BLACHEFAN

The Apartment (1960) C.C. Baxter (Jack Lemmon) in a sea of number crunchers before he gets his big break and a key to the executive washroom. Library of Congress Collection. Billy Wilder is purported to have hung a sign in his office that read, "How Would Lubitsch Do It?" Here, that Lubitsch touch seems to hover over each scene, lending a lightness to even the most nefarious of deeds. One of the opening shots in the movie shows Baxter as one of a vast horde of wage slaves, working in a room where the desks line up in parallel rows almost to the vanishing point. This shot is quoted from King Vidor's silent film "The Crowd" (1928), which is also about a faceless employee in a heartless corporation. Cubicles would have come as revolutionary progress in this world. By the time he made this film, Wilder had become a master at a kind of sardonic, satiric comedy that had sadness at its center. Wilder was fresh off the enormous hit "Some Like it Hot," his first collaboration with Lemmon, and with "The Apartment" Lemmon showed that he could move from light comedian to tragic everyman. This movie was the summation of what Wilder had done to date, and the key transition in Lemmon's career. It was also a key film for Shirley MacLaine, who had been around for five years in light comedies, but here emerged as a serious actress who would flower in the 1960s. The expanded essay is below this description. https://www.loc.gov/static/programs/national-film-preservation-board/documents/apartment.pdf

Spartacus (1960) Even among the mega epics being produced by Hollywood at the time (such as "The Ten Commandments" and "Cleopatra"), "Spartacus" stands out for its sheer grandeur and remarkable cast (Kirk Douglas, Laurence Olivier, Jean Simmons, Charles Laughton, Peter Ustinov), as well as for Stanley Kubrick's masterful direction. The film is also credited with helping to end the notorious Hollywood blacklist of the 1950s – its producer, Douglas, hired then-blacklisted writer Dalton Trumbo to author the script, which was based on a book by another blacklisted author, Howard Fast.

Some Like It Hot (1959) One of director Billy Wilder's best-loved films thanks to breakneck pacing, a touch of cynicism, and gender-bending and gender-celebrating jokes galore. Jack Lemmon and Tony Curtis are the two musicians who disguise themselves as members of an all-girl orchestra in order to escape from gangster George Raft after the the pair of musicians witness a mob hit. Marilyn Monroe is the singing star of the band who dreams of marrying a bookish millionaire instead of the bums who always leave her with the "fuzzy end of the lollipop." "Some Like It Hot" marked the first of seven films that Lemmon would make with Wilder between 1959 and 1981 including "The Apartment," which is also on the Registry. With Pat O'Brien, Nehemiah Persoff, and Joe E. Brown, who gets one of the best punch lines in American cinema. The expanded essay is below this description. https://www.loc.gov/static/programs/national-film-preservation-board/documents/some_like_hot.pdf

Shadows (1959) The making of John Cassavetes' "Shadows" was the culmination of an almost three-year filmmaking process as unorthodox and full of surprises as the film itself. Begun in early 1957, Cassavetes' feature directorial debut was a 16mm (later blown up to 35mm) experiment executed by a crew of mainly novice technicians and unknown actors. The plot focuses on Ben (Ben Carruthers) and Lelia (Lelia Goldoni), light-skinned African-American siblings passing for white in 1950s New York. Cassavetes' style, distinguished by personal expression and character study and devoid of rigid structure, was already apparent in this early work that poetically treats race and identity not as sociological discourse but as a sort of free jazz. The expanded essay is below this description. https://www.loc.gov/static/programs/national-film-preservation-board/documents/shadows.pdf

Rio Bravo (1959) As legend goes, this Western, directed by Howard Hawks, was produced in part as a riposte to Fred Zinnemann's "High Noon." The film trades in the wide-open spaces for the confines of a small jail where a sheriff and his deputies are waiting for the transfer of a prisoner and the anticipated attempt by his equally unlawful brother to break the prisoner out. John Wayne stars as sheriff John T. Chance and is aided in his efforts to keep the law by Walter Brennan, Dean Martin and Ricky Nelson. Angie Dickinson is the love interest and Western regulars Claude Akins, Ward Bond and Pedro Gonzalez are also featured. A smart Western where gunplay is matched by wordplay, "Rio Bravo" is a terrific ensemble piece and director Hawks' last great film. The expanded essay is below this description. https://www.loc.gov/static/programs/national-film-preservation-board/documents/rio_bravo.pdf

Pull My Daisy (1959) This adroit parody of the beat generation was written by the man who invented the '50s zeitgeist: Jack Kerouac. Robert Frank and Alfred Leslie's nonsense comedy blends improvisation and careful construction so well that more than a few serious commentators took the film for pure slice-of-life naturalism—and were properly offended.

