Movies of the Nineteen Thirties
Jerry L. Cross
Researcher
Historic Sites and Museums Section
“Sure I remember the Nineteen
Illirlies, the terrible, troubled,
triumphant, surging, Thirties.”
—Stein beck.
North Carolinians were shocked and con¬
tused as the prosperous twenties ended in a
sudden crippling depression. Prices drop»
ped, wages were eut, banks failed, and no
one seemed to know why. Motion pictures
offered
Гаг
Heels an escape from the harsh
realities of day-to-day living. I'heir movie
attendance helped to inaugurate the einema’s
‘‘(■olden Age.”
I he harshness ol the depression brought
poverty, unemployment, crime, and chaos
into the daily lives of the people. The pub¬
lic began to demand “realistic” pictures,
and what they wanted was a hard-hitting,
naturalistic drama that took its themes from
the headlines of the day. The early thirties
saw the arrival of the anti-hero in forms of
gangsters and fallen women. People floeked
to the theaters to see Little Ceasar (1930),
Front Page (1931), Public Enemy (1931),
Blond I enus (1932), and Susan Lenox ( 1931).
James Cagney, Edward G. Robinson, and
Jean Harlow were applauded lor the charac¬
ters they portrayed because, even though
they lost out in the end, their lives were
glamorous and exciting, a glaring contrast
to the drab realities of life in the 1930s.
Through the movies, the public could blame
certain individuals lor what were in fact
national problems. Audiences seemed to find
eomiort in the triumph ol good over evil, and
in the fact that things will turn out all right
in the long run.
Despite the popularity of realistic mov¬
ies, there were many who felt that the holiest
portrayals were placing loo much emphasis
on the immoral and irreverent aspects ol
life. The Legion of Decency was formed in
1931 to lead the attack against (rank realism
in films, and against this background of pro¬
test new forms of entertainment were created.
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Capitol Theater, Raleigh, advertises
vitaphone talking movies in 1930.
The iirsl was termed the “fantasy of
good will,” putting forth the idea that any
problem (obviously an allusion to the de¬
pression) could he overcome if everyone
were kind and generous to his fellow-man.
Mr. Deeds Goes to Town (1936) was a clas¬
sic example of this philosophy, hut the best
known and most popular exponent of good
will was the curly-headed moppet, Shirley
Temple.
The second form was the "screwball”
eomedies in which anything and everything
was done for a laugh. The terrible realities
ol unemployment, hunger, and fear were the
bases for the antics of the comedians, and
being masked in humor the people could
laugh at the troubles that surrounded them.
My Man Godfrey (1936) and Easy Living
(1937) plaeed hunger, poverty, and the at¬
titudes of high society in a eomedie light,
but made no attempt to offer solutions to the
problems.
As the European war came closer to
America, still another form appeared in the
movies, a lorthright heliel in the inherent
strength ol democracy to bring about nation¬
al recovery and a solution to the world's
problems. The screen version of Grapes of
Wrath (1939) was infused with a strong dec¬
laration of faith in the ability ol the Ameri¬
can people to pull through a crisis. In A be
Lincoln in Illinois, the public identified
with an American hero whose life symbolized
the democratic tradition.
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