Thursday, March 09, 2006

Capitalism and Hattie McDaniel

Time for my weekly paean to Ms. Noonan. In her column today she points out that it was Selznick's capitalism that really pushed the frontier:


"It would be nice to see them start to understand that rediscovering the work of, say, C.S. Lewis, and making a Narnia film, is not 'giving in' to the audience but serving it. It isn't bad to look for and present good material that is known to have a following. It's a smart thing to do. It's why David O. Selznick bought 'Gone With the Wind': People were reading it. It was his decision to make it into a movie from which he would profit that gave Hattie McDaniel her great role. Taboos are broken by markets, not poses."

Update: Occurs to me that Branch Rickey (sp?) did the same thing.

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