Lights, Camera, Action!

Podcast

Learn all about why the Hollywood Studio System pulled out of the Italian film market in 1939.

A film studies course on the history of Italian cinema ignited my fascination back in 2018. The following year—for a study abroad program—our big project was a research paper on the topic of our choice. Naturally, I chose Italian film. While living in Rome for three weeks, I visited Cinecittà studios—a quick Metro ride away. With the previous knowledge I had from these experiences, I wanted to dive even deeper into Italy’s motion picture industry, specifically under the Fascist regime in the 1930s.

Only speaking enough Italian to shamefully exist as a tourist, I realized approaching my research from an American point of view would be the most appropriate. This opened up more options before finally landing on the archives, Lantern. Read more about this incredible archives here.

But with 2 million pages of various digitized media sources, I had a lot of paring down still to do. I debated on focusing on the 1950s (Hollywood on the Tiber) or the 1930s (Hollywood and Fascist Italy’s business relations). After digging through primary and secondary sources, I clearly decided on the latter. But I also didn’t know if I should use multiple periodicals or just zone in on one. I ultimately decided to focus on one New York City, film-focused trade paper, Motion Picture Herald, which provided a more editorial news approach fitting for deciphering the American viewpoint on the Italian film industry.

With those aspects nailed down, I got to work. After a couple of weeks of fine-tuning my research methods, I realized the best way to find everything this paper had to offer on the topic was refining my search dates from 1930-1939 and searching the word “Italy.” This narrowed down my results to 1,120 pages—I looked through all of them. Although time-consuming, it was very rewarding and came away with usable 142 articles. Now the hard part began … constructing a meaningful narrative.

Collected links of all primary sources in Microsoft Excel including brief description of each

The secondary sources I found really helped break down that daunting task. Two out of the seven sources I used were “textbooks” from past film studies courses. A History of Italian Cinema by Peter Bondanella gave an extensive, crash course on the entire history of Italian cinema from its birth to 2017. I took 43 pages of notes on this book alone for the course. This instilled in me an introductory knowledge of this piece of Italy’s history. And it is how I became interested in the dynamic of the Fascist state and motion picture industry. The Genius of the System: Hollywood Filmmaking in the Studio Era by Thomas Schatz provided the film history of the Hollywood Studio System from its birth to the ‘60s. When you hear me talk about the structure of the American studios in the podcast, I applied what I learned from the course through this book.

Unfortunately, there are very few academic articles on Italian film history. And if you do find some, it is likely about Fellini or more genre-focused like on giallos, noirs, spaghetti westerns … not a whole lot of film history. Except! I found the perfect article about the business relations between Hollywood and Italy leading up to the Second World War by David Welky and published in the Film and History academic journal. It filled in many gaps in my primary sources and added to the intrigue of specific Fascist film laws from 1933-1938 reported in Motion Picture Herald but without adequate background.

The rest of my secondary sources are a few formative ones that shaped my research on the misconception of “Fascist film” while studying abroad. I reinterpreted my analysis from that paper with fresh eyes to better contextualize Motion Picture Herald articles at the beginning of the podcast.

The other main secondary source—Steven Ricci’s Cinema and Fascism: Italian Film and Society, 1922-1943—captured more the social implications felt during the Fascist period and the artistry that came out of it. I was grateful to have most of these sources under my belt to dive even deeper into the complexity of Italian cinema while adding the looming American point of view. In many ways, I feel like I have been working towards this research project my entire college career.

The podcast was also a huge element to tackle. Learning new software is not my forte. But when I finally landed on GarageBand, everything fell into place … for the most part. It was a very user-friendly platform, and even if I didn’t know how to do something, there were many accessible tutorials out there.

Screenshot of GarageBand podcast file

As a massive podcast-lover, I really wanted to do my research justice through this storytelling mechanism. I’ve always wanted to create my own and had a very specific vision in mind to do so. But, once I started, it was tougher than I anticipated. Two weeks and 12 single-spaced pages later, I finished writing the podcast transcript. That in and of itself was exhausting, and there were still things I didn’t get to. But for the sake of time and not letting perfect be the enemy of the good, I started to record.

That was more difficult than I imagined—lots of starting and stopping because I had stuttered, messed up, or didn’t bring the same energy to the narration. However, once I gave myself some grace, I got into a good rhythm and was content with how it turned out. I found sufficient royalty-free downloadable pensive, inquisitive jazzy songs to underline my narration … after hours of listening. And I was able to incorporate historical and cinematic soundbites for transitional purposes.

This project has greatly amplified my respect and admiration for professional podcasters. I had no idea how much effort actually went into the process. It is NOT just a matter of sitting down and talking—it’s an art. And now I am proud to say … yes, I am that person with a podcast! E grazie per aver ascoltato.

Recommendations for Further Reading ...

Primary Sources

Learn more about the archives research was collected from here.

1. "Code Is Improving Advertising Throughout Trade, Says Hays," Motion Picture Herald, April 23, 1932, 29.

2. "Italian Society Asks State Ban on Showing of 'Scarface'," Motion Picture Herald, June 18, 1932, 12.

3. "Make Them Good As U.S. Films Or Else--Italians Tell Producers," Motion Picture Herald, September 23, 1933, 15.

4. "Italy Demands Foreign Films Be Dubbed There, And Adds To Quota," Motion Picture Herald, October 14, 1933, 31.

5. "Ambassador Rosso Studies Hollywood," Motion Picture Herald, November 24, 1934, 54.

