Boom and Bust: American Cinema in the 1940s

History of the American Cinema #6

by Thomas Schatz

Boom and Bust traces the movie industry through the momentous decade of the 1940s. It discusses changes in the structure of the studio system―including the shift to independent production―and the dominant stars, genres, and production trends through the period.

Genres: Film, Media Tie In, Nonfiction

582 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1997

About the author

Tom Schatz is the Mary Gibbs Jones Centennial Chair (and interim chairman) of the Department of Radio-Television-Film at The University of Texas at Austin, where he has been on the faculty since 1976, and is the Executive Director of the University of Texas Film Institute. He has written four books about Hollywood films and filmmaking, including Hollywood Genres: Formulas, Filmmaking, and the Studio System; The Genius of the System: Hollywood Filmmaking in the Studio Era; and Boom and Bust: American Cinema in the 1940s. Schatz edited the four-volume collection, Hollywood: Critical Concepts, and he also serves as series editor of the Film and Media Studies Series for the University of Texas Press. Schatz's writing on film has appeared in numerous magazines, newspapers, and academic journals, including The New York Times, the Los Angeles Times, Premiere, The Nation, Film Comment, Film Quarterly, and Cineaste.

Schatz lectures widely on American film and television in the U.S. and abroad, and he has delivered talks and conducted seminars for the Motion Picture Academy, the Directors Guild of America, the American Film Institute and the Los Angeles Film School. Schatz also is engaged in media production, has consulted and provided on-screen commentary for a number of film and television documentaries, and is co-producer of "The Territory," a long-running regional PBS series that showcases independent film and video work.

Schatz's recent publications include an essay on "Band of Brothers" in The Essential HBO Reader (2008) and "The Studio System and Conglomerate Hollywood," the lead essay in The Contemporary Hollywood Film Industry (2008). Current publishing projects include a study of contemporary Hollywood and a revised edition of Hollywood Genres.

As Executive Director of the UT Film Institute, which he founded and launched in 2003, Schatz oversees a program devoted to training students in narrative and digital filmmaking, and the actual production of feature-length independent films.

Reviews

[Adrian Fanaca · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is about a decade of change, with formative industry trends like manufacturing the blockbuster or the auteur cinema. There was a revision, transformation and revival of genres. This book also describes the majors, mini-majors and independent filmmakers, as well as their costs, agents and stars. The thing I remember from this book is that the decade meant a transfer of power to the agents, who basically made the deals for the movies.

[Mark · Rating 4 out of 5]

Thomas Schatz's volume in the "History of the American Cinema" series looks as Hollywood in the 1940s, a challenging decade in which the film industry faced threats from antitrust investigations and the emerging technology of television. Overshadowing all, though, was the war, which both undermined markets and provided unprecedented opportunities for American filmmakers. Schatz examines all of this in an account that addresses studio operations, production trends, and the industry's response to the shifting political winds of the decade. It is a fascinating look at tumultuous times, one that can be read for enjoyment or used as a reference work.