The Talkies: American Cinema's Transition to Sound, 1926-1931

History of the American Cinema #4

by Donald Crafton

The Talkies offers readers a rare look at the time when sound was a vexing challenge for filmmakers and the source of contentious debate for audiences and critics. Donald Crafton presents a panoramic view of the talkies' reception as well as in-depth looks at sound design in selected films, filmmaking practices, censorship, issues of race, and the furious debate over cinema aesthetics that erupted once the movies began to speak.

Genres: Film, Nonfiction

651 pages, Paperback

First published December 1, 1997

Reviews

[Gijs Grob · Rating 5 out of 5]

This must be the definitive account on Hollywood's transition to sound. Crafton covers virtually everything: e.g. the rival technologies, the influence of telephone, grammophone and radio companies, the invention of the boom operator, the influence of sound on lighting, the importance of shorts and newsreels for the development of talkies, the birth of the modern movie trailer, the rise and fall of the musical, the influence on the foreign market, race issues, the influence of sound on censorship, the coverage in fan magazines, and of course, how some of the major stars did or did not succeed in the transition to sound.

Crafton shows that the transition to sound as depicted in 'Singin' in the Rain' is a highly simplified story. The transition took ca. four years, and was one of trial and error, with odd experiments like showing a film with the soundtrack transmitted through radio. Crafton shows that in these transition years sound was initially seen as an augmentation, an extra. Only from 1929 on sound slowly became an integral aspect of film making, and by 1931 no silent picture was made anymore (save Chaplin's 'City Lights'). Crafton also pays attention to the short time period in which Hollywood made foreign language versions of their films, before the advent of dubbing.

On the fly Crafton shows that the 1920s were technologically an exciting age, with telephone and radio being new media competing for the American customer. And already during these years experiments were done with television and even with videophone(!).

Some of Crafton's subjects may be a little dry (the acquisitions and fights over patents by major companies), but his text is never boring. He manages to draw us into the wonderful world of the late 1920s, citing a lot of contemporary texts, and making Hollywood's move to sound an engaging tale.

Highly recommended on all film lovers with even the slightest interest in cinema from this time period.

[James Henry · Rating 5 out of 5]

The joy of this series is that if, like me, you think that you know a lot about the history of American cinema, it turns out you actually know nothing. This book only covers six years, but it’s jam-packed and covers the period from many different angles: technological, legal, social, and economic. Even if you aren’t particularly interested in a certain aspect—for me, a lot of the section on technology went over my head—it’s still engaging enough to read about.

[Situationist 95 · Rating 5 out of 5]

PERFECT, Just a Book That Gave me Insight On Everything I never Knew I wanted to Ubsess Over. PERFECT

[Sergiy Svitlooky · Rating 3 out of 5]

Well, it took me almost a year to finish this book! Not sure 5 years of the cinema history deserved a 500 pages volume, although I am huge fan of the series.