BLACHEFAN

All That Heaven Allows (1955) The rich visual texture, using glorious Technicolor, and a soaring emotional score lend what is essentially a thin story a kind of epic tension. A movie unheralded by critics and largely ignored by the public at the time of its release, All That Heaven Allows is now considered Douglas Sirk's masterpiece. The story concerns a romance between a middle-aged, middle-class widow (Jane Wyman) and a brawny young gardener (Rock Hudson)—the stuff of a standard weepie, you might think, until Sirk's camera begins to draw a deeply disturbing, deeply compassionate portrait of a woman trapped by stifling moral and social codes. Sirk's meaning is conveyed almost entirely by his mise-en-scene—a world of glistening, treacherous surfaces, of objects that take on a terrifying life of their own; he is one of those rare filmmakers who insist that you read the image.

East of Eden (1955) Director Elia Kazan and screenwriter Paul Osborn fashioned John Steinbeck's classic Cain-and-Abel allegory into a screen actor's showcase. Though much abbreviated from Steinbeck's sprawling epic, Kazan capitalizes on the teen angst theme popular in the ‘50s and artfully builds tension between the troubled, rebellious Cal (James Dean) vying against "good" brother Aron (Richard Davalos) for the love of their taciturn father (Raymond Massey). In his autobiography, Kazan described how he achieved the familial dynamics: "I didn't conceal from Jimmy or from Ray what they thought of each other. The screen was alive with precisely what I wanted: They detested each other." Dean received a posthumous Oscar nomination for his performance. Jo Van Fleet won an Oscar for her raw portrayal as the boys' estranged mother.

Blackboard Jungle (1955) In a 1983 interview, writer-director Richard Brooks claimed that hearing Bill Haley and the Comets' "Rock Around the Clock" in 1954 inspired him to make a rock & roll-themed picture. The result was "Blackboard Jungle," an adaptation of the controversial novel by Evan Hunter about an inner-city schoolteacher (played in the film by Glenn Ford) tackling juvenile delinquency and the lamentable state of public education— common bugaboos of the Eisenhower era. Retaining much of the novel's gritty realism, the film effectively dramatizes the social issues at hand, and features outstanding early performances by Sidney Poitier and Vic Morrow. The film, however, packs its biggest wallop even before a word of dialog is spoken. As the opening credits roll, Brooks' original inspiration for the film – the pulsating strains of "Rock Around the Clock" – blasts across theater speakers, bringing the devil's music to Main Street and epitomizing American culture worldwide.

Bad Day at Black Rock (1955) Courtesy of Warner Bros. Though only 81 minutes in length, "Bad Day" packs a punch. Spencer Tracy stars as Macreedy, a one-armed man who arrives unexpectedly one day at the sleepy desert town of Black Rock. He is just as tight-lipped at first about the reason for his visit as the residents of Black Rock are about the details of their town. However, when Macreedy announces that he is looking for a former Japanese-American Black Rock resident named Komoko, town skeletons suddenly burst into the open. In addition to Tracy, the standout cast includes Robert Ryan, Anne Francis, Lee Marvin, Ernest Borgnine and Dean Jagger. Director John Sturges displays the western landscape to great advantage in this CinemaScope production.

The Phenix City Story (1955) Film noir comes to Alabama in this ripped-from-the-headlines tale in a film based on notorious real-life 1954 events, Albert Patterson is an attorney trying to clean up his mob-controlled town — Phenix City, aka "Sin City, U.S.A." — and is killed while running for state attorney general. Tight, tense and graphic for all 100 of its minutes, the film has been lauded for being both stylish and for its semi-documentary style. Noted B-movie director Phil Carlson crafted this low-budget, violent shocker, using innovative camera work, which unnerved audiences not accustomed to seeing so much on-screen violence. In real life, the infamous murder quickly led the state to break up the crime syndicate, and Patterson's son eventually became state attorney general and the governor of Alabama. The 87-minute film was also released in a longer version, which included a 13-minute newsreel.

A Time Out of War (1954) Easily in the pantheon of best student films ever produced, "A Time Out of War" managed to beat the odds and win the Oscar for best short film. Two Union soldiers and one Confederate soldier declare a temporary truce in this sensitive, elegantly unhurried film that helped put student filmmaking on the cultural map.

