Andrew Bergman, We're in the Money: Depression America and its Films, Harper and Row, New York, 1971.

'Sixty Million persons did not escape into a void each week: escapism is hardly a useful concept.  People do not escape into something they cannot relate to. The movies were meaningful because they depcited things lost or things desired.' (p.xii)

'what happens in depression movies is that traditional beliefs in the possibilitites of individual success are kept alive in the early thirties under various guises, that scapegoats for social dislocation are found are found and that federal benevolence becomes an implicit and ultimately dead-ended premise by the end of the decade.  Hollywood would help the nation's fundamental institutions escape unscathed by attempting to keep alive the myth and wonderful fantasy of a mobile and classless society, by focusing on the endless possibilites for individual success, by turning social evil into persoanl evil and making the New Deal into a vertiable leading man.(p.xvi)

Brian Neve, Film and Politics in America: A Social Tradition, Routledge, London, 1992.

'It is generally suggested that in the second half of the thirties few important films had much social or political relevance.' (p.2)
'By the mid-thirties Warners had established itself as the Hollywood studio most interested in contemporary social and political events, and in the lives and problems of working people.' (p.15)
 

David Parkinson, History of Film, Thames and Hudson, 1995.

Parkinson argues that all of the studios featured the following common stylistic traits: 'sets were invariably lit for scene, stars and atmosphere in that order. Editing was largely functional and limited to transitions, 'shot-reverse-shot' and rapid-time passages, achieved by a combination of cuts and superimpositions known as 'Hollywood montage' (p.97)

He also holds that there were differences between them as well: 'MGM proclaimed the virtues of American life, Paramount... alluded to the supposed decadence of Europe' (p.100); 'Warners possessed the tough realistic style that was perfectly suited to gangster, prison and social problem pictures.' (p.101)

LINKS

• This page on  musicals in the depression is a part of the American studies program of the University of Virginia.
• This site , created by Tim Dirks, contains an overview of the movies of the 1930's, a summary of the films that were released each year, and more extensive outlines of the plots of a number of films.
• This page , from the moviesite, contains a timeline of the movies in the 1930's.
• Michael Mills article, entitled  Screwball Comedy: an overlooked genre from the great classic period , provides a discussion of this genre.
• Gary Jackson's page,  The Hollywood Thirties , provides a history of the films of this era.
• This  page on musicals , which is part of Elizabeth's (her surname is not on the website)  Reel Classics site, contains some information on some famous musicals.  It shoud be noted that not all of these films are from the 1930's, which is a function of the fact that the site focuses on the 'classic era' of Hollywood, an era which is never defined.  Nonetheless, the fact that the year of release is next to each film should allow the user to look at the relevant ones.
• This page contains short reviews of films from the era
• To find information on a specific film from the decade, you should search the  Internet Movie Database.

How to use this site