All language subtitles for 100.Years.of.Warner.Bros.S01E01.WEB-DL.HBOGO.en

Quiet, scene!

Hold it! Action.

When you enter the lot,
you can't help but be overwhelmed

by the generations

of actors and filmmakers

writers, costume designers.

- Put a single on number eight.
- Quiet down, boys.

Scene 26, take three.

Everything that this studio embodies
that happened here

on this land, on this lot.

You know how to whistle. You just...

You just put your lips together,
and blow.

There's something magical about it.

It feels like
there's something in the air.

You're a wizard, Harry.

You know, ghosts or something.

I've always depended
on the kindness of strangers.

The excitement that you feel

knowing that you're going to be
walking down the streets

that those incredible filmmakers

and those incredible actors
walked down

it's quite powerful.

It's a magical place.

Wait a minute! Wait a minute!
You ain't heard nothing yet.

From the very first day
I walked onto the set

and, you know, that big WB...

It felt like having made it.

Welcome to Sherwood,
my Lady!

Warner Brothers to me was Hollywood.

The variety of films
and movie stars.

With all my heart

I still love the man I killed.

You don't even have to see a logo.

You say the name,
and you understand

it's one of the powerhouses
of Hollywood

that gave us the cinema.

Founded at the beginning
of the motion picture age

by a family
of high-rolling visionaries.

I think those guys were
just the right side of crazy.

And jealous rivals.

You don't hear many stories

of kindness involving Jack L. Warner.

You're tearing me apart!

Warner Brothers built
a legacy on celluloid.

Here's looking at you, kid.

That holds a mirror to our souls.

Mainstream films always try

to reflect society to some degree.

Attica! Attica!

You see that
Warner Brothers productions

over the decades.

- I am a revolutionary!
- I am!

That's what I think about
when I think of Warners.

Very daring, artistic achievements
to great success.

Road trip!

Warner Brothers is a steward

of stories to not just America,
but the world.

One hundred years later

Warner Brothers is still pushing

the boundaries of the medium.

And here we go.

With passionate storytelling
across all platforms.

Yes!

Shaping who we are.

All my life I had to fight.

And what we might become.

We're in for one wild night.

I think television needs to show

the rainbow of what's out there.

Bazinga.

What's up, doc?

Go ahead. Make my day.

What a day! What a lovely day!

We're going in!

Warner Brothers has endured 100 years

because of the original mission.

Move the culture forward,
by telling good stories.

They've been in the battle.

And for that, I think

respect must be paid.

We all go to the movies.

And we go with the idea
that we want to be entertained.

And we wanna be told a story.

And stories are powerful.

And when you tell a great story

you can change minds.

And the Warner brothers

understood that.

Jack Warner had a policy

which is if you worked on a movie

you had to come meet him

in this office.

All the great stars
came through here.

This is the famous Maltese Falcon.

It has special meaning to me

because at the end of the movie,
they ask Humphrey Bogart

what this is, and he said...

The stuff that dreams are made of.

And that's what
we get to do every day.

It's the stuff that
dreams are made of.

So the Maltese Falcon.

Here they are,
the original Warner Brothers.

These were the guys
that built this place.

Telling great stories

not just to entertain

but to have a real impact

is where the Warner brothers
made a difference

when you look back
at the last hundred years.

It's an incredible American story.

At the top of the 20th century,
Tinseltown was a boomtown.

The American public

accustomed to new movies every week,
clamored for more.

Anyone with a camera
and enough gumption

wanted in on the action.

At that point

I think Hollywood was barely

the Hollywood we know now.

The streets were still dust.

They were not only creating
an art form, but also an industry.

By 1918, successful companies
that would become studios

like Paramount, Universal, and MGM

were gobbling up independent shops

and building walled cities
within the city.

Newly arrived, a scrappy
band of brothers named Warner

were fighting to get their business
off the ground.

You gotta understand all these men
who were there at the very beginning

it's brutal, clawing to success.

And you had to be tough.
Be a tough street guy.

Absolutely ruthless.

They were sort of not considered

the classy studio in the beginning.

It was all MGM.

Without star talent
in a stiffly competitive market

the Warners were
on the verge of folding

when fate threw them a bone.

Famous Hollywood screen star

Rin Tin Tin.

They were in real trouble

and Rin Tin Tin was really
the movie that saved the studio.

An unlikely hero

that you don't see coming

who does something incredible.

That's a classic movie.

We love dogs,
and we love stories of underdogs.

As thousands of fan letters

and hundreds of thousands of dollars
poured in for every movie

Rinty's adventures padded
the brothers' bottom line.

Rin Tin Tin, animal idol of America.

It was a major milestone
in a family story

that started a world away
from the glitter of Hollywood.

Harry, Abe, Sam and Jack

were children of Jewish immigrants

who fled persecution
in Poland in the 1880s.

They were dirt poor as kids.

They sold newspapers, shined shoes.

They didn't graduate from school

but their father had
sat them down very young

and said,
"Look, as long as you stick together

you'll be strong."

America has always been
a place where people come

sometimes escaping
political repression.

