Walter Wanger, Hollywood Independent
by Matthew Bernstein

 

University of Minnesota Press, 2000

University of California Press, 1994

Wanger's influence and his astute skills as a producer have received remarkably little attention, and, as Matthew Bernstein demonstrates in this insightful and engaging biography, the producer's life was fraught with contradictions and conflicts. A Dartmouth graduate, he rose to prominence at a time when articulate, college-educated producers were unknown. Although he touted the social value of the cinema, most of his own sixty-five films were markedly devoid of such value. And despite his surface appearance as a self-righteous rebel who railed at the strictures of the system, Wanger was fundamentally a satisfied representative of the American film industry.

"This biography of an important figure who worked both within the studio system and as an independent producer will take a unique place among a small handful of books that deal seriously with the role of the producer in U.S. motion picture history and which give a scholarly account of Hollywood's mode of production." --Robert Sklar

"A veritable history of the Hollywood studio system.... There are other studies of Hollywood producers but none have the accuracy, the profundity, the correctness of argument, the understanding of Hollywood as social and economic institution that we find in Walter Wanger, Hollywood Independent.... It establishes the model for sharp, in-depth analysis of the role of the producer in forming the classical Hollywood cinema." --Dana Polan

"Bernstein packs an astonishing amount of solid film history into his lucid chronicle of Wanger's whirlwind corporate liaisons.... A fully realized, A-line biopic of a fascinating life in the movies." --Tom Doherty