The war hero

This chapter explores Power’s work within the genre of the war film, which began around the time that Britain entered World War II. Even in war-themed films, elements that had made Power a recognisable star image were present, only now positioned within a wartime setting. His familiar witty dialogue, wide grins and charm with the ladies from earlier comedies and musicals are overtly displayed in A Yank in the RAF (Henry King, 1941) and Crash Dive (Archie Mayo, 1943), despite much of the latter taking place onboard a submarine with a crew made up exclusively of men. This chapter examines Power’s four war films in chronological order to help illustrate the development of a newfound masculinity and maturity in Power’s screen image, which advances from his cocky self-assuredness and incessant womanising in his first war film, A Yank in the RAF, through his psychological issues in This Above All (Anatole Litvak, 1942), to his more stable and understanding relationship in his last war film: American Guerrilla in the Philippines (Fritz Lang, 1950).

The banlieue in French cinema of the 1930s

Assessing popular comedies and dramas, the author argues that in 1930s French cinema the banlieue is an ‘imagined community’ that resists transfer to a map. Its dual function as a space of social relegation and popular entertainment correlates to a specifically Parisian social geography where the affluent, verdant west contrasts sharply with the industrial northeast. Suburban locales allow the exploration of themes ranging from proletarian downfall (Le Jour se lève, Marcel Carné 1939) and murder (Cœur de Lilas, Anatole Litvak 1932) to open-air pleasure-seeking (Partie de campagne, Jean Renoir, 1936/1946) and the socialising dimension of popular song. By bringing together a variegated set of films from the left-leaning screenplays of Jacques Prévert to the Pétainist Notre-Dame de la Mouise (Robert Péguy, 1941), the author probes the tension inherent in the imagined banlieue between work and play, riches and poverty, redemption and despoilment.

Tola

On her return to the United States, Hopkins meets Russian-born director Anatole Litvak. They become close, and she stars in his first American film, The Woman I Love. Her costar Paul Muni is bothered by Hopkins’s interference, and fights ensue. Hopkins buys the former estate of John Gilbert. Warner Bros. plans to make Jezebel, a part Hopkins wants, however, she is tricked into selling her rights and the role is given to Bette Davis. Discouraged, Hopkins returns to Goldwyn and makes Woman Chases Man. Polls claim that Hopkins is the number one choice to play Scarlett O’Hara in Gone with the Wind, but David O. Selznick has other plans. Hopkins moves into her new Tower Grove home. She elopes with Anatole Litvak and appears in Wine of Choice for the Theatre Guild, but it fails to meet her standards. She is devastated at the death of her ex-husband “Billy” Parker. After the funeral, she collapses and is admitted to the hospital.

All This, Jack Warner, and Bette Davis, Too

Jack Warner cancels All This, and Heaven Too, a decision that Hopkins doesn’t take well. They agree that when the film is produced, Hopkins will do it. When her divorce is granted, she returns to Hollywood and is blackmailed by Jack Warner. At an impasse, Hopkins relinquishes All This, and Heaven Too and accepts a role opposite Errol Flynn. On Virginia City, Hopkins battles with Flynn and director Michael Curtiz. Zuckmayer returns to Vermont; Hopkins is devastated. Warner Bros. produces All This, and Heaven Too with Bette Davis. Hopkins is almost broke. She appears in The Guardsman for Bela Blau, but her political differences with Fascist costar Tullio Carminati postpones production and Blau sues Hopkins. Once resolved, Hopkins agrees to do a play by a new writer, Tennessee Williams, but not until she makes her next film, Lady with Red Hair. Hopkins’s battles continue at the studio. She reunites with ex-husband Anatole Litvak, until a scandal ends their relationship.

West Hollywood to Burbank

Samuel Goldwyn loans Hopkins to Warner Bros. for a four-picture deal. Hopkins is slipping at the box office, so Anatole Litvak suggests that they cast her in their new property Dark Victory. But Bette Davis is assigned to the role and Hopkins hires a new agent, Charles Feldman, and battles with Warner Bros. over her parts, even offering to reduce her salary to be given better roles. Hopkins newfound liberal beliefs, a result of her marriage to Litvak, attract the FBI’s attentions. Litvak has a weekend affair with Bette Davis, Hopkins finds out, and threatens to divorce him and name Davis as correspondent. Jack Warner talks her out of it and searches for the right role for her, going back and forth on several projects, until finally they agree on The Old Maid, costarring . . . Bette Davis. Tests on the film continue until Academy Awards night, when Bette Davis receives the Best Actress Oscar for Jezebel; Hopkins reacts by trashing her own home.

Thebanlieuein French cinema of the 1930s

This article looks at representations of the banlieue in the cinema of the 1930s – a period before the term banlieue was synonymous with deprivation and violence as, especially since Matthieu Kassowitz’s 1995 film La Haine, it has subsequently tended to become. The work of Claude Autant-Lara and Maurice Lehmann ( Fric-Frac, Circonstances atténuantes) and that of Anatole Litvak ( Cœur de Lilas) receive close attention along with two more widely known films, Marcel Carné’s tragic Le Jour se lève, whose banlieue is topographically unsituated but could well be Parisian, and Jean Renoir’s Partie de campagne where the countryside near Paris provides the setting for two bucolic idylls that offer a different, less grim view of the banlieue than that nowadays current.