The Loud Silents: Origins of the Social Problem Film

by Kay Sloan

14 pages, Hardcover

First published September 1, 1988

Reviews

[Greta · Rating 3 out of 5]

Discussion of social problems in American films before WWI, a few with radical social change agendas, some socially conservative, and many demonstrating sympathy for the downtrodden while reminding them that it was their lot in life to suffer by showing happy endings produced by unlikely circumstances such as marrying the boss' son or being rewarded by rescuing a rich man’s child from
death or something like that. Covers suffrage, labor, birth control, poverty, corruption and exploitive behaviour by the powerful. More dry than Behind the Mask of Innocence, which covers some of the same territory.