Walter Wanger, Hollywood Independent PDF
Preview Walter Wanger, Hollywood Independent
Walter Wanger Hollywood Independent COMMERCE AND MASS CULTURE SERIES Edited by Justin Wyatt Walter Wanger, Hollywood Independent Matthew Bernstein Hollywood Goes Shopping David Desser and Garth S. Jowett, Editors Screen Style: Fashion and Femininity in 1930s Hollywood Sarah Berry Active Radio: Pacifica's Brash Experiment Jeff Land Walter Wanger Hollywood Independent Matthew Bernstein Foreword by Robert Wise Commerce and Mass Culture Series University of Minnesota Press Minneapolis London "Fritz Lang, Incorporated" was originally published by the University of Texas Press in Velvet Light Trap 22 (1986): 33-52. "Hollywood's Arty Cinema" was originally published by The Johns Hopkins University Press in Wide Angle 10, no. 1 (January 1988). "Hollywood Martyrdoms: Joan of Arc and Independent Production in the Late 1940s" was originally published in Current Research in Film (1988): 89-113; reprinted with permission from Ablex Publishing Corporation. "Institutions and Individuals: 'Riot in Cell Block 11'" was originally published by the University of Texas Press in Velvet Light Trap 28 (fall 1991): 3-31. "Hollywood's Semi-Independent Pro- duction" was originally published by the University of Texas Press in Cinema Journal 32, no. 3 (May 1993): 41-55. Copyright 1994 by the Regents of the University of California All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the publisher. First published in hardcover by the University of California Press, 1994 First University of Minnesota Press edition, 2000 Published by the University of Minnesota Press 111 Third Avenue South, Suite 290 Minneapolis, MN 55401-2520 http://www.upress.umn.edu Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Bernstein, Matthew. Walter Wanger, Hollywood independent / Matthew Bernstein ; foreword by Robert Wise. — 1st University of Minnesota ed. p. cm. — (Commerce and mass culture series) Originally published: Berkeley : University of California Press, 1994. With new foreword. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 0-8166-3548-X (alk. paper) 1. Wanger, Walter, 1894-1968. 2. Motion picture producers and directors—United States—Biography. I. Title. II. Series. PN1998.3.W345 B47 2000 791.43'0232'092—dc21 [B] 99-088848 Printed in the United States of America on acid-free paper The University of Minnesota is an equal-opportunity educator and employer. 11 10 09 08 07 06 05 04 03 02 01 00 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 For Natalie This page intentionally left blank / know that in an accidental sort of way, struggling through the unreal part of life, I haven't always been able to live up to my ideal. But in my own real world, I have never done anything wrong, never denied my faith, never been untrue to myself. I've been threat- ened and blackmailed and insulted and starved. But I've played the game. I've fought the good fight. And now it's all over, there's an indescribable peace. I be- lieve in Michael Angelo, Velasquez and Rembrandt; in the might of design, the mystery of color, the redemp- tion of all things by Beauty everlasting, and the mes- sage of Art that has made these hands blessed. Amen. —Louis Dubedat, The Doctor's Dilemma by George Bernard Shaw A producer comes on the set and says, "I don't like the shoes." —Mike Nichols, quoted by John Gregory Dunne This page intentionally left blank Contents Foreword xi Preface xiii Part One Personal History 1 The Gentleman from the West (1894-1911) 3 2 The Boy Manager (1911-1914) 13 3 Finding a Niche (1915-1919) 23 Part Two The Executive Apprentice 4 Giving the Movies "Class" (1920-1924) 41 5 Organizational Demands (1924-1931) 54 6 Too Much Interference (1932-1934) 71 Part Three Going "Independent" 7 Semi-Independent Production (1934-1936) 93 8 A Fine and Daring Producer (1936-1938) 114 9 An Independent in Every Sense of the Word (1938-1939) 129 10 Having It All (1939-1941) 151 11 Wanger at War (1941-1945) 174 IX
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