A 20th Century Fox Retrospective Scrapbook: 1949

[CinemaInternational]

Production dipped again a bit in 1949, but there were still 32 films in 1949 on the scedule, including some extremely fine ones.

Dan Dailey and Celeste Holm played a married couple in jeopardy of divorcing in Chicken Every Sunday, but memories might end up having some pull over them....

Mine Own Executioner, with Burgess Meredith as a psychatrist in a quandry, was made in England in 1947, but was not released by Fox in the States until 1949.

A Letter to Three Wives was cool, tart, and refreshing, a near perfect bit of moviemaking with one sensational script.

Gregory Peck, Anne Baxter, and Richard Windmark next appeared in the very successful western Yellow Sky for Henry Hathaway.

Miss Mink of 1949 was a B comedy where a man raced to try to satiate his wife's new cravings for riches.

Director Henry Hathaway took to the water with Richard Widmark, Lionel Barrymore, Dean Stockwell,  and Cecil Kellaway in Down to the Sea in Ships.

Tom Conway was an attorney and Steve Brody a client in I Cheated the Law. Barbara Billingsley also featured, just not as June Cleaver or talking jive.....

A Man About the House was a British romantic melodrama.

Loretta Young went back to college and landed Van Johnson in Mother is a Freshman.

Madeleine Carroll's final film was The Fan, based on Oscar Wilde's Lady Wyndemere's Fan. Jeanne Crain was the other lead (and received top billing)

Clifton Webb's Mr Belvedere headed off to college, where one of the students was Shirley Temple, returning to her old studio home only months before the end of her movie acting career.

College, Rodeo, and Romance were in store in Tucson.

 

Dana Andrews had a double role in the melodrama The Forbidden Street, opposite Maureen O'Hara.

Randolph Scott headed north with Jane Wyatt for the western Canadian Pacific.

the Western comedy The Beautiful Blonde of Bashful Bend, with Bette Grable, was the final American film for comedy master Preston Sturges.

Ray Milland, Jean Peters, and Paul Douglas appeared in the baseball comedy It Happens Every Spring, involving a very unusal baseball.

Edward G. Robinson played the head of a business family in House of Strangers, a drama with noir shadings.

Dan Dailey and Anne Baxter were Hollywood hopefuls in You're My Everything.

Loretta Young and Celeste Holm made an excellent onscreen pair as two wonderfully pious and wise nuns in the heartwarming Come to the Stable, a Christmas movie staple.

The Mark Stevens starring western Sand, was Oscar-nominated for its cinematography.

Richard Widmark, Linda Darnell, and Veronica Lake were the three elements of a love triangle in Slattery's hurricane.

I Was a Male War Bride, is, simply put, one of the most uproarious comedies every put to celluloid. It's a comic gem.

Jeannie Crain appeared as the lead in the then-provocative Pinky, as a black woman who passed for white. The best performance in the film though was given by Ethel Waters, but the film is still fascinating in a sense today, even though many things have changed since it was first released.

Richard Conte set out for revenge in the noir Thieves Highway.

Fred MacMurray was a coach in Father was a Fullback. Maureen O'Hara was his wife, Betty Lynn and natalie Wood were the daughters, Thelma Ritter was the maid.

Paul Doglas and Celeste Holm were married, but watch out for Linda Darnell in Everybody Does It

Oh You beautiful Doll was the latest musical biopic.

Randolph Scott returned in Fighting Man of the Plains.

William Powell appeared in the light, airy Dancing in the Dark.

Gregory Peck appeared in Twelve O'Clock High, a much esteemed war film, while featured player Dean Jagger won the Oscar. It's one of those films that gets better and better as it goes along.

Tyrone Power and Orson Welles appeared in the swashbuckler Prince of Foxes.

And, finally, there was Whirlpool, an enthralling slice of psychological noir with one of Gene Tierney's best performances. This closed the 1940s at Fox. The 1950s would arrive and would bring big changes and much confusion.....