8/3/2019 SP 471 (G1, Monday) Week 10

1/42

The 1950s

Peace, progress

and prosperity

Dwight D.Eisenhower

8/3/2019 SP 471 (G1, Monday) Week 10

2/42

The 1950s

WWII was over but theCold War had begun

Decline in movieattendance

By the late 50s, 85% of all

U.S. homes had atelevision

Audience matured butstudios did not

8/3/2019 SP 471 (G1, Monday) Week 10

3/42

The 1950s

Location shootingbecame fashionable asback lots became

expensive

Inroads by independentproducers and foreignfilms

Studios grasped atstraws as by the end of

the 1950s, 75% of

audience under 30

8/3/2019 SP 471 (G1, Monday) Week 10

4/42

The 1950s

Ban on film starsappearing on televisionended in 1956

8/3/2019 SP 471 (G1, Monday) Week 10

5/42

The 1950s

3-D

Trick to get butts in theseats

Each eye sees adifferent picture, thusthe glasses

2 projectors to one but

still Lousy movies

Synchronizationproblems

8/3/2019 SP 471 (G1, Monday) Week 10

6/42

The 1950s

Lead toexperimentation but

Dial M for Murderreleased in a 2-D orregular version

8/3/2019 SP 471 (G1, Monday) Week 10

7/42

The 1950s

Very successful asfar as porn goes

8/3/2019 SP 471 (G1, Monday) Week 10

8/42

The 1950s

3-Dits still thenext big thing!

8/3/2019 SP 471 (G1, Monday) Week 10

9/42

The 1950s

Wide screens

More than TV

Required a 75Koutlay from theatreowners

3 projectors

Peripheral vision likeIMax

8/3/2019 SP 471 (G1, Monday) Week 10

10/42

The 1950s

Wide screens

8/3/2019 SP 471 (G1, Monday) Week 10

11/42

The 1950s

Only a new screenand a pair of lenses

Deep focusimpossible

Often shot inmedium shots

8/3/2019 SP 471 (G1, Monday) Week 10

12/42

The 1950s

8/3/2019 SP 471 (G1, Monday) Week 10

13/42

The 1950s

Wide screens

8/3/2019 SP 471 (G1, Monday) Week 10

14/42

The 1950s

Pan and scanprocess fortelevision

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GMJhM3So4y8http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GMJhM3So4y8

8/3/2019 SP 471 (G1, Monday) Week 10

15/42

The 1950s

8/3/2019 SP 471 (G1, Monday) Week 10

16/42

The 1950s

8/3/2019 SP 471 (G1, Monday) Week 10

17/42

The 1950s

Other gimmicks

William Castle -

shocked you in yourseat - literally

8/3/2019 SP 471 (G1, Monday) Week 10

18/42

The 1950s

Youth genres

Biker

Beach

8/3/2019 SP 471 (G1, Monday) Week 10

19/42

The 1950s

8/3/2019 SP 471 (G1, Monday) Week 10

20/42

The 1950s

Red Scare & The Cold War Americans feared communist attack

Russia feared American attack & theAmerican's atomic bomb

Russias anti-capitalism Russias problematic actions in the

Soviet zone of Germany

America refused to share nuclearsecrets

Russia expanded west into EasternEurope + broken election promises

Russias need for a secure westernborder

Russias aim of spreading worldcommunism

8/3/2019 SP 471 (G1, Monday) Week 10

21/42

The 1950s

Ethel & JuliusRosenberg wereexecuted for espionage

in 1953 for allegedlypassing atomic bombsecrets to the Soviets

8/3/2019 SP 471 (G1, Monday) Week 10

22/42

The 1950s

The Blacklist & the HollywoodTen - 1950

Interviewed 41 peopleworking in Hollywood who

became friendlywitnesses who namedpeople with leftistsympathies

Some of these people

named others and somerefused to cooperate &were jailed

Those who refused werecalled the Hollywood Ten -mostly writers

8/3/2019 SP 471 (G1, Monday) Week 10

23/42

The 1950s

Snowball effect into TheBlacklist or those whowould not be hired by

any studio

320 actors, writers andothers including

8/3/2019 SP 471 (G1, Monday) Week 10

24/42

The 1950s

Blacklisted in Hollywood:

Besides the Hollywood

Ten: Jules Dassin, LeeGrant, John Garfield, JackGilford, Martin Ritt,Burgess Meredith, ZeroMostel, Stella Adler, JudyHolliday, Pete Seeger,Orson Bean, Will Geer,Jean Muir, GaleSondergaard and the listgoes on

Alvah Bessie, Herbert J. Biberman, Lester Cole,Edward Dmytryk, Ring Lardner, Jr., JohnHoward Lawson, Albert Maltz, Samuel Ornitz,Adrian Scott, Dalton Trumbo

8/3/2019 SP 471 (G1, Monday) Week 10

25/42

Actual Transcript:

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

Lawson: I am framing my answer in the only way in which any American citizen canframe...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 theAmerican 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 manaway from the stand.

