ABSTRACT
Chapter 3 focuses on the aftermath of the Twentieth Century-Fox merger. Darryl F. Zanuck’s Nebraskan background and his instinct for the evolving mixture of hokum and realism had already led to success while he was at Warner Bros. Movies in general negotiated the tensions between modern life with its new patterns of romance and work, and traditional church based values. Zanuck responded to this and to the various problems of Americans suffering from hardship. At the merged Twentieth Century-Fox, writers from general interest magazines such as the Saturday Evening Post targeted Americans with middle-brow movies. The Great Depression had inspired movies to take on politics. Race also became visible in the movies of this period although they were compromised by heavy negative stereotyping. Americans were also increasingly confronted by the deteriorating world situation. Hollywood developed a formula for neutralizing the exotic racial ‘other’ in the rather benign figure of Charlie Chan and the mysterious yet ultimately helpful Mr. Moto. Zanuck promoted his own internationalism in his production choices as World War Two took shape. The studio’s high-mindedness resulted in a remarkable trio of films directed by John Ford: Young Mr. Lincoln (1939), The Grapes of Wrath (1940), and How Green Was My Valley (1941). Zanuck, Ford, and many others then enlisted to help on the War front.
