Before 1945. the impact of Stanislavskian techniques in Hollywood was far from overreaching. The novelty of Stanislavskli's ideas and the contrasting interpretations of them were seemingly alien concepts. All exponents of Stanislavski's system in America concurred in opposing the commercial establishments of contemporaneous Broadway and Hollywood. Hollywood's self-image at first militated against new acting techniques. While the boom lasted, the film industry had no need of radical ideas, or of the intimacy and versatility of the Stanislavski-trained thespian. Such actors, in their screen assignments usually ended up as character actors or, worse still, caricature actors.
The post-war period would bring changes. Efforts to release Hollywood from its doldrums included low-budget productions enlisting new talent and relying on the documentary-type realism so successful in Europe.The main ingredients consisted of a small cast, a well-written script and minimal sets or lots of location work and a small theme that would eschew ideas grandiose. The contemporary social climate and psychological drama were the quintessential subjects, as the theater would provide suitable raw material.