The Warner Brothers
came out of that tradition.

You have the opportunity
to work hard and have a dream

no matter how crazy it is.

The brothers' dream came to them

on a flickering beam
of electric light.

They're in Pittsburgh,
working in a clothing store.

Sam heard about nickelodeons

grabs Harry, they go and watch

The Great Train Robbery.

They sit and watch it three times,
until they're asked to leave.

They go outside, they look at people
putting their nickels on the plate.

And they shake hands and they go,
"We're in the business."

The Warners' road from to PA to LA
was paved with risky bets.

They bought a movie projector
and parlayed it into a theater.

They borrowed money
to get into distribution

and used that success
to start making films.

Harry was the financial wizard.

Abe was in charge
of exhibition and distribution.

Sam was the visionary.

And Jack was in charge of production.

Jack was the baby of the siblings.

And Harry was the eldest.

And so he sort of took
a leadership position early on.

And that set the stage
for many fireworks to come.

But initially, it seems
they worked very well together.

In 1923, they incorporated
as Warner Brothers Studios.

The gang of outsiders

finally had a place in Hollywood
to call their own.

But they were on the cusp
of something even bigger.

You have to understand
talkies at the time

were a disaster.

Okay.

Sound on film

which had only been attempted
for newsreels and shorts...

was plagued with problems.

People were going to the theater
and throwing tomatoes at the screen

because, you know,
the people's mouths

weren't moving in sync
with the sound coming out of it.

Sam Warner was
quite passionate about sound.

He really believed
that this sound technology

could revolutionize cinema.

And he felt that it was integral

to creating a really immersive
cinematic experience

and to get Warner Brothers
out ahead of its competitors.

Sam was the one who saw
the possibilities of sound.

No one else was looking for sound.

Everybody was very happy
showing and watching silent films.

The Warners' first attempt
at synchronized sound

featured a full orchestral score
and sound effects.

A landmark achievement

but only a taste of things to come.

Wonderful pals
Are always hard to find

Next, they upped
the ante with a story

that was already a hit on Broadway.

And a performer
who was famous around the world.

Wait a minute. Wait a minute.
You ain't heard nothing yet.

Al Jolson was

probably the most popular entertainer
in America at that time.

Jolson's own life had inspired
The Jazz Singer

the tale of a Jewish cantor's son

who goes against
the traditions of his family

to perform the music he loves.

Well, when people see
The Jazz Singer now

they're often shocked and appalled

to see that Al Jolson
performs in blackface.

It was not unusual

certainly not shocking at the time
to any Al Jolson fans

because that's the mode
of performance

that he was engaged in.

Mammy

Blackface on stage
was incredibly common.

It was always controversial.

Black audiences had problems
many times

with the ways
that blackface caricatured

their identities
and cultural practices.

But this is a more complex story
than I think people recognize

when they decontextualize it.

In fact, there are posters that show

Jackie Rubin in his normal face

and then the character
that he plays in blackface.

Because that signified the split

between his real identity
as a cantor's son

and the emotional trajectory
that he had in trying to decide

what to do with his life.

And then this stage persona.

By featuring blackface
in their riskiest bet to date

the Warners profited from
the popularity of racial caricature.

In the light of today,
The Jazz Singer is problematic.

But it doesn't mean that at the time,
it wasn't revolutionary.

Didn't do a whole lot of good
for the respect of black people.

In fact, the damage

that the storytelling of the era did

to cultures and culture
around the world

is pretty embarrassing.

Despite its deeply troubling content

The Jazz Singer also established
the Warner brothers as innovators

whose vision and courage
would change moviemaking forever.

With Jolson on the marquee

the brothers knew
they would sell tickets.

Everything else
was riding on the tech

which was expensive and finicky.

Western Electric corporation
were developing a technique

for putting sound and film together

named Vitaphone.

The person that really
pioneered sound on disc

was Sam Warner.

And he worked almost
to the point of exhaustion.

To pull off Sam's dream

the Warners had leveraged
themselves to the teeth.

Sam got excited about the technology.

And Harry raised the money.

He mortgaged the house on Rossmore
to pay for the production.

These guys were gamblers.

They gambled everything.

Ladies and gentlemen,
Warner Brothers' supreme triumph

Al Jolson in The Jazz Singer.

Warner Brothers' Theatre is sold out
for many weeks in advance.

On opening night

Sam's labors bore fruit.

How do you like that?

Well, you ain't seen nothing yet.

The brothers had made history.

But none of the Warners
attended the premiere.

Sam had died the night before.

Sam was so consumed

by wanting to perfect
the Vitaphone process

and wanting to make sure
The Jazz Singer

was as good as it could be.

But he drove himself,
and drove himself

into an early grave.

Sam Warner was the great Warner.

He was the one who got the Warners

into the movie business.

And it's too bad he died so soon.

Jack's lowest low
when his brother, Sam, died

who was his closest friend.

The fact that Sam died

the night before the film premiered,
it's a tragedy.

But it also seems as though
these brothers

really understood the project
that they were engaged in

as being bigger than themselves.

