I am in the process of collecting material for a potential
book, at the least a series of articles, on the Warner
Brothers et al v. CBS, Dashiell Hammett, et al copyright
infringement trial (concerning The Maltese Falcon and The
Adventures of Sam Spade radio show that grew out of it) in
the early 1950s.
I have spent time collecting material concerning the history
of Warner Brothers Pictures. Today, I read the chapter in
Ethan Mordden's _The Hollywood Studios: House Style in the
Golden Age of Movies_. At one point (page 241), Mordden says,
"Warners was a man's place, perhaps the only studio in which
Marline Dietrich could get lost between Edward G. Robinson
and George Raft, in "Manpower
(1941)...We're talking major Tough Guys here, charged with
bringing every film off with the efficient fury of a pirate
raid." Continuing
(pages 260-261), "Warners heroes are born losers who refuse
not to win. This gives MGM films their confidence. Warners
films their balls. Then too, MGM's idea of the human comedy
is everybody getting along because everybody wants to.
Warners believes we have to work at it, sacrifice some sense
of self to defeat evil. The good fight is a communal
undertaking."
While I enjoy the old "tough guy" movies, I never realized
Warners was the "specialty" film company in the genre. I've
learned there were reasons for it: for example, Warner
Brothers was the "cheap" movie company and fast-paced action
was demanded by the brothers in place of star-power, plot and
character-development. If anyone has further information
about Warners and its "tough guy" image I'd like to hear
about it.
Bill Harker
Marlowe is a man "in a lonely street, in lonely rooms,
puzzled but never quite defeated."
Raymond
Chandler, 1959
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