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.
Written content copyright Derek McLellan,2005.
Copyright © The Fedora Chronicles
The Jazz Singer poster from
http://www.filmsite.org/