8/3/2019 SP 471 (G1, Monday) Week 10

26/42

The 1950s

Ronald Reagan waspresident of the ScreenActors Guild and an FBIinformant

Cold War hysteria increased Joseph McCarthy

investigated the StateDepartment & the Army forCommunists

His investigations wereinconclusive and televisionshowed him for what he was- a bully in 1954 see GoodNight & Good Luck

8/3/2019 SP 471 (G1, Monday) Week 10

27/42

The 1950s

Writers used pseudonymsand fronts Hollywood Tenwriter Dalton Trumbo won anOscar under a a pseudonymand was awarded aposthumous Oscar forRoman Holidaywhich waswon under a front

Blacklist broken officially in1960 by either Kirk Douglasor Otto Preminger -depending on whos talking both were written by Trumbo

8/3/2019 SP 471 (G1, Monday) Week 10

28/42

The 1950s

Social realism fromEurope and Asia

gave rise to similarfilms here

Influenced byEurope and post-

war mentality Movies started to

matter

On the Waterfront & The Defiant

Ones

8/3/2019 SP 471 (G1, Monday) Week 10

29/42

The 1950s

Konstantin Stanislavsky& Method acting

Director of the famed

Moscow Art Theatre Developed the most

essential approach tothe art of acting overthe 20th century

Approach aimed tocreating realistic andbelievable actingperformances

8/3/2019 SP 471 (G1, Monday) Week 10

30/42

The 1950s

Believable truth Employed methods such as

"emotional memory Concerned with the creation

of physical entries into theseemotional states, believingthat the repetition of certainacts and exercises couldbridge the gap between lifeon and off the stage

Demanded actors that paycloser attention to theimportant unsaid messageswithin the writing

8/3/2019 SP 471 (G1, Monday) Week 10

31/42

The 1950s

Method acting Marlon Brando Robert de Niro

Sidney Poitier Marilyn Monroe James Dean Montgomery Clift

8/3/2019 SP 471 (G1, Monday) Week 10

32/42

The 1950s

Alfred Hitchcock His golden age was the

1950s

Big on experimentationwith format and themes

Savvy entertainer - knewhis audience

Made film his own way -detailed plans like

storyboards Attractive stars in not-so-

attractive roles

8/3/2019 SP 471 (G1, Monday) Week 10

33/42

The 1950s

Major Filmmakers

Nicholas Ray

Studied architecture with

Frank Lloyd Wright thusthe affinity for mise enscene

NY Theatre w/Elia Kazanin the 30s & 40s

Connected to the youthmarket

8/3/2019 SP 471 (G1, Monday) Week 10

34/42

The 1950s Elia Kazan, 1909-2003

From NY theatre see the GroupTheater directed Tennessee Williams& Arthur Miller plays won 5 Tonys

Cooperated w/HUAC yet a political

liberalsubject to the ReverseBlacklist

Actors director

Family themes - youth and individual asvictim and spiritual exile - Much of hisfilm 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 1999caused controversy because of HUAC hundreds protested

http://www.pbs.org/wnet/americanmasters/episodes/group-theatre/about-the-group-theatre/622/http://www.pbs.org/wnet/americanmasters/episodes/group-theatre/about-the-group-theatre/622/http://www.pbs.org/wnet/americanmasters/episodes/group-theatre/about-the-group-theatre/622/http://www.pbs.org/wnet/americanmasters/episodes/group-theatre/about-the-group-theatre/622/

8/3/2019 SP 471 (G1, Monday) Week 10

35/42

The 1950s Films include:

Baby Doll, A Tree Grows inBrooklyn, Splendor in theGrass, On the Waterfront

(Oscar), America America, AStreetcar Named Desire, AFace in the Crowd, East ofEden, The Last Tycoon,Gentlemens Agreement(Oscar)

8/3/2019 SP 471 (G1, Monday) Week 10

36/42

On the Waterfront

1954

Dir. Elia Kazan

Starring Marlon Brando, KarlMalden, Lee J. Cobb, EvaMarie Saint

Oscars: Best Actor, SupportingActress, Picture, Director,Screenplay, Editing, ArtDirection and Cinematography

Filmed in 36 days in Hoboken

Parallels with HUAC Hearingswhere Kazan and Cobbtestified

The 1950s

8/3/2019 SP 471 (G1, Monday) Week 10

37/42

The 1950s

Marlon Brando, 1924-2004 Considered one of the

greatest screen actorsever

Stated on stage butexclusively did film after1949

His performance in The Med& Streetcarintroduced a

magnetic, realistic actingstyle to the public

Jack Nicholson once saidHe gave us our freedom

http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0000008/biohttp://www.imdb.com/name/nm0000008/bio

8/3/2019 SP 471 (G1, Monday) Week 10

38/42

Marlon Brando

8/3/2019 SP 471 (G1, Monday) Week 10

39/42

The 1950s Eva Marie Saint, 1924-

Oscar for On the Waterfront

Hollywood never quite knewwhat to do with her and she

elected to spend time withher family & turned totelevision in the 1970s

Hitchcock used her best inNorth by Northwestputtinga tough character under her

seeming vulnerability Still around if you sat

through Superman Returns

8/3/2019 SP 471 (G1, Monday) Week 10

40/42

The 1950s

Karl Malden More than the face of

AmEx

Group Theater alum Oscar for Streetcar(directed by Kazan)

One of the most visiblecharacter actors

Check out Nevada Smithfor bad Karl Malden

8/3/2019 SP 471 (G1, Monday) Week 10

41/42

The 1950s

Lee J. Cobb, 1911-1976

Another of Americasgreatest character actors

Also in Group Theater

Named names for HUACafter his wife had a nervousbreakdown

Created role of Willy Lomanin Death of a Salesmanin1949 - considered one of

the greatest performanceson the American stage

8/3/2019 SP 471 (G1, Monday) Week 10

42/42

The 1950s

Rod Steiger, 1925-2002 In the Heat of the Night,

The Pawnbroker

Over 100 movies Nominated for Waterfront

Turned down Patton(Oscar for George C.Scott) and Don Corleonein The Godfather

Was completely robbedof an Oscar for ThePawnbroker