It is considered a historical fact that 1939 was Hollywood’s golden year, where the greatest classics were released, stars were adored and movie magic was the world’s #1 entertainment. Just to think that in 2024, the best word to define the industry is uncertainty. Nostalgia makes us look at the past with curiosity: what happened to make 1939 still unsurpassed today?

85 years ago, cinemas received no less than one release per day. That’s right, there were 365 movies launched, which makes us agree that regardless of what was produced, saying that 1939 was “the best in Hollywood” takes on another perspective. The high production (for the most part, the films were still made in black and white) also reflected the years of prosperity and peace after the First World War, something that in September of that same 1939 would change with the advance of the Nazis in Poland, beginning to the second conflict that would envelop the world.

But in Los Angeles, the times of Peace were synonymous with profit and, even more so, creativity and quality. We are not going to mention the 365 films that are from 1939, but just some classics to give an idea of what I’m talking about: The Wizard of Oz, Gone with the Wind, Wuthering Heights, Goodbye, Mr. Chips, Dark Victory, Only Angels Have Wings, Love Affair, The Little Princess, Ninotchka, Mr. Smith Goes to Washington, Stagecoach, The Hunchback of Notre Dame, Jesse James among others. Only five of those mentioned here were nominated for the Oscar for Best Picture that year, which makes 1939 perhaps the biggest year on the “Oscar snubbed” list.

The biggest box office of the year, Gone with the Wind, defines the proportion of what 1939 meant in Hollywood, with its grandeur and response, albeit with pending criticism. In those years, an actor could be cast in more than one film, like Bette Davis who was in no less than four films, or James Stewart who was in two. Production would usually take a few weeks at a time, being mostly entirely shot indoors.

Greta Garbo laughed, Marlene Dietrich seduced fans, Henry Fonda was considered the best in the business and was in the drama The Young Mr. Lincoln as well in the praised western Jesse James, alongside Tyrone Power. The king of the genre was none other than John Wayne. Directors like Frank Capra, John Huston, Ernst Lubitsch, Billy Wilder, Cecil B. de Mille, George Cukor, Howard Hawks, Leo McCarey, George Stevens, Michael Curtiz, and Alfred Hitchcock were at their peak. Victor Fleming was at the helm of the two biggest films at the Oscars (The Wizard of Oz and Gone with the Wind). How to achieve that again?

This long incomplete list already makes 1939 an unattainable and incomparable year. In part, experts justify the splendor as one of the consequences of the War in Europe, which helped to “import” the greatest creative minds of the time, especially filmmakers already fleeing the growing and dangerous Nazism. Furthermore, the United States had come out of the Depression period and with that there was money circulating, combined with the search for escapism that only Cinema provides, becoming a kind of sanctuary where problems and fears were suspended for a few hours and the public he was taken to fantastic fantasies, stars of unique beauty, drama and comedies, musicals and adventures.

Somehow, since then the universe no longer aligned prosperity with business on the same level. Creating worlds of imagination is expensive and Studios now have the accounts leading the creative process. The cliché that creates animosity between administrative (exact) and creative (human) is a reality. Quite opposite than 85 years ago.

On the other hand, in 1939 the work regime was dictated by the boss in an exclusivity format that was a euphemism for slavery. Stars were ‘owned’ by the Studios, Bette Davis, one of the greats of that time, could not leave Warner to work with a director or actor that was under contract with Fox, for example, if she wasn’t “borrowed” or “released.” Inadmissible to hear nowadays, but accepted then. The stars were owned by the executives.

Unions only began to organize themselves in 1936, not all of them were active in 1939, so the screens could show beautiful content, but behind the scenes were still very dirty. A study showed that in 1938, American studios earned no less than 80 million dollars a week. The dream factory was born from these numbers: the more launches, the more results in the bank accounts. With money circulating, creative freedom was total, well, as long as the studio moguls would do as they pleased.

With 1939 being the peak of a perfect formula, naturally, after that, there was a decline, albeit gradual. Unfortunately, the drunken tycoons of Power and Profits did not notice the external changes influencing the business, even less the War that would stop the world again. As soon as it broke out at the end of 1939, World War II unwittingly hit its target right in Hollywood. The European market, which was profitable and vital, was practically cut off as there was no security or money to spend. And, in the United States, the American Congress began to control the business, prohibiting what in the industry is called “block booking”, the system in which the big studios scheduled cinemas according to their convenience, not allowing direct competition. This law is still in force today. Another collateral of the War was the fact that many stars enlisted, and many films from that period were mainly made for propaganda, directly interfering with the artistic freedom that marked the previous decade.

Speeding up the time machine by 85 years, it’s even sad to compare numbers and perspectives. Of course, in 1939 the volume was achieved based on abominable contract conditions and abuses on the part of the Studios, and there was no diversity. Films with color were few because the technology was expensive and newly created! One would hope that advances would help, but today’s use of computers is the biggest creative threat to cinema.

Since the early 2020s, the world has gone through pandemics and is experiencing an international recession, in addition, two strikes in Hollywood 2023 have shaken fragile business models. Executives find in the merger of studios a lifeline for a market that moves billions but is still in crisis. Now we need to convince people to go to the cinema again, TV, computers, and phones compete for users’ attention and investment. In 1939, radio had strength, but cinema had images.

Living costs are also much higher today, with ticket prices demanding a break for those who don’t have the budget to maintain the attendance of previous years. As a result, the possibility of being able to watch from home became more attractive and platforms used this strategy, which is still dividing artists and executives over the best alternative. It is a fact, however, that between cinema and TV instead of months or years, we wait weeks or days.

Hollywood’s priority is to rescue the theatrical release without abandoning streaming. Somehow the ones who lose their breath are the independents because big budgets for big productions have been what works for the big screens, but it is obvious that it is the “smaller” ones that usually have greater artistic daring, and Cinema has this role of innovation. also.

In 2023, Barbie grossed more than 600 million worldwide and Oppenheimer more than 300 million, but the other titles are barely talked about. For 2024, we will have just over 50 releases in total, including sequels and films going straight to platforms, none that scream ‘classic’, and few that can make the box office shake. Disheartening, no doubt. Apparently, not even Artificial Intelligence can recover the productivity of the big ones. Thus, 1939 continues to be an unparalleled year of Cinema. A classic of classics. A legend. A memory. A dream.

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