A Star Is Born (1954) What sets "A Star is Born" apart from other films of its ilk, including the original 1937 non-musical version, is its score by Harold Arlen and Ira Gershwin, and the singing of Judy Garland, who performs the film's best number, "The Man That Got Away," in one long take. Under director George Cukor, Garland returned to the screen after a four-year absence to star as an aspiring actress who is mentored by an alcoholic film star Norman Maine (James Mason) whose career is waning. The two marry, whereupon her fame and fortune rises while his spirals sharply downward. Unable to accept his fate and fearing he'll take her down with him, Maine opts to ensure her success by committing suicide. Garland was nominated for an Oscar (as was Mason) but lost to Grace Kelly, a selection many still find baffling.

Seven Brides for Seven Brothers (1954) Often seen as trite and sexist by contemporary standards, the story for this widescreen M-G-M musical directed by Stanley Donen centers on a 1850s backwoods family of lovestruck young men who resort to kidnapping to marry their sweethearts, cloistered away by the local townsfolk to protect them from the unsavory brothers. Outstanding musical numbers choreographed by Michael Kidd -- particularly the rousing barn-raising dance -- prove to be its most enduring quality. Howard Keel and Jane Powell star as the eldest brother and his new wife, and the remaining cast is comprised of top dancers including Russ Tamblyn, Tommy Rall, Jacques d'Amboise.

Salt of the Earth (1954) Inspired by an actual miners strike in New Mexico that lasted for more than a year, "Salt of the Earth" recounted major incidents in the strike. Its impact was most felt in its focus on discrimination against minorities and women. Miners' wives had been instrumental in the strike, marching in picket lines and eventually going to jail. Produced by filmmakers who had been blacklisted in Hollywood for alleged Communist sympathies, the story was decidedly pro-union; consequently, few theater owners were willing to book it. It eventually debuted in New York City to mostly positive reviews, and found greater success in Europe. Its status has grown in subsequent decades, as has its influence on independent filmmakers.

Sabrina (1954) Billy Wilder directed this soufflé about a chauffeur's daughter, Sabrina (Audrey Hepburn), pining for the family's spoiled, womanizing younger son, David (William Holden), who doesn't even know she exists. Her father (John Williams) sends Sabrina to Paris to get over David, and when she returns as an elegant and sophisticated woman, David is quickly drawn to her. Older sibling Linus (Humphrey Bogart) fears his brother's interest in Sabrina may derail David's upcoming marriage, the centerpiece of an advantageous corporate merger, so Linus jockeys to redirect Sabrina's affection away from David and toward himself. His plan succeeds, but in the process, he falls for Sabrina. The story was adapted for the screen by Wilder, Samuel A. Taylor, and Ernest Lehman from Taylor's play "Sabrina Fair." Not one of Wilder's most hilarious or thought-provoking, but still charming and entertaining.

Rear Window (1954) Alfred Hitchcock's study in voyeurism tantalizes and teases the viewer much as the plot twists intrigue the film's protagonist. Hitchcock's story comes from a Cornell Woolrich story as adapted by John Michael Hayes. Laid up with a broken leg, photojournalist L.B. Jeffries (James Stewart) is confined to his tiny, sweltering courtyard apartment. To pass the time between visits from his nurse (Thelma Ritter) and his fashion model girlfriend (Grace Kelly), the binocular-wielding Jeffries stares through the rear window of his apartment at the goings-on in the other apartments around his courtyard. Of particular interest is seemingly bland travelling salesman (Raymond Burr) and his nagging, invalid wife. When the couple's bickering comes to an abrupt halt, Jeffries begins to suspect that the salesman has murdered his wife and disposed of her body. The expanded essay is below this description. https://www.loc.gov/static/programs/national-film-preservation-board/documents/rear_window.pdf

On the Waterfront (1954) Director Elia Kazan took Budd Schulberg's hard-hitting script and crafted it into a commentary on loyalty and justice in an almost documentarylike depiction of the lives of New York City dock workers and the union thugs who control them. Supreme acting by Marlon Brando and Rod Steiger is most often of the direct, in-your face variety, though offset by more nuanced scenes with Eva Marie Saint and Karl Malden. Known primarily at the time as conductor for the New York Philharmonic, Leonard Bernstein earned his only Academy Award nomination for one of his first film scores – a composition that accents the film's fever pitch and enfolds its tender moments. The expanded essay is below this description. https://www.loc.gov/static/programs/national-film-preservation-board/documents/on_the_waterfront.pdf

