Adultery Scenes for June 2025

Slap Scenes For June 2025

Editing Videos Is Grueling Work

Long editing sessions leave me bleary-eyed.  It's hard to figure out if I have everything edited properly if I can't see straight.  So, I usually set a video aside and revisit it a couple of days later.  

I recently violated that rule.  I posted a couple of videos directly after a long and particularly difficult editing session.  I later had second thoughts about this and reviewed the videos.  As I feared, I found a few errors.  They were minor errors -  I posted a scene without identifying the film, I failed to fade out audio while transitioning between scenes, and I had text that was slightly off-center.  

I corrected the errors and reposted the videos.  Here are the videos:

https://anthonybalducci.blogspot.com/2025/06/film-clips-for-may-2025.html

https://anthonybalducci.blogspot.com/2025/06/film-tropes-quicksand-rain-fireplaces.html

I hope that these errors did not cause you any inconvenience.

Was The Studio System Bad?

The Hollywood studio system, dominant from the 1920s to the 1950s, was a vertically integrated model where major studios controlled production, distribution, and exhibition. Its impact on filmmaking was profound, shaping the industry's output and legacy.  

Studios operated like factories, with in-house writers, directors, actors, and technicians under long-term contracts.  This allowed for rapid production of films, with MGM producing over 50 films annually at its peak in the 1930s.  Filmmakers benefited from their access to a studio's resources, including costume departments, set designers, and a vast talent pool.  The system enabled consistent output, meeting audience demand for weekly cinema releases and establishing Hollywood as a global leader.  

Additionally, studios owned theater chains, ensuring their films reached wide audiences.  Paramount controlled over 1,000 theaters by the 1930s.  Columbia Pictures' It Happened One Night (1934) became a national hit due to the studio's distribution muscle.  

In the process, the studios established distinct identities for themselves.  The stories and stars they presented supported this identity.  The studios crafted iconic stars like Clark Gable, Bette Davis and Humphrey Bogart, whose personas were carefully curated to draw audiences.  

Despite their great success, the studio system has faced staunch criticism over the years.  What were the system's flaws?  Actors and crew were bound by long-term contracts with little negotiating power.  Bette Davis famously sued Warner Bros. in 1936 over restrictive roles, highlighting the system's control.  Olivia de Havilland's legal battle against Warner Bros. in the 1940s exposed the abusive way that the studios enforced actor contracts.  Talent faced grueling schedules and typecasting, stifling career growth and personal agency.  

Olivia de Havilland in Hard to Get (1938)

The critics have a second argument, which they raise often.  It is their belief that studios prioritized profit, favoring predictable genres (for example, musicals and westerns) over risky experimentation.  Directors and writers often faced strict oversight, limiting creative freedom.  The studios cared more about audience appeal than artistry.  Creative risks were often discouraged as they failed to align with commercial viability.  Consequently, experimental films struggled to secure funding or distribution.  At 20th Century Fox, Darryl F. Zanuck micromanaged scripts and edits.  John Ford's innovative instincts in The Grapes of Wrath (1940) were tempered by Zanuck's demands for a more palatable ending.  

So, fine, those are the arguments.  Do I accept them?  Are the arguments at all valid?

While the studio system imposed constraints, the claim that it wholly stifled creativity oversimplifies matters.  Directors and writers often found ways to push boundaries, even within commercial frameworks, and the system itself enabled groundbreaking work.  The studio system provided resources - budgets, talent and infrastructure - that fueled creative output.  Directors like John Ford, Alfred Hitchcock, and Howard Hawks produced masterpieces under studio contracts. 

Clarence Brown directs Greta Garbo and Fredric March in Anna Karenina (1935)

The claim that studios focused on predictable genres ignores how genres themselves were vehicles for innovation.  Westerns, often dismissed as formulaic, allowed directors like Ford to explore American mythology and morality (My Darling Clementine, 1946).  Musicals evolved into sophisticated art forms, as seen in Vincente Minnelli's Meet Me in St. Louis (1944).  Genres provided a framework where directors could import personal visions, subverting expectations while meeting audience demands.

