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Violence and Masculinity in Hollywood War Films During World War II a Thesis Submitted To

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Violence and Masculinity in Hollywood War Films During World War II a Thesis Submitted To Violence and Masculinity in Hollywood War Films During World War II A thesis submitted to: Lakehead University Faculty of Arts and Sciences Department of History In partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree in Master of Arts Matthew Sitter Thunder Bay, Ontario July 2012 Library and Archives Bibliothèque et Canada Archives Canada Published Heritage Direction du Branch Patrimoine de l'édition 395 Wellington Street 395, rue Wellington Ottawa ON K1A 0N4 Ottawa ON K1A 0N4 Canada Canada Your file Votre référence ISBN: 978-0-494-84504-2 Our file Notre référence ISBN: 978-0-494-84504-2 NOTICE: AVIS: The author has granted a non- L'auteur a accordé une licence non exclusive exclusive license allowing Library and permettant à la Bibliothèque et Archives Archives Canada to reproduce, Canada de reproduire, publier, archiver, publish, archive, preserve, conserve, sauvegarder, conserver, transmettre au public communicate to the public by par télécommunication ou par l'Internet, prêter, telecommunication or on the Internet, distribuer et vendre des thèses partout dans le loan, distrbute and sell theses monde, à des fins commerciales ou autres, sur worldwide, for commercial or non- support microforme, papier, électronique et/ou commercial purposes, in microform, autres formats. paper, electronic and/or any other formats. The author retains copyright L'auteur conserve la propriété du droit d'auteur ownership and moral rights in this et des droits moraux qui protege cette thèse. Ni thesis. Neither the thesis nor la thèse ni des extraits substantiels de celle-ci substantial extracts from it may be ne doivent être imprimés ou autrement printed or otherwise reproduced reproduits sans son autorisation. without the author's permission. In compliance with the Canadian Conformément à la loi canadienne sur la Privacy Act some supporting forms protection de la vie privée, quelques may have been removed from this formulaires secondaires ont été enlevés de thesis. cette thèse. While these forms may be included Bien que ces formulaires aient inclus dans in the document page count, their la pagination, il n'y aura aucun contenu removal does not represent any loss manquant. of content from the thesis. Acknowledgements Naturally with any project of this nature there are more people than I can properly give thanks to, but there are a number of individuals that directly affected my thesis and need special mention. Most importantly I'd like to thank the staff and faculty of Lakehead University, especially the Department of History. The professors in the history department were always willing to provide advice and support. I would first like to thank Dr. Helen E.H. Smith, who inspired and encouraged me to develop my thesis proposal. Helen's advice and guidance assisted me through the earliest stages of my research, and her genuine enthusiasm and sense of humor was invaluable. I will always be grateful for the support she gave me in my studies. I would equally like to thank my thesis advisor, Dr. Kristin Burnett, for guiding me through my research and writing, and also for putting up with what must have seemed like a never-ending revision process. Her patience and advice was greatly appreciated. I would also like to thank Professor Victor C. Smith, who showed genuine interest in my thesis proposal and encouraged me to pursue it. Special mention must be made to both my internal reviewer, Dr. Jane Nicholas, and my external reviewer, Dr. Geoff Read. Their attention to even minor details of my thesis was greatly appreciated. I would also like to express my gratitude to Gail Fikis, the History Department's Administrative Assistant, for making the entire graduate process that much easier. Finally, I thank my friends and family, who have supported me and put up with me for the past two years, and some for much longer. A final special thanks goes to my parents, who have supported me throughout my entire education, and who made it possible for me to reach this point. Abstract During World War II, the Hollywood studios produced an unprecedented number of war- themed films in order to help prepare American audiences for what was to come, as well as to profit from the popularity of anything pertaining to the war. As a result, soldiers were the predominant representation of masculinity from 1942 to 1945. The war's biggest influence on Hollywood, however, was the increasing freedom studios were given to portray violence onscreen in order to reflect the bloodshed of the war itself. Using the existing literature about Hollywood during the war, as well as primary sources from the period, this thesis examines the impact that the war had on violence in film with a focus on how Hollywood influenced the portrayal of masculinity through combat films. In order to illustrate how