They were really invested
in a larger mission.

Sam's death left a hole
in the family.

But his legacy was plain to see.

Al Jolson, whose picture
The Jazz Singer

had started the Talkie Revolution

brings bride, Ruby Keeler,
to Hollywood.

The Jazz Singer
cost $500,000 to make

and raked in three million.

catapulting Warner Brothers
firmly into the majors.

The rush begins.

As more and more theaters
become wired for sound

frantically,
producers struggle to finish

silent films still in production

before it is too late.

In 1928 alone, they made
36 movies with sync sound.

Leaving the other studios
gasping to keep up.

The idea of bringing sound to movies

was as big as introducing
the Internet to our society.

It caused Hollywood
to have to almost reinvent itself.

Cameramen and technicians
had to relearn their business

to accommodate a microphone.

Actors whose voices
didn't match their looks

found themselves out on their ears.

What took their place
was talent from the stage.

Vital, brash personas.

What kind of a break
have you ever given us?

Outside of kicking us around
every chance you could get.

If I find that I've got a chance

to crash my way outta here

and I have to rub
somebody out to do it

I'd just as soon rub you out
as the next guy.

You're gonna
be in on this, and you'll like it.

Ever since I was 14, what's it been?

Nothing but men. Dirty rotten men!

As well as writers
who could write dialogue.

Sharp, snappy dialogue.

Outside, Countess.

As long as they have sidewalks

you've got a job.

Oh, of course, I know for some women

men are a household necessity.

Myself? I'd rather have a canary.

Awash in cash, the brothers
went on a spending spree

snapping up theater chains
and acquiring a rival.

First National Studios

and its giant movie lot, in Burbank.

But competition for top talent
was fierce

because of the pressure
to build brand loyalty

a devoted audience
who would keep coming back

for more of their favorite stars.

To control labor costs

Jack Warner and execs
from the other studios

devised the contract system.

A golden handcuff that locked
actors, writers, and directors

to studios for exclusive
seven-year stints.

People in the '30s and '40s
that went to movies

they didn't look at reviews
for the plot.

It was like, "I want to see
a Humphrey Bogart picture."

"I went to see
a Clark Gable picture."

Warner Brothers really understood
the star system.

Though some may have chafed
at the restrictions

no one wanted to be out of work,
especially after 1929.

October 29th. Black Tuesday.

Stocks collapse
in 16 million share day.

You know, this was a seminal decade

in American history.

Something I don't think
any of us can relate to now.

The extent
of the economic destruction

that most families
faced in the 1930s.

At the beginning
of the Great Depression

the pictures remained
relatively cheap entertainment

and a welcome break
from the misery for the masses.

But to the Warners,
who knew poverty personally

movies were also a way
to connect with viewers' lives.

The thing about Warner Brothers,
it was like the working class studio.

That's not to say
that other studios were

staying away from working class life

but at Warner Brothers,
it was the banner that they waved.

It was their identity.

Well, it's bad news for you.

We're cutting down

and the new men will have to go.

I took to walking the ties
when my Rolls Royce broke down.

At least we don't have

to wait in line for a bowl of soup

like they do outside.

Why do we stay in this racket?

We ain't gonna make enough out of it

to buy ourselves decent coffins.

To write and produce, the Warners
turned to Darryl F. Zanuck.

A working class upstart
like themselves

whose sharp story instincts

had made him
the brothers' chief lieutenant

for more than a decade.

Darryl Zanuck had his ear
to the ground, so to speak

about what would motivate an audience

to go and spend their ten cents,
25 cents for a movie ticket

when money was scarce.

Business is pretty good, huh?

Yeah, pretty good.

How good?

Get up.

Warner Brothers came up
making controversial pictures.

And they were willing
to go outside the norm.

And they just started
with gangster films.

Very gutsy movies that, let's say

MGM would never touch.

I wish you was a wishin' well.

So that I could
tie a bucket to ya and sink ya.

The gangster as hero.

People vicariously
want to see the rise

but they also want to see the fall.

The Public Enemy
had no sentimentality.

It was the most
uncompromising ending I'd ever seen.

It's just as truthful as possible
to that world.

The flamboyance, the swagger

the exhilaration of accumulating
so much power and money

and then things fall apart,
which it always does.

The Warner Brothers films

became more daring
than anyone had ever envisioned.

They dealt with drugs

they dealt with prostitution

domestic abuse.

Warner Brothers
wasn't just making movies.

They were changing them.

In contrast with the glossy musicals
coming out of the other big studios

they introduced a brash new form.

A mash-up of their
trademark tough guys

and a heady dose
of spectacle and song.

Naughty, bawdy, gaudy, sporty

42nd Street

The legendary backstage drama
42nd Street

set behind-the-scenes intrigue
at a Broadway show

against a picture of New York
ripped from the city crime sheets.

- All right, I'll tell him.
- Yeah, well...

You take a film, like 42nd Street.

I mean, they're a bit gangster-ish

you know, in their DNA, the brothers

you know, like, whatever it takes

let's smash some walls down.

