The 1950’s

• “Peace, progress
and prosperity”
– Dwight D.
Eisenhower
The 1950’s
• WWII was over but the
Cold War had begun
• Decline in movie
attendance
• By the late 50’s, 85% of all
U.S. homes had a
television
• Audience matured but
studios did not
The 1950’s
• Location shooting
became fashionable as
back lots became
expensive
• Inroads by independent
producers and foreign
films
• Studios “grasped at
straws” as by the end of
the 1950’s, 75% of
audience under 30
The 1950’s
• Ban on film stars
appearing on television
ended in 1956
The 1950’s
• 3-D
• Trick to get butts in the
seats
• Each eye sees a
different picture, thus
the glasses
• 2 projectors to one but
still…
• Lousy movies
• Synchronization
problems
The 1950’s
• Lead to
experimentation but
• Dial M for Murder
released in a 2-D or
“regular” version
The 1950’s
• Very successful as
far as porn goes…
The 1950’s
• 3-D – it’s still the
next big thing!
The 1950’s
• Wide screens
• More than TV
• Required a 75K
outlay from theatre
owners
• 3 projectors
• Peripheral vision like
IMax
The 1950’s
• Wide screens
The 1950’s
• Only a new screen
and a pair of lenses
• Deep focus
impossible
• Often shot in
medium shots
The 1950’s
The 1950’s
• Wide screens
 The 1950’s
• Pan and scan
process for
television
The 1950’s
The 1950’s
The 1950’s
• Other gimmicks
– William Castle -
shocked you in your
seat - literally
The 1950’s
• Youth genres
– Biker
– Beach
The 1950’s
The 1950’s
• Red Scare & The Cold War
– Americans feared communist attack
– Russia feared American attack & the
American's atomic bomb
– Russia’s anti-capitalism
– Russia’s problematic actions in the
Soviet zone of Germany
– America refused to share nuclear
secrets
– Russia expanded west into Eastern
Europe + broken election promises
– Russia’s need for a secure western
border
– Russia’s aim of spreading world
communism
The 1950’s
• Ethel & Julius
Rosenberg were
executed for espionage
in 1953 for allegedly
passing atomic bomb
secrets to the Soviets
The 1950’s
• The Blacklist & the Hollywood
Ten - 1950
– Interviewed 41 people
working in Hollywood who
became “friendly witnesses”
who named people with
leftist sympathies
– Some of these people
named others and some
refused to cooperate & were
jailed
– Those who refused were
called the Hollywood Ten -
mostly writers
The 1950’s
• Snowball effect into The
Blacklist or those who
would not be hired by
any studio
• 320 actors, writers and
others including
 The 1950’s
• Blacklisted in Hollywood:
– Besides the Hollywood Ten: Jules
Dassin, Lee Grant, John Garfield,
Jack Gilford, Martin Ritt, Burgess
Meredith, Zero Mostel, Stella Adler,
Judy Holliday, Pete Seeger, Orson
Bean, Will Geer, Jean Muir, Gale
Sondergaard and the list goes on…

Alvah Bessie, Herbert J. Biberman, Lester Cole,

Edward Dmytryk, Ring Lardner, Jr., John
Howard Lawson, Albert Maltz, Samuel Ornitz,
Adrian Scott, Dalton Trumbo
Actual Transcript:

Interrogator: Are you a member of the Communist Party or have you ever been a member of
the Communist Party?

Lawson: It's unfortunate and tragic that I have to teach this committee the basic principles of
Americanism.

Interrogator: That's not the question. That's not the question. The question is—have you
ever been a member of the Communist Party?

Lawson: I am framing my answer in the only way in which any American citizen can
frame...absolutely invades his privacy...

Interrogator: Then you deny it? You refuse to answer that question, is that correct?

Lawson: I have told you that I will offer my beliefs, my affiliations and everything else to the
American public and they will know where I stand as they do from what I have written.

