ABSTRACT
This subject focuses on full-length fiction films with references to the Greek daimonion or genius, released from 1944–5 to 1974–5, that is, the three decades from the end of World War II until the fall of the seven-year military regime. During this period cinema was a very popular means of public entertainment and played important role in shaping Greek popular culture and opinion. The aim is to trace the ways in which the ‘Greek genius’ is presented by film producers in the socioeconomic and political context of that time. It is also attempted to investigate their social function vis-à-vis a strong and extremely popular stereotypical feature of the Greek character, as well as the ways in which this feature evolved and was perceived through time. The films are studied not in chronological order but in groups, according to the type of character they present, ingenious businessmen and self-made emigrants, swindlers and all kinds of crooks, from ruthless tycoons and black marketeers to good-hearted poor devils. They leave no doubt about a deeply ingrained belief in economic genius as an innate Greek characteristic.
