Joy, G. Vaughn; (2024) A Cold War Christmas: Reflections of American Politics and Culture in Hollywood Christmas Films, 1946-1961. Doctoral thesis (Ph.D), UCL (University College London).

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Abstract

This thesis is based on 12 Christmas films made by major Hollywood studios and released between 1946 and 1961. It aims to analyse changes in the style and messaging of the films concerned in relation to wider social, political, and cultural developments. In essence, it suggests that given a seemingly innocuous genre as a constant – here, the Christmas movie – we can analyse a set of films for reflections of societal, cultural, economic, and political changes over time – here, the early Cold War. Chapter 1 sets the scene by discussing the FBI’s 1947 allegations against Frank Capra’s 1946 It’s a Wonderful Life for alleged communist sympathies, and Chapter 2 analyses four social problem films from 1947 as federal surveillance for those potential sympathies in the motion picture industry continued. Simultaneously, other branches of the US government, including the House Committee on Un-American Activities (HUAC) and the Supreme Court, influenced Hollywood’s affairs. This thesis argues that in response to multiple pressures, Hollywood executives and filmmakers began to bend to the socially conservative pressures of this post-war moment and, further, that this capitulation is evident in the Christmas films themselves. Chapter 3 deals with the impact of HUAC's investigations into communist subversion in Hollywood (1947, 1951-52), leading to an abrupt shift in the Christmas films of the 1950s into more light-hearted romances and musicals. In further reflections of the moment, Chapter 4 focuses on the impact of the strengthening American economy on portrayals of commercialism in Christmas movies throughout the 15-year period. Chapter 5 offers an examination of two directors’ very different experiences in Hollywood that led up to their 1961 Christmas releases, Frank Capra’s Pocketful of Miracles (in which he returned to the genre for the first time since It's A Wonderful Life) and Walt Disney’s Babes in Toyland.

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