And hit the audience
between the eyes.

I was really inspired
by a lot of those early musicals.

Gatsby is a very musicalized
gangster movie.

Like, a lot of that
theatrical cinematic language

comes from that period,
comes from the golden era

of where Warners was doing
both musicals and gangster movies.

Warner Brothers would continue to
explode and remake the musical form

through the end of the 1930s.

The studio's not-so-secret weapon

was choreographer and director,
Busby Berkeley.

Let's look in on one of the stages
and see a chorus in rehearsal.

Here's Busby Berkeley,
famous dance director

and creator of some of the screen's
greatest dance spectacles.

The moment you start to see
those Busby Berkeley things

you go like, "What the?
How do you achieve that?"

The kind of layering,
and the scale, and the precision

like, how do you do it?

Born in Los Angeles
to a pair of Vaudeville actors

Berkeley honed his craft

in an entirely different
kind of theater.

Beginning on April 25, 1915

the battle for Gallipoli
and the Dardanelles

had begun in earnest.

As an infantry lieutenant
in World War I

he ran drills
with a thousand soldiers at a time

practicing intricately
synchronized maneuvers.

The thing about Bus was that

he had the gift of both being,
a great choreographer, of course

but he's a really
great mathematician.

So his ability to work out
the mathematical equation

of both how the dancers move

and the mechanics of the camera?

Like, that was on another level.

To show off shapely legs

Berkeley patented a revolving stage.

In picture after picture

he one-upped himself
with kaleidoscopic feats

engineered to make a splash.

I rehearse very meticulously

so that everything suits me

and I know that
they've got it just right.

Then I tell them I'm going
to start to shoot tomorrow.

And I used to have to think

and think and think and think

and try to create something

that would be better
than what I had done before.

And I'd done
some pretty good things before.

But while Warner musicals
wowed audiences

the strain on performers mounted.

Say, Mr. Marsh,
they've been going all night long.

I'll keep them here
till they get it if it takes a week.

Do you know, in those days,
the dancers would sleep on the set.

They had cots on the set,
like, in your soundstages.

They'd do the numbers

and they'd go over and they'd sleep
for like three hours on cots

because that's how hard it was
to do that.

I mean, that's the level
of physical demand it took

to getting that right,
take after take

working that out.

Still, not all talent
was easy to keep in line.

George!

Bette Davis was a relative newcomer.

Churning her way
through B-grade roles

when she first rebelled against
working conditions at the studio.

I've never taken orders from anyone.

As long as I live,
I'll never take orders from anyone.

I'd like to kiss you,
but I just washed my hair.

Bye!

Decades later, well into her reign
as Hollywood royalty

she described her early battles
with Jack Warner

to director Ron Howard.

As I got to know Bette Davis

you know, I talked
about how much I yearned

for the studio contract days.

Because a director
could be under contract

and make two or three movies a year.

And there was something
that I romanticized about that.

And she said, "Don't be foolish.

Independence is something
to be cherished.

It took me 14 years

to work off my seven-year contract

because they kept
putting me on probation

because I was refusing to do roles

that Jack Warner would insist
that I should take."

I know all the angles

and I think I'm smart enough
to keep one step ahead of them.

She said, "One day,
they threatened suspension

if I passed on the movie.

So I went to Jack Warner's office

and I stopped at secretary's desk,
and she said

'Oh, no, Jack... Mr. Warner's busy.

We'll have to set an appointment,
Miss Davis.'"

She said, "Nonsense."

And went bursting by the secretary,
went into the office

and pulled the door open
on his private bathroom.

And he was sitting there
on the toilet

pants down, reading the newspaper.

And she said

"I need to talk to you about this
lousy script that you want me to do."

And he just said

"Suspended!"

There's only one kind of a break
we want from you.

And that's to leave us alone.

And let us make our living
in our own way.

Or is that asking too much?

Jack Warner's fights with his stars

made for juicy tidbits
in the Hollywood trades.

Morning.

But there was a lighter side
to life on the lot.

Hey, you, come back here!

Oh, hello.

Who do you think you are,
driving through here like that?

Why, I'm Porky Pig.

Since their earliest days
in the business

the Warners' strategy for dealing
with economic dry spells

was cross-marketing.

They had purchased
a record company in 1930

then launched an animation department
to help sell hit songs.

I love to sing-a

About the moon-a and the June-a
and the spring-a

I love to sing-a

And promote Warner movies
at the same time.

I love to sing-a

About the moon-a and the June-a

And the spring-a

I love to sing-a

How about a little celebration

To the jingle of a wedding bell?

You get service

In the Honeymoon Hotel

But when they saw Walt Disney's
success across town

I am a wabbit!

Warner animators got serious
about the funny business.

They took out full page,
double page ads in the trades.

Hyping that this
is the funniest thing.

The greatest music.

Strangely enough, they weren't lying.

Cartoons employed not just
an army of visual artists

but entire symphony orchestras.

These guys knew what they were doing.

There's not just
an amazing craft in there.

There's... There's art in it.

