History MediaNotes / FallOfTheStudioSystem

The decentralization in the studio system often gave directors, screenwriters, and producers more leg room to make films their way, even if they still had to contend with UsefulNotes/TheHaysCode on its last legs. UsefulNotes/TheAuteurTheory was first developed during this time by the FrenchNewWave, and had a major impact on many of the star filmmakers whose careers exploded in the '70s. The New Wave pointed out that in the post-war era, there were several filmmakers who brought a fresh GenreBusting approach to American cinema. This period saw old masters like Creator/JohnFord, Creator/HowardHawks, and Creator/AlfredHitchcock making mature works like ''Film/TheSearchers'', ''Film/RioBravo'', and ''Film/{{Vertigo}}'', films which often challenged or contrasted against their more well-known style, which were often much darker and bleaker than their films made in the 1930s and 1940s. In addition, there was a new generation of adventurous filmmakers such as Creator/EliaKazan, Creator/NicholasRay, Creator/SamuelFuller, Budd Boetticher, Creator/FrankTashlin, Richard Fleischer, Anthony Mann, Raoul Walsh, Vincente Minnelli, Creator/DouglasSirk, and Creator/OttoPreminger, who pushed the envelope further and further in terms of visual style, acting style, realism, and stylized lighting. Kazan, Preminger, and Creator/BillyWilder in particular were especially bold in challenging the censorship of the time, and broke barriers in terms of restriction of sexual content.

Some have argued that the conditions that did so much damage to Hollywood in the short term, such as the loss of control over theatre distribution, actually contributed to the growth of American cinema in the long run. For one thing, it allowed the growth of independent theatre chains which allowed owners to present a wider option of films to show to the American public. This usually meant foreign films, but it also helped independent producers and distributors, who no longer had to deal with studios to screen their films to the average audience. This helped spark the growth of independent cinema and underground cinema, which developed in New York at this time, later leading to the rise of Creator/JohnCassavetes, often hailed as the "Father of American Independent Film". His 1959 film ''Shadows'' was a striking glimpse of American life that dealt with subjects such as the lives of normal African-Americans, an interracial romance, and sexual relationships, with a realism far away from Hollywood's idealized touch. In addition to this, young ambitious tyro like Creator/StanleyKubrick could more or less become a SelfMadeMan and become a master of film production outside the system, and moreover have his early short newsreels and low-budget independent films find an audience, with which he built a platform into the mainstream, in a way that he would never have managed in the old studio system. The ability of actors and directors to negotiate independent contracts likewise provided them better incentives, such as a percentage of actual gross. This resulted in greater roles played by agents such as Lew Wassermann of MCA, but it also allowed stars to break free of TypeCasting and play darker roles, such as Creator/JamesStewart's films with Anthony Mann and Creator/AlfredHitchcock when he was no longer constrained or typed by his old roles. Creator/BurtLancaster was another star who took advantage of this freedom to produce films such as ''Film/SweetSmellOfSuccess''.

Far more important, the [[NewMediaAreEvil new medium]] of {{UsefulNotes/television}} was also placing growing pressure on the industry. The days of {{film serial}}s and {{newsreel}}s that ran before and between movies quickly came to an end as short subjects, news programs, and cartoons migrated to TV. Late-night television became popular for reruns of old movies, which helped revive interest in UsefulNotes/TheSilentAgeOfHollywood but did nothing to pull audiences into movie theaters. The studios reacted to this competition by filming a greater share of their movies in color (color television in the 1950s was seen as rather laughable), and introduced numerous innovations (including widescreen projection and stereo sound) and gimmicks ([[UsefulNotes/ThreeDMovie 3-D movies]], "roadshow" booking and countless others) to pull customers back and provide them with an experience that television could not. The culmination of this effort was the rise of the EpicMovie, the multi-million-dollar, three-hour-long (including {{intermission}}), cast-of-thousands epic that ''had'' to be seen in theaters to be properly enjoyed. Even then, however, television was proving to be a nearly unstoppable juggernaut, and moviegoers were bleeding away to television at a rapid pace. Weekly attendance would fall from a peak of 90 million in 1948, the first year of true national television, to roughly half that in 1953, where it would stabilize for the next decade.

