This detailed study of the workings of the American film industry during the 1930s looks at Hollywood as an agent of Roosevelt's New Deal, and the attempts film moguls and moviemakers made to withstand the political turmoil that threatened to engulf America. It illustrates how the studios and their products, from the glamour of MGM stars and escapist musicals to gangster movies and Westerns, even the radical films of the Warner studios, helped foster ideas of social unity and patriotism.

This detailed study of the workings of the American film industry during the 1930s looks at Hollywood as an agent of Roosevelt's New Deal, and the attempts film moguls and moviemakers made to withstand the political turmoil that threatened to engulf America. It illustrates how the studios and their products, from the glamour of MGM stars and escapist musicals to gangster movies and Westerns, even the radical films of the Warner studios, helped foster ideas of social unity and patriotism.

How has America censored British films? In this original, fascinating book, Anthony Slide answers this question, making full use for the first time of the recently opened US Production Code Administration files. Film by film from the 1930s through to the 1960s, he tells the inside story of the ongoing dialogue between the British film making industry and the American censors. The book shows graphically how the Production Code system operated, revealing how the censors viewed moral issues, violence, bad language and matters of decorum as well as revealing acute national differences, such as...