There's so much anarchy
in this music, and so much wit

and, at the same time,
so much knowledge.

I mean, encyclopedic knowledge
of classical music.

For me, Warner Brothers
cartoons were the thing.

I mean, they were
the more irreverent.

They were funnier.
They just had a much more

of an anarchic sort of feel to them.

Looney Tunes kept America laughing
to keep from crying

as the Great Depression deepened.

The hard times hit Hollywood in 1933

with a wave of theater closings

that knocked out movie screens
across the country.

The big five studios,
including Warners

announced a 50% pay cut
across all departments.

Pushback from top talent was swift.

James Cagney helped form
the Screen Actors Guild.

Darryl Zanuck,
the Warners' right-hand man

learned the pay cuts didn't extend
to the brothers themselves

and left to found a new competitor.

Soon to be known as 20th Century Fox.

Then, on a breezy evening
in March 1934

a spark got loose

in a machine shop
on the Warner back lot.

A lot of the vaults were stocked

with nitrate elements

which, of course

are incredibly flammable.

And before the fire
even got to the film vaults

the nitrate elements inside
started to catch fire and burn

just from the heat.

The blaze took the life
of the Warner lot's Fire Chief

and consumed more than 20 years
of silent era films.

Of Rin Tin Tin
and the Warners' earliest work

only fragments remained.

But across the globe

a catastrophe was underway

that would put the brothers
and all of Hollywood to the test.

Harry was the spokesperson

for the company.

So he traveled to Europe.

He witnessed the evolution of Hitler.

Concentration camps were beginning

and they were calling them
labor camps.

Germany had changed
the rules to say that

no American film company

can do business in Germany

if there were any German Jews
in the film studio.

Jack Warner and Harry
made the decision

that they were going
to pull out of Germany.

At the time, the other moguls,
including Louis B. Mayer

did not wanna lose the German market.

And Harry Warner said

"There's things
that are more important than money."

Jack's new second in command,
producer Hal Wallis

set out to deliver well-crafted
stories in many genres.

And wake Americans up
to the danger rising abroad

and at home.

Wallis cast an almost boyish
Humphrey Bogart

as a factory worker

seduced by the violent rhetoric

of white nationalist thugs.

You don't have to be pushed around
by no foreigners.

There are a lot of guys in this town.

Americans who feel
just like you and me.

There was a lot of hate for people
that were black in America

for people that were Jewish
in America

for a lot of the immigrants
that had come to this country.

But they fought through it,
and they fought against it

to try and stand up
for the values of America.

All right, my hearties, follow me!

Even in their
so-called escapist swashbucklers

they always had
a social edge to them.

Captain Blood deals with slavery.
It deals with tyranny.

It deals with bandits and pirates
overthrowing corrupt places.

Break out those sails

and watch them fill with the wind

that's carrying us all to freedom!

Warner movies
were pulling in audiences

but Americans seemed reluctant
to act on the underlying message.

We believe that
the security of our country

lies in the strength and character

of our own people

and not in fighting foreign wars.

To say that the majority of Americans

were isolationist
is an understatement.

Most people who read the paper

knew that there was
an obvious aggressor in Europe.

Still, most Americans are unmoved.

The other studios placated Germany

which had a council
here in Los Angeles

who demanded to read scripts

and make sure there was
nothing unflattering said

about Hitler or Nazism in general.

Germany's inside man reported
directly to Joseph Goebbels

giving the Nazi Minister

of Propaganda

final cut on Hollywood movies.

Well, the Warner brothers
weren't gonna have it.

And so in 1939, they went ahead
and did a film called

Confessions of a Nazi Spy.

Warner Brothers was so secretive
about that script

that they wouldn't
send it to the actor

or give it to him on the set.

No, he had to come to the studio

read the script in the office
of the producer.

It was turned down by several actors

who didn't have

the courage to do that.

But why?

Why? Because it was anti-Germany.

And they had reason to be afraid.

It is only by knowing

who our enemies are

do we know whom to destroy.

Actor, Edward G. Robinson

Director Anatole Litvak

and the Warners themselves
were all targets of death threats

during and after production.

When they opened that film
within the same few weeks

Madison Square Garden was sold out

with over 20,000 American Nazis.

German influence reached
all the way to the Senate floor.

Harry was accused of making movies

that incited Americans to go to war.

His statement
back to this accusation was

"No one will ever accuse me
of being anti-American.

I am definitely anti-Nazi.

And no one's gonna tell me
what movies I can make."

On December 8, 1941

the day after the bombing
of Pearl Harbor

a script analyst
in Hal Wallis's office

picked up a story
about a pair of lovers

reunited by chance

in a city full of refugees.

In November 1942

less than a year later,
the Warners released a film

that captured
the fundamental question of its time.

My dear, Rick. When will you realize
that in this world today

isolationism is no longer
a practical policy?

Casablanca it's the greatest
studio film ever made.

It's not close. There's no...
second place is way behind.

Here's looking at you, kid.

I always looked upon Casablanca
a little mystically

that it had its own reason for being.

