Mark A. Vieira

"In the spring of 1934, Hollywood faced what the Los Angeles Times called "the most serious crisis of its history." The film capital was under siege by censorship advocates who launched a boycott, demanding that the film industry enforce the Production Code it had adopted in 1930. For nearly five years, defiant producers had cited artistic freedom and flouted the Code, which forbade vulgarity, profanity, nudity, excessive violence, illegal drugs, adultery, "sex perversion," "white slavery," racial mingling, "lustful kissing," and suggestive dancing. In July 1934, the controversial films were outlawed. Today they are called "pre-Code.""--BOOK JACKET. "Sin in Soft Focus showcases a scintillating era in film history and tells how filmmakers sidestepped the Code."--BOOK JACKET. "Mark A. Vieira draws on extensive research, interviews, and correspondence in the Production Code Administration files to tell the engaging, suspenseful, and often humorous story of the struggle between Hollywood and its reformers, weaving history, politics, and film into a full-blooded narrative. Illustrated with 275 film stills, many of them rare, the book captures the stunning visual artistry of the era."--BOOK JACKET.

Showcasing fifty films from 1939, during which the world braced for war, brings to life the most glamorous era in movie history by discussing such works of cinematic art as "Gunga Din," "Goodbye, Mr. Chips," and "Gone With the Wind."

This book presents in depth the work of George Hurrell, the photographer who more than anyone else was responsible for inventing the Hollywood "glamour" portrait - the essential publicity tool for the major studios during the Golden Age of the movies. The book traces his immense impact on the portrayal of the leading stars year by year, from his arrival in California in 1925 until his departure in 1943. During that time he photographed all of the greatest personalities, at Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, Warner Brothers, and Columbia as well as independently. The prints come from the Chapman Collection, one of the most extensive archives of original Hurrell photographs in the world, and they include a number of rarities and surprises. Although some photos by Hurrell are familiar and frequently reproduced, most of the images in this book will come as a revelation, since they have not been published in over half a century. The genesis of the pictures is examined in a remarkable text by Mark A. Vieira, himself a highly regarded portrait photographer, who came to know Hurrell well during the photographer's later years. Vieira explains in detail Hurrell's technical feats of lighting and retouching. And drawing on firsthand accounts, he vividly re-creates the lively interplay between the photographer and his subjects at the shooting sessions in which these portraits were taken.

"In this fascinating volume, acclaimed film historian Mark A. Vieira interweaves the previously unpublished recollections of Irving Thalberg's wife, Norma Shearer, and those of other M-G-M veterans with newly discovered transcripts of interviews and data from previously unseen production records. Most of the more than 250 photographs have never before been reproduced." "Included are accounts of the young producer's rise to prominence in the company of colleagues who later conspired against him; anecdotes of Crawford's jealousy of Shearer, whom she felt, rightly, received preferential treatment; and evocative stories of the making of numerous Thalberg films, from the brilliant all-star vehicle Grand Hotel to the bizarre horror film Freaks, which literally sickened viewers. The result is both a portrait of a Hollywood pioneer and an enchanting tour of the magical world he created."--BOOK JACKET.