The Big Caper

Mapping Intimacies ◽

10.5622/illinois/9780252043611.003.0009 ◽

2020 ◽

pp. 182-217

Author(s):

Robert Miklitsch

Keyword(s):

Young Adults ◽

Motion Picture ◽

Source Material ◽

Motion Picture Industry ◽

Available P ◽

Niche Markets ◽

Stanley Kubrick ◽

Production Code

The Brooklyn armored car robbery, which occurred on August 21, 1934, not only represented the “nation’s biggest cash heist at the time” but also provided the source material for Richard Fleischer’s Armored Car Robbery (1950), a B picture that was released the very same day as the acknowledged prototypical heist film, The Asphalt Jungle. Although the heist picture could not, and did not, crystallize as a genre until 1950 because the Production Code expressly forbid filmmakers from showing the preparation and commission of heists, the competition represented by television and the 1948 “divorcement” decree forced the motion picture industry to find new ways to attract audiences. One strategy was to continue to produce B movies. If Armored Car Robbery demonstrates the vitality of B movies before the majors decided to cease production of them in 1951 and The Killing (1956) represents the appeal of “low” crime genres such as the “caper” movie for aspiring auteurs like Stanley Kubrick, Plunder Road (1957) testifies to the rise of independent production and the sort of niche markets favored by young adults hungry for more daring cinematic fare than previously had been available.

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Origins of the Code

Hitchcock and the Censors ◽

10.5810/kentucky/9780813177427.003.0002 ◽

2019 ◽

pp. 9-23

Author(s):

John Billheimer

Keyword(s):

Motion Picture ◽

Social Groups ◽

Motion Picture Industry ◽

Public Concern ◽

Film Censorship ◽

Production Code ◽

The Us ◽

Production And Distribution ◽

Seal Of Approval

This chapter traces the origins of film censorship in the US from 1910 onward. It documents the rise of public concern over movie sex and violence and traces the manner in which pressures from religious and social groups led to the formation of individual censorship entities in various states and municipalities. The motion picture industry tried to counter these pressures by forming the Motion Picture Production and Distribution Association under Will Hays and promising to police itself, an effort that proved ineffectual until 1934, when government pressure, the Legion of Decency, and Catholic boycotts led to the requirement that any motion picture produced in the US had to earn the Seal of Approval of the Production Code Administration under Joe Breen.

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Introduction

10.1093/oso/9780190865788.003.0001 ◽

2018 ◽

Author(s):

Steven Cohan

Keyword(s):

Los Angeles ◽

Motion Picture ◽

Motion Picture Industry ◽

Theoretical Argument ◽

Historical Overview ◽

Silent Era

The introduction provides the theoretical argument of the book. It explains why the backstudio picture is not a cycle but a genre in its own right, and how the genre depicts Hollywood as a geographic place in Los Angeles, as an industry, and as a symbol. It goes on to show how the backstudio picture has historically served to brand the motion picture industry as “Hollywood,” working in much the same way as consumer brands do today. Additionally, the introduction provides a historical overview of the genre, focusing on its four major cycles of production, from the silent era to the present day. Finally, it briefly describes the content of the seven chapters.

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