SCREENING: THE GREAT DICTATOR

During the transition from silence to sound, Charlie Chaplin was the last bastion of silent cinema.  In the subsequent years following the advent of sound, Chaplin had only flirted with using sound.  THE GREAT DICTATOR is is first true talkie as well as his greatest financial success and last bona fide box office hit.  The film is both hilarious and very political.  Made during a time of neutrality between the United States and Nazi Germany, THE GREAT DICTATOR was a controversial stance.  While numerous films dealing with similar anti-fascist sentiments were withheld from release, THE GREAT DICTATOR, through Chaplin's network of independent production, became an international success.  The film's production was so controversial that even the President became involved to secure its completion and release.  Chaplin, who sunk millions of his own money into the production, would have to live or die by THE GREAT DICTATOR.

Chaplin wrote, directed, produced, and starred in the film in dual roles:  a Hitler-esque dictator and a Jewish barber.  Chaplin had a strange fascination with Hitler and the film is further enhanced by the peculiar parallels in their respective biographies.  It is rumored that Hitler was sent and watched the film (twice), but his response is unrecorded.  Unlike films and propaganda at the time, THE GREAT DICTATOR is not a call to arms but rather a reminder of the humane, decent, and good.  Chaplin showcases that comedy can be profoundly serious.  Later in life, Chaplin remarked that if he had known the extent of the atrocities surrounding Nazi Germany, he would not have been able to make THE GREAT DICTATOR.

Suggested Supplmental Screenings: TRIUMPH OF THE WILL (Riefenstahl, 1935), MODERN TIMES (Chaplin, 1936), FURY (Lang, 1936), THE GRAND ILLUSION (Renoir, 1937), THE LADY VANISHES (Hitchcock, 1938), THE ETERNAL JEW (Hippler, 1940), TO BE OR NOT TO BE (Lubitsch, 1942)

FAVORITE FILMS: THE 39 STEPS

SCREENING: SABOTAGE

In his famous interview with Truffaut, Hitchcock considered part of SABOTAGE to be one of his greatest mistakes, but it lives as a film that truly shows the explosive nature of film.  Released in the years leading to WWII, the film deals with a terrorist ring operating in London.  The police investigation closes in on a cinema run by a man, his wife, and her young brother.  Both political and contemplative of cinema itself, SABOTAGE shows Hitchcock at the top of his powers in Britain before his move to Hollywood in 1940.  The film stars Sylvia Sidney, a star of great beauty and depth, and Oskar Homolka as one of Hitchcock's more complex villians.  You can see SABOTAGE featured in Tarantino's INGLORIOUS BASTERDS (2009) and Sidney in BETTLE JUICE (1988) [she is one of Tim Burton's favorite actresses].

Suggested Supplemental Screenings:  Anything by Hitchcock and SCREAM 2 (Craven, 1997)

SCREENING: THE PHILADELPHIA STORY

A classic example of Classical Hollywood, THE PHILADELPHIA STORY stars three of cinema's greatest stars, Katharine Hepburn, Cary Grant, and Jimmy Stewart, under the direction of one of the greatest, if not underrated, studio directors, George Cukor.  After being labeled "box office poison," Hepburn went to Broadway to preform in Phillip Barry's play of the same name and later optioned the script for a Hollywood treatment.  With ingenious maneuvering Hepburn obtained the rights to the play and poised herself to have veto over cast, director, screenwriter, and producer.  Although Hepburn wanted Clark Gable and Spencer Tracey as her male leads, THE PHILADELPHIA STORY became a rousing success at the box office and the Academy Awards.  Representing the romantic comedy genre that feuled Hollywood in the 1930 and 1940s, THE PHILADELPHIA STORY is a quintessential example of Classical Hollywood genre and star power. 

Suggested Supplemental Screenings:  IT HAPPENED ONE NIGHT (Capra, 1934), TWENTIETH CENTURY (Hawks, 1934), MY MAN GODFREY (La Cava, 1936), THE AWFUL TRUTH (McCarey, 1937), BRINGING UP BABY (Hawks, 1938), HIS GIRL FRIDAY (Hawks, 1940), ETERNAL SUNSHINE OF THE SPOTLESS MIND (Gondry, 2004)

SCREENING: STELLA DALLAS

STELLA DALLAS, besides being amazing, shows Hollywood's transition from pre-code to prodcution code cinema as well as its continued reliance on genre and stars.  The film is the second film of the course starring Barbara Stanwyck, who ranks as one of Classical Hollywood's brightest and most talented stars.  Equal to Bette Davis, Katherine Hepburn, and Joan Crawford, Stanwyck constructed an impressive career that was supported by her versatility as much as her consistency.  She performed in comedies, melodramas, thrillers, and westerns with the greatest of ease.  Despite the variety of her performances, she played heorines and villians, she always played her parts with a strong will and intense integrity.  Stanwyck recieved four oscar nominations, and one honorary oscar, during her long career (the first for STELLA DALLAS).

The film itself represents the women's melodrama, or a maternal melodrama, which was a cornerstone of Classical Hollywood.  The film begins when Stella Martin, a working class woman, who marries up to Stephen Dallas and has a daughter, Laurel.  Stella soon learns that the upper class is not all she dreamed it would be as her husband constantly destroys her fun.  However, Laurel remains the epicenter of Stella's life.  After an embarrassing incident, Stella decides that she may be holding her daughter back from living the life Stella always wanted.  The ending ranks as one of cinema's best and leaves the audience wondering if Stella's final act is one of self-sacrifice or self-preservation.

Suggested Supplemental Screenings:  IMITATION OF LIFE (Stahl, 1934), ALICE ADAMS (Stevens, 1935), REBECCA (Hitchcock, 1940), PENNY SERENADE (Stevens, 1941), and NOW, VOYAGER (Rapper, 1942)

Also STELLA DALLAS was remade as STELLA (Erman, 1990) starring Bette Midler.