Finally, the star system crumbled during this period. Established stars like Jane Greer, Creator/BetteDavis and Creator/MarilynMonroe were battling studio heads at every turn, often refusing certain parts that they didn't want and even suing to get out of their contracts.[[note]]The earliest significant example of this, and probably the most famous one, is ''[[http://online.ceb.com/CalCases/CA2/67CA2d225.htm De Havilland v. Warner Bros. Pictures]]'', 153 P.2d 983 (Cal. 2d Dist. Ct. App. 1944), in which Creator/OliviaDeHavilland, backed by the SAG, got the California Labor Code interpreted to mean that a studio contract could not last longer than seven ''calendar'' years, rather than seven years (i.e. 2,555 days) of actual acting. The contracts under the studios' interpretation could take much, ''much'' longer, possibly as much as 15 or 20 years. If weekends and holidays alone are taken out, you're already at 10 years to execute a "seven-year" contract, and then consider that even a junior star wouldn't be acting daily, and consider even further that the studios could figure out how to dribble out work slowly and get films made quickly so the contract would last longer.[[/note]] The publicity this generated meant that new arrivals in Hollywood were becoming increasingly GenreSavvy, knowing about the restrictions that they would face by signing contracts with the studios. As a result, they were becoming more selective and demanding with their contracts, with some opting to go for free agency instead. In addition, the rise of the modern, scandal-obsessed tabloid media, led by magazines like ''Confidential'' and the infamous book ''Hollywood Babylon'', was making it next to impossible for studios to hush up the indiscretions of their stars, and the myth of Golden Age Hollywood as being clean and wholesome was swept away like so much garbage.

The final nail in the coffin of the studio system was the rise of foreign cinema in TheSixties. Despite the Miracle Decision, Hollywood was still bound by the outdated, self-imposed terms of UsefulNotes/TheHaysCode, which meant that there was a long list of topics and themes that it couldn't touch. This left a massive opening for foreign filmmakers and studios to eat up lots of market share. Italy had already made the Code look ridiculous with the 1948 classic ''Film/BicycleThieves'' (which the Code tried to censor because it had a completely sexless scene in a brothel), and it followed that up by unleashing "{{Spaghetti Western}}s" that [[GenreDeconstruction deconstructed]] one of Hollywood's [[TheWestern most cherished genres]]. The French New Wave, with such masters as Creator/FrancoisTruffaut, was breaking all of the conventions of filmmaking and cinematic form, to immense critical acclaim. Japanese cinema, led by the popular ''Franchise/{{Godzilla}}'' (albeit thanks to a [[Film/GodzillaKingOfTheMonsters Americanized edit]] of the [[Film/{{Gojira}} original film]]) and the lavishly lauded and [[Film/AFistfulOfDollars much-]] [[Film/TheMagnificentSeven imitated]] works of Creator/AkiraKurosawa, was also making a splash stateside.

Some have argued that the conditions that did so much damage to Hollywood in the short term, such as the loss of control over theatre distribution, actually contributed to the growth of American cinema in the long run. For one thing, it allowed the growth of independent theatre chains which allowed owners to present a wider option of films to show to the American public. This usually meant foreign films, but it also helped independent producers and distributors, who no longer had to deal with studios to screen their films to the average audience. This helped spark the growth of independent cinema and underground cinema, which developed in New York at this time, later leading to the rise of Creator/JohnCassavetes, often hailed as the "Father of American Independent Film". His 1959 film ''Shadows'' was a striking glimpse of American life that dealt with subjects such as the lives of normal African-Americans, an interracial romance, and sexual relationships, with a realism far away from Hollywood's idealized touch. The ability of actors and directors to negotiate independent contracts likewise provided them better incentives, such as a percentage of actual gross. This resulted in greater roles played by agents such as Lew Wassermann of MCA, but it also allowed stars to break free of TypeCasting and play darker roles, such as Creator/JamesStewart's films with Anthony Mann and Creator/AlfredHitchcock when he was no longer constrained or typed by his old roles. Creator/BurtLancaster was another star who took advantage of this freedom to produce films such as ''Film/SweetSmellOfSuccess''.

Far more important, the [[NewMediaAreEvil new medium]] of {{UsefulNotes/television}} was also placing growing pressure on the industry. The days of {{film serial}}s and {{newsreel}}s that ran before and between movies quickly came to an end as short subjects, news programs, and cartoons migrated to TV. Late-night television became popular for reruns of old movies, which helped revive interest in UsefulNotes/TheSilentAgeOfHollywood but did nothing to pull audiences into movie theaters. The studios reacted to this competition by filming a greater share of their movies in color (color television in the 1950s was seen as rather laughable), and introduced numerous innovations (including widescreen projection and stereo sound) and gimmicks ([[ThreeDMovie 3-D movies]], "roadshow" booking and countless others) to pull customers back and provide them with an experience that television could not. The culmination of this effort was the rise of the EpicMovie, the multi-million-dollar, three-hour-long (including {{intermission}}), cast-of-thousands epic that ''had'' to be seen in theaters to be properly enjoyed. Even then, however, television was proving to be a nearly unstoppable juggernaut, and moviegoers were bleeding away to television at a rapid pace. Weekly attendance would fall from a peak of 90 million in 1948, the first year of true national television, to roughly half that in 1953, where it would stabilize for the next decade.

On a somewhat related note, American animation was also facing a steep decline during this period; for more information, see TheDarkAgeOfAnimation.

