Moguls & Movie Stars: A History of Hollywood (TV Mini Series) Warriors & Peacemakers: 1941-1950 (2010) User Reviews

Episode Jumps Around To Many Topics

[ccthemovieman-1 · 7/10 · 22 December 2010]

This episode covers the 1940s - from 1941 to 1950 but the story jumps around. Evey time you think it's going in chronological order, it goes back to 1940 or 41, so it's not too cohesive.

Still, you get a big picture of the ups-and-downs of movie moguls and you get some nice tributes to the biggest actors and directors of the decade.

In order of the show, some of things we see and hear about, include: The Grapes Of Wrath, Darryl Zanuck, Orson Welles and his famous film 'Citizen Kane" and the battles over it with William Randolph Hearst; Charlie Chaplin's film ("The Great Dictator," which was the first to portray Hitler in a bad light; "Casablanca," and then some World War II movies and the efforts of celebrities to help out.

Also, we see and learn a few things about Mickey Rooney, Judy Garland, Louis B. Mayer, Cary Grant, Preston Sturges, Samuel Goldwyn and "The Best Years Of Our Lives," Humphrey Bogart, film noir, Joan Crawford, Lew Wasserman, "activists," unions, racketeers and then the teaser at the end about "anti-trusts." All-in-all another decent episode in the series, but nothing earth-shaking or super interesting except maybe about Grant's identity problem.

Good But Far from a Classic

[Michael_Elliott · 26 September 2011]

Moguls & Movie Stars: Warriors and Peacemakers (2010)

*** (out of 4)

The fifth episode in Turner Classic Movies series start off with a quick look at Orson Welles and the making of CITIZEN KANE, which Welles would later joke that he started at the top in Hollywood then worked his way down. We then move to the war kicking in and the release of CASABLANCA, which turned Humphrey Bogart into a star. Chaplin's THE GREAT DICTATOR is discussed as well as the countless other war films that would follow. As the documentary ends there's a brief discussion of a lawsuit that would make agents more powerful against the moguls as well as the decision that the moguls couldn't own the theaters that their movies were being shown. After a rather slow start to the series these last two entries have actually been pretty good. I think this one benefits from some of the lesser known stuff mainly that dealing with the agents and some of the behind the scenes stuff that was taking place at the studios when it came time to do stuff for the war. The biggest problem here, like the rest of the series, is that 55-minutes simply isn't enough time to tell the story that needs to be told. If you're completely unfamiliar with Hollywood and its history then there's no doubt you're going to learn the basic information. Other, more knowledgeable people, are probably going to know the majority of things that are discussed. What's also strange is how out of order this entry is because the film at one point starts to discuss the post-war Hollywood only to then flash back to some events that were taking place in the 30s.