The Golden Age Of Hollywood
 
Warner Brothers



The movie that really established Warners

The four Warner brothers first big success was My Four Years In Germany (1918) but the Warner Brothers studio wasn't formally established until 1923. Head of production was Jack Warner although his brother Harry had control of the purse strings and thus the real power. Sam Warner was a calm intermediary between the feuding brothers Jack and Harry but their vendetta against each other became more bitter as the years went by particularly after Sam tragically died just before the premiere of The Jazz Singer in 1927.

In the silent days Warner Brothers survived on the back of John Barrymore and particularly the canine superstar Rin-Tin-Tin but it was the sound revolution started by Sam Warner which turned the studio in a major Hollywood player.

The gangster cycle which began with Edward G. Robinson in Little Caesar (1930) and James Cagney in The Public Enemy (1931) was an important part of the studio's output in the early 30s. I am a Fugitive From A Chain Gang (1932) starring Paul Muni led to laws regulating forced labour camps. If another studio is more associated with the Depression and the New Deal then I have yet to hear aboutit. Even the Busby Berkeley musical GoldDiggers of 1933 included a song called "Remember My Forgotten Man" which pointed to the fact that many of the soldiers in the Great War were now among the unemployed. These were truly stories torn from today's headlines.

Warner Brothers also produced escapist fare in the form of Errol Flynn action movies and Bette Davis' romantic weepies.

During the Second World War the studio produced some of the most patriotic movies of the era : Sergeant York (1941) for which Gary Cooper won his first Academy Award for Best Actor, Yankee Doodle Dandy (1942) : James Cagney in another Academy Award winning performance as the Irish-American entertainer George M Cohan and most memorable of all Humphrey Bogart and Ingrid Bergman in Casablanca (1943).

Bogart had become a major star with a wide appeal in The Maltese Falcon (1941) which was the first film directed by Walter Houston's son John. Lauren Bacall joined Bogart in To Have and Have Not (1944) and The Big Sleep (1946) before Bogie collaborated with John Huston again in The Treasure of the Sierra Madre (1948). Around the same time Joan Crawford arrived at the studio and became a handy rival to the reigning queen Bette Davis when Joan won the Best Actress Oscar for Mildred Pierce (1945).

In the 50s James Dean's three films East of Eden (1955), Rebel Without A Cause (1955) and Giant (1956) were all released by the studio. Despite a popular version of My Fair Lady (1964) Warners eventually became part of the giant Warner Communications conglomerate, a multinational involved in all aspects of the mass media. Clint Eastwood was the greatest and most long lasting of the company's new stars.


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Written content copyright Derek McLellan,2005.
Copyright © The Fedora Chronicles

The Jazz Singer poster from
http://www.filmsite.org/