!!'''How the Cookie Crumbled ([[EitherOrTitle or]], Trust-Busting, TV, and Tabloids, oh my!)'''

!!'''The damage'''

Even so, however, many of these positive developments were happening in the background, and would take time to bear fruit. Meanwhile, the fruits of Hollywood's over-reliance on formula and "sure bets", its struggles to keep up with the times, and its gimmicky attempts to compete with television were already ripening and rotting in front of them. By the mid-late '60s, the American film industry had collapsed under its own weight, toppled by bloated budgets, diminishing returns, stale product, and huge losses in market share to TV, independents, and the British. Theatrical attendance, after years of stagnation, finally collapsed in the second half of the '60s, plunging from 45 million people a week in 1965 to just 19 million four years later. [[NewHollywood Someone had to do something to stop the decline...]]

Far more important, the [[NewMediaAreEvil new medium]] of {{UsefulNotes/television}} was also placing growing pressure on the industry. The days of {{film serial}}s and {{newsreel}}s that ran before and between movies quickly came to an end as short subjects, news programs, and cartoons migrated to TV. Late-night television became popular for reruns of old movies, which helped revive interest in the SilentAgeOfHollywood but did nothing to pull audiences into movie theaters. The studios reacted to this competition by filming a greater share of their movies in color (color television in the 1950s was seen as rather laughable), and introduced numerous innovations (including widescreen projection and stereo sound) and gimmicks ([[ThreeDMovie 3-D movies]], "roadshow" booking and countless others) to pull customers back and provide them with an experience that television could not. The culmination of this effort was the rise of the EpicMovie, the multi-million-dollar, three-hour-long (including {{intermission}}), cast-of-thousands epic that ''had'' to be seen in theaters to be properly enjoyed. Even then, however, television was proving to be a nearly unstoppable juggernaut, and moviegoers were bleeding away to television at a rapid pace. Weekly attendance would fall from a peak of 90 million in 1948, the first year of true national television, to roughly half that in 1953, where it would stabilize for the next decade.

The biggest threat to Hollywood dominance, however, came from Britain. As it had done in music, UsefulNotes/TheBritishInvasion was sweeping over the film world as well. Such works as the ''Film/JamesBond'' movies, the output of [[Film/HammerHorror Hammer Film Productions]], the [[Music/TheBeatles Beatles]] films ''Film/AHardDaysNight'' and ''Film/{{Help}}'', and others spoke to a generation of young Americans in the swinging, countercultural 1960s. Meanwhile, British period dramas like ''Film/LawrenceOfArabia'' and ''Film/{{Zulu}}'' showed that Hollywood no longer had a monopoly on epic filmmaking. Out of ten [[AcademyAward Best Picture]] winners in TheSixties, four[[note]]''Lawrence of Arabia'' in 1962, ''[[Literature/TheHistoryOfTomJonesAFoundling Tom Jones]]'' in '63, ''Theatre/AManForAllSeasons'' in '66, and ''Theatre/{{Oliver}}'' in '68[[/note]] were British films. And there was little Hollywood could do in response.

The biggest threat to Hollywood dominance, however, came from Britain. As it had done in music, UsefulNotes/TheBritishInvasion was sweeping over the film world as well. Such works as the ''Film/JamesBond'' movies, the output of [[HammerHorror Hammer Film Productions]], the [[Music/TheBeatles Beatles]] films ''Film/AHardDaysNight'' and ''Film/{{Help}}'', and others spoke to a generation of young Americans in the swinging, countercultural 1960s. Meanwhile, British period dramas like ''Film/LawrenceOfArabia'' and ''Film/{{Zulu}}'' showed that Hollywood no longer had a monopoly on epic filmmaking. Out of ten [[AcademyAward Best Picture]] winners in TheSixties, four[[note]]''Lawrence of Arabia'' in 1962, ''[[Literature/TheHistoryOfTomJonesAFoundling Tom Jones]]'' in '63, ''Theatre/AManForAllSeasons'' in '66, and ''Theatre/{{Oliver}}'' in '68[[/note]] were British films. And there was little Hollywood could do in response.

Even so, however, many of these positive developments were happening in the background, and would take time to bear fruit. Meanwhile, the fruits of Hollywood's over-reliance on formula and "sure bets", its struggles to keep up with the times, and its gimmicky attempts to compete with television were already ripening and rotting in front of them. By the mid-late '60s, the American film industry had collapsed under its own weight, toppled by bloated budgets, diminishing returns, stale product, and huge losses in market share to TV, independents, and the British. The market for films from 45 million a week in 1965 to just 19 million four years later. [[NewHollywood Someone had to do something to stop the decline...]]

