musical interludes. It proved enormously successful and would remain the highest grossing motion picture until Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs in 1937. It was largely the success of The Singing Fool that led Warner Bros. to release a number of successful musicals in the late Twenties into the Thirties. Among these were On with the Show! (1929), the first all-talking, all-colour musical; Show Girl in Hollywood (1930); Manhattan Parade (1931); 42nd Street (1933); Gold Diggers of 1933 (1933); Footlight Parade (1933); and many others.
Of course, the early era of talkies was also the Pre-Code Era. While the Production Code was adopted in 1930, enforcement of the Code was lax and the studios often pushed the boundaries with regards to what was permitted on the big screen. Warner Bros. was no different from the other studios and, in fact, may have pushed the envelope as to what was allowed in movies more than some of the others. It was in the early Thirties that Warner Bros. began releasing socially realistic films, nearly all of them sympathetic to the common man. Movies such as Lawyer Man (1932), Man Wanted (1932), Baby Face (1933), and Convention City (1933) were grounded in reality and could be risqué. And while today we associate musicals with escapism, Warner Bros.' early musical reflected the social realism of the studio's dramas and comedies of the era. Indeed, the climax of 42nd Street includes the risqué song "Shuffle Off to Buffalo" and simulated scenes of violence during the title song. Like other studios Warner Bros. released horror movies in the early Thirties, and even these tended to be grittier and more provocative than those put out by other studios. Both Doctor X (1932) and Mystery of the Wax Museum (1933) are intense by today's standards.
Among the movies grounded in social realism released by Warner Bros. during the era were their well-known gangster movies. The studio released Little Caesar on January 9 1931 and the film proved to be an enormous success. It was followed by several other gangster and crime movies, including The Public Enemy (1931) and I Am a Fugitive from a Chain Gang (1932). The end of the Pre-Code Era would mark the end of the gangster movie as it existed in the early Thirties, although Warner Bros. would continue to release crime movies throughout its history.
The Pre-Code Era would come to an end on July 1 1934. Religious groups had become increasingly concerned about the content of Hollywood films. In 1933 John T. McNicholas, Archbishop of Cincinnati founded the Catholic Legion of Decency (later renamed the National Legion of Decency), an organization formed to fight the "immorality" of films. With moral watchdogs opposing the film industry in greater numbers, an amendment was added to the Production Code on June 13 1934 that required all films made after July 1 1934 to be submitted to the Production Code Administration to get a seal of approval before they could be released. The Pre-Code Era was officially over.
For Warner Bros. this meant an end to the socially realistic movies of the early Thirties, as well as the gangster movies. The popularity of musicals had gone into decline towards the middle of the decade, although the studio would continue to release musicals, albeit in fewer numbers than in the early Thirties. The mid-Thirties then saw Warner Bros. shift towards historical movies and swashbucklers. Captain Blood (1935), starring Errol Flynn, proved to be an enormous success and led to a series of hit swashbuckler movies starring the actor, including The Charge of the Light Brigade (1936) and The Adventures of Robin Hood (1938).
Of course, throughout the Thirties, Warner Bros. distributed theatrical cartoons. It was in 1930 that Leon Schlesinger signed a contract with the studio to produce cartoons. To make the cartoons he signed animators Hugh Harman and Rudolf Isling. It was these two animators who introduced the Looney Tunes series in 1930 and the Merrie Melodies series in 1931. Harman and Isling had a financial dispute with Leon Schesinger in 1933 and left the producer. It was then that Leon Schlesinger formed Leon Schlesinger Productions to make cartoons for Warner Bros. Over time Leon Schlesinger Productions would introduce some of the most successful cartoon characters of all time: Porky Pig in 1935, Daffy Duck in 1937, Elmer Fudd in 1940, and Bugs Bunny in 1940. While Walt Disney dominated theatrical cartoons in the Thirties, Warner Bros. dominated the medium from the Forties onwards.
In 1944 Leon Schlesinger sold Leon Schlesinger Productions to Warner Bros., where upon it became Warner Bros. Cartoons, Inc. While Warner Bros. Cartoons were some of the studio's most successful products, Jack L. Warner did not hold them in a particularly high regard. In fact, at a rare meeting with the makers of Warner Bros. cartoons in 1953, Jack L. Warner not only admitted to not knowing where the animation studio was located, but said, "The only thing I know is that we make Mickey Mouse." Of course, Mickey Mouse was and still is a Disney character, not a Warner character. It was in 1955 that Warner Bros. sold all of its cartoons made before 1948 to Associated Artists Productions. With a few interruptions, Warner Bros. Cartoons more or less continued until 1969 when it finally closed. It was the success of The Bugs Bunny/Road Runner Movie (1979) that led to the re-establishment of the cartoon studio as Warner Bros. Animation in 1980. Warner Bros. Animation would not only produce new theatrical cartoons, but also such television shows as Tiny Toon Adventures, Animaniacs, Pinky and the Brain, Batman: The Animated Series, and others.