Porgy and Bess (1959) Composer George Gershwin considered his masterpiece "Porgy and Bess" to be a "folk opera." Gershwin's score reflected traditional songs he encountered in visits to Charleston, S.C., and in Gullah revival meetings he attended on nearby James Island. Controversy has stalked the production history of the opera that Gershwin created with DuBose Heyward, who had written the original novel and play (with his wife Dorothy) and penned lyrics with Gershwin's brother Ira. The lavish film version was produced in the late 1950s as the civil rights movement gained momentum and a number of African-American actors turned down roles they considered demeaning. Harry Belafonte, who refused the part of Porgy, explained, "in this period of our social development, I doubt that it is healthy to expose certain images of the Negro. In a period of calm, perhaps this picture could be viewed historically." Dissension also resulted when producer Samuel Goldwyn dismissed Rouben Mamoulian, who had directed the play and musical on Broadway, and replaced him with Otto Preminger. Produced in Todd-AO, a state-of-the-art widescreen and stereophonic sound recording process, with an all-star cast that included Sidney Poitier, Dorothy Dandridge, Sammy Davis, Jr., Pearl Bailey and Diahann Carroll, "Porgy and Bess," now considered an "overlooked American masterpiece" by one contemporary scholar, rarely has been screened in the ensuing years. The expanded essay is below this description. https://www.loc.gov/static/programs/national-film-preservation-board/documents/porgybess.pdf

Pillow Talk (1959) The first film to co-star Doris Day and Rock Hudson, "Pillow Talk" remains one of the screen's most definitive, influential and timeless romantic comedies. Sweet and sophisticated, it is a time capsule of 1950s America. Two single New Yorkers develop an anonymous, antagonistic relationship by sharing a telephone "party line." Both romance and complications ensue when they finally meet in person. The film is a perfect showcase for its two charismatic stars, especially the effervescent Day who demonstrates why she was both America's Sweetheart and one of cinema's finest comediennes. The expanded essay is below this description. https://www.loc.gov/static/programs/national-film-preservation-board/documents/pillow_talk.pdf

North by Northwest (1959) When ad exec Cary Grant is mistaken for a government agent, he's thrust into a world of spies, including James Mason and his henchman (Martin Landau). They try to eliminate Grant but he is inadvertently framed for murder. On the lam, he boards a train to track down the man for whom he is mistaken. There he meets a beautiful blonde (Eva Marie Saint) who helps him to evade the authorities. His world is turned upside down yet again when he learns the woman isn't the innocent bystander he thought she was, and it all culminates in a dramatic rescue and escape atop Mt. Rushmore. With the help of screenwriter Ernest Lehman's tight script and snappy dialog and a highly animated score by Bernard Herrmann, director Alfred Hitchcock crafts one of his most stylish and entertaining thrillers. The expanded essay is below this description. https://www.loc.gov/static/programs/national-film-preservation-board/documents/North by Northwest.leitch.pdf

Jazz on a Summer's Day (1959) This feature-length documentary highlights the 1958 Newport Jazz Festival. The musical numbers performed by artists such as Anita O'Day, Mahalia Jackson, Thelonious Monk, Gerry Mulligan, Louis Armstrong and Jack Teagarden are interspersed with scenes of Newport Harbor and yachts preparing for the America's Cup. Photographer Bert Stern (best known for his extended "Vogue" magazine photo shoot with Marilyn Monroe which he later published later as "The Last Sitting") directed the film with additional cinematography by Courtney Hesfela and Raymond Phelan.