The moment that is often considered to be the beginning of the end for the studio system, and the end of Hollywood's Golden Age, is the 1948 landmark Supreme Court decision ''[[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_v._Paramount_Pictures,_Inc%2E United States v. Paramount Pictures, Inc.]]'' This decision not only outlawed the practice of block booking[[note]] The system where major studios forced theaters to buy films in large bundles, usually sight-unseen, in order to get the few A-list films they actually wanted.[[/note]], it also forced the studios to sell their theater chains. The result of this was that studios, no longer able to dump a whole year's worth of movies on theaters, now had to be far more selective in what they did produce. This led to an increase in the production values and budgets of Hollywood's motion pictures, and a decrease in their number. This also gave more freedom to independent filmmakers and smaller studios, as they could distribute their product with much less interference by the majors. The studios that saw the most benefit from this decision were Creator/{{Universal}}, Creator/ColumbiaPictures, and Creator/UnitedArtists - the "Little Three" studios that, unlike the "Big Five"[[note]] Creator/{{Paramount}}, Creator/{{MGM}}, Creator/WarnerBros, Creator/TwentiethCenturyFox, and RKO.[[/note]], did not own their own theater chains.

The need for UsefulNotes/TheHaysCode was the next to go. The ''Paramount'' decision had already weakened it by causing the rise of independent "art-house" theaters that could show foreign and independent films that weren't covered by the Code. The real crippling blow to film censorship, however, was another landmark Supreme Court decision, the 1952 case of ''[[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_Burstyn,_Inc._v._Wilson Joseph Burstyn, Inc. v. Wilson]]'', also known as the [[MeaningfulName Miracle Decision]] after the name of the film, ''The Miracle'' by Roberto Rossellini. That film had controversial Catholic imagery and themes, with an ironic reworking of the Virgin Birth. The Miracle Decision declared that film was an artistic medium protected under the First Amendment, thereby eliminating the threat of government censorship that had led to the implementation of the Code in the first place. Since there was still no [[UsefulNotes/MediaClassifications film ratings system]] other than the unofficial one of the [[MoralGuardians National Legion of Decency]] (whose influence was on the wane by the time TheSixties rolled around), films would be billed as [[RatedMForMoney "Recommended for Adults Only,"]] and more and more theater chains were willing to show them. The tide in Hollywood was turning against censorship.[[note]]Ironically, this was the same time it was turning in the exact opposite direction in [[UsefulNotes/TheComicsCode another medium]].[[/note]]

Even so, however, many of these positive developments were happening in the background, and would take time to bear fruit. Meanwhile, the fruits of Hollywood's over-reliance on formula and "sure bets", its struggles to keep up with the times, and its gimmicky attempts to compete with television were already ripening and rotting in front of them. By the mid-late '60s, the American film industry had collapsed under its own weight, toppled by bloated budgets, diminishing returns, stale product, and huge losses in market share to TV, independents, and the British. The market for films, which had been shaky and stagnant for years, saw the bottom fall out entirely entirely, with theater attendance plunging from 45 million per week in 1965 to just 19 million in 1969. [[NewHollywood Someone had to do something to stop the decline...]]

Even so, however, many of these positive developments were happening in the background, and would take time to bear fruit. Meanwhile, the fruits of Hollywood's over-reliance on formula and "sure bets", its struggles to keep up with the times, and its gimmicky attempts to compete with television were already ripening and rotting in front of them. By the mid-late '60s, the American film industry had collapsed under its own weight, toppled by bloated budgets, diminishing returns, stale product, and huge losses in market share to TV, independents, and the British. [[NewHollywood Someone had to do something to stop the decline...]]

Despite this, the plethora of talent meant that even in this period of TheFifties, Hollywood still produced a volume of great films and some like critic James Harvey (author of ''Movie Love in the Fifties'') argue that it was even its greatest decade.

In fact, some argue that the conditions such as the loss of theatre distribution actually contributed to the growth of American cinema. For one thing, it allowed the growth of independent theatre chains which allowed owners to give a wider option of films to see to the American public. This meant foreign films, but it also helped independent producers and distributors who no longer had to deal with studios to screen their films to the average audience. This helped spark the growth of independent cinema and underground cinema, which developed in New York at this time, later leading to the rise of Creator/JohnCassavetes whose film ''Shadows'' was a striking glimpse of American life that dealt with subjects, such as the life of normal African-Americans, an interracial romance, and sexual relationships, with a realism far away from Hollywood's idealized touch. The ability of actors and directors to negotiate independent contracts provided them better incentives, such as a percentage of actual gross. This resulted in greater roles played by agents such as Lew Wassermann of MCA but it also resulted in stars such as James Stewart playing darker roles such as his films with Anthony Mann and Alfred Hitchcock, when he was no longer constrained or typed by his old roles. Burt Lancaster was another star who took advantage of this freedom to produce films such as ''Sweet Smell of Success''.

