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The History of American Cinema: 1947

January - September

5/3 -

Elia Kazan’s docudrama Boomerang, starring Dana Andrews, Jane Wyatt, and Lee J Cobb is released.  [ADD]

13/3 -

36-year-old Ronald Reagan is elected President of the Screen Actor’s Guild, while Gene Kelly is made vice-president, succeeding Robert Montgomery and Franchot Tone.  Other committee members who have yielded their posts include James Cagney, John Garfield, Harpo Marx, Dennis O’Keefe and Dick Powell. [ADD]

13/3 -

The 19^th Annual Academy Awards, hosted by Jack Benny, are held at the Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles. [MORE] 

11/4 -

Charlie Chaplin’s Monsieur Verdoux, in which the former little tramp plays a serial killer of wealthy women, premieres at the Broadway Theater in New York.   The message within the tale raises suspicions that Chaplin harbours communist leanings, and he becomes the victim of a patriotic backlash from the media.  [ADD]

14/4 -

Norman Z. McLeod’s adaptation of James Thurber’s The Secret Life of Walter Mitty is released.   The film, produced by Samuel Goldwyn for $3 million, stars 31-year-old Danny Kaye as the daydreaming hero who gets involved in a real adventure when he meets Virginia Mayo.   Fay Bainter and Ann Rutherford also star. [ADD]

3/5 -

The cartoon Tweetie Pie, the first pairing of Tweetie and Sylvester is released.   It goes on to win an Academy Award. [ADD]

8/5 -

The House Un-America Activities Committee (HUAC), chaired by J Parnell Thomas, convenes in Hollywood. [ADD]

3/7 -

Elia Kazan and Cheryl Crawford establish the Actors’ Studio in New York to teach Stanislavsky’s technique of method acting. [ADD]

Jul -

RCA enter into an agreement with 20^th and Warners to research and develop a direct-projection large-screen cinema television system [ADD]

22/7 -

Edward Dmytryk’s Crossfire, which stars Robert Young, Robert Mitchum and Robert Ryan in a tale of anti-semitism, is released.   It will be Dmytryk’s last American film for five years as he comes under the scrutiny of the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC). [ADD]

9/8 -

Following the imposition of 75% tax on all film imports by the British government, the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) stop all shipments to Britain. [ADD]

15/8 -

Life With Father, the hit Broadway stage play, is brought to the screen by Warner Bros.   Michael Curtiz directs William Powell as the eponymous father and Irene Dunne as his loving wife. [ADD]

5/9 -

Delmer Daves’ adaptation of David Goodis’ novel Dark Passage is released.   It features the third teaming on screen of Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall. [ADD]

The History of Cinema: 1947