Movie Monday

How Hollywood portrayed the rich during the U.S. depression of the 1930s:

Gandalf rises to gi-normous heights in The Fellowship of the Ring after Bilbo accuses him of wanting the Ring for himself. No, Gandalf assures him, I’m not trying to rob you. I’ll trying to help you.

Then Gandalf goes back to normal wizard size; he and Bilbo hug and the world is right again - except for the scary part to follow with Mordor and Orcs and a lot of trouble.

Flash forward from the Shire to reality and I’m picking up vibes that the media thinks the world is right again and we're walking away from this recession/depression. Well, forget the vibes, the talking heads are saying it. (With the exception of Glenn Beck who apparently is still dressed in a chicken suit and reliving the Chicken Little tale.)

As unemployment rises around the world, the President of Brazil tells the world he is tired of white, blue-eyed people ruining the world’s economy and another wave of poverty is going to descend on the U.S.A. as the usurious credit card interest rates come knocking on front doors demanding payments, let’s continue our trip back to the movies in the 1930s.

Probably TCM is the last “free” cable TV station which consistently offers classic and archetypal movies. Last Monday night it did itself proud with a collection of William Wellman pre-code movies. Most of the movies shown were the sexual explicit “women’s movies,” but one was Wild Boys of the Road from 1933. My ears pricked up when host, Robert Osborne, said that this movie was the strongest depression movie made during the time period.

Wild Boys of the Road stars Frankie Darro. It’s a hokey tale:Dad loses his job, son sells beloved jalopy to help, son takes to the road with friends looking for work. However, there were at least two good acting scenes: the speech by the young boy who knows the doctor is about to remove his leg and the look on Darro’s face at the very end after he performs flips and gymnastics along the sidewalk celebrating their new good luck. Then he looks back at his one-legged friend watching his exuberance. No words are said but so much is conveyed.

But as you know, I’m looking at Hollywood in the 30s to analyze their treatment of the rich and I learned a lot from this movie. What I saw:
1. Dad loses his job but blames no one for his bad luck.
2. While a group of railroad guards seem to enjoy the beating they inflict on the boy (and girl) tramps there is a line of dialogue from a cop as the police are sent in to move the kids: I hate doing this. I have kids of my own.
3. The kids set up a tent city on railroad property and say to the cops: But the owner of the property gave us permission.
4. At the end of the movie, when Darro and two others stand before the judge, the judge turns out to be very humane and acts as the deux ex machina to provide the semi-happy (I think Dad is still out of work) ending.

So while we are presented with a few bad guys, especially the rapist railroad guard, the bureaucracy of social order –the police, the rich (railroad owner), the judges – remains unchallenged.

What about the rest of Hollywood in 1933? Here are some of the movies America was watching that year:
Adventure/Horror:
King Kong
Island of Lost Souls
Comedy:
Duck Soup
Sons of the Desert
Adventure:
Laughing at Life
High Gear
Gordon of Ghost City
Mystery:
World Gone Mad
The Ghost Camera
Romance/Drama:
Zoo in Budapest
Dancing Man
Dinner at Eight
Queen Christina
Musicals/Acting:
Morning Glory
Rainbow Over Broadway
The Gold Diggers of 1933)
Depression - themed Movies:
Wild Boys of the Road
Oddities:
The Film Parade
Hitler Youth Quex
http://movies.yahoo.com/browse/year/1933
http://www.filmcritic.com/misc/emporium.nsf/reviews/The-Times-They-Are-a-Changin-Back-The-Top-10-Old-Depression-Films-for-the-New-Depression

What was America doing this year when it wasn’t at the movies? 1933 is considered the worst year of the depression with 1 in 4 Americans unemployed. 4000 American banks closed, went “in suspension", that year.

The National Bureau of Economic Research divides the Great Depression of the 1930s into three parts - two of recessions; one of recovery:
1. The first recession went from 1929 to March 1933 (coincidence that Roosevelt was sworn in as President that month?).
2. A recovery period to 1937.
3. A second recession starting in 1937 which only WWII ended. http://ingrimayne.com/econ/EconomicCatastrophe/GreatDepression.html

Movies profits also suffered with box-office receipts bottoming out in 1933 at $480 million. Only in 1941 would the receipts top 1929 ($810 million in 1941, $720 million of 1929.) http://www.filmreference.com/encyclopedia/Criticism-Ideology/Great-Depression-THE-DEPRESSION-AND-INDUSTRY-FINANCES.html

As seen above, few movies were tackling the social issues of the Depression. Perhaps they knew like Sullivan learned in Sullivan Travels that in times of trouble people don’t want to see their sorry lives on screen.

Next week: I’ll look at the recovery years of the Great Depression (1934 - 1936) and see if Hollywood movies changed.