Politics, protest and propaganda in Hollywood's Golden Age

This Master's Thesis examines movies of political and social significance during Hollywood's Golden Age. Significance is here defined as belonging to those films that have been singled out by historians and critics for their social "conscience" as well as films whose significance I have found in the course of my research and after a lifetime of watching movies. The films of this era included strong social and political analysis, contrary to a tradition of film study which depicts the Golden Age as either apolitical entertainment or basically a conservative defense of the status quo. The thesis describes how the politics of the Golden Age films began with a critical, anti-establishment outlook in the 1930's but evolved as a cooperative partner of the establishment by the Second World War. This change occurred in part because of the special relationship that Hollywood (led by Warner Brothers Studios) developed with the Roosevelt Administration. I shall further examine the consequences of this evolution for the film industry in the post-war era and cold war eras.