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Copyright by Kyle Dawson Edwards 2006 The Dissertation Committee for Kyle Dawson Edwards certifies that this is the approved version of the following dissertation: Corporate Fictions: Film Adaptation and Authorship in the Classical Hollywood Era Committee: _________________________ Eric Mallin, Supervisor _________________________ Thomas Schatz, Co-Supervisor _________________________ Jerome Christensen _________________________ Michael Winship _________________________ Brian Bremen Corporate Fictions: Film Adaptation and Authorship in the Classical Hollywood Era by Kyle Dawson Edwards, BA; MA Dissertation Presented to the Faculty of the Graduate School of The University of Texas at Austin in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy The University of Texas at Austin August, 2006 Acknowledgements All of the members of my dissertation committee—Brian Bremen, Jerome Christensen, Eric Mallin, Thomas Schatz, and Michael Winship—have graciously provided their time and expertise. More importantly, they represent models of pedagogy and mentorship that will continue to benefit me far beyond the bounds of this project. In particular, I would like to thank my co-supervisors, Eric Mallin and Thomas Schatz. Eric’s early encouragement convinced me of the appeal and viability of this project and of my own ability to carry it out. Tom’s advocacy on my behalf has been constant, and he has worked tirelessly with me to bring this project to completion. The archival research that is such a crucial component of this dissertation would not have been possible without the generosity and guidance of the archivists and librarians of the various Libraries and Special Collections where I collected materials for this project. Specifically, I’d like to thank Steve Wilson, Ned Comstock, Barbara Hall, and Randi Hokett for their help in this regard. During the course of my graduate career, my family—especially my parents Ron and Linda Edwards—has been more supportive than I could have hoped. I thank them for believing in me here and in all areas of my life. And, finally to my wife Laura, I cannot calculate how much your love, understanding, and constant encouragement have meant to me. I know that I am a better scholar, teacher, and individual because of you, and I cannot wait to see what the next years of our lives together will bring. iv Corporate Fictions: Film Adaptation and Authorship in the Classical Hollywood Era Publication No._____________ Kyle Dawson Edwards, Ph.D. The University of Texas at Austin, 2006 Supervisors: Eric Mallin, Thomas Schatz ABSTRACT “Corporate Fictions: Film Adaptation and Authorship in the Classical Hollywood Era” examines the adaptation of literary fiction by select United States motion picture studios—in reality filmmaking corporations, and analyzed as such in this study—in the 1930s and 1940s. Based largely on research culled from archival resources, each chapter of “Corporate Fictions” analyzes individual instances of and long-term strategies toward film adaptation within several firms through recourse to company memoranda, budgets, marketing campaigns, the literary and cinematic texts themselves and other contemporaneous materials. Analysis of these materials reveals that film adaptation is part of a larger cultural adaptation that takes place when a studio acquires, produces, and releases a literary property—in this process, characters, stories, and even literary authors are dramatically v transformed as they are re-projected through such domains as product tie-ins, print, film and radio advertisements, newspaper serializations, movie editions and novelizations, and the primary literary and cinematic texts themselves. Each of the case studies that comprise this dissertation seeks to explain why and how a particular filmmaking corporation would choose to acquire, adapt, and produce a work of literature at a particular moment in its history. In the process, “Corporate Fictions” challenges traditional assumptions that have guided investigations in this field by demonstrating the complexity of film adaptation, a process subject to myriad influences and pragmatic choices, as well as the sophistication by which the companies under scrutiny developed distinctive conventions that guided their approaches to literary acquisition, story development, production, marketing, and exhibition. vi Table of Contents List of Figures........................................................................................................ ix Chapter 1 Introduction: Film Adaptation in the Classical Hollywood Cinema .....1 Literature Review: Film Adaptation Studies .................................................6 Intervening in Adaptation Studies ...............................................................16 A Note on Primary Sources .........................................................................34 Why Examine Adaptation in this Manner? ..................................................35 Case Studies .................................................................................................36 Chapter 2 Sound, Horror, and the Adaptation of Cultural Discourses at Universal Pictures; Part 1: Dracula (1931) and Frankenstein (1931) .........................48 Universal Pictures, Inc. ................................................................................53 Emergence of Sound Filmmaking and Exhibition .......................................57 Universal Pictures, Spawning Horror in the Sound Era ..............................61 Vampire Discourse .......................................................................................68 Dracula: Story Development and Pre-Production .......................................71 Dracula: Production .....................................................................................78 Dracula: The Pressbook ..............................................................................87 Dracula Released .........................................................................................99 From Dracula to Frankenstein ..................................................................109 Frankenstein Discourse ..............................................................................112 Acquiring, Developing, and Producing Frankenstein (1931) ....................130 “The Monster Is Loose!”: Marketing Frankenstein ...................................141 Codifying the Horror Genre with Frankenstein .........................................147 Conclusion .................................................................................................163 Chapter 3 Sound, Horror, and the Adaptation of Cultural Discourses at Universal Pictures; Part 2: The Poe Adaptations, 1932-1935 ....................................165 The Author-Function and Film Adaptation at Universal ...........................166 Poe Discourse .............................................................................................169 vii Universal’s Interest in Poe .........................................................................199 Murders in the Rue Morgue (1932) ...........................................................200 The Black Cat (1934) .................................................................................224 The Raven (1935) .......................................................................................243 Conclusion .................................................................................................259 Chapter 4 Efficiency and/in Film Adaptation at Warner Bros. Pictures.............268 Scientific Management and Efficiency ......................................................273 Efficiency in the Literary Field ..................................................................275 Literary Efficiency in The Maltese Falcon (1930) ....................................280 Efficiency in the Film Industry ..................................................................285 Efficiency at Warner Bros. ........................................................................289 Warner Bros., Film Adaptation, and The Maltese Falcon (1931) .............302 Recycling and Satan Met A Lady (1936) ...................................................312 Productivity Yields Prosperity: The Maltese Falcon (1941) .....................325 Conclusion .................................................................................................337 Chapter 5 Brand-Name Literature: Selznick International Pictures, Prestige Marketing, and the Blockbuster Adaptation ..............................................343 Film Adaptation, According to David O. Selznick ....................................346 Branding Film, Marketing Rebecca ...........................................................350 From Wind to Rebecca ...............................................................................363 Brand-Name Literature ..............................................................................381 Chapter 6 Conclusion: Future Research ............................................................387 Bibliography ........................................................................................................397 Vita .....................................................................................................................427 viii List of Figures Figure 2.1: Dracula, shadow shot ....................................................................103 Figure 2.2: Frankenstein, advertisement 1 .......................................................142