1. Since the storyline of "Sabotage and Salvation" has already been covered in class, I'll just recap: a married couple's relationship becomes turbulent after the wife's promiscuity has been indirectly revealed to the husband. He, in turn, utilizes a series of comedic ploys and disguises to weaken, and eventually break, her chance of successfully leading this secret double life. Despite all of the deceit within the film, the two eventually come clean to each other, allowing them to piece their marriage back together; enforcing a message that honesty and commitment can strengthen the bond of a weakened marriage is essential to the time period. Why is this important? It's just another way to make an unpleasant circumstance seem easier to swallow — the 1930s was filled with political tumult and economic complications. Not only was the Great Depression at its peak in America, but also fascist political movements were rising overseas; in an era of such uncertainty, audiences must have a way to ground themselves, and one of those ways is through film. Providing a sense of relief to the audience is accomplished in several ways. For example, adding a "realistic" look to the movie (not "glossy" like with Paramount) allows for a more authentic film. Then, one may subconsciously convince him or herself that a "small-scale" issue such as a rocky marriage is worthy of occupying space in one's mind; I know it seems pointless to be swapping one bad situation out for another, but I'm going to assume that the majority of people would rather focus on issues that can arise between husband and wife rather than the issues that were developing between the government and its citizens, or between nations. Finally, the "happy ending" provides a more concrete sense of solace because it instills the idea that even the toughest situation can be salvaged and repaired.
2. The film is a comedy. By taking a more serious storyline and intertwining silly disguises and slapstick routines, the audience is better able to accept and digest the reality of the message — not everything in life goes exactly according to plan. Also, our main actor, James Cagney, was well known for his comedic timing and constant stream of energy.
3. Warner Bros. Studio seemed like a very nice fit for our film. It was known for being dialogue-oriented. This is one of the most important reasons it was our studio of choice, because sound was only recently introduced into the film world before the 1930s. Because of sound, the audience no longer is given as much freedom to interpret what is occurring on-screen because the actors' words define exactly what their actions are meant to portray. Since it is most vital that our film ends on a high note in order to appeal to the masses, dialogue provides the perfect opportunity to avoid confusion about whether or not the couple had worked out the situation. Not only this, but Warner Bros. generally targeted social issues in their films. While we mainly focus on diverting attention away from political and economic turmoil, we also touch on the idea of gender equality; at this time, women were fighting to be considered just as capable as men. This is emphasized in "Sabotage and Salvation" through the wife's boldness in seeking another man, and her cleverness in having hidden it for so long (though these are more negative traits to possess in this situation, it still portrays a woman as something other than an obedient housewife).
4. We chose Ray Enright as our director because not only was he associated with Warner Bros., but also he specialized in a "fast-paced" style of film, which jives with the quickness of the sabotage scenes and the intensity of the dialogue. James Cagney, as stated above, was picked for his energetic performances and deadpan comic timing. Our main actress, Myrna Loy, had an exotic appearance — with such a mischievous female role having to be played, the audience may cope better with the idea of her being nonnative, so that they can still whole-heartedly believe in the purity of the American people. Cary Grant was chosen as the "secret lover" solely on his good looks. The focus of the film will be on editing, because it contains lots of rapid cuts and swift panning scenes in order to keep the audience fully engaged in the plot (Conrad A. Nervig employed for this because of his previous success in editing with the film "Eskimo").
5. The only issues that we may run into with the Hays Code are the idea of a woman selling her virtue, which could get us in trouble if someone brings to attention the fact that cheating = unfaithful = diminished purity, and the idea we may be tarnishing the institution of marriage, which is supposed to be considered a stable, successful, eternal bond.
*We are using black and white film*
6. I really agreed with most of the group's decisions for the film. If we were using a similar storyline but for a more current audience, I would say we need to have multiple characters' perspectives on the situation in order to get a better sense of how each is individually affected by that one secret. However, because the plot is already a bit crude and relatively new for the 1930s, having a clean-cut approach to the affair is better (less confusion). It's not like we would have won any major awards for this piece of work, but I think we did just fine for a week's worth of brainstorming.
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