Formation Of The Ambiguous Heroic Archetype: Three Jewish-American Film Actors And The United States’ Film System, 1929-1948

Authors

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.5195/cinej.2021.322

Keywords:

Film archetypes, twentieth-century United States, Jewish-American film history, Jewish- American dramatic film actors, Paul Muni, Edward G. Robinson, John Garfield

Abstract

As Carl Jung and Joseph Campbell note, archetypes, or general ideas of human types, strongly influence societies, particularly the heroic archetype. Since the 1890s mainstream cinema has facilitated the heroic archetype for worldwide audiences. This article argues that Paul Muni (1895-1967), Edward G. Robinson (1893-1973), and John Garfield (1913-1952) became the first important Jewish-American film actors to help develop the ambiguous heroic archetype in the United States’ studio system from 1929 through 1948 in two ways: Muni’s and Robinson’s critical performances in the 1930s and 1940s, particularly in gangster and film noir films, and Garfield’s films from 1946 through 1948.

Author Biography

John Thomas McGuire, Lecturer in History Siena College

Lecturer, History

References

“Academy Awards 1936 Outtakes,” YouTube, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2VJU61IKJ6E, accessed 27 June 2020.

Alexander, D. (1992). Eugene O’Neill’s Creative Struggle: The Decisive Decade, 1924-1933. Pennsylvania State University Press.

Anderson, M. L. (2011). Twilight of the Idols: Hollywood and the Human Sciences in 1920s America. University of California Press.

Baron, L. (2017). “Caution or Collaboration?”in Michael Renov and Vincent Brook, eds. From Shtetl to Stardom: Jews and Hollywood, Annual Review, Volume 14. West Lafayette, Ind.: Perdue University Press for the USC Casden Institute for the Study of the Jewish Role in American Society, University of Southern California.

“Beer and Blood: Enemies of the Public.” 2005. Documentary found on The Public Enemy DVD, directed by William Wellman (1931).

Bergman, A. (1972). We’re In The Money: Depression America and Its Films. Harper and Row.

Bial, H. (2005). Acting Jewish: Negotiating Ethnicity on The American Stage and Screen. University of Michigan Press.

Biesen, S. C. (2005). Blackout: World War II and the Origins of Film Noir. John Hopkins University Press.

Bingham, D. (1994). Acting Male: Masculinities in the Films of James Stewart, Jack Nicholson, and Clint Eastwood. Rutgers University Press.

Body and Soul DVD. 2012. Directed by Robert Rossen (1947)

Bordwell, D., J. Staiger and K. Thompson (1985). The Classical Hollywood Cinema: Film Style and Mode of Production to 1960. Columbia University Press.

Bosworth, P. (2001). Marlon Brando. Penguin.

Briggs, S. D. (2012). Psychology at the Movies. Wiley-Russell.

Brook, V. (2017). Still an Empire of Their Own: How Jews Remained Atop A Reinvented Hollywood, in Michael Renov and Vincent Brook, eds. From Shtetl to Stardom: Jews and Hollywood, Annual Review, Volume 14. West Lafayette, Ind.: Perdue University Press for the USC Casden Institute for the Study of the Jewish Role in American Society, University of Southern California.

Broughton, L. (2020). Reframing Cult Westerns: From the Magnificent Seven to the Hateful Eight. Bloomsbury.

Brunel, P. (2015). Companion to Literary Myths, Heroes and Archetypes. Taylor and Francis.

Campbell, J. (1968) [1949]. The Hero With a Thousand Faces. Princeton University Press.

Cohen, L. (2008). Making A New Deal: Industrial Workers in Chicago, 1919-1939. 2d ed. Cambridge University Press.

Confessions of A Nazi Spy DVD. (2010). Directed by Anatole Litvak (1939).

Crowther, B. 7 September 1944. “Double Indemnity—A Tough Melodrama,” New York Times, available at http://www.nytimes.com/movie/review?res=9E03E4D7143EE03BBC4F53DFBF66838F659EDE (accessed 23 June 2015).

Crowther, B. 26 January 1945. “The Screen in Review,” available at http://www.nytimes.com/movie/review?res=9F02E4D81E38EE3BBC4E51DFB766838E659EDE (accessed 23 June 2015.)

Crowther, B. 16 February 1946. “The Screen,” New York Times, available at http://www.nytimes.com/movie/review?res=9900E1DD1339E53ABC4D52DFB466838D659EDE (accessed 23 June 2015).

Crowther, B. 10 November 1947. “’Body and Soul’—Exciting Story of Prizefighting,” New York Times, available at http://www.nytimes.com/movie/review?res=9502E0D6103AE233A25753C1A9679D946693D6CF (accessed 23 June 2015).

De Cordova, R. (1990). Picture Personalities: The Emergence of the Star System in America. University of Illinois Press.

