CHAPTER 8 – AMERICAN CINEMA IN THE 1940s
Multiple Choice
1. All of the following are true about the state of the American film industry during World War II
except a. American’s love affair with movies continued through most of the 40s
b. the value of studios leaped by almost $150,000,000 in one year alone
c. many studios lost money because of the war
d. the admission price to movies was less than 50 cents
2. Which of the following did not contribute to Hollywood’s loss of profitability after World War
II? a. anti-trust action against the majors
b. bad movies
c. television
d. HUAC investigations
3. Which of the following is true of John Huston’s The Battle of San Pietro?
a. he used a hand-held camera
b. he filmed body bags
c. both a and b
d. neither a nor b
4. The Why We Fight war propaganda films are characterized by which of the following:
a. stock footage
b. animation
c. stentorian narration
d. all of the above
5. Which of the following is an example of film noir by John Huston?
a. The African Queen
b. The Maltese Falcon
c. The Battle of San Pietro
d. none of the above
6. The movie that made Humphrey Bogart a star was
a. High Sierra
b. African Queen
c. The Caine Mutiny
d. Moby Dick
7. Which of the following is true of a Disney-produced animated feature film?
a. sentimental
b. sugary
c. supported stability and family
d. all of the above
8. What quality(ies) make Walt Disney’s animated movies such as Pinocchio work as well as
they do?
a. emotional directness
b. wonderful film music
c. mischievous humor
d. all of the above
9. Which of the following is true of female characters in Preston Sturges’s movies?
a. They are shy and retiring.
b. They are “eye candy.”
c. They are wily and manipulative.
d. none of the above
10. Billy Wilder was a
a. director
b. reporter
c. scriptwriter
d. all of the above
11. Many consider which of the following to be Billy Wilder’s masterpiece?
a. Sunset Boulevard
b. Double Indemnity
c. The Lost Weekend
d. Ace in the Hole
12. All of the following are true about Orson Welles’ Citizen Kane except
a. it combines a number of films techniques for the first time.
b. it uses flashbacks for its narrative.
c. it was budgeted for $650,000.
d. it was shot in flat focus.
13. Which classic dramatist did Welles increasingly turn to for inspiration as he aged?
a. Anton Chekov
b. Ben Johnson
c. William Shakespeare
d. Arthur Miller
14. Which of the following did not persuade filmmakers and audiences that there was more to
life than they previously had thought?
a. World War II
b. Surrealism
c. Freudian psychology
d. the Holocaust
15. In film noir, the tone is generally
a. optimistic.
b. pragmatic.
c. pessimistic.
d. sarcastic.
16. Social realism, developing concurrently with film noir, is, in technique, a great deal like
a. classic melodrama
b. neorealism
c. national epics
d. slapstick comedy
17. The films that Ida Lupino made were concerned with
a. unwed mothers
b. rape
c. working women
d. all of the above
True/False
(Place a T or an F in the line following the sentence.)
1. Hollywood exempted itself from participation from World War II and made millions of dollars
in the process.
2. In 1948, the federal government successfully concluded an antitrust action that divested the
major companies of their theater chains.
3. All the documentaries made in Hollywood during World War II were fully patriotic, saber
rattlers.
4. John Huston early in his directing career showed a gift for multi-layered filmmaking.
5. Huston’s noir films charts the down side of humanity, the men and women who try and fail,
either through flaws in themselves or because they attempt to circumvent the natural order of
a hostile universe.
6. In a Disney film up through the 40s, the overriding sensibility is basically the star, usually
Mickey Mouse.
7. Animation at Warners was markedly different from that of Disney: anarchic, astringent,
unstable, disinterested in family.
8. Preston Sturges’s movies like All About Eve continued to reinforce the notion that success and
happiness are the result of talent, clean living, and hard work.
9. Billy Wilder’s Sunset Boulevard is a realistic meditation on the nature of Hollywood that turns
into wonderful screwball comedy.
10. William Wyler, as demonstrated in The Best Years of Our Lives, thought that the camera , the
staging, the externals of a scene were “important only as they help the audience understand
what the characters are thinking, feeling or doing.”
Matching
1) Memphis Belle ___
2) Bambi ___
3) Preston Sturges ___
4) social realism ___
5) John Huston ___
6) the existential loner ___
7) The Stranger ___
8) proud and combative ___
9) Billy Wilder ___
10) Mad Wednesday ___
a. Orson Welles’ film
b. Katharine Hepburn
c. Disney classic animated feature
d. Humphrey Bogart
e. Double Indemnity showed his expressionistic leanings
f. like neorealism in technique
g. The Asphalt Jungle, a world of shadows
h. The Palm Beach Story
i. Sturges’ film badly recut by Howard Hughes
j. William Wyler WWII documentary
ANS:
Short Answer
1. Whom in Hollywood did the investigations of the House Un-American Activities Committee
(HUAC) affect?
2. What essentially was John Huston’s interest in characters found in movies like The Maltese
Falcon and The Treasure of Sierra Madre,? Was Huston pessimistic or optimistic overall in
his view of life?
3. What could, like Ben Hecht, Billy Wilder do almost instinctively and why?
4. What makes film noir run counter to the American tradition of optimism?
Essay Questions
1. In what ways did Hollywood do “itself proud during World War II”?
2. Why did a darker, more pessimistic kind of story (noir) come to popularity after the war?
3. Were Warner Brothers cartoons or Disney cartoons more in keeping with the feelings of the
times?
4. In what ways did American cinema show that innovation could come through adaptation, as
in borrowing techniques from the Italian neorealists?