Johnny Guitar (1954) Often described as the one of the stranger, kinkier Westerns of all time, Nicholas Ray's film-noiresque "Johnny Guitar" possesses enough symbolism to keep a psychiatrist occupied for years and was a favorite film of French New Wave directors. "Johnny Guitar," filmed in the Trucolor process, also rates significance as one of a few Westerns featuring women as the main stars (Joan Crawford and Mercedes McCambridge). Crawford is the owner of a gambling saloon in an isolated town waiting for the train lines to arrive so she can get rich; McCambridge plays her nemesis. Upon its release, Variety and The Hollywood Reporter panned "Johnny Guitar," but the film's reputation has soared over time. The expanded essay is below this description. https://www.loc.gov/static/programs/national-film-preservation-board/documents/johnny_guitar2.pdf

The House in the Middle (1954) This curiosity of the Cold War era suggests good housekeeping and home maintenance can reduce the damage to buildings in the event of a nuclear explosion. The film's sponsorship by the National Paint, Varnish and Lacquer Association may have something to do with such a hypothesis. The expanded essay is below this description. https://www.loc.gov/static/programs/national-film-preservation-board/documents/house_in_middle.pdf

Carmen Jones (1954) In 1943, Oscar Hammerstein Jr. took Georges Bizet's opera "Carmen," rewrote the lyrics, changed the characters from 19th century Spaniards to World War II-era African-Americans, switched the locale to a Southern military base, and the result was "Carmen Jones." Otto Preminger directed this Cinemascope retelling starring Dorothy Dandridge as the temptress Carmen, a worker in a war plant, and Harry Belafonte as her soldier lover. Although both Dandridge and Belafonte were singers, their opera voices were dubbed by Marilyn Horne and LeVern Hutcherson. Otto Preminger's realist sensibility often seems contradictory to the whimsical nature of a musical, but some strong elements survive the segregationist context. Exceptionally liberal in its time, Dorothy Dandridge's performance in the lead is a reminder of the kind of African American films that might have emerged if given the chance.

War of the Worlds (1953) Released at the height of cold-war hysteria, producer George Pal's lavishly-designed take on H. G. Wells' 1898 novel of alien invasion was provocatively transplanted from Victorian England to a mid-20th-century Southern California small town in this 1953 film version. Capitalizing on the apocalyptic paranoia of the atomic age, Barré Lyndon's screenplay wryly replaces Wells' original commentary on the British class system with religious metaphor. Directed by Byron Haskin, formerly a special effects cameraman, the critically and commercially successful film chronicles an apparent meteor crash discovered by a local scientist (Gene Barry) that turns out to be a Martian spacecraft. Gordon Jennings, who died shortly before the film's release, avoided stereotypical flying saucer-style creations in his Academy Award-winning special effects described by reviewers as soul-chilling, hackle-raising and not for the faint of heart.

The Tell-Tale Heart (1953) Ted Parmelee directed this animated short film adaptation of Edgar Allen Poe's story of a murderer haunted by the sound of his victim's beating heart. Paul Julian served as both designer and color artist for the film, and Pat Matthews was the principal animator. Actor James Mason provides the narration.

Shane (1953) George Stevens' western stars Alan Ladd as an ex-gunfighter pressed into defending a family of homesteaders portrayed by Jean Arthur and Van Heflin with Brandon De Wilde as their impressionable son. Their foes are an evil rancher (Emile Meyer) and his sadistic top gun (Jack Palance). Stevens fills the screen with expansive vistas, as he would do on an even greater scale three years later in "Giant." The film employs some of the longest dissolves in American cinema and Loyal Griggs' lush color cinematography further helps to establish landscapes of mythic proportions. Palance is superbly evil while Ladd juxtaposes warmth and mystery.

Roman Holiday (1953) Audrey Hepburn, in the role that made her an overnight star at 24, sparkles as a waifish princess bored to tears of formal receptions and rehearsed speeches. During a state visit to Rome, she slips out of the palace to be among the real people – and falls in with an American reporter (Gregory Peck) who realizes he's stumbled into the scoop of the century. Directed by William Wyler from a story by then blacklisted and hence uncredited Dalton Trumbo, features a quick pace, light-hearted comedy and poignant scenes that utilize the smart script, Roman landmarks, and cast to the utmost advantage. Eddie Albert makes a major comedy contribution as Peck's photographer buddy who secretly lenses the princess. The film was nominated for numerous Academy Awards including Best Picture and Best Director, and won Oscars for Hepburn, Trumbo's screenplay and Edith Head's costumes.

