The Hollywood Studios

House Style in the Golden Age of the Movies

By: Ethan Mordden

Narrated by: Barrett Whitener

Hollywood in the years between 1929 and 1948 was a town of moviemaking empires. The great studios were estates of talent: sprawling, dense, diverse. It was the Golden Age of the Movies, and each studio made its distinctive contribution. But how did the studios, "growing up" in the same time and place, develop so differently? What combinations of talents and temperaments gave them their signature styles?

These are the questions Ethan Mordden answers, with breezy erudition and irrepressible enthusiasm, in this fascinating and wonderfully readable book. Mordden illuminates how the style of each studio was primarily dictated by the personality, philosophy, and attitudes of its presiding mogul - and how all these factors affected the work and careers of individual actors, directors, writers, and technicians, and the success of the studio in general.

©1988 Ethan Mordden (P)1996 Blackstone Audio, Inc.

Critic reviews

"Written with a flair and clarity that will delight even the casual movie lover, this study is a refreshing and convincing alternative to the auteurist approach to film history." ( Publishers Weekly)
"Accessible, well written, humorous and informed. Barrett Whitener is brisk and crisp - as always, a delight to listen to." ( AudioFile)

Very Entertaining and Informative

We often hear of the major directors and producers who shaped American cinema: Griffith, DeMille, Hawks, Ford, Houston, etc., in the former camp, Selznick, Thalberg, Goldwyn, etc, in the latter--but this is a lively and quite informative look at how the major studios each had a style and production system of their own. It provides discussions of several key films, notes how similar material was differently shaped in competing studios, and you end up with a nice list of "Must See" films from the Golden Age. A great read for those with more than a passing interest in films, especially given the poverty of audiobook titles of similar subject matter.

The author is opinionated (he dismisses Douglas Sirk out of hand and obviously prefers the musical over other genres, the latter more a problem as studios such as Universal and Warner Brothers were primarily known for other genres, the horror and gangster film respectively. Still, this is a good way to get a feeling for how each studio's style emerged and was refined, and the opinions take back seat to the films and personalities that characterize each studio's distinctive output.

I was disappointed by the brevity of the chapter on RKO, and some of the author's insights seem not to come so much from having viewed the films in question, but rather from documentaries about the era (his discussion of the early talkies is, in part, straight from the old HBO series, HOLLYWOOD, END OF AN ERA. These a minor quibbles, and I highly recommend this book as a starting point.

The reader is first rate. He has been attacked elsewhere, but I found him wonderful company during a long automobile trip just ended. Give the sample a listen and decide for yourself.

A Droll History of Hollywood's Studio System

I was put off at first by the flat narration, BUT the narrator improves as the book goes on AND a deadpan read seems to work for Mordden's style - he has a dry wit that invites the listener to pick up the jokes on his/her own. We visit Paramount, MGM, Warner Bros., RKO and other studios in Hollywood's Golden Age. Mordden is an opinionated writer - I can't imagine any reader would agree with everything he writes but that's part of what makes him so fun. I think he is so right on about RKO's Stage Door and Bringing Up Baby and ridiculously critical of MGM's Freed Unit but I don't expect you (or Mordden) to necessarily agree with me. All the greats are here. A sampling: Katherine Hepburn, George Cukor, Astaire and Rogers, Gloria Swanson, John Ford, Judy Garland - a small taste of what lies in store for the listener. I thoroughly enjoyed this book and think it's mandatory reading for TCM fans and anyone who wants a taste of Golden Age Hollywood. The book's span is from the earliest silent pictures through 1948, the year the Studios were, in a sense, broken up by the Government. (It's much more complicated then that and frankly I still don't understand what exactly happened.). I can't think of a more fun time and place to be than here in black-and-white/Technicolor land. Give it a listen.

Interesting book, bland reader

I love the subject of the studio system and the movies that were made. And while the narrator did mispronounce certain words and names that didn't bother Me as much as the overall blandness in which he read it. especially when he was quoting someone. It was passable I guess because I do like the subject matter.

Rare Audible offering of an Ethan Mordden book

should be a lot more of these available

Mordden is one of our great cultural historians

The reader falls quite short of the book

I very much enjoyed the book - but the reader is flat terrible. If someone is going to read a book about the movies, it behooves him to learn to pronounce names properly. It was AWFUL to listen to the mispronunciation of Paul Muni's name - over and over again. And this is just one example in a list of many. There are even words he doesn't pronounce properly, e.g., "acumen" - as if it were chili spice. Painful!

This same reader read another book - Picture a Revolution and had the same problem. Many of the names he mispronounces are quite famous and central to some of the passages. It truly drove me nuts. I will look to see if this reader has any more books and will not order them.