Imitation of Life (1959) Film melodrama comes in many variations, but director Douglas Sirk's style of domestic melodrama is marked by stylized interiors and use of mirrors, where the role of photography is crucial, with exquisite use of primary colors and camera angles to convey emotion and mood. During the 1950s, the Universal team of Sirk, producers Ross Hunter and Albert Zugsmith, cinematographer Russell Metty and composer Frank Skinner, released a series of glossy, often deliriously flamboyant "women's picture" melodramas, including "All That Heaven Allows," "Magnificent Obsession," "Written on the Wind" and "Imitation of Life." The often-lurid plots in these films may have seemed laughable and unrealistic, but the emotional impact on audiences packed a wallop that led to major box-office bonanzas for Universal. Sirk's last American film, "Imitation of Life," is based on the Fannie Hurst novel about two mothers (one white and one African-American) and their daughters (one white and one who wishes to pass for white). Sirk's 1959 version (with Lana Turner and Juanita Moore as the mothers) offers a telling contrast to the more restrained melodramatic style used by John Stahl in the 1934 version (previously selected for the registry), starring Claudette Colbert and Louise Beavers. One can also spot in Sirk's film fascinating glimpses at the evolving social standards and mores the country had undergone in the 25 years that elapsed between the two films, particularly in the characters of Moore and her daughter Susan Kohner. However, New York Times reviewers did not note much difference in the two versions. The paper's 1934 reviewer called the film "the most shameless tearjerker of the fall" while Bosley Crowther's 1959 review proved little different: "It is the most shameless tearjerker in a couple of years." Sirk's version ends with Mahalia Jackson singing "Trouble of the World" during the penultimate funeral scene and daughter Susan Kohner begging forgiveness while hugging her dead mother's casket. The expanded essay is below this description. https://www.loc.gov/static/programs/national-film-preservation-board/documents/imitation_life_59.pdf

The Cry of Jazz (1959) "The Cry of Jazz" is a 34-minute, black-and-white short subject that is now recognized as an early and influential example of African-American independent filmmaking. Director Ed Bland, with the help of more than 60 volunteer crew members, intercuts scenes of life in Chicago's black neighborhoods with dramatic scenes of dialogue between blacks and whites. With performance clips by the jazz composer, bandleader and pianist Sun Ra and his Arkestra, the film may be seen as a political interpretation of African American cultural expression which, unlike an earlier trend to present African American artistic production as equal to that of white artists, emphasizes that jazz is uniquely African American and should be judged on its own terms. The expanded essay is below this description. https://www.loc.gov/static/programs/national-film-preservation-board/documents/cry_jazz.pdf

Ben-Hur (1959) This epic blockbuster stars Charlton Heston in the title role of a rebellious Israelite who takes on the Roman Empire during the time of Christ. Featuring one of the most famous action sequences of all time -- the breathtaking chariot race -- the film was a remake of the impressive silent version released in 1925. Co-starring Stephen Boyd as Judah Ben-Hur's onetime best friend and later rival, it also featured notable performances by Hugh Griffith and Jack Hawkins. Directed by Oscar-winner William Wyler, who found success with "Mrs. Miniver" "The Best Years of Our Lives" and others, "Ben-Hur" broke awards records, winning 11 Oscars, including best picture, director, actor, supporting actor, and score. Famed stuntman Yakima Canutt was brought in to coordinate all the chariot race stunt work and train the driver The race scene alone cost is reported to have cost about $4 million, or about a fourth of the entire budget, and took 10 weeks to shoot. The expanded essay is below this description. https://www.loc.gov/static/programs/national-film-preservation-board/documents/ben_hur.pdf

Anatomy of a Murder (1959) Director Otto Preminger brought a new cinematic frankness to film with this gripping crime-and-trial movie shot on location in Michigan's Upper Peninsula where the incident on which it was based had occurred. Based on the best-selling novel by Robert Traver, Preminger imbues his film with daring dialogue and edgy pacing. Controversial in its day due to its blunt language and willingness to openly discuss adult themes, "Anatomy" endures today for its first-rate drama and suspense, and its informed perspective on the legal system. Starring James Stewart, Ben Gazzara and Lee Remick, it also features strong supporting performances by George C. Scott as the prosecuting attorney, and Eve Arden and Arthur O'Connell. The film includes an innovative jazz score by Duke Ellington and one of Saul Bass's most memorable opening title sequences.