6. "Mussolini Starts Italy's Hollywood," Motion Picture Herald, February 15, 1936, 64.

7. "Early Lifting of Restrictions on Film Imports Seen in Italy," Motion Picture Herald, August 8, 1936, 43.

8. Photograph, Motion Picture Herald, August 29, 1936, 17.

9. Photograph, Motion Picture Herald, September 5, 1936, 11.

10. "Italian Assistance Assured Americans By Visiting Envoy," Motion Picture Herald, September 5, 1936, 35.

11. "U.S. Protesting Italian Curb upon Cash Withdrawal," Motion Picture Herald, October 24, 1936, 40.

12. "U.S. Withdraws From Distributing in Italy," Motion Picture Herald, November 14, 1936, 57.

13. "Hays Discusses Films with Pope," Motion Picture Herald, November 21, 1936, 31.

14. "Hays Returns With Italy's Film Accord," Motion Picture Herald, December 12, 1936, 38.

15. "Italy Grants Large Film Concessions," Motion Picture Herald, December 26, 1936, 36.

16. Photograph, Motion Picture Herald, March 4, 1937, 38.

17. "U.S. Companies Quitting Germany As Nazis Admit Control of Films," Motion Picture Herald, April 10, 1937, 43.

18. Photograph, Motion Picture Herald, April 17, 1937, 11.

19. "France Split Over Nazis' International Film Bloc," Motion Picture Herald, June 5, 1937, 12.

20. "Italians Ban Four American Pictures," Motion Picture Herald, June 19, 1937, 74.

21. Italy Adds More Limitations to Weaken Grip of Hollywood," Motion Picture Herald, July 10, 1937, 67.

22. Photograph, Motion Picture Herald, October 2, 1937, 11.

23. "Vittorio Mussolini Sailing for Home," Motion Picture Herald, October 16, 1937, 18.

24. "Italian Producer on Amity Visit," Motion Picture Herald, December 11, 1937, 60.

25. Photograph, Motion Picture Herald, February 26, 1938, 10.

26. "Italy Acts Officially to Freeze-Out Hollywood," Motion Picture Herald, July 9, 1938, 17.

27. "American Films Return to Italy Behind Army," Motion Picture Herald, September 18, 1943, 31.

28. Photograph, Motion Picture Herald, October 4, 1952, 26-27.

29. "Statement from Eric Johnston," Motion Picture Herald, October 4, 1952, 28.

Secondary Sources

See main, annotated sources here.

1. Carla Mereu Keating et al., “Cinecittà: The Highs and Lows of the ‘Roman Heart’ of Italian Cinema,” World Film Locations: Rome, ed. Gabriel Solomons (The University of Chicago Press: Intellect Books, 2014) 104-105, ProQuest.

2. Carlo Celli and Marga Cottino-Jones, “The Fascist Years (1922-1943),” A New Guide to Italian Cinema (New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2007) 19-38, ProQuest.

3. David Welky, “‘A World Film Fight’: Behind the Scenes with Hollywood and Fascist Italy,” Film and History 47, no. 1 (Summer 2017): 4-17, EBSCOhost.

4. Peter Bondanella and Federico Pacchioni, “An Ancient Cradle for a Newborn Medium: The Rise of Silent Cinema in Italy," A History of Italian Cinema, 2nd ed. (New York: Bloomsbury Academic, 2017) 1-22, Google Scholar.

5. Stephen Gundle, “Italian Cinema Under Fascism,” Mussolini's Dream Factory: Film Stardom in Fascist Italy (New York: Berghahn Books, 2013) 19-37, ProQuest.

6. Steven Ricci, “Amnesia and Historical Memory," Cinema and Fascism: Italian Film and Society, 1922-1943 (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2008) 19, ProQuest.

7. Steven Ricci, “Italy and America: Fascination and (Re)Negotiation," Cinema and Fascism: Italian Film and Society, 1922-1943 (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2008) 125-155, ProQuest.

8. Thomas Schatz, “Introduction: The Whole Equation of Pictures,” The Genius of the System: Hollywood Filmmaking in the Studio Era, 1st University of Minnesota Press ed. (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 2010) 3-12.

9. Thomas Schatz, “Selznick at Paramount: From Boom to Bust,” The Genius of the System: Hollywood Filmmaking in the Studio Era, 1st University of Minnesota Press ed. (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 2010) 69.

Podcast

Royalty-free downloadable songs used in the podcast:

1. Daniel Carlton, “Shady Places (30s music),” Pixabay, 2021.

2. Daniel Carlton, “1930s Seedy Street Music (Harmon Trumpet),” Pixabay, 2021.

3. Daniel Carlton, “Private Party (seedy 30s music),” Pixabay, 2021.

4. Daniel Carlton, “Seedy Night Club 1930s,” Pixabay, 2021.

Historical and cinematic soundbites used in the podcast:

1. BFITrailers, “Rome, Open City (1945) – Trailer,” YouTube Video, 2:08, January. 27, 2014.

2. British Movietone, “Mussolini Speaking – 1929,” YouTube Video, 1:33, July 21, 2015.

3. Educational Video Group, “Rare Benito Mussolini Speech Footage,” YouTube Video, 1:13, November 26, 2012.

4. ripleysfilm, “Il signor Max – Trailer,” YouTube Video, 2:48, April 18, 2013.

5. Schegge di Cinema Italiano, "Giallo (1933) di Mario Camerini con Assia Noris," YouTube Video, 1:49, February 17, 2021.