The Naked Spur (1953) James Stewart plays an obsessed bounty hunter in pursuit of outlaw Robert Ryan. Anthony Mann infuses a tried-and-true Western scenario with tense psychological complexity through strong, clear story-telling by Sam Rolfe and Harold Jack Bloom and vivid Technicolor scenes of the Rockies photographed by William C. Mellor. Unable to capture and bring back Ryan without help, Stewart enlists old-timer Millard Mitchell and dishonourably discharged cavalryman (Ralph Meeker). Ryan, who is looking after a friend's daughter (Janet Leigh), manipulatively pits character against character.

The Living Desert (1953) The first feature-length entry in Disney's "True Life Adventure" series, "The Living Desert" opens with a close-up glance of percolating desert geysers seemingly dancing to the appropriate musical accompaniment. Among the wildlife specimens depicted are the roadrunner, the chuckwalla, the skunk, the scorpion and the kangaroo-rat. The narration, by co-writer Winston Hibler, is often undercut by weak attempts at humor, but when Disney plays it straight, such as in the battle between a rattlesnake and a tarantula, the film is at its strongest. Much of the footage was photographed by N. Paul Kenworthy Jr. as part of his UCLA doctoral thesis. The film was originally released to theatres in a package that included the live-action short "Stormy" and the animated featurette "Ben and Me." The expanded essay is below this description. https://www.loc.gov/static/programs/national-film-preservation-board/documents/living_desert.pdf

Little Fugitive (1953) Ray Ashley (a.k.a. Raymond Abrashkin) shot this film on a tiny budget and with a cast of non-actors. Seven year-old Richie Andrusco—who would never appear in another film—stars as Lennie, the title character. The victim of a cruel and frightening trick perpetrated by his brother and his brother's friends, Lennie flees his New York apartment and takes refuge amidst the sights and sounds of Coney Island. Through deft, mostly hand-held camera work, natural lighting and the unaffected acting of its young lead, "Little Fugitive" explores the innocence of childhood without self-consciousness or heavy sentiment.

House of Wax (1953) A remake of 1933's "Mystery of the Wax Museum," the 1953 "House of Wax" expanded upon the earlier horror tale of a mad sculptor who encases his victims' corpses in wax. It added the dark talents of Vincent Price and helped introduce 3-D visual effects to a wide audience. "House of Wax," produced by Warner Bros. and released in April 1953, is considered the first full-length 3-D color film ever produced and released by a major American film studio. Along with its technical innovations, "House of Wax" also solidified Vincent Price's new role as America's master of the macabre, and his voice resonated even more with the emerging stereophonic sound process. Though he had flirted with the fear genre earlier in his career in the 1946 "Shock," "Wax" forever recast him as one of the first gentlemen of Hollywood horror. Along with Price, Phyllis Kirk, Frank Lovejoy and Carolyn Jones (as one of Price's early victims) complete the cast. André de Toth directed the film. The expanded essay is below this description. https://www.loc.gov/static/programs/national-film-preservation-board/documents/house_wax.pdf

The Hitch-Hiker (1953) Among the original "tough dames" of ‘30s and ‘40s movies, actress Ida Lupino later moved behind the camera to become one of the industry's few prominent female directors. After a series of films often categorized as "women's pictures" ("Never Fear," "Outrage"), Lupino took a hard turn with this gritty, hard-boiled tale. Two men (Edmond O'Brien and Frank Lovejoy) make the mistake of picking up a tormented hitch-hiker (William Talman). Upon its release in 1953, the film earned Lupino strong reviews and prompted the occasional comparison to Hitchcock's style. The expanded essay is below this description. https://www.loc.gov/static/programs/national-film-preservation-board/documents/hitch_hiker.pdf

From Here to Eternity (1953) Daniel Taradash earned an Oscar for his adaptation of James Jones unadaptable explicitly gritty best-selling novel set in Hawaii just prior to the bombing of Pearl Harbor. Director Fred Zinnemann translated the Taradash script into a lavish, star-studded blockbuster that won him and the picture Academy Awards. The epic featured Montgomery Clift as a soldier who boxes and bugles with equal skill, Donna Reed as a nightclub hostess (a prostitute in Jones's novel) with whom Clift falls in love, and Frank Sinatra, whose faltering career was rejuvenated with an Oscar for his performance as a wisecracking enlisted man at odds with a bullying sergeant played by Ernest Borgnine. At the center of the ensemble is Burt Lancaster as a sergeant involved in a torrid affair with his commander's wife, Deborah Kerr, their romance culminating in the famous lovemaking scene on the beach.