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The History of American Cinema: 1944

October - December

11/10

Otto Preminger’s Laura, starring Gene Tierney in the title role and Dana Andrews as the detective who falls for her portrait, is released.   Clifton Webb, in his talking picture debut, makes an impression as columnist and suspect Waldo Lydecker. [ADD]

11/10 -

Howard Hawks’ screen adaptation of To Have and Have Not is released.   Humphrey Bogart stars opposite 19-year-old Lauren ‘The Look’ Bacall and the couple begin a relationship that will last for the rest of 45-year-old Bogie’s life. [ADD]

11/10 -

30-year-old French actress Odette Joyeux is arrested following a denunciation for collaboration but is released without charge the following day. [ADD]

16/10 -

Ministry of Fear, Fritz Lang’s adaptation of a Grahame Greene novel, is released.  Ray Milland, Marjorie Reynolds and Dan Duryea star. [ADD]

17/10 -

Clifford Odett’s None But the Lonely Heart is released by RKO.   Cary Grant and Ethel Barrymore star. [ADD]

3/11 -

Edward G. Robinson stars as a mild-mannered professor who falls for a manipulative femme-fatale (Joan Bennett) in Fritz Lang’s The Woman in the Window.   The supporting cast includes Raymond Massey and Dan Duryea. [ADD]

28/11 -

MGM’s Meet Me in St. Louis, directed by Vincente Minelli, is released.   Based on Sally Benson’s recollections in The New Yorker of her early life in turn-of-the-century St. Louis, the prestige production’s cast includes Judy Garland, Mary Astor, Leon Ames, Margaret O’Brien and Lucille Bremer. [ADD]

14/12 -

After seven years on the shelf, National Velvet is released.   The role of Velvet was originally intended for Katharine Hepburn in 1937, but the project was shelved when she was labelled box-office poison.   Youngster Elizabeth Taylor now plays the part opposite Mickey Rooney.   Clarence Brown directs. [ADD]

15/12 -

Hollywood Canteen, directed by Delmer Daves, is released.   The film features a host of Warner Bros stars, including The Andrews Sisters, Jack Benny, Joe E. Brown, Eddie Cantor, Joan Crawford, Bette Davis, John Garfield, Sydney Greenstreet, Paul Henreid, Peter Lorre, Ida Lupino, Dennis Morgan, Bob Nolan and the Sons of the Pioneers, Roy Rogers (and Trigger), S. Z. Sakall, Zachary Scott, Alexis Smith, Barbara Stanwyck, Craig Stevens, Jane Wyman and the Jimmy Dorsey Orchestra. [ADD]

– The Motion Picture Alliance for the Preservation of American Ideals is formed [ADD]

– The Hollywood Victory Committee has 80 entertainment units touring overseas, 38 of them in the United Kingdom. [ADD]

– In an anti-trust violation case, the Supreme Court rules against the Crescent Theater circuit.   Crescent were accused of monopolising an area in the Southeast of the country and obtaining favourable distribution terms from the majors.   The decision prohibits preferential terms by distributors in return for favourable runs.   It also breaks up the Crescent Circuit, and sets the tone for future anti-trust cases. [ADD]

– Major studios increasingly finance and distribute films produced by independent production companies. [ADD]

Top Ten US Box-office Stars of 1944

1.      Bing Crosby

2.      Gary Cooper

3.      Bob Hope

4.      Betty Grable

5.      Spencer Tracy

6.      Greer Garson

7.      Humphrey Bogart

8.      Abbott & Costello

9.      Cary Grant

10.    Bette Davis

Source: Quigley Poll

Other Key American Films of 1944

Go Down Death (Spencer Williams) [ADD]

Hell-Bent for Election (Chuck Jones) [ADD]

The History of Cinema: 1944