It was a picture
the audiences needed.

What it said was
that there were values

that were worth
making sacrifices for.

And it said it
in a very entertaining way.

You despise me, don't you?

Well, if I gave you any thought
I probably would.

Fresh from High Sierra
and The Maltese Falcon

and after years of playing
hard-boiled detectives

and hard-bitten gangsters

Humphrey Bogart was not
the obvious screen partner

for the divine Ingrid Bergman.

Of all the gin joints
in all the towns in all the world

she walks into mine.

But the biggest gamble
was the script itself.

It's remarkable
because when we did it

we had no faith in it at all.

Because the script was so bad

and it was written day by day.

There was nothing clear about it.

And I didn't know which man
I was supposed to really love.

So they say,
"Can't you do the love scenes

just little in between?

Don't put too much seriousness in it.

Because we really don't know

with which man
you're going to end up."

In the end, I said,
"We're going to shoot it both ways."

You're saying this
only to make me go.

I'm saying it because it's true.

Ilsa, I'm no good at being noble.

But it doesn't take much to see that
the problems of three little people

don't amount to a hill of beans
in this crazy world.

If Casablanca had ended

with Bogart going off with Bergman

the romantic ending

there wouldn't be any legend today.

I think that people
go back again and again

to find values they don't find
very easily today.

Are you ready, Ilsa?

Yes, I'm ready.

But for director, Michael Curtiz

and many actors on the set

the story was personal.

When you see that opening scene

and there's this wonderful
tracking shot

where you can see the waiters

moving around in the cigarette smoke.

This kind of
choreography of bustle...

To America.

To America.

To America.

The people who played all
those parts were Jewish refugees.

Dan Seymour, the really massive actor

who played the doorman

he was on set
when Paul Henreid as Victor Laszlo

tells the band to play
"La Marseillaise."

Play "La Marseillaise," play it.

And all the French sing it
to drown out the Germans.

And he looked,
and the people were crying

and it was real tears,
they were really refugees.

To me, Casablanca...

Get away from that phone.

I would advise you not to interfere.

I was willing to shoot
Captain Renault

and I'm willing to shoot you.

...really epitomized what it meant
to be on the right side

in a world so distinctly divided
between good and evil.

Louis, I think this is the beginning
of a beautiful friendship.

Hal Wallis and Michael Curtiz

turned out other
popular patriotic movies

throughout the war.

But none garnered more glory

than Casablanca.

The film was nominated
for eight Academy Awards.

Proving the brothers had arrived
at Hollywood immortality.

Commercial success was not enough

for the Warner brothers.

They also wanted prestige.

And that came in the form
of Academy Awards

and other citations.

But Curtiz and the cast

credited Hal Wallis
for the film's success.

Rankling Jack Warner's pride.

And this whole thing
reached critical mass

at the 1944 Oscars, when Casablanca

won the Best Picture Oscar.

Hal Wallis goes to accept his Oscar

and he's sitting in a row
with the Warners

and they put their legs out

and blocked him from going up there.

And Jack Warner ran up,
and took the Oscar from Jack Benny.

Hal Wallis said, 25 years later,
he could still feel the rage.

Jack really should've let Hal Wallis

accept the Oscar.

And you know
what Hal Wallis would have done?

He would've thanked his boss

Jack Warner.

The youngest Warner was fixated
on promoting the family brand

specifically his own.

Jack Warner is my step-grandfather.

He was a grandfather to me.

I never used
the word step-grandfather.

And I knew him till he died

when I was about 24.

He was a ringmaster.

Whenever you were around him,
he would hold court

and take up all the oxygen.

Are you interested in the men
who make your films?

Well, here's a whole plane
full of them arriving from America.

Mr. Clifford Worth of Universal

Mr. Harry Cohn of Columbia

and Mr. Jack Warner being emphatic
at the end of the line.

On top of his medal from the Academy

Jack got his stripes
as a lieutenant colonel

after Warner Brothers
trained and launched

the first US Army
Motion Picture Unit.

And in the darkest days of the war

Colonel Warner and his brother Harry
were summoned to Washington

where President Roosevelt himself

tasked them with a serious mission.

Make a movie that would help
Americans trust their Soviet allies.

Here, Russian soldiers
keep up the year-old fight

against the despised Nazi.

Based closely on the memoir
of former Ambassador Joseph E. Davies

Mission to Moscow
painted a flattering picture

of life in Russia.

What do you think
of today's demonstration?

Tell you how I feel.

That at least one European nation

with no aggressive intentions

is ready for anything that comes.

And I say thank God for it.

Hear, hear.

Jack Warner looked at it as

"Hey, this is just
a pro-Allied, pro-America movie

that we're making here
because we wanna win the war."

Service to their country became
the official Warner brand in 1944

with the new company motto

"Combining good citizenship
with good picture making."

But just a few years later

Mission to Moscow would prove
to be a political landmine.

The growing menace of communism

arouses the House of Representatives
Un-American Activities Committee.

In October of 1947

with a new administration
in the White House

the Warners were again
called to Washington.

Meeting will come to order.

