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- Q1:How does the film relate to the chapter in Foner?
First of all, I have a soft spot for Busby Berkeley films, but the film The Gold Diggers of 1933 was a fantastic way to relate the chapter of the Great Depression and the New Deal to a real life film. The opening dance showed society's willingness to put their faith in FDR's "New Deal" of stimulating the economy, and a good way that showed society's way of being very optimistic about what was happening to their economy. The movie related well in that the characters always found a good in their bad situation. The plot of the film related directly to what was happening to society, out of work people searching for work when there was no work to be had yet still having the courage to wake up everyday and look for work. And the way the girls all blindly followed Barney Hopkins, the musical producer, directly correlated to a quote in Foner, "The country...was in such a state of confused desperation that it would have followed almost any leader anywhere he chose to go" (Foner, 762).
- Q2: What can we learn about American culture during the time period by interpreting the film as a primary historical source?
Using this film as a source for seeing the culture, I would say that it was fairly accurate to what Foner put forth in his chapter. There was a lot of emphasis on money in this soecity, but once someone had an upper had, they helped out their close friends and family, like when Fay told Polly, Trixie and Carol about Barney Hopkins' new show and once Carol was deemed the winner and allowed to go audition and find out more about the show, all the girls helped her by getting her a dress and cab fare. Also, this showed that society was able to make do with what they had, for example, when the dress rehearsal for the show used pillows and blankets for their actors. This movie truly showed that the people of the American culture were ready to look on the bright side of things and move on with their best foot forward.- Q3: What does the film reveal about attitudes toward gender, class, and race?
The film doesn't do much in revealing about gender, as toward the end of the chapter, Foner mentions The Second New Deal in that women were looked down upon for working, and clearly these "showgirls" were looking and needed for work on shows. And all of these girls lived alone, so they were the heads of the household. Race was not an issue in this movie at all, but easily the funniest part in the film is when "Brad"'s (really Robert Treat Bradford) brother J. Lawrence Bradford comes to the house to pay Polly to not marry him, he calls these showgirls parasites and gold diggers, and lets what he thinks is Polly know that these girls are low class. Even though these high class people went to the Broadway shows that featured these "gold diggers", they were still viewed as a lower class of people.- Q4: What is the most important scene in the film?
I think the most important scene in the film is the opening dance scene. The girls are all dressed up with gold coins, with Fay as the lead singer decked out in millions of shiny gold coins, and they are singing about money and how things are looking up and are going to get better. This says alot about the society during this time, they were very optimistic because they had already hit rock bottom so things could only get better. They were also very optimistic about FDR's New Deal and all that he was doing to help stimulate the economy and offer many opportunities for jobs, so everything was looking up in America at this time. The lyrics to the song are an uplifting ode to getting over the worst and looking forward.- We're in the money, we're in the money;
- We've got a lot of what it takes to get along!
- We're in the money, that sky is sunny,
- Old Man Depression you are through, you done us wrong.
- We never see a headline about breadlines today.
- And when we see the landlord we can look that guy right in the eye
- We're in the money, come on, my honey,
- Let's lend it, spend it, send it rolling along!
- Songs of the Great Depression
TCM ReviewNY Times ReviewThe Gold Diggers of 1933 receives my review of 5 out of 5. In my opinion, this film was a perfect way to depict the culture and society of the Great Depression in America. The plot of the film was exactly what was happening, as well as what the film itself did for the economy. After a minimal amount of research, I found that this movie employed what was then "out of work actors" like Ginger Rodgers and the many extras and chorus girls it took to make this movie a success. Also, this movie, like others, gave audiences a inexpensive way to stimulate the steadily improving American economy. As well as giving what I thought an accurate portrayal of social moral, the plot was easy to follow and extremely funny, especially the plot to confuse J. Lawrence Bradford, and at the end of the movie, everyone ends up getting married. It was funny, cute, and was a happy ending to a movie about the Great Depression. Maybe this is all because I love Busby Berkeley's work in movies, but this movie was great, I loved every minute of it.
Q1: How does the film relate to the chapter in Foner?
The Crowd I believe related very little to Foner's chapter on the twenties. The film showed a man "waiting for his ship to come in" where the twenties were all about how people spent their leisure time and money. John Sims had always wanted to make something more of himself, and Eric Foner describes that the twenties were a "decade of prosperity" (Foner, 722). John and Mary Sims' lifestyle reflected a life that was spent worrying about monetary troubles, and in Chapter 20 Foner states that "During the 1920s, consumer goods of all kinds proliferated" (Foner, 722). The similarities I found in the movie to Foner's chapter was toward the end when John was able to take his wife and son to a vaudeville show, a leisure activity of that time, where they are then shown laughing and being very happy. Most of the film is spent in dreariness when the feeling I got from the chapter was that the twenties were a very happy time of frivilous spending on credit, which brought on the depression. This film, I believe, went in the opposite of how history went in that the film started out very sad but ended on a good note of happiness, which is also the opposite of how Chapter 20 in Give Me Liberty! went as well.
- Q2: What can we learn about American culture during the time period by interpreting the film as a primary historical source?
I don't believe much can be learned about American culture during this time period with using The Crowd as a primary historical source because the film portrayed this period as a period, I thought, similar to what happened in the American culture in the Great Depression. The way John and Mary squabbled over money issues just made me think of the lack of money in America during the Great Depression and not of a period of time called "The Roaring Twenties". There was almost nothing of leisure activity or spending in a majority of the film, and it was filled with heartache, especially after the Sims' daughter dies crossing the street to get her new toys her father had bought with the money he received, which is the only account of leisure spending found in most of the movie.
