Warner Bros: The Making of an American Movie Studio

David Thompson knows how to write. He has written a very entertaining book about four Jewish immigrant brothers from Youngstown, Ohio who make it in Hollywood and America. The book is a fitting edition to Yale’s Jewish Lives series, despite it being a biography of a movie studio rather than an individual.As with most of the early movie studios Warner Brothers evolves from operating theaters to running a major studio in Hollywood. Along the way we witness the sibling rivalry among the bothers mostly pitting the oldest, Harry against the youngest, Jack. Harry stays true to his religion and his wife, not so much for Jack. Ultimately Jack wins and sells the company out from the other brothers in the 1950s and then buys it back to become its sole owner. Harry dies of a stroke shortly thereafter.The real guts of the book is how Warner’s evolved from making Rin Tin Tin movies in the early 1920s, to pioneering sound with Al Jolson’s “Jazz Singer.” From there we go on to the realistic gangster movies that brought us such stars as Edward G. Robinson and James Cagney. Warner’s also brings us the great Busby Berkeley song and dance spectaculars. In “Gold Diggers of 1933” Joan Blondell sings one of the two great anthems of the 1930’s, “My Forgotten Man.” The other anthem was “Brother Can You Spare a Dime.” So if you add to the gangster movies, “Gold Diggers”, “I Am a Fugitive from a Chain Gang,” and “Petrified Forest” you get a real flavor of America in the 1930s. Because this is in the Jewish Lives series Thompson highlights the rolls of such Jewish actors as Edward G. Robinson, Paul Muni, Peter Lorre and Lauren Bacall.Of course no book on Warner Brothers would be complete without a full discussion of “Casablanca,” the best movie ever made that starred Humphrey Bogart and Ingrid Bergman and was directed by the Hungarian Jew Michael Curtiz. In a few short pages he takes us into the inside of making that movie.There is much more in book with vignettes on Bette Davis, Errol Flynn, HowardHawkes and Joan Crawford. My one minor quibble with the book is that Thompson throws in a few gratuitous comments about Donald Trump. Nevertheless it is a very enjoyable read.

Loved the book. I grew up watching Waner Bros. movies late at night when My parents thought I was asleep. These films were like having a third parent. Or maybe an extra dozen if you count Errol Flynn, Jimmy Cagney, Humphrey Bogart, Bette Davis, John Garfield, Edward G Robinson, Olivia deHaviland, Alan Hale, Roaul Walsh, Mike Curtiz, Ida Lupino and Claude Rains. There were no better teachers in how to live a good, honest, full life.

Film and film business enthusiasts will find much of interest here, and an intriguing case is made for the outsized influence a single studio had in both capturing and shaping the culture and aspirations of America during much of the 1900's. But the writing style is reader-unfriendly and there is an over abundance of material that is really off the topic and extraneous to the "making of the studio." The author is clearly knowledgeable on his subject, but single paragraphs or passages often meander and careen uncomfortably from an unnecessarily detailed movie plot synopsis, to an historical fact, to his personal review/criticism; and then from out of this potpourri occasionally emerges a sweeping, sociological generalization. Not an "easy read" by any means, unfortunately.

Book was a great read, arrived fast and in perfect condition.

The anecdotes were interesting, but the book is more about the author's opinion of film history (and himself) than about any coherent biographical account.Thomson adopts an annoyingly omniscient and moralizing point of view early in the book, claiming that the writer Julius Epstein "seldom thought" his job was respectable. Exactly how does he know what Epstein thought, much less how frequently? Thomson claims that Elia Kazan had a "sense of himself" as "an ugly, resentful Anatolian life force," taking liberties with comments Kazan had made about his looks; and later claiming that Kazan "felt betrayed, and he was as sensitive to that human trait as any natural betrayer." Wow. What moral courage it takes to advertise, with hindsight, that you're on the right side of history (at the expense of someone who's not around to defend himself).Burnishing his feminist credentials, Thomson makes several asides to editorialize about the plight of women – one anecdote embellished with more of Thomson's Godlike knowledge, stating that the Warner brothers had three sisters who he claims were viewed by their parents as "not much more important than two sisters who had died already in infancy." That's a profoundly harsh judgment to make against any parent. Were you there, David? This kind of moral preening is inserted regularly throughout the book. It's obnoxious.The omniscience continues: "Jack did something his brothers had never thought of." "This is going beyond what Warners or Zanuck felt." The brothers "wanted the American dream to be enlightened and responsible, so long as it didn't spoil their own dream of being resplendent and unquestioned moguls." "It was at Warner Brothers that actors and actresses were most aroused by saying stuff."Referring to Paul Muni's portrayal of Emile Zola, Thomson claims that the movie's success "helped confirm the actor's own opinion of how conscientious and sincere he was." Good lord. How on earth could he possibly know what Muni thought of himself? What an arrogant and dishonest way to express a snarky opinion.But these are just my objective complaints. Subjectively, Thomson clomps about – dropping strained and over-edited attempts to be profound and lyrical: "Sound was the fuel for this creative gamble." Huh? "We drank because the dream was failing, or we had failed it. It is the oiled celebrity of hoodlums and killers that flourished in those 'dry' years. And it was the grease of sound being applied to the staid fables of silent cinema." O.M.G. "Her angry eyes needed to feel she was embattled and scorned." Angry eyes need to feel? Really?After finishing this painful book, I read "Bring Up the Bodies," Hilary Mantel's followup to the brilliant "Wolf Hall." Lyricism flows effortlessly on every page. What a contrast to "Warner Bros." Mantel's genius is astonishing and delightful. Thomson's affectations... not so much.

Arrived on time, son likes the book

I got a copy as a gift then found that the pages on the right hand edge were rough cut and 7neven so returned it. I got another copy very quickly and found the same fault so returned it again. Returns easy but clearly books not looked at by printer before sending out or checked by Amazon. Plan to buy elsewhere. Book looks interesting but quality of production poor.

good value

Shocking finish for a hardback book. Or even a phone book. How it left the production line I do not know...

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