MGM had the deepest pockets. They owned forests of antique furniture. They kept a zoo on the backlot. Their "gloss" was literally the result of a corporate mandate to use the inventory . You don't shoot a costume drama in the dark when you have 10,000 velvet drapes gathering dust in the warehouse.
The efficiency of the Studio Era (roughly 1920 to 1960) relied on three major components: MGM had the deepest pockets
That is the genius. The system turned filmmaking from a carnival trick into a cognitive science. Their "gloss" was literally the result of a
For decades, the popular image of old Hollywood was a binary war: the (Welles, Ford, Hawks) fighting tooth and nail against the Soulless Suit (Louis B. Mayer, Harry Cohn, Jack Warner). The narrative was simple: art versus commerce. Genius versus the ledger book. The system turned filmmaking from a carnival trick