Typical images of the 1930s in America: the Great Depression,
migrant farm workers, Herbert Hoover.
Few think of cinema. But the 1930s mark one of the most heralded
decades in movie history.
The Crank, a graduate student film association, celebrates this
feature-rich era with its series of film screenings for this
quarter, “Sin & Seduction: Film Treasures from the
1930s.” Film screenings take place on Wednesdays at 7:30 p.m.
at the James Bridges Theater and are free of charge.
All of the films in the series are taken from the UCLA Film and
Television Archive, a world-renowned host of dozens of rare and
precious films that happens to specialize in the era.
“We have a great archive at UCLA, and the bulk of the
collection is films from the ’30s and ’40s,” said
Emily Carman, a critical studies graduate student in the UCLA
Department of Film, Television and Digital Media.
Carman, who is writing her dissertation thesis on 1930s female
film stardom in Hollywood, finds films from the decade particularly
fascinating.
“It might be one of the strongest periods of American
cinema,” she said. “There wasn’t television,
there weren’t all these other competing leisure entertainment
formats. Movies really were a mass form of entertainment. It was
the dominant form, so I think there was a higher investment in
quality and it really was a pure cultural pastime.”
According to Andy Woods, a critical studies graduate student and
also a programmer for the series, 1930s cinema is particularly
interesting for both quality and quantity.
“In the ’30s, the studios were just cranking out
tons of films each week, so there’s a large quantity of films
from that period,” he said. “It’s interesting
because from a programming standpoint there’s a large
quantity of films to choose from in the archive, but also the
’30s were a troublesome time for America. It’s a very
fertile period, in terms of the kinds of themes and issues that
were dealt with in the films.”
The movie industry was not exempt from the ravaging effects of
the Great Depression, and films made during the early ’30s
reflect the themes and changes wrought directly or indirectly by
economic crises. Studios that wanted to entertain their audiences
turned to unconventional material, but critics chastised them for
producing films that were too controversial. Eventually, major
studios received enough bad press about the explicit material in
their films and lost so much money from the Depression that they
created the Production Code Administration.
Films made after 1934 were in accordance with this code, but at
least two films The Crank is screening were made before 1934 and
show just how raw the films had been.
“There were a lot of issues being dealt with pre-1934 that
people don’t remember,” said Woods. “Those films
were never re-released because they couldn’t get a production
deal after 1934, and if they were played on television, they would
be heavily edited.”
Luckily for UCLA students, the archive has plenty of these
cinematic gems that can be shown on the big screen in their
original form.
“What’s unique about The Crank is that it’s a
film society at a university, but it’s one that’s
connected to an archive,” said Crank president and graduate
student Savitri Young. “Most people who run film societies,
or most student groups who might run film societies at a
university, don’t have access to an archive.”
The Film and Television archive preservationists are constantly
hard at work preserving and restoring original 35-mm film prints, a
difficult yet imperative task. Unlike movies on DVD or VHS, movies
on film ““ usually a biodegradable nitrate cellulose film
stock ““ before 1950 are especially susceptible to age and
deterioration.
The Crank is screening several preserved films in this
quarter’s series.
“That was another agenda we had,” Carman said.
“A lot of (these films) are not on DVD yet, so they’re
not available unless you come to our series. “˜She Wanted a
Millionaire’ was preserved by UCLA, as were the openers,
“˜Monte Carlo’ and “˜Love Me Tonight.’
You’re not going be able to get them on Netflix.”
Many cinephiles, including Carman, feel the golden age of cinema
has truly gone.
“I feel the stars and the directors and the stories really
made a moment in American cinema that worked really well,”
she said. “It has to do with movies being in a more competing
format, and I just think a high quality of talent and the right
moment made it all work. I could just watch them
forever.”