American Cinema of the 1920s Themes and Variations [Paperback]

During the 1920s, sound revolutionized the motion picture industry and cinema continued as one of the most significant and popular forms of mass entertainment in the world. Film studios were transformed into major corporations, hiring a host of craftsmen and technicians including cinematographers, editors, screenwriters, and set designers. The birth of the star system supported the meteoric rise and celebrity status of actors including Charlie Chaplin, Mary Pickford, Joan Crawford, Greta Garbo, and Rudolph Valentino while black performers (relegated to "race films") appeared infrequently in mainstream movies. The classic Hollywood film style was perfected and significant film genres were established: the melodrama, western, historical epic, and romantic comedy, along with slapstick, science fiction, and fantasy.

In ten original essays,American Cinema of the 1920sexamines the film industry's continued growth and prosperity while focusing on important themes of the era.

In ten original essays,American Cinema of the 1920sexamines the film industry's continued growth and prosperity while focusing on important themes of the era that witnessed the birth of the star system that supported the meteoric rise and celebrity status of actors, including Charlie Chaplin, Mary Pickford, Joan Crawford, Greta Garbo, and Rudolph Valentino, while black performers (relegated to "race films") appeared infrequently in mainstream movies.

LUCY FISCHER is a Distinguished Professor of Film Studies and English at the University of Pittsburgh. She is the author ofDesigning Women: Art Deco, Cinema, and the Female Form, among many other publications.

"This most recent volume in the Screen Decades series, which looks at American culture and American cinema decade by decade, offers ten essays on the cinema of what F. Scott Fitzgerald termed 'the jazz age.' These fresh, insightful essays spark attention on tlÃ-