class #11

292 COURSE NOTES

 

FILM IN THE 1960S:

  • Recap- cinema in 1960s reflected a decade of tremendous social changes (rock’n roll, the civil rights movement, Vietnam War, the first man on moon, the peace movement and drug exploration and transitional cultural values.) This was a turbulent decade of monumental changes, tragedies, cultural events, assassinations and deaths.
  • Spaghettis western
  • Spy films
  • Modern horror film and psychological thriller
  • Science fiction and special effects
  • Comedy became less formulaic.
  • Pop cultural and arts films
  • Counter culture films
  • Beach party films
  • Culture exploitation films

 

  • Financial Difficulties Within the Film Industry:

Increasingly in the 60s, the major studios financed and distributed independently-produced domestic pictures. And made-for-TV movies became a regular feature of network programming by mid-decade. Many “runaway” film productions were being made abroad to save money. By mid-decade, the average ticket price was less than a dollar, and the average film budget was slightly over one and a half million dollars. And by the end of the decade, the film industry was very troubled and depressed and experiencing an all-time low that had been developing for almost 25 years.

Studio-bound “contract” stars and directors were no longer. And most of the directors from the early days of cinema were either retired or dead. Some of the studios, such as UA and Hal Roach Studios, had to sell off their backlots as valuable California real estate (for condominiums and shopping centers). Some sold props (MGM was selling various film artifacts in 1970, including Dorothy’s ruby slippers from The Wizard of Oz (1939)), offered tours of back lots (Universal began its famed studio tours in 1964), or created theme parks (DisneyWorld in Orlando, Florida).

Hollywood Walk of FameTo aid the tourist industry and create another attraction, in 1960, the Hollywood Chamber of Congress inaugurated the Hollywood Walk of Fame (bronzed stars in pink terrazzo and surrounded by charcoal terrazzo squares that were embedded in the sidewalks along sections of Hollywood Boulevard and Vine Street). The first star, placed on February 9, 1960, was for Joanne Woodward. However, by the mid-70s, Hollywood was better known for its adult bookstores, prostitutes, and run-down look.

  • Studio Take-Overs:

Due to various insecurities and financial difficulties, the studios were quickly taken over by multi-national companies, especially after the deaths of pre-war, entrepreneurish movie-studio moguls such as Louis B. Mayer of MGM and Harry Cohn of Columbia, the ousting of Darryl F. Zanuck from 20th Century Fox in 1971, and the sale of one-third of Warner Bros. stock by Jack Warner to Seven Arts in 1967. The traditional, Hollywood studio era would soon be history, as more and more studios were acquired by other unrelated business conglomerates. The age of “packaged” films and the independent company and producer were beginning.