Deck 4: The Studios ERA: Dominance and Diversity in the Golden Age of Hollywood, 1929-1948

Question 1

What is one reason that gangster movies were well suited to the introduction of recorded sound?

A) Their complex plots benefitted from characters discuss their criminal activities.
B) Interest in crime and criminals overcame audience suspicion about the new technology of sound.
C) There had been few movies about crime before the introduction of sound.
D) The sound of gunshots and squealing tires along with the colorful speech of the actors added to the excitement of gangster movies.

Answer 1

D

Question 2

United Artists were responsible for the first two American movies by this important European director.

A) Ernst Lubitsch
B) Billy Wilder
C) Joseph Von Sternberg
D) Alfred Hitchcock

Answer 2

D

Question 3

How did so-called "Poverty Row" studios differ from the majors?

A) They tended to produce movies more quickly and with smaller budgets.
B) Their smaller budgets encouraged some filmmakers to experiment with different styles of storytelling.
C) They were able to produce movies that more reflected the cultural diversity of America.
D) All of the above.

Answer 3

D

Question 4

What famous Hollywood director produced the Why We Fight series of propaganda movies?

A) Cecil B. DeMille
B) Howard Hawks
C) Frank Capra
D) Alfred Hitchcock

Question 5

This award-winning movie focused on the often difficult experiences of a group of veterans trying to adjust to post-war life.

A) Casablanca
B) The Best Years of Our Lives
C) Why We Fight
D) Modern Times

Question 6

This head of the movie Production Code Administration office often had the final say about what could and couldn't be shown in American movies during the studios era.

A) Joseph Breen
B) Will Hays
C) Martin Quigley
D) David O. Selznick

Question 7

What aspect of the studio system did the US Supreme Court "Paramount Decision" specifically forbid?

A) The practice of signing actors to long-term binding contracts.
B) Studio ownership of theater chains.
C) Studio ownership of radio stations.
D) The creation of the Production Code Authority as a system of self-censorship.

Question 8

Which of the following is not a characteristic of film noir?

A) A strict sense that justice must always prevail in the long run.
B) A sense of doom and fatalism.
C) Smart, dangerous, and sexually aggressive women characters.
D) The use of shadows and dark lighting.

Question 9

This animated character combined the West African trickster figure with the fast-talking urban street hustler.

A) Mickey Mouse
B) Daffy Duck
C) Bugs Bunny
D) Betty Boop

Question 10

Seeing the movie as a thinly veiled attack on his own career, this newspaper publisher actively tried to sabotage Orson Welles's production of Citizen Kane.

A) Joseph Pulitzer
B) William Randolph Hearst
C) Louis B. Mayer
D) Joseph Breen

Question 11

Walt Disney's practice of linking his studio's movies with his television programs, his theme park, and various kinds of consumer merchandising is an early example of this entertainment business strategy.

A) Roadshow exhibition
B) Vertical integration
C) Independent production
D) Synergy

Question 12

What is one way that the movies Frank Capra made for Columbia especially connected with Depression-era audiences?

A) Their sense of American optimism in the face of cruel realities.
B) Their bright Technicolor vision of a happier America.
C) Their lavish musical production numbers.
D) Their sometimes harsh realism and avoidance of simple happy endings.

Question 13

His Frankenstein movies helped establish Universal's reputation for horror movies in the 1930s.

A) Val Lewton
B) Orson Welles
C) Alfred Hitchcock
D) James Whale

Question 14

How was Martin Luther King, Jr. involved in the premier of Gone With the Wind?

A) He was part of an organized protest against the movie led by his father's church.
B) He was part of a youth choir who played the role of enslaved field workers at a lavish premier party.
C) He watched the movie from a segregated section of the movie theater.
D) He marched in a parade honoring the premier.

Question 15

In the 1930s and 1940s, what percentage of the US population went to at least one movie a week?

A) Between 40 and 50 percent.
B) Between 60 and 70 percent.
C) Between 30 and 40 percent.
D) Between 80 and 90 percent.

Question 16

What is one way that the Great Depression strengthened the dominance of the major Hollywood studios?

A) Their greater resources allowed them to add sound to their theaters more successfully than smaller independent exhibitors.
B) Audiences felt increased loyalty to their favorite studios.
C) The financial health of the major studios made them immune to the effects of the Depression.
D) The government provided subsidies to the major studios to help them survive the Depression.

Question 17

Which of the following was a popular child actor of the 1930s?

A) Clark Gable
B) Mary Pickford
C) Shirley Temple
D) Will Rogers

Question 18

Which of the following was not a member of the "Big Five" studios?

A) RKO
B) Paramount
C) Universal
D) Warner Brothers

Question 19

What is one way that The Wizard of Oz exemplified the "house style" of MGM?

A) The gritty, realistic depiction of farm life.
B) The adaptation of a story based on a famous book.
C) The use of a young actor in a starring role.
D) The lavish sets and colorful spectacle of the land of Oz.

Question 20

Who was the German immigrant director famous for sophisticated romantic comedies such as Trouble in Paradise?

A) Ernst Lubitsch
B) Erich Von Stroheim
C) Billy Wilder
D) F.W. Murnau

Question 21

Which of the following represents the kind of gritty, politically aware crime movies that were associated with Warner Brothers?

A) Citizen Kane
B) It Happened One Night
C) In Old Chicago
D) I Am a Fugitive from a Chain Gang

Question 22

What is one way that The Grapes of Wrath does not fit the conventional idea of the house style of 20th Century Fox in the 1930s?

A) The studio usually avoided adaptations of literary works as a cost-saving measure.
B) The studio was most famous for its lavish Technicolor productions.
C) The studio was better known for sophisticated movies in European settings.
D) The studio was more associated with popular middle-of-the-road movies than realistic stories about the Great Depression.

Question 23

In his movies for RKO, this innovative dancer, singer, and actor revolutionized the movie musical by incorporating dance sequences more fully into the plot of the movie.

A) Gene Kelly
B) Fred Astaire
C) Busby Berkeley
D) David O. Selznick

Question 24

Dorothy Arzner was able to demand the chance to direct movies on the basis of her success as an editor on the movies of which silent era superstar?

A) Rudolph Valentino
B) Douglas Fairbanks
C) Clara Bow
D) Mary Pickford