In shrinking niche-spaces, dominance hierarchies will inevitably form due to resource scarcity. [34]The Existentialist fate of the film quartet's protagonists remind us again and gain that terrible sacrifices must be made by individuals to re-assert the dominant order. [35] But like Night Nurse and Fugitive, Heroes "pulls back from the hour-long "radical stuff" of its 73-minute running time at the last seconds . . . the New Deal finale in the rain cannot wash away the downpour that floods . . . an anti-Americanism story." [36]

We have encountered the core manifestations of the 1931-33 lifecycle so far: vigilante justice, corrupt and ineffective bureaucracies, anti-Americanism, and psychological estrangement.

Employees Entrance, "released just weeks before FDR’s inauguration", [37] amplifies the anti-Americanism sentiment: the Founding Fathers are rebuked by the autocratic manager of the Franklin Monroe Department Store. [38] It compresses the psychological past into an opening montage, [39] preferring to concentrate on the marketplace forces that drive women to "succumb ("Give me a job at any price!") and resist ("All I want is my job") marketplace forces." [40] Consumerism as defences against free-floating anxieties have replaced the PR tactics used by Warner Brothers to promote Fugitive. [41]

Employee's Entrance centres on the Machiavellian tactics of manager Kurt Anderson (Warren William), the closest figure in the film quartet to a Fuhrer-like saviour. Anderson would today be classified as an extreme entrepreneurial-individualist. [42] His mixture of devotion, charismatic leadership, and separating employees from their wider community typify Dallas Baptist University professor Dave Arnott's 'corporate cults' hypothesis. [43]

For Doherty, Anderson's aggression is "captivating, admirable . . . [he is a] fierce businessman and avowed misogynist [but his] despotism is benevolent." [44] Doherty then contradicts this kind despotism when he describes Anderson's reaction to the suicide of committee member Higgins: "When a man outlives his usefulness, he ought to jump out a window . . . send him a wreath!" [45] Doherty has fallen prey to the "great men in history" error documented extensively in psycho-historical research. [46]

What separates the individual/elitist Anderson from the communal/collectivist owners and administration - and therefore makes Anderson so alluring to Doherty - is that he is prepared to take action in the face of adversity: "There's no room for sympathy or softness," he claims. [47] This persona became inseparable from actor Warren William, who Doherty claims played "men callous in character but commanding in presence, harsh dynamos with not a whit of self doubt or common decency." [48]

Analogous to the Stockholm Effect (psychological bonding/fusion noted in terrorism de-briefings) we are forced to identify with the charismatic Anderson whether we like it or not, a technique that anticipates the immediate aftermath of the shower murder sequence in Alfred Hitchcock's Psycho (1960) and the contemporary horror/slasher genre. [49]

One film is conspicuously missing from the quartet, a transgressive film that did depict the dark scenario that each of the quartet indirectly alluded to. Gabriel Over The White House (1932) reflects the xenophobic fears and fervent nationalism that were an undercurrent in 1930s America (notably for media magnate William Randolph Hearst). Gabriel reveals that the Three Faces Of Fascism (Germany, Italy, Japan) were almost joined by a fourth (America).

Perhaps the most alluring aspect of this 'Forbidden Hollywood' quintet is that it simultaneously offers us a glimpse of a parallel past America that thankfully never materialised, as well as a wake-up call to be vigilant for the future.

Select Bibliography:

Howard Bloom. The Lucifer Principle: A Scientific Exploration Into The Forces Of History. New York: Atlantic Monthly Press, 1995.

Norman Bowie. "A Kantian Theory of Capitalism." Business Ethics Quarterly, The Ruffin Series #1 Special Issue, 1998, pp. 37-60.

Thomas Doherty. Pre-Code Hollywood. New York: Columbia University Press, 1999.

Kenneth Galbraith. The Great Crash, 1929. Harmandsworth [UK]: Penguin, 1975.

Jane Gaines and Michael Renov (eds). "Female Representation and Consumer Culture" (Special Issue). Quarterly Review of Film & Video. Vol 11(1), 1989.

Bertram Gross. Friendly Fascism: The New Face Of Power In America. New York: M. Holt, 1980.

Lea Jacobs and Richard Maltby (eds). "Re-thinking The Production Code" (Special Issue). Quarterly Review of Film & Video. Vol 15(4), March 1995.

Mark Gill, Jeffrey Goosick, Bob Israel, Joe Nimzickli, Paul Tough. "The New Auteurs." Harpers, June 1993, pp. 33-45.

Robert L. McConnel. "The Genesis and Ideology of Gabriel Over The White House." Cinema Journal. Vol xv(1), Fall 1975, pp. 6-26.

John Ralston Saul. The Unconscious Civilisation. New York: Free Press, 1997.