American Cinema of the 1940s: Themes and Variations » (1st Edition)

The 1940s was a watershed decade for American cinema and the nation. Shaking off the grim legacy of the Depression, Hollywood launched an unprecedented wave of production, generating some of its most memorable classics, including Citizen Kane, Rebecca, The Lady Eve, Sergeant York, and How Green Was My Valley. In 1942, Hollywood joined the national war effort with a vengeance, creating a series of patriotic and escapist films, such as Casablanca, Mrs. Miniver, The Road to Morocco, and Yankee Doodle Dandy.
With the end of the war, returning GIs faced a new America, in which the country had been transformed overnight. Film noir reflected a new public mood of pessimism and paranoia, in such classic films of betrayal and conflict as Kiss of Death, Force of Evil, Caught, and Apology for Murder, depicting a poisonous universe of femme fatales, crooked lawyers, and corrupt politicians.
With the threat of the atom bomb lurking in the background and the beginnings of the Hollywood Blacklist, the 1940s was a decade of crisis and change. Featuring essays by a group of respected film scholars and historians, American Cinema of the 1940s brings this dynamic and turbulent decade to life. Illustrated with many rare stills and filled with provocative insights, the volume will appeal to students, teachers, and to all those interested in cultural history and American film of the twentieth century.

Wheeler Winston Dixon is the James Ryan Endowed Professor of Film Studies at the University of Nebraska, Lincoln, and editor of the Quarterly Review of Film and Video.

Acknowledgments     ix
Timeline: The 1940s     xi
Introduction: Movies and the 1940s   Wheeler Winston Dixon     1
1940 Movies and the Reassessment of America   Matthew Bernstein     22
1941 Movies on the Edge of War   Sarah Kozloff     48
1942 Movies and the March to War   Steven Jay Schneider     74
1943 Movies and National Identity   Catherine L. Preston     94
1944 Movies and the Renegotiation of Genre   Nicholas Spencer     117
1945 Movies and the March Home   Kristine Butler Karlson     140
1946 Movies and Postwar Recovery   Wheeler Winston Dixon     162
1947 Movies and the "Enemy" Within   Tony Williams     182
1948 Movies and the Family   Joanna Rapf     200
1949 Movies and the Fate of Genre   Marcia Landy     222
Select Academy Awards, 1940-1949     245
Works Cited and Consulted     251
Contributors     261
Index     263