Description
Book SynopsisThe years 1930-1933 were a time of experimentation and change. Sound (in English, French, German, Italian, and Spanish) was being added to image by the world''s film studios. Motion Picture News warned that foreign-version talkers were the only means of breaking into film markets abroad. Fans around the world made it clear that they were eager to hear movies in their own languages and had little tolerance for sound films in languages other than their own. In an ambitious and risky attempt to dominate the international sound film market, Paramount invested money abroad where great filmmaking talent was at hand. In the process, Paramount rendered an important service to film history: it put together one of the most complete film records of the talent of an era ever assembled by an institution in the industry. The company set up a huge studio complex in Joinville, near Paris. Robert T. Kane, an experienced Paramount executive, filled the Paris studios with an unprecedented collection of talent and captured on film an era that is now long gone. Waldman offers a look at the 300 films Paramount produced in Paris and the filmmakers who loaned their genius to an effort that has been unjustly overlooked by film historians.
Trade ReviewThose familiar with Waldman's previous books on Hollywood and foreigners and lost scenes won't be disappointed. He combines all three subjects in one epic of an entire lost foreign studio...Waldman has done quite a job in rescuing one of Hollywood's mostintriguing stories from the mysts of time...the synopses (of films often more risqu<\#142> than would have been allowed in the States) and the biographies are an enticing read.... * Movie Collector's World *
...a useful source of European cinematic history. * American Reference Books Annual *
...a fascinating look at the studio's 1930-33 attempts to dominate the market overseas... * Past Times *
Those familiar with Waldman's previous books on Hollywood and foreigners and lost scenes won't be disappointed. He combines all three subjects in one epic of an entire lost foreign studio...Waldman has done quite a job in rescuing one of Hollywood's most intriguing stories from the mysts of time...the synopses (of films often more risqu than would have been allowed in the States) and the biographies are an enticing read. * Movie Collector's World *