This time to testify

before the House Committee
on Un-American Activities.

When the Red Scare started

Mission to Moscow
was used as exhibit number one

that Hollywood is infiltrated
by Communists.

Harry Warner rejected
the committee's claims

and refused to appear.

While Warner stars gathered outside
to protest the proceedings

Jack Warner cooperated.

My brothers and I will be happy
to subscribe generously

to a pest removal fund.

We are willing to establish
such a fund to ship to Russia

the people who don't like
our American system of government.

Now, the other thing about HUAC

is you had people on that committee,
like Representative Rankin

who were out-and-out anti-Semites.

And many of the studio heads

such as the Warners, were Jewish.

And so there was a fear factor.

The government could take away
everything that we built.

Jack's reaction to that was

I think, politely put, cowardly.

Among the writers Jack named

were Philip and Julius Epstein

and Howard Koch

authors of Casablanca.

Blacklisted in Hollywood

and unable to find work in America

Koch moved to England

where he wrote under a pseudonym
for the next five years.

That was an ugly, ugly time.

The golden years of Hollywood
kind of disappeared after that

because people
couldn't trust each other.

Jack's reputation
was already in the dirt

with many in the industry.

Jack Warner was the dictator

and he wanted actors
to be in the movies

that he wanted them to be in.

Years before

Bette Davis had sued the studio
for breach of contract

and lost.

But another icon

had Jack in her sights.

Now, Olivia de Havilland
was so depressed

at batting her eyes
at Errol Flynn all the time.

She wanted to do more meaningful work

she couldn't.

So she sued Warner Brothers

on the basis that she had signed
a seven-year contract.

But every time she refused a picture

and didn't go to work

they added that amount of time
onto the seven years.

How did you fight?

I went to court.

And I got free from the contract.

That was the first thing.

She won the case I had in England

in America

and she is totally responsible

for the seven-year limitation

on every actor's contract today.

Olivia did this in America.

The De Havilland case ended
mandatory contract extensions

and would lead to an exodus
of top stars from the lot.

Among them, Lauren Bacall.

Thanks.

And Humphrey Bogart.

At the same time

the Justice Department
struck at the architecture

of the Hollywood system itself.

What really cracked the studio system

was the lawsuit predicated
on the Sherman Antitrust Act

where the studios were
controlling the making of movies

and also the exhibition of movies
with their theater chains.

Forced to spin off
more than 1,000 theaters

and confronted with a widening hole
in their revenue

the Warners could not hide
from the grim truth.

Their studio was no longer on top.

The difference between
what Warner Brothers made

between 1946 and 1952 is stunning.

The brothers were increasingly
at odds.

I mean, Harry was
11 years older than Jack

which is almost
a generation difference.

Jack liked wine, women, and song.

Harry was,
"You need to stay home at night

and be with your family.
Family's everything."

The two of them could not coexist.

And they were face to face
with a competitor

that could break the world
as they knew it.

One day, through television

the entire world will stream
into our living rooms

with the velocity of light.

In 1950

3.8 million American families
had television sets.

Well, it's quite a story.
The story of television.

By 1955, the number
had grown to 30 million.

When TV came, they tried
to pretend the TV didn't exist.

Mr. Warner, you're quoted as saying

the cinema industry
has nothing to fear from television.

Now, do you still hold that view?

Yes, I positively do.

He hated television so much

he refused to have
a TV in his own house

or in his office.

Television was a threat.

And now I'd like to show you
several scenes

from our CinemaScope picture
already completed.

They tried every means imaginable

to lure people back
into movie theaters.

CinemaScope. Stereophonic sound.

3D.

Warner Brothers
tested new talent, too.

With better results.

I'm in love, I'm in love
I'm in love, I'm in love

Hey, Stella!

Brando was real,
and you felt a real feeling from him.

He had tapped
into something personal.

You could connect to it more.

It looks to me like
you've been swindled, baby.

And when you get swindled,
under Napoleonic code

I get swindled too,
and I don't like to get swindled.

When he came along,
everybody thought...

he was the cat's rear end.

And he was. He was good.

Produced for television
by Warner Brothers.

Though Jack
would eventually give in to TV

and find a lucrative income stream

with serialized westerns

the brothers still believed
in the magic of the big screen.

Their hopes rested
on a blazing young actor

who touched a nerve
to a growing generational divide

in the mid-'50s.

- Eight.
- You have no repentance!

You're bad! Through and through bad!

James Dean, widescreen color.

The struggle between
the father and the sons.

The mother.

- I was very beautiful once.
- Yes, ma'am.

East of Eden was a film
that I revisited constantly

and lived through because
I was living through it myself.

I can't keep it to myself anymore.

Will you just get it
off your chest, son?

That's it. That is not what I mean.

East of Eden and
Rebel Without a Cause

left indelible marks on the cinema.

But Dean would die tragically

before his third Warner movie
was complete.

Box office hits were
few and far between.

To the elder Warners

it seemed the time had come
to move on.

Jack did not wanna retire.

And it was Harry and Albert

who were getting older.