Interrogator: Stand away from the stand. Stand away from the stand. Officer, take this man
away from the stand.
The 1950’s
• Ronald Reagan was
president of the Screen
Actors Guild and an FBI
informant
• Cold War hysteria increased
• Joseph McCarthy
investigated the State
Department & the Army for
Communists
• His investigations were
inconclusive and television
showed him for what he was
- a bully in 1954 – see Good
Night & Good Luck
The 1950’s
• Writers used pseudonyms
and “fronts” – Hollywood Ten
writer Dalton Trumbo won an
Oscar under a a pseudonym
and was awarded a
posthumous Oscar for
Roman Holiday which was
won under a front
• Blacklist broken officially in
1960 by either Kirk Douglas
or Otto Preminger -
depending on who’s talking –
both were written by Trumbo
 The 1950’s
• Social realism from
Europe and Asia
gave rise to similar
films here
• Influenced by
Europe and post-
war mentality
• Movies started to
“matter”
On the Waterfront & The Defiant
Ones
The 1950’s
• Konstantin Stanislavsky
& Method acting
• Director of the famed
Moscow Art Theatre
• Developed the most
essential approach to the
art of acting over the
20th century
• Approach aimed to
creating realistic and
believable acting
performances
The 1950’s
• “Believable truth”
• Employed methods such as
"emotional memory”
• Concerned with the creation
of physical entries into these
emotional states, believing
that the repetition of certain
acts and exercises could
bridge the gap between life
on and off the stage
• Demanded actors that pay
closer attention to the
important unsaid messages
within the writing
The 1950’s
• Method acting
– Marlon Brando
– Robert de Niro
– Sidney Poitier
– Marilyn Monroe
– James Dean
– Montgomery Clift
The 1950’s
Major Filmmakers
• Fred Zinneman
– Trained in television
– Crossed genres
– Identity theme
The 1950’s
• Alfred Hitchcock
– His “golden age” was the
1950’s
– Big on experimentation
with format and themes
– Savvy entertainer - knew
his audience
– Made film his own way -
detailed plans like
storyboards
– Attractive stars in not-so-
attractive roles
The 1950’s
• Elia Kazan, 1909-2003
– From NY theatre see the Group Theater –
directed Tennessee Williams & Arthur
Miller plays – won 5 Tonys
– Cooperated w/HUAC yet a political liberal –
subject to the “Reverse Blacklist”
– Actor’s director
– Family themes - youth and individual as
victim and spiritual exile - Much of his film
work is a response to the HUAC hearings
and how it affected him
– Made stars of Marlon Brando, James Dean
& Warren Beatty
– Lifetime achievement Oscar in 1999
caused controversy because of HUAC –
hundreds protested
The 1950’s
• Films include:
– Baby Doll, A Tree Grows in
Brooklyn, Splendor in the
Grass, On the Waterfront
(Oscar), America America, A
Streetcar Named Desire, A
Face in the Crowd, East of
Eden, The Last Tycoon,
Gentlemen’s Agreement
(Oscar)
The 1950’s
• A Streetcar Named Desire, 1955
– By Tennessee Williams, directed by Elia
Kazan who also directed it on stage
– With Marlon Brando, Kim Hunter, Vivien
Leigh & Karl Malden
– Nominated for 12 Oscars, won 4
(Actress, Supporting Actor & Actress
and Set Decoration)
– Large challenge to get by the
Production Code as it deals with
insanity, rape, domestic violence,
homosexuality, sexual obsession –
several cut scenes are in the version
now but the PCA insisted Stanley
(Brando) be punished at the end of the
film for his misdeeds
 The 1950’s
• The following scenes have been restored:
– Stella says "Stanley's always smashed things. Why, on our wedding night, as
soon as we came in here, he snatched off one of my slippers and rushed
about the place smashing the light bulbs with it...I was sort of thrilled by it."
– The dialogue makes it clearer that Blanche's husband was a homosexual and
that she made him commit suicide with her insults
– Blanche's line explaining that she wants to kiss the paperboy "softly and
sweetly" now has the words "...on your mouth" at the end
– When Stella returns after Stanley punches her, her sexual desire is very
clear.
– Stanley's line "Maybe you wouldn't be so bad to interfere with." along with
restored reaction shots in the following action
The 1950’s
• Marlon Brando, 1924-2004
– Considered one of the
greatest screen actors
ever…
– Stated on stage but
exclusively did film after
1949
– His performance in The Med
& Streetcar introduced a
magnetic, realistic acting
style to the public
– Jack Nicholson once said
“He gave us our freedom”
Marlon Brando
The 1950’s
• Vivien Leigh, 1913-1967
– Also began onstage but in
Britain
– Considered a bit lightweight
for the stage, her beauty and
presence made for an ideal
movie star
– Won the coveted role of
Scarlett O’Hara in GWTW
– Married to Laurence Olivier
– Suffered from severe manic
depression & tuberculosis
which eventually killed her
Vivien Leigh
Kim Hunter & Karl Malden

• Kim Hunter, 1922-2002

– Also a “method” actor, her
B’way debut was Streetcar
– Blacklisted for being active
in civil rights and peace
conferences
• Karl Malden, 1912-2009
– Joined the Group Theater
where Kazan directed &
Arthur Miller wrote
– Also famous for his later
television work