Marc's RTF 305 Blog: RTF 305 Post - 10/10/10 - Faces of the Classic Hollywood Studio

Back in the Classical Hollywood cinema days, the studio and the stars worked hand in hand. The studio would create the image from the actors that would reflect the studio itself and the type of movies it made. The stars would be under contract and be made famous which also helped the studio in bringing more publicity.

By using the star system, they'd make the actor the symbol of the genre. For instance, if group of friends wanted to see a gangster or a detective movie, then they'd say,"Hey, that movie has Humphrey Bogart! That's gotta be a great movie." Then they'd buy one movie while another guy in the group being a big fan of the genre buys a whole stack of movies starring Humphrey Bogart. The same thing went for mostly women viewers who wanted to see a musical genre. All the buzz about MGM studios was that Judy Garland was the main attraction for that genre. She played Dorothy in "The Wizard of Oz" and Betsy Booth in "Love Finds Andy Hardy" to name a few.

The star system made the image of the movie rather than the movie making the actor. As the studios continued filming the same type of movies, the stars became more popular and respected for their better work in each movie. And in the flipside, this made the many Faces of the Classic Hollywood Studio.

Here are some clips of they're films and how they all mostly have the same feel.

Humphrey Bogart