History of Warners Bros.

[Jake Schuster]

In three parts over three days on PBS tonight (9PM Eastern).

[Jake Schuster]

Not worth it: film clips and old (some new), very brief interviews. Very general and lacking the kind of fascinating insight into this otherwise very interesting studio. Cheap and cheerful documentary making at its worst.

[Adam Isaac]

I'll still check it out tonight.

[Geoff Alexander]

Originally Posted by Jake Schuster

Not worth it: film clips and old (some new), very brief interviews. Very general and lacking the kind of fascinating insight into this otherwise very interesting studio. Cheap and cheerful documentary making at its worst.

I don't know if it's playing in your neck of the woods, but a friend of mine named Cass Warner made a doc called "The Brothers Warner", which is scheduled to air on PBS this Tuesday night, and I believe it's part of the overall series.

It's actually very well done and spends a lot of time talking about the family dynamic between the four brothers, one of whom was her Grandfather, Harry Warner, and builds towards the rather tragic betrayal of Harry Warner by his brother Jack.

[Jake Schuster]

It touched upon those, SBS, (if indeed they are one and the same docs) only in a cursory way. The best thing I've seen on how Warner Bros. worked was a book I used for research for a novel, Round Up the Usual Suspects, by Aljean Harmetz (available for a few bucks used from Abebooks.com). Though it ostensibly covers the making of "Casablanca", it goes into detail on the relationship between the brothers and on how the studio was run from the late 30s through the end of the war.

The PBS documentary was basically a bunch of clips we've all seen a thousand times linked by a less-than insightful narration by Clint Eastwood. A tired Marty Scorsese was interviewed, but brought nothing more to the affair than his opinion on the pictures.

My father, by the way, bought his first boat from one of the brothers.