Wednesday, May 2, 2018

Looney Tunes; The Wizard of Oz; Victor Fleming, & Gone With the Wind

Before we get back to Oz, (and before I get too far ahead of myself) let's learn a little about The Golden Age of Hollywood (crash course #11).

Merian Cooper, a producer for RKO and the director of King Kong (1933), said he "never wanted to make a black and white picture again" after seeing one of Disney's Silly Symphonies. Warner Brothers Studios soon followed suit to create their Looney Tunes. You'll recognize some of the characters:
We might consider what makes parody or comedy cruel. But animation and comedy, often intended for children, sometimes tends to promulgate (spread) racist depictions of marginalized groups. Other times, they are just meant to entertain and do so with little problem.
1939 was a good year for color film (and Victor Fleming). MGM's musical-fantasy The Wizard of Oz, directed by Victor Fleming, starring Judy Garland was nominated for 6 Academy Awards but lost Best Picture to the epic 4-hour long historical romance-drama Gone With the Wind (also directed by Victor Fleming) and starring Clark Gable and Vivien Leigh. So, either way, Victor Fleming...winner.

HOMEWORK: Please read the short chapter about Film Noir & the script sample from The Maltese Falcon for next class. We will be working on our script projects Monday during the lab and then discussing film noir.

1 comment:

James Talada said...

Avery's time at WB was great, and Clampett's (to a lesser extent) also was. However, neither of them matched up to the work of Freleng (first name Fritz or I, depending on what war we were in) and (one of the men I'm named for) Chuck Jones.

Given our topics of discussion, I'm surprised we're not screening Clampett's "Coal Black and de Sebben Dwarfs!"

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