The decentralization in the studio system often gave directors, screenwriters and producers more leg room to make films their way, even if they still had to contend with UsefulNotes/TheHaysCode on its last legs. Indeed UsefulNotes/TheAuteurTheory was first applied by the FrenchNewWave to film-makers from the 1950s before being self-proclaimed by the directors of the 1970s! The New Wave pointed out that in the post-war era, there were several filmmakers who brought a fresh GenreBusting approach to American cinema. This period saw old masters like Creator/JohnFord, Creator/HowardHawks and Creator/AlfredHitchcock making mature works like ''Film/TheSearchers'', ''Film/RioBravo'' and ''Film/{{Vertigo}}'', films which often challenged or contrasted against their more well-known style, which were in fact darker and bleaker than their films made in the 1930s and 1940s. In addition, there was a new generation of adventurous filmmakers such as Creator/EliaKazan, Creator/NicholasRay, Creator/SamuelFuller, Budd Boetticher, Creator/FrankTashlin, Richard Fleischer, Anthony Mann, Raoul Walsh, Vincente Minnelli, Creator/DouglasSirk, and Creator/OttoPreminger, who pushed the envelope further and further in terms of visual style, acting style, greater realism and stylized lighting. Kazan, Preminger and Creator/BillyWilder in particular were especially bold in challenging the censorship and broke barriers in terms of restriction of sexual content.

The biggest threat to Hollywood dominance, however, came from Britain. As it had done in music, UsefulNotes/TheBritishInvasion was sweeping over the film world as well. Such works as the ''Film/JamesBond'' movies, ''Film/LawrenceOfArabia'', the output of [[HammerHorror Hammer Film Productions]], the [[Music/TheBeatles Beatles]] films ''Film/AHardDaysNight'' and ''Film/{{Help}}'', and others spoke to a generation of young Americans in the swinging, countercultural 1960s. Out of ten [[AcademyAward Best Picture]] winners in TheSixties, four were British films. And there was little Hollywood could do in response.

By the mid-'60s, the American film industry had collapsed under its own weight, toppled by bloated budgets, diminishing returns, stale product, and huge losses in market share to TV, independents, and the British. [[NewHollywood Someone had to do something to stop the decline...]]

Far more important, the [[NewMediaAreEvil new medium]] of {{television}} was also placing growing pressure on the industry. The days of {{film serial}}s and {{newsreel}}s that ran before and between movies quickly came to an end as short subjects, news programs, and cartoons migrated to TV. Late-night television became popular for reruns of old movies, which helped revive interest in the SilentAgeOfHollywood but did nothing to pull audiences into movie theaters. The studios reacted to this competition by filming a greater share of their movies in color (color television in the 1950s was seen as rather laughable), and introduced numerous innovations (including widescreen projection and stereo sound) and gimmicks ([[ThreeDMovie 3-D movies]], "roadshow" booking and countless others) to pull customers back and provide them with an experience that television could not. The culmination of this effort was the rise of the EpicMovie, the multi-million-dollar, three-hour-long (including {{intermission}}), cast-of-thousands epic that ''had'' to be seen in theaters to be properly enjoyed. Even then, however, television was proving to be a nearly unstoppable juggernaut, and moviegoers were bleeding away to television at a rapid pace. Weekly attendance would fall from a peak of 90 million in 1948, the first year of true national television, to roughly half that in 1953, where it would stabilize for the next decade.

Despite this, the plethora of talent meant that even in this period of TheFifties, Hollywood still produced a volume of great films and some like critic James Harvey(author of ''Movie Love in the Fifties'') argue that it was even its greatest decade.

The GoldenAgeOfHollywood could not last forever. A number of outside forces were conspiring to make it impossible for the studio system to continue for more than a few decades in the [[UsefulNotes/WorldWarII post-war]] era. This is the Fall Of The Studio System, a period of time stretching from roughly the late 1940s to the late 1960s.

The need for UsefulNotes/TheHaysCode was the next to go. The ''Paramount'' decision had already weakened it by causing the rise of independent "art-house" theaters that could show foreign and independent films that weren't covered by the Code. The real crippling blow to film censorship, however, was another landmark Supreme Court decision, the 1952 case of ''[[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_Burstyn,_Inc._v._Wilson Joseph Burstyn, Inc. v. Wilson]]'', also known as the [[MeaningfulName Miracle Decision]] after the name of the film, ''The Miracle'' by Roberto Rossellini. That film had controversial Catholic imagery and themes, with an ironic reworking of the Virgin Birth. The Miracle Decision declared that film was an artistic medium protected under the First Amendment, thereby eliminating the threat of government censorship that had led to the implementation of the Code in the first place. When combined with the waning influence of the [[MoralGuardians National Legion of Decency]] by the time TheSixties rolled around, this meant that the tide in Hollywood was turning against censorship.[[note]]Ironically, this was the same time it was turning in the exact opposite direction in [[UsefulNotes/TheComicsCode another medium]].[[/note]]