violence changed during the war years I begin my thesis by establishing the state of film censorship prior to the war. I make use of the gangster films as they were the most violent films produced during the 1930's and led directly to the censorship of film violence. The majority of my thesis focuses on film violence between 1942 and 1945, arguing that the war dramatically influenced censorship in the United States, and also that Hollywood helped to redefine masculinity through the combat films. I finish my thesis with an examination of films released between 1946 and 1950 that prove film violence continued after the war had ended and in genres other than the combat films. List of Abbreviations HUAC - House Un-American Activities Committee MPAA - Motion Picture Association of America OOC - Office of Censorship OWI - Office of War Information RAF - Royal Air Force PCA - Production Code Administration WACMPI - War Activities Committee of the Motion Picture Industry WASP - White, Anglo-Saxon Protestant Table of Contents Introduction 1 Chapter 1: Hollywood Before the War, 1920-1941 17 Chapter 2: Hollywood On the Brink of War, 1940-1941 40 Chapter 3: Hollywood Enters the War, 1941-1942 66 Chapter 4: The Combat Genre Develops 96 Chapter 5: Violence in Films After the War 131 Conclusion 164 Filmography 170 Bibliography 171 1 Introduction When the United States entered World War II, the major Hollywood studios produced an unprecedented number of war-themed films that helped the United States government prepare American audiences for what was to come. There were more than 17,000 theatres across the United States,1 which attracted millions of viewers a week throughout the 1940's, making cinema one of the most effective and influential forms of mass communication. The sheer number of theatres combined with the prestige of film actors gave Hollywood a strategic role in shaping popular opinion about the war.2 In turn, the war had a drastic impact on Hollywood films, especially as soldiers were the predominant representation of masculinity from 1942 to 1945. The war's immediate influence on Hollywood can be measured through the large number of war- themed films that were produced following the bombing of Pearl Harbor on 7 December 1941. The war's biggest influence on Hollywood, however, was the increasing freedom studios were given to portray violence onscreen in order to reflect the bloodshed of the war itself. Due to the popularity of film, it is easy to see why Hollywood had an enormous impact on how Americans perceived the war. For many American civilians, these films provided prototypes of American soldiers and represented how they were expected to perform in combat. The new form of masculinity associated with the soldier can therefore be seen as a "highly self- conscious performance of gender" according to American culture historian Mike Chopra-Gant.3 Characters in combat films like Humphrey Bogart's Joe Gunn in Sahara or Cary Grant's Captain Cassidy in Destination Tokyo represented the ideal soldier for many Americans. The heroic 1Clayton R. Hoppes and Gregory D. Black, Hollywood Goes to War: How Politics, Profits, and Propaganda Shaped World War II Movies (Los Angeles, CA: University of California Press, 1990), 4. 2 Bosley Crowther, "War Gives Many Special Jobs," New York Times, 3 January 1940. 3 Mike Chopra-Gant, Hollywood Genres and Postwar America: Masculinity, Family and Nation in Popular Movies and Film Noir (New York: St. Martin's Press, 2006), 99. 2 actions of these characters carried more weight because these films were not just entertainment, they were also important representations of the bravery of soldiers. While the combat films were largely fictional, they recreated real battles that had taken place during the war and therefore relatively recently. For many, Hollywood's representation of the war created a picture of what was really going on overseas. Therefore, films had the power to operate as an agent of both social control and change. The reality of the war’s violence permeated the news, and Hollywood responded by making films that were more gritty, realistic, and violent. As increasingly graphic images were shown on the home front through news media, Hollywood matched the images of death and violence in the films it produced. Their films remained entertainment first, however, and factual recreations of the war second. The war changed the portrayal of violence in Hollywood through combat films, which glorified the violence of war. I argue that through portrayals of soldiers at war, masculinity and violence were intrinsically linked from 1942 to 1945. It is this connection between the war and the increasing violence in Hollywood films that I am interested in exploring. The performance of violence was necessary during the war for soldiers overseas, and as only men could participate in combat, violence became perceived as a uniquely male behavior. Combat films did more in just a few short years to influence Hollywood's presentation of violence than any other genre.
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