We are now in the 20's when the machinery had advanced well enough to catch up with ideas. Cousins looks at Hollywood because that is where the big money went, primarily from the rich men on the east coast. It focuses on the rich studio moguls who called most of the shots, creating the star system while almost holding their stars in slavery. Cousins feels the strongest of the American films came from the comedy genre. He focuses on Charlie Chaplin, Buster Keaton, and Harold Lloyd and others who really were the creative force in Hollywood. They directed and acted in their work to great success. But when push came to shove, they were shunned because of their perceived politics. In the cases of Chaplin and KeatonThe dramatic laurels went to the likes of Erich Von Stroheim and Carl Dreyer, who were the masters of lighting and other innovations in the advancement of film. Two masterpieces are looked at in detail. Dreyer's "The Passion of Joan of Arc" and Von Stroheim's "Greed." There are numerous others who moved these things forward, but they also were not allowed a part in the Hollywood fraternity, probably because of abject bigotry and xenophobia. When it came to the silent era, these gentlemen had few peers.
Review of The Hollywood Dream
