Twentieth Century's Fox

Through this meticulously researched appraisal, Custen (Bio-Pics) awards film producer Zanuck (1902-1979) the full stature of rivals like Cecil B. DeMille, Irving Thalberg and David O. Selznick. Custen, who is chairperson of performing arts at the College of Staten Island/CUNY, focuses on Zanuck's professional life, which was divided between early success at Warner Brothers and a longer stint at Twentieth Century Fox. Often dismissed by contemporaries and later scholars as crassly commercial, Zanuck, he argues, enjoyed a sure grasp of vernacular language, image and story that resulted in a substantial contribution to American popular culture, especially in genres such as the gangster film and the musical. Custen makes a compelling case for Zanuck's role in shaping classic movies like The Grapes of Wrath and How Green Was My Valley--credit that usually goes to director John Ford and others--and in the process helps explain the peculiar genius of Hollywood's studio system in its golden age. Custen's prose can be unfocused and distractingly chatty (""look at the wooden campiness of Thalberg's effort!"" he says of the 1929 musical The Broadway Melody), and he occasionally uses phrases like ""applause-milking singing style"" and ""horrible overacting"" without supporting or explaining them. This is, nevertheless, a useful and durable addition to the literature of the studio system in particular and of film history in general. Illustrations not seen by PW. (Nov.)