Moguls & Movie Stars: A History of Hollywood

7 part documentary showing how Hollywood came into being and how a group of immigrant moguls developed the studios and ran them. It follows them from 1889 to 1969. However if you're looking for a documentary on the stars this isn't it. This focuses entirely on the moguls and their hold on the studios. if you're a movie fan (like me) you'll find nothing new here. Also at 7 hours it is rather long. Still it's well-done and beautifully narrated by Christopher Plummer. SO it's OK but nothing more'

This is an outstanding documentary chronicling the rise of the motion picture moguls and the movie stars that evolved about them in the 1920s and 1930s.

Our moguls were mostly Jewish and unfortunately, they had conveniently abandoned their faith for fame and fortune in their attempt to totally assimilate into American society, a society they felt that they'd be better off keeping their Jewishness to themselves.

Only Carl Laemmle, who eventually was forced out of the industry by bankruptcy, was the only person to speak up against the threat of Hitler. In fact, he was able to arrange for about 500 families to escape Nazi Germany. Unfortunately, Laemmle died at 72 in 1939.

The studio bosses were controlling forces who manipulated their stars to their advantage in their never ending attempt to make trunk loads of money for the studio.

Stars such as Bette Davis and James Cagney defied the studio bosses in their attempt to assert their independence and demand quality roles for themselves.

I enjoyed the first episode which explains in some good level of detail how the actual film camera was invented, then became a competition globally to improve the quality of the camera and film, and only then did the European immigrants who arrived in America assess that the film industry could become a very lucrative business.

Even with seven (7) episodes in total and over 7 hours of movie history which touched on the Hollywood motion picture industry leaders which were the studio presidents of the largest production theaters such as MGM, Paramount, Warner and Fox, this documentary series barely touches on how these movie moguls created their movie empires and more importantly held off at bay the many lawsuits which were to follow both for personal and commercial reasons. In fairness there is over 120 years of history to cover in this trillion dollar movie industry if you include anyone who made their living from the movie industry.

I did learn a few new personal things about the moguls and movie stars but overall I found this documentary exaggerated the "cinderella stories" of some of the moguls and movie stars and deliberately refrained from providing any real insight into the personal lives of the most influential moguls and movie stars.

I didn't find that any of the seven (7) episodes other than the first episode enticed me to want to watch each successive episode. There are quite a few instances in this series where we hear directly from the children and/or the grandchildren of these famous movie moguls, directors and movie stars, but rarely did they provide any real insight into the pros and cons of their famous fathers/grandfathers, rather, they kept their images as if they were all kind and hard working renaissance men/women.

Let's face it, the Hollywood of the 1900's -2000's was a cess pool of debauchery, lawsuits, lies and backstabbing. That's what made Hollywood and America great.

This series shown during the holiday season on TCM has recently been re- broadcast. Narrated in part by the prolific Christopher Plummer, it gives one the sense of the origins, of film, the earlier Swanson and silent film era, and the later studio system, and then TV culture.

You will see many different episodes here, and the facts are well-delineated. The early silent films, with the candle light effects of the film "Queen Kelly" starring Gloria Swanson and produced by financier Joseph P.Kennedy (JFK's father.) This type of series is so very valuable when we see other networks offering serial tripe (Greg Kinnear as JFK on "Reelz" channel).

The era of the movie moguls, Samuel Goldwyn, Louis B. Mayer, and his grandson, talking about the business.

We also see the era of the 1950's, Monroe, John Wayne, Jane Russell and the power of Howard Hughes at that time.

There are also some wonderful interviews with Carl Laemmle's niece who recalls the experience of working on "The Phantom of The Opera" ( an amazing original DVD collection now available). There remains an historical Laemmle theater on the Santa Monica promenade today.Visit it if you are in town.

Overall this is a wonderful series which delineates old Hollywood, the star system and many of the past actors who now only leave their indelible, yet fleeting presence. James Dean, Elizabeth Taylor, Billy Wilder, Marilyn Monroe, Lana Turner.

How amazing those films were, and we know we shall not see a repetition of this history ever again, sadly, in American cinema. 10/10.

This series of documentary shows which has been running on the Turner Classic Movies cable station in the United States, gives a very good if standard view of the history of motion pictures -- anyone who has read a lot on the subject will find many 'facts' offered which he or she 'knows' to be false.

Nonetheless, this is a very good introduction to the history of the movies and will give people just discovering old films a good idea of the general thrust of their evolution. Filled with sound bites from experts as well as clips and images, it shows, first that movies did no arise from nowhere, but grew out of half a millennium of technical evolution and the peculiar combination of events that led diverse people to become the leaders in what was the major entertainment industry for a good part of the 20th century.