The wild and crazy ’20s... the Jazz Age... the dangerous decade that laid the groundwork for many of the debacles of the remainder of the century. The end of World War I marked the end of the sufferings of war, and of the standards and expectations of the 19th century: hems came up, morality was redefined, and the search was on for the new. The ’20s were a fertile time for artistic innovation and for dictatorships—the cruelties of the Bolshevik Revolution were only a prologue to the works of Stalin; Mussolini rose to power; Poland’s democracy died; Hitler’s Brown Shirts made themselves known. The decade of technological innovation, of Lindbergh’s transatlantic flight and Jack Dempsey’s heavyweight championship, of Sacco and Vanzetti, of Fitzgerald and Hemingway, of Coco Chanel and the Charleston ended with the stock market debacle of 1929, the crash heard round the world. (77 minutes, b&w)