And people were always
coming to the studio, saying

"We wanna buy out your stock."

And so Harry and Albert
were happy to retire

if all of them retired.

Jack knew he could not be president.
Harry would not allow that.

I think it was a family thing.

They grew up with a mandate.

"All for one and one for all."

Harry was very dedicated to that.

And Jack didn't like it.

My brothers and I have been
in the cinema industry

for about 50 years.

Jack devised a very clever way

to finally gain complete control
of Warner Brothers.

If the Lehman Brothers
or Louis Louis are listening

we're still open for an offer.
But this time, with money.

He found an outfit that
he could sell the studio to.

I think I'll blow by this.

It's something to do
with selling the joints.

He told Harry,
"Let's get out. We're done.

The business is changing,"
and so forth.

Then they said, "Well, we'll do that

as long as you sell
your shares as well."

Not unless you wanna break your neck.

So they were all
gonna sell and get out.

But Jack betrayed them

by making a deal with the buyer.

Under the table,
he gave the guy a million bucks.

And the guy sold
the studio back to him.

Next thing Harry knew
was that he read in the trades

that Jack was gonna be president.

Him reading that in the trades

gave him a heart attack and a stroke.

It literally, it broke his heart.

Because he trusted Jack so much.

Jack's name was mud.

You could not talk about Jack.

What can you say
about that transaction?

The ultimate shell game

that not only betrays
your older brother

but sends him to an early grave.

Jack didn't attend the funeral.

Albert Warner
never spoke to Jack again.

In the end, the family fell apart.

Everything's possible
in Hollywood here.

And they had incredible success.

And sometimes it can be corrupting,
that kind of success.

Jack, he got a chance
to be the guy that got to run it all.

But he broke his promise to his dad.

It was 1958

and Jack had all the power.

But the lot was
a ghost of its former self.

In a bid to recapture better days

and refill the company coffers

he put his faith
in an old Warner standby.

- Ya got trouble
- Oh, we got trouble

Right here in River City

- Musicals.
- Let a woman in your life

And your serenity is through

She'll redecorate your home
From the cellar to the dome

Then go on to the enthralling fun
Of overhauling you

How goes the final hour?
As he sees the bridal bower

Everything's coming up roses

For me and for you

There were some notable high points.

The best picture of the year
is My Fair Lady.

Jack L. Warner.

I'm indeed gratified
to be here tonight

to accept this high award.

It's something
we will always be proud of.

Thank you.

The last flowering
of the old studio system

was happening
with these big budget musicals.

And some of these pictures
were very beautifully made.

But they had a kind of decorum

that was a holdover
from an earlier era.

Have you jousted
with humility lately?

Our films are great

they still are great

and they'll be greater.

I think the American producers
have learned to stop aping

the Italian, and the French,
and the Spanish

and other undesirable films

that have art and
all that hokey pokey.

All alone at the top

Jack felt the ground
shifting underneath him.

The country was really changing.

I mean, you're talking mid-'60s

Civil Rights movement,
the Vietnam War

student opposition,
the growing presence of rock music.

This kind of moviemaking looked old

and past its time.

Jack's without the support
he had in the '30s and '40s.

He doesn't have
the great production executives

who ran the place for him.

He doesn't have the movie stars
under contract like he had before.

He makes deals with
these independent producers

who come to him

but he doesn't have
the same involvement or the power

to oversee it.

When a hungry young actor-producer
named Warren Beatty came to the lot

to shoot a rags-to-riches
gangster film set in the 1930s

Jack could not relate.

When he got wind of Bonnie and Clyde

and the level of violence...

he was not happy.

Okay.

You just read about

how difficult it was for them
to get it to the screen.

But when they finally do

it became this cultural phenomenon.

You're a 12-year-old kid

and it's just everywhere.

I mean, it's... It's not just
the Mad magazine parody.

It's on the cover of everything,
and every girl at school

is trying to look like Faye Dunaway.

It just was everywhere.

The movie was the stuff

the Warners' dreams
were once made of.

But Jack could not see himself

in the renegades on screen

or the rebels
behind the camera.

The memos from Jack Warner

in his later years
are full of frustration.

"No one ever listens to me."
"I told you not to do it this way."

"Don't go off the lot."
"Don't do this. Don't do that."

And people just shrug

and keep doing what they're doing

'cause they're trying
to make their movie.

In 1967, he struck a deal
to sell his shares

to an ambitious production company

trying to make it to the big leagues.

Seven Arts.

The story of the studio
had rolled past the family

that founded it.

The day my grandfather's
leaving the studio

Francis Ford Coppola was on the lot

shooting Finian's Rainbow.

And standing with them

was a young guy
named George Lucas helping him.

So it really was a transfer
of generational moviemaking.

You almost wonder

if they figuratively or literally

passed each other in the gate

like two big ships.

One going off into the sunset

and one going into the sunrise.

It was kind of the end of
the first act of Hollywood history

and the beginning of the second.

The old power structure had crumbled.

What took its place

would decide the fate
of the company...

Action!

...and the future of the industry.