Henry Fonda and Cathy Downs in My Darling Clementine (1946)

Studio oversight wasn't a creative death sentence.   Some producers, like David O. Selznick, championed ambitious projects (Gone with the Wind, 1939).  Even Zanuck, criticized for meddling, greenlit socially conscious films like Gentleman’s Agreement (1947), which tackled anti-Semitism.  The system rewarded directors who could navigate its rules.  Ford, for instance, leveraged his clout from successes like Stagecoach to secure relative autonomy, even if compromises like The Grapes of Wrath's ending were required.

Finally, the era produced films that challenged norms despite restrictions.  Preston Sturges’ Sullivan’s Travels (1941) satirized Hollywood’s commercialism, while Billy Wilder’s Double Indemnity (1944) pushed the boundaries of the Hays Code with its dark, morally ambiguous noir.

King Vidor

Critics of the studio system overstate the suppression of creativity.  Studios undeniably prioritized profit, favoring genres with mass appeal and imposing oversight that curbed experimentation.  Yet, the studio system also enabled bold work by providing resources and a platform for groundbreaking directors.  The era's masterpieces emerged not despite the system but through a complex dance of compromise and ingenuity.  Hollywood’s profit motive shaped but didn’t fully dictate its output, leaving a legacy of films that balanced audience appeal with artistic freedom.

Richard Arlen 

There's one last question that I want to address.  Were the actor contracts as bad as the critics say?  I seriously doubt that Davis and other stars would have been as successful as they were without the studio system.  Joan Blondell admitted that she was overworked at Warner Bros., but she believes that her frequent appearance under her Warner Bros. contract is the reason that she became popular and famous.   

What'll Ya Have?

Cary Grant and Betsy Drake in Every Girl Should Be Married (1948)

Alcohol is useful in dampening emotional turmoil.  In Casablanca (1942), heartbroken Rick Blaine (Humphrey Bogart) exists in a haze of alcohol.  

In The Big Lebowski (1998), The Dude (Jeff Bridges) regularly drowns himself in vodka and cream to maintain a laid-back mood.  

In The Great Gatsby (2013), champagne and cocktails flow at Gatsby's lavish parties, symbolizing wealth and excess, while Tom Buchanan's preference for whiskey aligns with his old-money arrogance.

Similarly, in Sideways (2004), Miles' (Paul Giamatti) obsession with pinot noir reveals his grandiose yet vulnerable side, contrasting with Jack's casual beer-drinking, which underscores his carefree nature.

The vibrant green absinthe in Moulin Rouge! (2001) amplifies the bohemian, hallucinatory aesthetic. 

In No Country for Old Men (2007), Anton Chigurh has a memorable moment when he drinks milk after breaking into a trailer.

Three Foreign Comedies

Reference Photos for May 2025

Rain Scenes for May 2025

Popeye The One-Eyed Sailor

KH Studio created a mock trailer for a Popeye movie starring Tom Hardy as Popeye, Margot Robbie as Olive Oyl and Paul Giamatti as Wimpy.  You can find the trailer here.  The image at the start of this article is a cast portrait that I created with Grok.  

I hope that you enjoy my own video tribute to the spinach-loving sailor.

Michael J. Fox: The Fall and Rise

It's A Wonderful Halloween Revisited

Honolulu Baby

Film Tropes: Quicksand, Rain, Fireplaces, Lions and Dog Mommies

Film Clips for May 2025

Comedy Film Titles As AI Image Prompts

I tried to get Midjourney to create modern posters for classic comedy films.  I provided plot summaries, listed the names of the lead actors, and sometimes provided reference photos.  The results were not good.  

So, I changed course.  Instead, I submitted the film titles as prompts with no other information.  What images would these titles inspire?  Many of the titles have no significance by themselves.  A person who is unaware of the Marx Brothers would have no clue what A Night at The Opera was about.  They would not think about dozens of people crowding into a tiny stateroom.  They would not think about Groucho's witty one-liners, Chico's charming malapropisms, or Harpo's mischievous antics.  They would think about an evening performance at an opera house.  But, regardless of nondescript prompts, Midjourney was still able to produce imaginative images.  Midjourney surprised me in that it was aware of post-1970 comedy films and gave me images specifically related to those films.  Let's see how the program generally did with this exercise.