The Fate of the Vamp
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The Fate of the Vamp: Weimar Émigré Cinema in the Golden Age of Hollywood Sydney Black History McGill University, Montreal July, 2011-07-26 A thesis submitted to McGill University in partial fulfillment of the requirements of the degree of Master’s of Arts ©Sydney Black, 2011 Table of Contents Acknowledgements......................................................................................................................... i Abstract.......................................................................................................................................... iv Introduction................................................................................................................................... 1 Chapter 1: Weimar: the Distinction of Trauma.............................................................................. 7 Chapter 2: The New Woman and the Screen .............................................................................. 24 Chapter 3: The Emigration........................................................................................................... 41 Chapter 4: The Salon and Success................................................................................................ 59 Chapter 5: The New Woman on American Screens..................................................................... 81 Conclusion: The Closing of the Window....................................................................................... 98 Summary..................................................................................................................................... 108 Sources Used................................................................................................................................109 Acknowledgements While conceiving of, researching material for, and frantically writing this thesis, I have found myself indebted to many people, whose only thanks, I’m afraid, will be my unending gratitude and these acknowledgments. In writing this thesis there were many obstacles around which I had to manoeuvre, if at times rather reluctantly and only at the most vehement behest of my supervisor, Dr Judith Szapor. She not only provided the inspiration for this thesis but was instrumental in guiding my research, and by finally relenting and taking her recommendations, I fell into a subject for which I have genuine enthusiasm. It is thanks to her that I was able to create this thesis, of which I am very proud. In addition to her support, I owe countless thanks to Barbara Hall, Clare Denk and all of the helpful staff at the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences Margaret Herrick library, who enthusiastically helped direct my research while I was in Los Angeles. The staff at the McLennan and Duchow libraries at McGill University – thank you for bearing with my unending retrieval of books. The same books. Over and over again. Thanks as well to Mitali Das, who patiently answered all my questions while I endeavoured to meet the technical requirements of thesis submission which managed to fairly consistently evade me. I would not have been studying histories of trauma if it had not been for Dr. Sarah Clift, nor do I expect that I would have been admitted to any graduate program if it had not been for the kind and enthusiastic letters of reference written by her and Dr. Georgy Levit, both of the University of King’s College, Halifax. I finally would like to thank the friends who were willing to bear with my atrociously rough drafts, particularly Melina Giannelia, who not only edited and translated sections, but clarified my own vision for me, and reassured me that my research was sound and my arguments well founded. And, of course, so much thanks to my parents. Both my mum and dad edited drafts, and shared their painstaking notes with me over the phone, though neither had taken an Arts course since twelfth grade English. More importantly, however, they chauffeured me around in Los Angeles traffic. No small feat. Thanks to everyone – this work could not have happened without you. Abstract Utilizing film and feminist theory, traditional histories of Germany and America as well as primary source material, this paper’s interdisciplinary approach exposes traditional misconceptions regarding the exiled nature of the Weimar émigrés filmmakers during the Golden Age of Hollywood. Through the construct of the New Woman, or the vamp, this paper explores the emigration to America and the ways in which it affected the filmmaking which had characterized Weimar cinema, while illustrating the changing perceptions of women through the 1920s-1940s. 1930s America would prove to be a short lived period wherein the émigré community was able to craft films which departed from the typical Weimar trope of the vamp, featuring prominent and sympathetic female characters. Pendant l’âge or d’Hollywood, il y avait nombreuses cinéastes émigrés du Weimar – réalisateurs, écrivains, acteurs, techniciens – émigrés qui avaient changé leurs méthodes cinématographiques, et, du quelque part, avaient aussi changé des méthodes d’Hollywood. La littérature populaire sur le sujet de cette période est pleine des références de la caractère d’exile de ces cinéastes, mais, même si cette caractèrisation peut s’appliquer sur certaines de ces cinéastes, il est trop simplistique pour la totalité de la communauté des émigrés. L’approche intérdisciplinaire de cette thèse, en utilisant des théories féministes, des théories de filmes, des histoires traditionelles d’Allemagne et des États Unis, ainsi que des matériaux primaires, sert à exposer les histoires fausses des cinéastes émigrés du Weimar en Hollywood. En regardant la caractère de la Femme Nouvelle en cette période, on peut simultanément tracer la trajet de ces émigrés et leurs idées entre Weimar et Hollywood, ainsi qu’utiliser la cinématographie nationale de ces deux pays comme une lentille en analysant les perceptions changeant des femmes. La traitement vindictive des femmes, un élément caractéristique des filmes du Weimar, était abandonné en les États Unis en les années 1930. Cette période avait furni des opportunités pour la communauté des émigrés de s’éloigner de ces tropes, en fabriquant des films avec des caractères feminines qui étaient fortes et sympathiques. Introduction A New World metropolis sitting on the edge of boundless frontiers1 The cinematic production of the 1930s holds a place in the collective memory of cinema enthusiasts as Hollywood’s Golden Age. The Great Depression ravaged the American economy, inflicting damage and inciting struggle across all strata of society, yet it hardly managed to dampen the gilded film industry; the light-hearted comedies and the grandiose historical dramas of the period are often characterized today as indulgent escapism from the strain necessary for mere survival which swiftly had become commonplace for the majority of Americans. As never before, there were glamorous starlets who paraded the screens with their hooded eyes and painted lips, or riding pants and top hats. Actresses took centre stage – so to speak – and female leads were the order of the day in studios, sometimes out-earning their male co-stars. Hollywood was truly characterized by glamour, which Margaret Farrand Thorp eloquently described as “first and most important, sex appeal (though that phrase is banned by the Hays office, you have to say ‘it’ or ‘oomph’), plus luxury, plus elegance, plus romance.”2 Finally, this was also a time period characterized by a massive influx of European intellectuals to the United States. In particular, intellectual and artistic luminaries were emigrating from the fledgling Weimar Republic to New York and Hollywood, bringing with them their artistic visions and cinematic excellence. While Berlin had once appeared to be the “New World metropolis sitting 1 Paul Mendes-Flohr, “The Berlin Jew as Cosmopolitan,” in Metropolis: Jews and the New Culture, 1890- 1918, ed. Emily D Bilski, ed. Berlin (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1999), 28. 2 Margaret Farrand Thorp, America at the Movies (United States of America: Yale University Press, 1939), 65. 1 on the edge of boundless frontiers,”3 as described by Paul Mendes-Flohr, the same can be said for Hollywood: the energy that defined Berlin at the turn of the century can, rather appropriately, be observed radiating from Hollywood during the 30s, when many turn-of-the- century Berliners would call the California coast their home. The mass emigration from Weimar to America has been contemplated in academic accounts for decades, although the place of Hollywood – particularly in older accounts – has often taken a backseat to the stories of writers, composers and dramatists, who primarily exerted their influence on American culture from a concentrated base in New York City through more traditional media. This preference is perhaps best exemplified by the 1968 survey of intellectual emigration to the U.S., Illustrious Immigrants, by Laura Fermi, who completely neglects the film industry as a vessel for intellectuals. Fermi even goes so far as to characterize émigré filmmaker Berthold Viertel as an Austrian poet, rather than as a stage or film director, though directing was the passion to which he devoted most of his career, both in Germany and America.4 More recent émigré studies, such as those written by Anthony Heilbut, Jean-Michel Palmier and Joseph Horowitz, indicate that the congregation of Weimar intellectuals in Los Angeles – referred to as “Weimar on the Pacific” and “New Weimar”