- Q3: What does the film reveal about attitudes toward gender, class, and race?
The film reveals little difference between what was expressed in the chapter regarding gender, class, or race. Mary Sim's was not a radical flapper girl, she was a very modest wife. Although, she does have some power over her husband, for example when she gives John a stern talking to about his "ship never coming in" and tells him that he needs to make more money for the sake of their new son. However, something was said about class that when Mary's brothers offered John a job out of pity, he refused, which showed, to me, a sense of pride in where he was in life. - Q4: What is the most important scene in the film?
I think the most important scene in the film is the last scene of the film where John, Mary and their son are sitting in the vaudeville show with John's winning advertising slogan in the program for the show. This shows to me the most of what Foner describes in his chapter as being what the twenties personified,; leisure spending as the vaudeville show, consumerism as John's winning advertising slogan, and the laughter of the family as the general happiness of the 1920s society.Epinions ReviewTimeout ReviewI give The Crowd a 1.5 out of 5 because I don't feel like this movie represented what Foner describes as the twenties. The only accuracey I saw was at the tail end of the film, and 104 minutes is a long time to go without seeing a similarity to the reading . I did, however, enjoy the intense human feeling that John and Mary emitted during their squabbles, it was more intense of a feeling than I expected from a silent film. The plot was very easy to follow, also unlike other silent films I have seen. All in all, it was a great silent film I just didn't think it pertained very well to Foner's Chapter 20 reading.
- Q1: How does the film relate to the chapter in Foner?
The film Traffic in Souls is the first of many films to point out slavery, but this one, if not the only one, points out slavery of white women. The main characters Lorna and Jane work in a candy store when a gentleman suitor calls on the pretty and young Lorna. When she leaves with the man, she disappears and Jane and her fiance police officer Burke go searching for her, and eventually find her in a brothel, a place for prostitution. The brothel is run by Mr. Trubus, the president of the International Purity and Reform League, who hides this from his wife and daughter. This relates to the chapter in Foner many ways, the first being the corporate greed undermining traditional American values. Mr Trubus, a seemingly innocent but rich corporate leader was the leader in an underground brothel that brought innocent women in to a terrible fate. Another way I saw this movie was as a social commentary on a new feature in the progressive era: a working woman. This showed Lorna, a working woman on her own, being easily taken advantage of in her place of business, and this showed woman were "too naive" to be in charge of themselves. There was also a showing of immigrants from the scene at Ellis Island, and Foner mentioned immigration when he writes "if one thing characterized early-twentieth-century cities, it was their immigrant character" (Foner, 643). But after the scene with carting the two Swedish sisters off to the brothel, there wasn't much more mention of them. This film screamed as a helpful definition to Foner's mention of muckrackers, because this film brought out the worst in American life.- Q2:What can we learn about American culture during the time period by interpreting the film as a primary historical source?
Many reviews boast that this film is one of a kind, acknowledging that "sex sells" but not int he sense we know it now. The narrative of this film is also unique for it's time in that Jane, the older sister, helped immensely to help save her younger sister, Lorna. This showed women being in control, and Jane was the head of the household (because her father was a cripple) so this showed tremendous new heights for women's rights. Also, this led to audience's believing to be skeptical of women out in the working world as they can led astray. The most obvious learning experience that can take place as a result of this movie is the corporate corruption that took place at the hands of a leader in something that seemed so innocent and good, i.e. the International Purity and Reform League.
- Q3: What does the film reveal about attitudes toward gender, class, and race?
There was nothing in this film said about race, as most, if not all, the characters were white. Pertaining to gender, there was a lot revealed. The fact that in this movie they tricked these women into the brothel so easily, especially Lorna from her place of work, says a lot of what the filmmakers thought of women on their own and thinking for themselves. To me, it says women are too naive to protect themselves from being abducted and getting put into dangerous situations, and definitely shouldn't be out in the workplace. As well as gender, class was in issue revealed in the film. Mr. Trubus, the president of the International Purity and Reform League, was a high class rich man with a wife and daughter. The high class man was the leader of a scandalous ring of brothels that lured in women of lower class, like Lorna and the Swedish twins. This shows that the high class corporates are the ones who are greedy and dishonest.
- Q4: What was the most important scene in the film?
Arguably, the most important scene in Traffic in Souls is the scene where the man in the brothel tries to bribe police officer Burke, Jane's fiance, after he discovers the brothel. Officer Burke kindly gives the money back and breaks the sign over the man's head that lured the two Swedish twins in the brothel in the first place. I thought this was important because the whole movie was based on corruption, and this scene really showed that even though the corporate greed in America was getting bad, we could still count on some people to be good. Officer Burke stood for the good things in America, and him breaking the sign over the brothel owner's head showed that sometimes good can still win.
DVD Savant (Glenn Erickson) dvd reviewTCM Review I give this film a 2.5 out of 5. Although I did find the ties to Foner's chapter in the film, it would be extremely difficult to find them if I didn't have to for an assignment. The film was generally hard to follow from a narrative perspective, because even though it was a silent movie, there were very little of the subtitle cards one would normally find in silent films. Because there wasn't a lot of these, the plot was very hard to follow, and so it was hard to draw similarities to Foner's points in his chapter. What I did like in the film, is that in the scene in Ellis Island, they actually filmed it at Ellis Island and used real immigrants. This gave the film a real feeling and gave me, personally, a better look at what it was like immigrating to a new country instead of just seeing still pictures in a history book.