Denby, D. (2013). Hitler in Hollywood, New Yorker On-Line, 16 September 2013 (accessed 13 June 2015).

Dickstein, M. (2009). Dancing in the Dark: A Cultural History of the Great Depression. Norton.

Doherty, T. P. (2013). Hollywood and Hitler, 1933-1939. Columbia University Press.

Double Indemnity DVD (2005). Directed by Billy Wilder (1944).

Douglas, K. (1988). The Ragman’s Son: An Autobiography. Simon and Schuster.

Ebert, R. (2008). Scorsese. University of Chicago Press.

Epstein, L. J. (2001). The Haunted Smile: The Story of Jewish Comedians in America. Public Affairs.

Erens, P. (1984). The Jew in American Cinema. University of Indiana Press.

Eyman, S. (2005). Lion of Hollywood: The Life and Legend of Louis B. Mayer. Simon and Schuster.

Fishel, J. R. and S. M. Ortmann. (2009). Encyclopedia of Jewish-American Popular Culture. Greenwood Press.

Force of Evil DVD. 2012. Directed by Abraham Polonsky (1948).

Frankel, G. (2021). Shooting Midnight Cowboy: Art, Sex, Loneliness, Liberation and the Making of a Dark Classic. Farrar, Straus, and Giroux.

Fury DVD (2006). Directed by Fritz Lang (1936).

Gabler, N. (1989). An Empire of Their Own: How the Jews Invented Hollywood. Anchor Books.

Goldfarb, P. (1970) [1945]. “Muni, Paul,” and Myrtle Lecky Grimshaw, “Paul Muni—Master Character Actor,” in Philip Henry Lotz, Distinguished American Jews. New York: International Committee of Young Men’s Christian Associations; Freeport, NY: Books for Libraries Press.

Greene, V. (1999). Ethnic Comedy in American Culture,” American Quarterly 51(1): 144-159.

Grobel, L. (1989). The Hustons: The Life and Times of a Hollywood Dynasty. Scribner.

Hare, W. (2004). Early Film Noir: Greed, Lust, and Murder Hollywood Style. McFarland.

Hoberman, J. 4 March 2013. “The Jewish Brando,” Tablet, available at http://www.tabletmag.com/jewish-arts-and-culture/125598/the-jewish-brando, (accessed 25 June 2015).

Jenkins, H. (1992). What Made Pistachio Nuts?: Early Sound Comedy and the Vaudeville Aesthetic. Columbia University Press.

Jewell, Richard. Commentary. (2005). I Am A Fugitive From A Chain Gang DVD. Directed by Mervyn LeRoy (1932).

Jung, C. G. (2003) [1972]. Four Archetypes: Mother, Rebirth, Spirit, Trickster. Routledge.

Kael, P. (2011). Marlon Brando: An American Hero, in Sanford Schwartz, ed., The Age of Movies: Selected Writings of Pauline Kael. Library of America.

Konigsberg, I. 1987. The Complete Film Dictionary. New American Library.

Lawrence, A. (2010). Rudolph Valentino: Italian-American. in P. Petro, ed., Idols of Modernity: Movie Stars of the 1920s. Rutgers University Press

Lawrence, J. (1974). Actor: The Life and Times of Paul Muni. Putnam.

Lenburg, J. (2001) [1983]. Dustin Hoffman: Hollywood’s Antihero. St. Martin’s Press.

Little Caesar DVD. 2005. Directed by Mervyn LeRoy (1930)

Mann, W. J. (2019). The Contender: The Story of Marlon Brando. HarperCollins.

Manso, P. (1994). Brando: The Biography. Hyperion.

McDonald, P. (2000). The Star System: Hollywood’s Production of Popular Identities. Wallflower Press.

McGilligan, P. (2013). Fritz Lang and the Nature of the Beast. University of Minnesota Press.

McGrath, P. J. (1993). John Garfield: The Illustrated Career in Films and On Stage. McFarland.

Mintz, S., and R. W. Roberts, eds. (2010). Introduction, Hollywood’s America, Fourth Edition. Blackwell.

Misra, K. S. (1992). The Tragic Hero Through Ages. Northern Book Centre.

Mithani, S. (2007). The Hollywood Left: Cinematic Art and Activism in the 1930s (Ph.D. dissertation, University of Southern California.

“Movie of the Week: JUAREZ,” Life, 8 May 1939, 70.

Musser, C. (1991). Ethnicity, Role-Playing, and American Film Comedy: From Chinese Laundry to Whoopee (1894-1930), in L. D. Freidman, ed., Unspeakable Images: Ethnicity and the American Cinema. University of Illinois Press.

Nott, R. (2003). He Ran All The Way: The Life of John Garfield. Limelight.