Sleeping Beauty (1959) The story of the sleeping princess Aurora, awakened by a kiss, already was widely known to theater audiences. But Disney transformed this timeless fable from the original Charles Perrault fairy tale ("The Sleeping Beauty of the Wood") and The Brothers Grimm ("Little Briar-Rose") by tweaking plot elements and characters (such as the number and role of the fairies), as well as with the film's magnificent score. Along with its vivid images and charming details, the film introduced movie audiences to one of Disney's most enduring villainesses — Maleficent (voiced in the 1959 film by Eleanor Audley). "Beauty" was the last of classic animated fairy-tale adaptations produced by Walt Disney, whose influence suffuses the film.

Vertigo (1958) Few movies thrust its viewers into the heart of erotic obsession than Alfred Hitchcock's "Vertigo." As Jimmy Stewart pursues mystery woman Kim Novak, whom he transforms into the image of the dead woman he loved, Hitchcock paints a vivid picture of the consuming and harrowing nature of desire. Stewart, a police detective debilitated by the dizzying effects of his acrophobia, is shown as a man free-falling into love, in a thrillingly and surprisingly compelling performance. Novak exhibits a slinky feline grace and alley cat passion in a mesmerizing dual role. The dreamlike images of this romantic tragedy are so eerily beautiful they become indelible in viewers' minds. Upon its release, few people considered the film Hitchcock's best. Many of the director's films were tenser, scarier, spine-tinglingly entertaining. But over time, "Vertigo" has percolated into our collective consciousness, and is now cited by film scholars and viewers alike as the greatest film of all time, displacing the previously perennial champion "Citizen Kane." The expanded essay is below this description. https://www.loc.gov/static/programs/national-film-preservation-board/documents/vertigo.pdf

Touch of Evil (1958) Orson Welles directed, coscripted and costarred in one of cinema's most influential and audacious suspense dramas about a honeymoon couple (Charlton Heston and Janet Leigh) being terrorized by corrupt officials (Welles and Akim Tamiroff) on both sides of the U.S.-Mexican border. The shadow-drenched cinematography of Russell Metty is remarkable and stands out right from the film's opening shot from high above in one long extended take. The expanded essay is below this description. https://www.loc.gov/static/programs/national-film-preservation-board/documents/touch_evil.pdf

A MOVIE (1958) Painter, sculptor and avant-garde filmmaker Brucer Conner sets a montage of found footage to Ottorino Respighi's lively and often majestic "Pines of Rome" in this 12-minute short subject. "A MOVIE" splices pieces of film leader and end credits together with scenes from ethnographic documentaries, fictional narratives, stag films and newsreels. Conner cuts rapidly from one piece of found footage to the next with scenes of violence and destruction – mushroom clouds, tanks, car crashes, firing squads – scenes of adventure and derring-do – safaris, scuba divers, tightrope walkers, acrobats, cowboys and Indians – scenes from nature – crashing waves, an otter swimming. He uses music to enhance the drama inherent in each found scene, to punctuate the irony and social commentary, and to comic effect, the occasional erotically-suggestive juxtaposition of images. Despite the deluge of frenetic imagery, Conner's concluding message seems to suggest a sense of hope and transcendence. The expanded essay is below this description. https://www.loc.gov/static/programs/national-film-preservation-board/documents/movie.pdf

Gigi (1958) Produced by Arthur Freed and directed by Vincente Minnelli, "Gigi" is a lush Technicolor musical from MGM that tells the story of a friendship between a playboy (Louis Jourdan) and a young girl (Leslie Caron) that turns to love. "Gigi" is based on a 1944 novella by Colette and received a treatment on Broadway in 1951, but it was Arthur Freed who envisioned the story as a film musical and ultimately fought to get it made. Frenchwoman Leslie Caron was cast in the title role, and Maurice Chevalier was cast as Honoré Lachaille, a role that was expanded in the film version and which helped revitalize Chevalier's career. "Gigi" won numerous industry awards, including a total of nine Academy Awards, a record at the time, and is often considered to be one of MGM's best musicals.

