IN THIS BOOK I HAVE ARGUED that the US domestic film industry adapted characteristics and stereotypes associated with Austria in ways that were shaped by American contexts. The many and often competing forces involved in producing any one film in Hollywood have contributed to specifically American takes on Austrian stories. Even when Hollywood's Austria shared traits with European productions, Hollywood's Austria films would differ from those. Hollywood's Austria was also not static. In the decades following the introduction of Austria to the Hollywood screen, the nature of and the changes in the film industry, transformations in audience perceptions or assumed perceptions of Austrians, varying tastes, and ever changing historical contexts would shape and reshape stories set in Austria and Austria-Hungary.

Just as the screen incarnations of Austria were determined by contexts within the United States, so, too, were the ups and downs of the country's popularity on screen. If we look at the overall production of Austria films—both those where the Austrian backdrop serves a specific purpose and those were it appears merely incidental—Austria's screen popularity or lack thereof can be tied in part to the country's perceived box-office potential. Hollywood's Austria experienced its “heyday” in the twenties and the thirties. In those two decades Vienna, along with other European locales, served as the backdrop for many “sophisticated” scenarios. However, Vienna had a different air than other European cities, such as Berlin or Budapest. In the source text of The Marriage Circle, the story was originally set in Berlin and the scenario of The Firebird was originally to take place in Budapest. However, they were relocated to Vienna, because the city was more readily associated as a hotbed for affairs than other cities. However, its reputation as the capital of glamor and gaiety, its association with the music of composers such as Mozart, Schubert, and Strauss, and its connection with the House of Habsburg were equally important in endowing the city with a specific personality. In comedies and dramas about love, marriage, and sexual relationships, the capital city often appeared as a center of romance, illicit or otherwise. The introduction of sound in the late twenties and early thirties also contributed to Austria's screen popularity.