Topics / Studio & business
Studio notes
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A schism within MGM. I mean, it's possible that the entire history of the studio, indeed the history of Hollywood, boils down to an argument between Irving Thalberg, who is credited by F. Scott Fitzgerald as the one man who held the whole equation of moving pictures in his mind, and Louis B. Mayer.
3:00 · jump to transcript →
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Thalberg wanted to make interesting movies. I think we have to remember that these films form a very, very small part of MGM's output in the mid-1930s. As far as the studio was concerned, they are pretty much B-movies compared to the musicals and the other big-budget films they were making. It's only because we as horror fans see them now as, as you say, this group of half a dozen really classy horror movies from this period. None of which were particularly successful at the time. And...
3:57 · jump to transcript →
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We have to say, I think the main reason that they weren't huge hits is that the studio didn't get behind them. I mean, when you've got an 80-minute film, you cut down to 60 minutes on release. You've got no confidence in it. Yeah, there's a sense that, oh, well.
4:24 · jump to transcript →
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