The final nail in the coffin of the studio system was the rise of foreign cinema in TheSixties. Despite the Miracle Decision, Hollywood was still bound by the outdated, self-imposed terms of UsefulNotes/TheHaysCode, which meant that there was a long list of topics and themes that it couldn't touch. This left a massive opening for foreign filmmakers and studios to eat up lots of market share. Italy had already made the Code look ridiculous with the 1948 classic ''BicycleThieves'' (which the Code tried to censor because it had a completely sexless scene in a brothel), and it followed that up by unleashing "{{Spaghetti Western}}s" that [[GenreDeconstruction deconstructed]] one of Hollywood's [[TheWestern most cherished genres]]. The French New Wave, with such masters as Creator/FrancoisTruffaut, was breaking all of the conventions of filmmaking and cinematic form, to immense critical acclaim. Japanese cinema, led by the popular ''Franchise/{{Godzilla}}'' (albeit thanks to a [[Film/GodzillaKingOfTheMonsters Americanized edit]] of the [[Film/{{Gojira}} original film]]) and the lavishly lauded and [[Film/AFistfulOfDollars much-]] [[TheMagnificentSeven imitated]] works of Creator/AkiraKurosawa, was also making a splash stateside.

In fact, some argue that the conditions such as the loss of theatre Distribution actually contributed to the growth of American cinema. For one thing, it allowed the growth of independent theatre chains which allowed owners to give a wider option of films to see to the American public. This meant foreign films, but it also helped independent producers and distributors who no longer had to deal with studios to screen their films to the average audience. This helped spark the growth of independent cinema and underground cinema, which developed in New York at this time, later leading to the rise of Creator/JohnCassavetes whose film ''Shadows'' was a striking glimpse of American life that dealt with subjects, such as the life of normal African-Americans, an interracial romance, and sexual relationships, with a realism far away from Hollywood's idealized touch. The ability of actors and directors to negotiate independent contracts provided them better incentives, such as a percentage of actual gross. This resulted in greater roles played by agents such as Lew Wassermann of MCA but it also resulted in stars such as James Stewart playing darker roles such as his films with Anthony Mann and Alfred Hitchcock, when he was no longer constrained or typed by his old roles. Burt Lancaster was another star who took advantage of this freedom to produce films such as ''Sweet Smell of Success''.

The decentralization in the studio system often gave directors, screenwriters and producers more leg room to make films their way, even if they still had to contend with UsefulNotes/TheHaysCode on its last legs. Indeed UsefulNotes/TheAuteurTheory was first applied by the FrenchNewWave to film-makers from the 50s before being self-proclaimed by the directors of the 70s! The New Wave pointed out that in the post-war era, there were several film-makers who brought a fresh GenreBusting approach to American cinema. This period saw old masters like Creator/JohnFord, Creator/HowardHawks and Creator/AlfredHitchcock making mature works like ''Film/TheSearchers'', ''Film/RioBravo'' and ''Film/{{Vertigo}}'', films which often challenged or contrasted against their more well known style, which were in fact darker and bleaker than their films made in the 30s and 40s. In addition there was a new generation of adventurous filmmakers such as Creator/EliaKazan, Creator/NicholasRay, Creator/SamuelFuller, Budd Boetticher, Creator/FrankTashlin, Richard Fleischer, Anthony Mann, Raoul Walsh, Vincente Minnelli, Creator/DouglasSirk, Creator/OttoPreminger who pushed the envelope further and further in terms of visual style, acting style, greater realism and stylized lighting. Kazan, Preminger and Creator/BillyWilder in particular were especially bold in challenging the censorship and broke barriers in terms of restriction of sexual content.

The biggest threat to Hollywood dominance, however, came from Britain. As it had done in music, TheBritishInvasion was sweeping over the film world as well. Such works as the ''Film/JamesBond'' movies, ''Film/LawrenceOfArabia'', the output of [[HammerHorror Hammer Film Productions]], the [[Music/TheBeatles Beatles]] films ''Film/AHardDaysNight'' and ''Film/{{Help}}'', and others spoke to a generation of young Americans in the swinging, countercultural '60s. Out of ten [[AcademyAward Best Picture]] winners in TheSixties, four were British films. And there was little Hollywood could do in response.

By the mid '60s, the American film industry had collapsed under its own weight, toppled by bloated budgets, diminishing returns, stale product, and huge losses in market share to TV, independents, and the British. [[NewHollywood Someone had to do something to stop the decline...]]

Despite this, the plethora of talent meant that even in this period of TheFifties, Hollywood still produced a volume of great films and some like critic James Harvey(author of ''Movie Love in the Fifties'') argue that it was even its greatest decade. This period saw old masters like Creator/JohnFord, Creator/HowardHawks and Creator/AlfredHitchcock making mature works like ''Film/TheSearchers'', ''Film/RioBravo'' and ''Film/{{Vertigo}}'' as well as more adventurous filmmakers like Creator/EliaKazan, Nicholas Ray, Samuel Fuller, Budd Boetticher, Creator/FrankTashlin, Richard Fleischer, Anthony Mann, Raoul Walsh, Vincente Minnelli, Douglas Sirk, Creator/OttoPreminger, pushing the envelope further and further.

