Pre Code Hollywood and the Great Depression

The Dirty 30s
⭐️ Further Reading, Sources and Movies

⭐️ Documentaries
ABC News Doc series This Century :

Stories from The Great Depression

American Experience - March of the Bonus Army

Bonus Army Routed

⭐️ Selected Sources
Smedley Butler's Full Bonus March Speech July, 1932

Bernice's Story

Statistics

Richard Brody's New Yorker Review of Street Scene

⭐️Newspaper Clippings
Caspar Prison Riot

Auburn Prison Riot

Ohio Prison Fire

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[CinemaCities]

The Dirty 30s
⭐ Further Reading, Sources and Movies








⭐ Documentaries
ABC News Doc series This Century :


Stories from The Great Depression

American Experience - March of the Bonus Army

Bonus Army Routed

⭐ Selected Sources
Smedley Butler's Full Bonus March Speech July, 1932

Bernice's Story

Statistics

Richard Brody's New Yorker Review of Street Scene

⭐Newspaper Clippings
Caspar Prison Riot

Auburn Prison Riot

Ohio Prison Fire

If you love classic films and smart, entertaining deep dive stories about classic Hollywood subscribe to the free cinema cities newsletter

If you're loving these videos consider supporting the channel at:
Members get lots of great extras!

[zetectic]

So many today don't realise how bad it was in the 1930's.
My Father left school at 14 & took over his older brother's paper route where he had to cycle 20 miles a day. At 16 he left home to work in a hotel kitchen 60 miles away: he cried himself to sleep for 2 months as he missed home & his mother so much.
Another older brother of his had emigrated to Western Australia to work on a farm. His right arm was injured in an accident & when the depression hit he was let go. He got a job in a pub as he could serve beer with his left ( good) hand. Meanwhile he had to beg the family for money to pay for his return to England and medical treatment he needed.
My Father said that before WW2 you never left a job however bad it was unless you had another to go to: destitution was always waiting for the unemployed.
Thanks for the video & the insights 👍

[Appleblade]

Both my parents were born in 1920. My mom lived in a garage with her mom & brother, after her dad left. My dad left the farm and lived in a boxcar, traveling from bridge to bridge painting them for the railroad and sending money home. Oddly, they never called me privileged or lorded it over me, what they went through. They were so grateful for everything, it rubbed off on me. I consider it a great gift.

[miapdx]

Pre-code movies taught us that today's troubles, abortion, drugs, alcohol and homelessness were always with us. There really is nothing new under the sun.

[gmg]

My grandpa was a child of the depression born 1929 his favorite thing to do was listen to the Lone Ranger on the radio after doing the farm chores.

[elligilberg]

This period, post silent and pre-code films, is my favorite. So many great films, with wonderful actors and actresses, directors and writers and producers, were made during these years. Thank you for focusing on this very special era for film production.

[frankmenchaca]

My parents came to the US in 1933, unable to speak English. Together with their family and friends somehow managed to scrape along thru these hard years and then send their children to fight in WW2. Will we ever be as tough as they when the chips are down? Thank you for this wonderful video.

[BrokebackBob]

I always look forward to a new post on your channel. I have a master's degree in film studies and I can tell you with assurance that the quality of your content is on a level that could be used as college-level teaching material. Personally I think your channel is the best of its kind on YouTube.

[OuterGalaxyLounge]

The greatest era in movies, as densely packed as a neutron star with classics and lesser-known gems. I watched these titles going by as you discussed them and sighed with happy recognition like I was seeing a bunch of old friends. "Safe in Hell" was once virtually unknown but in recent years has seen a great rise in its reputation. I'm glad you included Wild Boys of the Road, a really seminal Depression film about a part of American history not so much talked about. That lad in the newsreel traveling the rails was from my hometown where I still live and I've read old local newspaper accounts of teens hitting the road to find some hope and meaning and to relieve their parents of the burden of feeding another mouth. Heartbreaking. I might have included Three-Cornered Moon (1933) an early screwball comedy but with darker elements of a family's hardships during the era. You crammed a lot into this. Great work.

[brianharleg]

General Smedley Butler was a true patriot, not only to his country, but to those who served under him... how great to see this truth-telling firebrand toward the end of this video.

[jonsrecordcollection]

"I Am A Fugitive from a Chain Gang" is actually a forerunner of more modern movies. According to one article I read, it's one of the first Hollywood sound movies to have a "hyper-present protagonist, " a main character/audience surrogate who is in basically every scene of the movie. Now that's so common it's barely even a trope, but that movie was one of the first with lots of amazing POV shots. There's a scene where Paul Muni is in a diner & he's staring hungrily at a hamburger on the grill, but the guy he's with starts robbing the diner & we all see it from his own POV. It was very modern for 1933.

[danthsmith]

Greatest era of US movies. The brilliant upbeat depression movies were the 1st 3 Warners Busby musicals. Footlight Parade would be my all time fave. To think the pre-code era will be 100 years old before long

[ghayes]

Another excellent video. I'm 79 and you continue to expose me to great films that I was not aware of . Thanks.

[bobdobs]

Everyone needs to be educated by this brilliant channel

[TheJohnnyCalifornia]

It is interesting how the "American Myth" really informed the media of the Depression. Before then, everyone was on their own, but as soon as there was enough civil unrest and misery, the message became "we're all Americans. We'll get through this together."

That's generally the approach. When times are bad, we're all in this together. When times are good, everyone is out for themselves.

That line about the Mayflower is a good example in the later film. The Mayflower came over with a bunch of religious fanatics who were not suited or ready for life in the wilderness. Accordingly, they started to die in droves until they happened to come across Squanto, a native American that could speak English (likely because he was abducted and forced to work in the English merchant marine) and had no family left (likely due to diseases brought by Europeans). He was able to show them what they needed and negotiate with other tribes for food and goods.

But even back as far as the 1930's, we had this mythic idea of the Pilgrims as resourceful, capable and pioneering people that begin the whole American myth. Now, even the Depression is part of that myth seen as a moment when the country pulled together, but the reality was far different. The country almost fell apart.

[jonsrecordcollection]

Wild Boys on the Road hits surprisingly hard for its time. It's about kids in the Depression who are so poor that they have to ride the rails like hobos and live by their wits. It's closer to foreign movies like Los Olvidados or Pixote in depicting youth in poverty with no adult supervision than Hollywood movies.

[byronbreese]

Major General Smedley Butler, USMC, 2x MoH recipient, a veteran who infiltrated and exposed corporate-capitalist discussions and planning for a coup d'état against FDR in 1934-5. When he was posted to a debarkation camp in France during WW1, he made the place livable and decent for the deploying troops where before no one cared. Recklessly brave and committed to principle.

[samking]

23:50 ... Smedley Butler marine corps general, author of, "War is a Racket." a must read. your videos are great!

[marymitchell]

I Am A Fugitive from a Chain Gang is soo underseen. This & Scarface are Muni’s best roles

[SamBroadway]

Find me some new movies to watch... You have a bundle of suggestions that have filled up my playlist. Great channel