To a degree the movies Warner Bros. made in the Forties reflected what they had made in the mid to late Thirties. Warner Bros. would continue making comedies in the new decade, including such entries as The Strawberry Blonde (1941), The Man Who Came to Dinner (1942), Princess O'Rourke (1943), Arsenic and Old Lace (1944), and Christmas in Connecticut (1945). It was during the Thirties that Warner Bros. first started making what is known as woman's pictures, movies featuring female protagonists, female-centred storylines, and meant to appeal to a female audience. From the Thirties into the Forties, Warner Bros. released such woman's pictures as Jezebel (1938), Dark Victory (1939), The Letter (1940), Now, Voyager (1942), and Mildred Pierce (1945). Although Joan Crawford fans might disagree, an argument can be made that Bette Davis was the Queen of Woman's Pictures at Warner Bros. In 1932 Bette Davis signed to Warner Bros. and she would prove to be one of their most popular stars. She ranked in the Quigley Poll of the Top Ten Money Making Stars for several years.
World War II would see changes at Warner Bros., even before the United States entered the war. Harry Warner oversaw the production of several anti-German films, including Confessions of a Nazi Spy (1939), Sergeant York (1941), and You're in the Army Now (1941). Once the war began, Warner Bros. began making war movies. They also cut their film production in half. Many of the films Warner Bros. produced during the war years also served as propaganda in support of the war. Examples of these movies are Casablanca (1942), Yankee Doodle Dandy (1942), This is the Army (1943), and Mission to Moscow (1943).
It was shortly before World War II that one of Warner Bros.' biggest stars emerged. Humphrey Bogart proved to be a sensation in The Petrified Forest (1936) and was signed to a contract with Warner Bros. He found himself largely playing supporting roles in which he was a gangster or, at the very least, a tough guy. It was High Sierra (1941) that transformed Humphrey Bogart into a star. Mr Bogart followed it with some of Warner Bros.' most iconic films The Maltese Falcon (1941), Casablanca (1942), The Big Sleep (1946), and others.
It was in 1943 that Warner Bros. would find itself at odds with one of its major stars. Olivia De Havilland, who had signed with the studio in 1935, sued Warner Bros. for breach of contract. She had fulfilled her seven year contract, only to be informed that six months were added to her contract to cover the times she was suspended. It was then that she filed a suit against Warner Bros, seeking a judgement that she was no longer held to the contract. It was only a little over a year after the suit had been filed that the California Court of Appeal for the Second District decided in her favour. The resulting judicial decision is still known to this day as "the De Havilland Law."
The last years of World War II would see the development of a new style of film in which Warner Bros. movies had played a role: film noir. Both High Sierra (1941) and The Maltese Falcon (1941) served as blueprints for the noir movement. It was in 1944 that film noir really began to take shape with the release of such films as Double Indemnity (Paramount, 1944), Laura (20th Century Fox, 1944), and The Woman in the Window (RKO, 1944). Warner Bros. would release its own film noirs, including Mildred Pierce (1945), The Big Sleep (1946), Her Kind of Man (1946), Whiplash (1948), White Heat (1949), and others. Warner Bros. would continue to release film noirs throughout the classic period of noir (roughly from the mid-Forties to the mid-Fifties).
Initially the years after the war would be good for Warner Bros., despite a strike by its employees in September 1946. The studio posted record profits. It had developed such new stars as Lauren Bacall. And it bought Pathé News from RKO in 1947. Unfortunately, Warner Bros. was party to the famous antitrust case United States v. Paramount Pictures, Inc. Despite the name of the case, it was not only against Paramount. The rest of the Big Five, as well as the Little Three (Universal, United Artists, and Columbia) were named in the suit as well. It was on May 3 1948 that the Supreme Court decided the case against the studios. Among other things, the studios had to divest themselves of their theatres and cease block booking (in which multiple films, both short subjects and features, would be sold to theatres all together). The United States v. Paramount Pictures, Inc. degree essentially brought an end to the studio system and dealt a major blow to the major studios.
While United States v. Paramount Pictures, Inc. dealt a serious blow to Warner Bros. and the other studios, Warner Bros. would hardly be down for the count. While there would be lean years and good years ahead, the years following the Forties would see the studio expand into new media and continue to release classic films.
1 comment:
Very interesting!
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