Hollywood did not take the fall of the studio system well. While the smaller studios {{Creator/Columbia|Pictures}} and United Artists thrived in the new climate, quickly gaining market share and becoming the most profitable studios in Hollywood, most of the Big Five struggled to survive. The hardest-hit studio was Creator/RKORadioPictures, historically the weakest of the Big Five, which fell apart under the mismanagement of [[PromotedFanboy Howard Hughes]]. By 1958, RKO's only hope of survival lay in a proposed merger with B-studios Republic Pictures and Creator/AlliedArtists; the merger fell through, and both RKO and Republic left the movie business entirely. The other studios also faced a slow decline, and many of them found themselves getting bought out. The major studios all but abandoned the production of {{B movie}}s to independent filmmakers and minor studios, focusing instead on smaller numbers of bigger-budgeted pictures. When these {{Epic Movie}}s succeeded, it was all well and good, but when they flopped (as was [[Film/{{Cleopatra}} known to happen]] on occasion), it vindicated the old saying about putting all of your eggs into one basket. Meanwhile, [[Creator/{{Disney}} the House that Mickey Built]] entered the live-action film business, cut its old ties to RKO and added the Buena Vista Film Distribution Company to its fast-growing empire. While not considered a major studio at the time due to its focus on family films, Disney was still able to snatch up significant market share with films like ''[[Film/TwentyThousandLeaguesUnderTheSea 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea]]'' and ''Film/MaryPoppins''.

Despite this, the plethora of talent meant that even in this period of TheFifties, Hollywood still produced a volume of great films and some like critic James Harvey(author of ''Movie Love in the Fifties'') argue that it was even its greatest decade. This period saw old masters like Creator/JohnFord, Creator/HowardHawks and Creator/AlfredHitchcock making mature works like ''Film/TheSearchers'', ''Film/RioBravo'' and ''Film/{{Vertigo}}'' as well as more adventurous film-makers like Elia Kazan, Nicholas Ray, Samuel Fuller, Budd Boetticher, FrankTashlin, Richard Fleischer, Anthony Mann, Raoul Walsh, Vincente Minnelli, Douglas Sirk, Otto Preminger, pushing the envelope further and further.

Hollywood did not take the fall of the studio system well. While the smaller studios {{Creator/Columbia|Pictures}} and United Artists thrived in the new climate, quickly gaining market share and becoming the most profitable studios in Hollywood, most of the Big Five struggled to survive. The hardest-hit studio was RKO Radio Pictures, historically the weakest of the Big Five, which fell apart under the mismanagement of [[PromotedFanboy Howard Hughes]]. By the late 1950s, RKO's only hope of survival lay in a proposed merger with B-studios Republic Pictures and Creator/AlliedArtists; the merger fell through, and both RKO and Republic left the movie business entirely. The other studios also faced a slow decline, and many of them found themselves getting bought out. The major studios all but abandoned the production of {{B movie}}s to independent filmmakers and minor studios, focusing instead on smaller numbers of bigger-budgeted pictures. When these {{Epic Movie}}s succeeded, it was all well and good, but when they flopped (as was [[Film/{{Cleopatra}} known to happen]] on occasion), it vindicated the old saying about putting all of your eggs into one basket. Finally, [[Creator/{{Disney}} the House that Mickey Built]] entered the live-action film business with the establishment of the Buena Vista Film Distribution Company in 1953. While not considered a major studio at the time due to its focus on family films, Disney was still able to snatch up significant market share with films like 1954's ''[[Film/TwentyThousandLeaguesUnderTheSea 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea]]'' and 1964's ''Film/MaryPoppins''.

Despite this, the plethora of talent meant that even in this period of TheFifties, Hollywood still produced a volume of great films and some like critic James Harvey(author of ''Movie Love in the Fifties'') argue that it was even its greatest decade. This period saw old masters like Creator/JohnFord and Creator/AlfredHitchcock making mature works like ''TheSearchers'' and ''{{Vertigo}}'' as well as more adventurous film-makers like Elia Kazan, Nicholas Ray, Samuel Fuller, Budd Boetticher, FrankTashlin, Richard Fleischer, Anthony Mann, Raoul Walsh, Vincente Minnelli, Douglas Sirk, Otto Preminger, pushing the envelope further and further.

