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Warner Bros: The Making of an American Movie Studio
Warner Bros: The Making of an American Movie Studio
By David Thomson
Published August 8, 2017
232 pages
“Witty and stunningly original” —Jeanine Basinger, author of The Star Machine
Behind the scenes at the legendary Warner Brothers film studio, where four immigrant brothers transformed themselves into the moguls and masters of American fantasy
Warner Bros charts the rise of an unpromising film studio from its shaky beginnings in the early twentieth century through its ascent to the pinnacle of Hollywood influence and popularity. The Warner Brothers—Harry, Albert, Sam, and Jack—arrived in America as unschooled Jewish immigrants, yet they founded a studio that became the smartest, toughest, and most radical in all of Hollywood.
David Thomson provides fascinating and original interpretations of Warner Brothers pictures from the pioneering talkie The Jazz Singer through black-and-white musicals, gangster movies, and such dramatic romances as Casablanca, East of Eden, and Bonnie and Clyde. He recounts the storied exploits of the studio’s larger-than-life stars, among them Al Jolson, James Cagney, Bette Davis, Errol Flynn, Humphrey Bogart, James Dean, Doris Day, and Bugs Bunny. The Warner brothers’ cultural impact was so profound, Thomson writes, that their studio became “one of the enterprises that helped us see there might be an American dream out there.”
About the Author
David Thomson is a film critic and historian, and the author of more than twenty books, including The Biographical Dictionary of Film, now in its sixth edition, and Why Acting Matters. He lives in San Francisco, CA.
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Reviews
"Jack [Warner] is lucky to have a man...who has thought so deeply and eccentrically and opinionatedly and ultimately so brilliantly about him. We, his readers, are lucky too." —The Wall Street Journal
"Anything new from Thomson is worth taking notice of, and this book is no exception." —Publishers Weekly, Starred Review
"An entertaining, well-documented history of the legendary studio for film scholars and fans alike." —Kirkus Reviews
“A fascinating lens through which to examine American identity.” —Dana Spiotta, author of Innocents and Others and Eat the Document