Nugent, F. 26 April 1939. “The Screen In Review,” New York Times, available at http://www.nytimes.com/movie/review?res=9907E2DC113CE73ABC4E51DFB2668382629EDE (accessed 27 June 2015).

Osborne, R. (1989). 60 Years of the Oscar: The Official History of the Academy Awards. Abbeville Press.

Palumbo, D. E. (2014). The Monomyth in American Science Fiction Films: 28 Visions of the Hero’s Journey. McFarland.

“Race and Hollywood: Latino Images on Film.” 2009. Turner Classic Movies presentation, May 5, 2009, at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g3R1TfoDtQI, accessed on June 15 2012.

Robinson, E. G. with L. Spiegelglass. (1973). All My Yesterdays: An Autobiography. Hawthorn Books.

Robinson, M. (2009). The Cambridge Companion to August Strindberg. Cambridge University Press.

Rollins, P.C. (2003). The Columbia Companion to American History on Film: How the Movies Have Portrayed the American Past. Columbia University Press.

Scarface DVD. (2007). Directed by Howard Hawks.

Solheim, W. A. (1991). Ibsen: From Historical Drama to Profane History. University of Minnesota Press.

Sarno, A. (1980). Academy Awards 1980 Oscar Annual. ESE.

Schubert, R. (2014). Super Bitches and Action Babes: The Female Hero in Popular Cinema, 1970-2006. McFarland.

Scorsese, M., and M. H. Wilson. (1997). A Personal Journey With Martin Scorsese DVD (1995).

Screenplays, 1929. "The Valiant, February 4, 1929" (second version of the working script) in Box 1, Folder 33, Series II, Personal Papers, ca. 1929-1959, in Paul Muni Papers, ca. 1920-1967, The Billy Rose Theater Division, New York Public Library.

Silver, A. et al. (1992). Introduction, Film Noir: An Encyclopedic Reference to the American Style, Revised and Expanded Edition. Overlook Press.

Sklar, R. (1975). Movie Made America: A Cultural History of American Movies. Random House.

Smith, I. S. (2014). In A Lonely Place: Film Noir Beyond the City. HarpersCollins.

Solheim, W. A. (1991). Ibsen: From Historical Drama to Profane History. University of Minnesota Press.

Solomonik-Pankrašova, T., & Lobinaitė, V. (2016). Adaptation of the epic legend of Siegfried: from archetypal hero myth to film. Respectus philologicus, (30), 121-130.

Sontag, S. (1966). Godard’s Vivre Sa Vie in S. Sontag, Against Interpretation and Other Essays. Farrar, Straus and Giroux.

Taylor, C. (2015). How Star Wars Conquered the Universe: The Past, Present, and Future of a Multimillion Dollar Franchise. Basic Books.

“The Dawn of Sound: How the Movies Learned to Talk.” 2007. Documentary on The Jazz Singer, directed by Alan Crosland (1927).

The Life of Emile Zola DVD (2007). Directed by William Dieterle (1937).

The Postman Always Rings Twice DVD (2005). Directed by Tay Garnett (1946).

Thomas, T. (1991)[1972]. The Films of Kirk Douglas. Citadel Press.

Underworld DVD. n.d. Directed by Joseph Von Sternberg. (1927).

Urwand, B. (2013). The Collaboration: Hollywood’s Pact With Hitler. Harvard University Press.

Vieira, M. A. (2013). Majestic Hollywood: The greatest films of 1939. Running Press Adult.

Warshow, R. (1962). The Gangster as Tragic Hero, in The Immediate Experience. Doubleday.

Weinraub, B. 30 January 2003. “Recalling John Garfield, Rugged Star K’Oed by Fate,” New York Times, available at http://www.nytimes.com/2003/01/30/movies/recalling-john-garfield-rugged-star-ko-d-by-fate.html,(accessed 25 June 2015).

Wessbecher, G. (2008). Mythological Archetypes Portrayed in Film, Journal of the Georgia Philological Association: 136-144.

Wiley, M., & Bona, D. (1993). Inside Oscar: The Unofficial History of the Academy Awards. Ballantine Books.

Wyman, L. M., & Dionisopoulos, G. N. (1999). Primal Urges and Civilized Sensibilities: The Rhetoric of Gendered Archetypes, Seduction, and Resistance in Bram Stoker's Dracula. Journal of Popular Film and Television, 27(2), 32-39.

You Only Live Once DVD, n.d., directed by Fritz Lang (1937).

Downloads

Published

2021-07-14

How to Cite

McGuire, J. T. (2021). Formation Of The Ambiguous Heroic Archetype: Three Jewish-American Film Actors And The United States’ Film System, 1929-1948. CINEJ Cinema Journal, 9(1), 200–245. https://doi.org/10.5195/cinej.2021.322

Issue

Section

Articles