The 7th Voyage of Sinbad (1958) Special-effects master Ray Harryhausen provides the hero (Kerwin Mathews) with a villanous magician (Torin Thatcher) and fantastic antagonists, including a genie, giant cyclops, fire-breathing dragons, and a sword-wielding animated skeleton, all in glorious Technicolor. And of course no mythological tale would be complete without the rescue of a damsel in distress, here a princess (Kathryn Grant) that the evil magician shrinks down to a mere few inches. Harryhausen's stunning Dynamation process, which blended stop-motion animation and live-actions sequences, and a thrilling score by Bernard Herrmann ("Psycho," "The Day the Earth Stood Still") makes this one of the finest fantasy films of all time. The expanded essay is below this description. https://www.loc.gov/static/programs/national-film-preservation-board/documents/sinbad.pdf

Will Success Spoil Rock Hunter? (1957) The cult of personality and its impact on the average consumer is skewered in this wry and risqué comedy by writer-director Frank Tashlin and starring Jayne Mansfield, herself one of the most popular mass media idols of the 1950s. Ambitious ad man Rockwell Hunter (Tony Randall) tries to use a sex symbol (Mansfield) to promote his product, and ends up being used as a pawn to make her boyfriend jealous. How the film made it past the censors is something of a mystery, and today it comes across as fresh and daring as it did in the 1950s.

What's Opera, Doc? (1957) In this animation classic, Elmer Fudd's pursuit of Bugs Bunny is set to opera music and plays out on a Wagnerian scale. The film features such now-classic lines as "Kill the wabbit!" and is one of only three cartoons in which Elmer Fudd bests his rival Bugs. Directed by renowned animator Chuck Jones and his team at Warner Bros., this seven-minute short film is often considered to be Jones' cinematic masterpiece. It also holds the distinction of being the first cartoon selected for inclusion on the National Film Registry. The expanded essay is below this description. https://www.loc.gov/static/programs/national-film-preservation-board/documents/chuck_jones.pdf

The Tall T (1957) Randolph Scott stars in director Budd Boetticher's psychological western about a man trying to rescue a woman (Maureen O'Sullivan) being held for ransom by outlaws played Richard Boone, Henry Silva, and Skip Homeier. the landscape is deftly stylized into dark interiors (caves, a fateful well) that punctuate the wide-open spaces. Boone makes one of the most memorable of Boetticher's witty, intelligent villains. Screenwriter Burt Kennedy adapted a story by Elmore Leonard. The expanded essay is below this description. https://www.loc.gov/static/programs/national-film-preservation-board/documents/tall_t.pdf

Sweet Smell of Success (1957) A powerful New York newspaper columnist (Burt Lancaster) is dead set against his sister (Susan Harrison) marrying a jazz musician (Martin Milner). A sleazy PR man (Tony Curtis) will do anything to get publicity for his clients, and he sees the columnist's situation as an opportunity to win his favor and sets out to break up the affair any way he can. The film was directed by Alexander Mackendrick, a British director best known for comedies like "The Ladykillers" and "The Man in the White Suit," from a script by Clifford Odets and Ernest Lehman. Mackendrick and cinematographer James Wong Howe capture the pre-Beat Generation era when jazz artists wear suits and ties, hair is cropped short, and everyone wants to appear cool. The expanded essay is below this description. https://www.loc.gov/static/programs/national-film-preservation-board/documents/sweet_smell_success.pdf

Paths of Glory (1957) Based on Humphrey Cobb's novel about three French soldiers, portrayed on film by Joe Turkel, Ralph Meeker, and Timothy Carey, on trial for cowardice during World War I, the film established Stanley Kubrick as an influential director. Adapted by Kubrick, Calder Willingham, and Jim Thompson, the screenplay chillingly spotlights the arrogance and incompetence of military leaders, three of which are portrayed by Adolphe Menjou, George Macready, and Wayne Morris. Though decidedly antiwar, the film does not espouse pacifism, exemplifying this contradiction in the character passionately portrayed by Kirk Douglas as the officer defending the unjustly charged soldiers.