Runaway Hollywood: Internationalizing Postwar Production and Location

In this review of Runaway Hollywood, Daniel Steinhart offers a focused historical study for readers intrigued by how Hollywood adapted after World War II. The book is best for students, film historians, and professionals curious about the mechanics of midcentury production shifts; its single biggest reason to buy is the clear tracing of how studios exported production and merged practices from Hollywood and abroad to reshape industry workflows and visual style. This account emphasizes archival materials and industry-level analysis rather than a celebrity or set-by-set chronicle.

Key Features

• Historical scope: The book examines the late 1940s through the early 1960s, offering a coherent timeline of how and why studios moved production overseas.
• Industry focus: Steinhart explains the production and labor incentives, including the use of frozen foreign earnings and lower-cost labor, that motivated location shooting abroad.
• Trade and union context: The narrative highlights how Hollywood unions labeled the trend runaway production, clarifying the labor and employment implications.
• International practice integration: The book shows how filmmakers merged Hollywood practices with local production methods, illuminating changes in workflow and style.
• Use of primary materials: Drawn from an array of historical materials, the research supports specific claims about studio strategies and visual outcomes.
• Visual style analysis: The author connects production decisions to shifts in cinematic look, helping readers link economics to aesthetics.

Who It's For

Runaway Hollywood is ideal for film studies students, scholars of media industries, and production professionals who want a rigorous explanation of postwar shifts in location shooting and studio practices. The book supplies historical context useful for class discussions or research on transnational production models.

Readers seeking a light, photo-heavy coffee-table book, or a cast-and-crew memoir, should look elsewhere; this is an analytical and archival study focused on industry structures and visual consequences rather than celebrity anecdotes or production gossip.

Pros & Cons

Pros

• Provides a focused historical timeline that clarifies why studios began exporting production abroad.
• Explains the economic drivers, such as frozen foreign earnings and cheaper labor, that shaped location choices.
• Connects production practices to changes in cinematic visual style, which helps bridge industrial and aesthetic analysis.
• Relies on historical materials, lending credibility to its account of industry conversion.

Cons

• The book is scholarly in tone and may feel dense to casual readers looking for narrative storytelling or abundant illustrations.

Specifications

Title	Runaway Hollywood: Internationalizing Postwar Production and Location Shooting
Author	Daniel Steinhart
Period covered	Late 1940s to early 1960s
Primary topics	Runaway production, location shooting, studio practices
Approach	Historical and archival industry analysis
Focus	International production and visual style

Our Verdict

Runaway Hollywood is a strong, research-driven book for anyone studying the film industry or postwar production practices; it explains how economic and labor pressures prompted studios to internationalize production and how that shift affected cinematic style, making it good value for scholars and students who need a focused, archival account rather than a popular narrative.

Frequently Asked Questions

Does this book cover specific films shot overseas?
The book uses examples to illustrate trends but emphasizes industry practices and broader production shifts rather than exhaustive single-film case studies.

Is this suitable for undergraduate courses?
Yes, it can serve as a course text or supplementary reading for classes on film history, production studies, or media industries.

Does the book discuss labor and union responses?
Yes, it explains how Hollywood unions framed the trend as runaway production and explores the labor implications of outsourcing work abroad.