History/HRS 169 -- Hollywood and America: A History of American Film
California State University,
Sacramento
Department of History and of Humanities/Religious Studies
College of Arts and Letters
Fall 2008
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Norma Shearer (MGM) in 1930s
Catalog Description: HIST/HRS 169. Hollywood and America. Chronological survey of American films and their cultural significance from the 1890s to the present. Focus on films produced in Hollywood, the contexts in which they were created, and the impact of Hollywood as a mythical place in the development of American culture. 3 units.
Course Description: This course has no formal prerequisites, although it is useful to have taken History 17B (U.S. History Since 1865) and HRS 180 (Introduction to the Film).
The course is intended for History majors interested in film and U.S. popular culture; for Humanities majors interested in film studies; for Film Studies minors; and for students from any major in the university interested in film and seeking an upper-division General Education course in the Arts and Humanities area.
The course will give students a chronological survey of American filmj through about the 1970s.. It will stress the technological, business and cultural contexts in which American films have been made. It will also focus on the relation between American movies and U.S. popular culture with discussion of how movies have influenced popular culture and vice versa. The course will devote considerable attention to the patterns of censorship in American film history.
Students will acquire insights about how movies are made -- what for example have been the changing roles of studios, producers, directors, writers, actors and agents.
Finally, the course will consider whether Hollywood has produced enduring works of beauty, or has it been primarily an entertainment. If the former, what is it about the system that has produced great films?
Class time is devoted to discussion of assigned reading material, and to viewing film clips from American movies. Students will view a few assigned feature films outside class.
The course requires three blue book tests; and a five-page essay.
Hitchcock Directing Paul Newman
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Louis B. Mayer of MGM 
Greta Garbo in her mysterious pose.
Class Summaries
Course Materials - Mandatory
Part I
Study Guide for Whitfield, 'Pickford'
Tom Dirks on "Voyage to the Moon" (1902)
Tom Dirks on "Great Train Robbery" (1903)
Wikipedia Summary on 'Birth of a Nation'
Wikipedia on Lillian Gish
Part II
Article: "The Sins of Hollywood"
Motion Picture Production Code -- 1930
Classic Quotes - Mae West and Marx Bros.
Identity key to "Hollywood Steps Out"
Dialogue from 'Dracula' (1931)
The Cinema of Ernst Lubitsch
Gary Morris on Frank Capra
Schlesinger, "When the Movies Really Counted"
John Huston - 'NYTimes' obituary
Review of film 'The Red Badge of Courage'
Study List and for Discussion Points 'Picture'
Review of book 'Picture' by LillianRoss
Wikipedia on "Film Noir"
"Anklet" scene from "Double Indemnity"
Wikipedia on "Double Indemnity"
Part III
"Testimony of John Howard Larson to HUAC"
Office Scene from Siegel's "Body Snatchers"
Wikipedia on the "Western"
Glenn Erickson on 'My Darling Clementine'
Review of John Ford's 'The Searchers'
Wikipedia on Martin Scorsese (good)
Craft Reviews of Selected Scorsese Films
Marc Raymond on Martin Scorsese
Wikipedia on James Dean and his Legend
Martinetti on James Dean as a Rebel Icon
Wikipedia on Marilyn Monroe
Hefner and Hopper on Marilyn's Centerfold
Dialogue from Early Scenes - 'The Graduate'
Wikipedia on "The Graduate"
Sf Chronicle on 'The Graduate'
Roger Ebert on 'Bonnie and Clyde'
Wikipedia on 'Bonnie and Clyde'
Part III - continued
Wikipedia on 'The Godfather' (Coppola)
Francis Ford Coppola
Wikipedia on 'E.T. The Extraterrestrial'
Steven Spielberg
'Indie' Plots - Allen, Lee, and Tarantino
Optional Course Materials
The American Picture Palace
'Popcorn Palace:' Art Deco Movie Theaters
Charlie Chaplin Homepage
Buster Keaton Society
Rudolf Valentino Homepage
Greta Garbo, the Ultimate Star
Joan Mellen, 'Mae West Nobody Knows"
Robert Warshow, "The Westerner"
"A Fine Romance": David Denby on the Contemporary Romantic Comedy
Essay Questions for Exams
ID List for Exams
Sample Answers from Previous Exams
Sample Answers from 2005
Sample Answers from Test #1 2005
Sample Answers from Test #1 2006
Sample Student Papers
Student Paper on Scorsese and Violence
Student Paper on Frances Marion
Essay Questions
Assignment for Scorsese Paper
General Research Tools
George Craft's Film Reviews, A-D
George Craft's Film Reviews, E-L
George Craft's Film Reviews, M-R
George Craft's Film Reviews, S-Z
Movie Review Query Engine
Internet Movie Data Base
American Film Institute
Tom Dirks' Greatest Films
Turner Classic Movies homepage
Tom Dirks' 'Film History by Decade'
D. W. Griffith
Brian DePalma in the 1980s
Instructor: George S. Craft
More information is available on Dr. Craft's homepage. You may contact the instructor via e-mail at gcraft@csus.edu.