Far more important, the [[NewMediaAreEvil new medium]] of {{television}} was also placing growing pressure on the industry. The days of {{film serial}}s and {{newsreel}}s that ran before and between movies quickly came to an end as short subjects, news programs, and cartoons migrated to TV, and moviegoers were likewise bleeding away to television at a rapid pace. Consequently, the studios started filming a greater share of their movies in color (color television in the 1950s was seen as rather laughable), and introduced numerous innovations (including widescreen projection and stereo sound) and gimmicks ([[ThreeDMovie 3-D movies]], "roadshow" booking and countless others) to pull customers back and provide them with an experience that television could not. The culmination of this effort was the rise of the EpicMovie, the multi-million-dollar, three-hour-long (including {{intermission}}), cast-of-thousands epic that ''had'' to be seen in theaters to be properly enjoyed. Even then, however, television was proving to be a nearly unstoppable juggernaut. Weekly attendance would fall from a peak of 90 million in 1948, the first year of true national television, to roughly half that in 1953, where it would stabilize for the next decade.

Hollywood did not take the fall of the studio system well. While the smaller studios {{Creator/Columbia|Pictures}} and United Artists thrived in the new climate, quickly gaining market share and becoming the most profitable studios in Hollywood, most of the Big Five struggled to survive. The hardest-hit studio was RKO Radio Pictures, historically the weakest of the Big Five, which fell apart under the mismanagement of [[PromotedFanboy Howard Hughes]] and left the movie business entirely in 1959. The other studios also faced a slow decline, and many of them found themselves getting bought out. The major studios all but abandoned the production of {{B movie}}s to independent filmmakers and minor studios, focusing instead on smaller numbers of bigger-budgeted pictures. When these {{Epic Movie}}s succeeded, it was all well and good, but when they flopped (as was [[Film/{{Cleopatra}} known to happen]] on occasion), it vindicated the old saying about putting all of your eggs into one basket. Finally, [[Creator/{{Disney}} the House that Mickey Built]] entered the live-action film business with the establishment of the Buena Vista Film Distribution Company in 1953. While not considered a major studio at the time due to its focus on family films, Disney was still able to snatch up significant market share with films like 1954's ''[[Film/TwentyThousandLeaguesUnderTheSea 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea]]'' and 1964's ''Film/MaryPoppins''.

Except, however, for [[WitchHunt one particular]] [[DirtyCommunists type of censorship]]. The post-war period was the age of America's Second RedScare[[note]] The first happened immediately after UsefulNotes/WorldWarI.[[/note]], and people started fearing that the entertainment industry was being infiltrated and turned into a Communist PropagandaMachine by leftists and Soviet sympathizers. A widely-varying (depending on the source) number of screenwriters, actors, and directors with suspect political views suddenly found their careers in the American film industry yanked out from under them in UsefulNotes/TheHollywoodBlacklist of TheFifties. Another 151 people were named by the right-wing pamphlet ''Red Channels'', published by the anti-Communist group AWARE, as Communist subversives; these people likewise found themselves effectively barred from working in film, radio, or television. A fair number of the people who were blacklisted would continue to find work in Britain -- a point that will become relevant later. As TheFifties wore on, the entertainment industry struck back against the RedScare; the 1956 BetteDavis film ''Storm Center'' was one of the first to directly target anti-Communist hysteria, and in 1957, {{radio}} host John Henry Faulk sued AWARE for ruining his career (winning his case in 1962).

Finally, the star system crumbled during this period. Established stars like Jane Greer and Creator/BetteDavis were battling studio heads at every turn, often refusing certain parts that they didn't want and even suing to get out of their contracts.[[note]]The earliest significant example of this, and probably the most famous one, is ''[[http://online.ceb.com/CalCases/CA2/67CA2d225.htm De Havilland v. Warner Bros. Pictures]]'', 153 P.2d 983 (Cal. 2d Dist. Ct. App. 1944), in which Creator/OliviaDeHavilland, backed by the SAG, got the California Labor Code interpreted to mean that a studio contract could not last longer than seven ''calendar'' years, rather than seven years (i.e. 2,555 days) of actual acting. The contracts under the studios' interpretation could take much, ''much'' longer, possibly as much as 15 or 20 years. If weekends and holidays alone are taken out, you're already at 10 years to execute a "seven-year" contract, and then consider that even a junior star wouldn't be acting daily, and consider even further that the studios could figure out how to dribble out work slowly and get films made quickly so the contract would last longer.[[/note]] The publicity this generated meant that new arrivals in Hollywood were becoming increasingly GenreSavvy, knowing about the restrictions that they would face by signing contracts with the studios. As a result, they were becoming more selective and demanding with their contracts, with some opting to go for free agency instead. In addition, the rise of the modern, scandal-obsessed tabloid media, led by magazines like ''Confidential'' and the infamous book ''Hollywood Babylon'', was making it next to impossible for studios to hush up the indiscretions of their stars, and the myth of Golden Age Hollywood as being clean and wholesome was swept away like so much garbage.