Book Review: Hollywood Victory: The Movies, Stars, and Stories of World War II

HOLLYWOOD VICTORY: THE MOVIES, STARS, AND STORIES OF WORLD WAR II by Christian Blauvelt is an outstanding survey of Hollywood during the pre-war and war years.

The book was recently published by Running Press and Turner Classic Movies.

Hollywood and World War II is a topic which has always been of great interest to me, dating back to the book THE FILMS OF WORLD WAR II, which I bought when I was in my early teens; most recently I read Chris Yogerst's HOLLYWOOD HATES HITLER! which covered the battle between Hollywood and Congress over Hollywood's "warmongering" prior to Pearl Harbor.

Blauvelt's book is formatted into brief chapters covering a wide variety of subjects, along the lines of other TCM books such as THIS WAS HOLLYWOOD, but the chronological arrangement also provides the reader with an excellent overview of Hollywood's evolving wartime role.

The book is simultaneously concise and comprehensive. I was impressed with the extensive number of topics Blauvelt worked into his narrative. The expected stories are there, including Carole Lombard's death on a war bonds tour shortly after Pearl Harbor and Jimmy Stewart's wartime service, but the book covers far more.

Just a few of the topics covered are the Good Neighbor Policy, including Walt Disney's 1941 South American tour and the indirect impact the policy had on the making of THE MAGNIFICENT AMBERSONS (1941); the casting of Chinese and Korean actors as Japanese soldiers; the Japanese shelling of Santa Barbara and fears of a West Coast invasion; the Hollywood Canteen; frontline entertainment, including the "Four Jills in a Jeep"; actors who served in the D-Day invasion, including Robert Montgomery; Disney's wartime cartoons and feature film VICTORY THROUGH AIR POWER (1943); and much more.

Blauvelt has an engaging and readable writing style. One of the things I particularly enjoyed was the way the author put in context what was happening in Hollywood at the time events such as Pearl Harbor took place; these anecdotes help make the book lively and add depth. It's fascinating to see the ways Hollywood was impacted by the war and in turn, how Hollywood helped the war effort, including morale boosting efforts and frontline service.

I was also gratified that Blauvelt spent extra time on a pair of films I've always been surprised have not received greater attention, 20th Century-Fox's THE MAN I MARRIED (1940) and MGM's THE HUMAN COMEDY (1943). THE MAN I MARRIED, which Blauvelt says "should be far better known," was an amazingly clear-eyed, prescient take on Nazi Germany which was released 16 months before the U.S. entered the war, while THE HUMAN COMEDY is superb wartime Americana.

HOLLYWOOD VICTORY is 228 pages including end notes, bibliography, and index, plus a foreword by Robert M. Citino of the National World War II Museum. It's a hardcover book with heavy, glossy pages which weighs in at a little over two pounds. The book is beautifully designed, including gorgeous photos on a majority of pages. Even the cover under the dust jacket is attractive.

The TCM/Running Press books have all been quality releases, including the very recently reviewed THE ESSENTIAL DIRECTORS, but I found HOLLYWOOD VICTORY particularly well-done and highly recommend it.

More book reviews are coming soon! Up next is a review of another book from TCM and Running Press, 20th Century-Fox: Darryl F. Zanuck and the Creation of the Modern Film Studio by Scott Eyman. (Update: Here is my review of the excellent Eyman book!)

Thanks to TCM and Running Press for providing a review copy of this book.

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