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The History of American Cinema: 1948

July - December

16/7 -

Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall star together once more in John Huston’s Key Largo.   Edward G. Robinson, Claire Trevor and Lionel Barrymore also star. [ADD]

3/8 -

John Farrow’s Beyond Glory, starring Alan Ladd, Donna Reed, George Macready, George Coulouris and Henry Travers, is released for Paramount. [ADD]

5/8 -

Edward Sedgwick directs Red Skelton in MGM’s A Southern Yankee.   Arlene Dahl, Brian Donlevy, George Coulouris and John Ireland also star in this comic tale of Civil War espionage. [ADD]

8/8 -

MGM announce the reunion of Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers in their forthcoming The Barkleys of Broadway, directed by Charles Walters. [ADD]

23/8 -

Alfred Hitchcock’s Rope, the first film from Transatlantic Pictures, his new production company in partnership with producer Sidney Bernstein, is released.   Experimentally shot in takes lasting as long as a reel of film at times, the film stars John Dall and Farley Granger as a pair of murderous young men, and James Stewart as their former professor. [ADD]

1/9 -

Howard Hawks’ western Red River is released.   The film, which went $1 million over budget, stars John Wayne, Montgomery Clift, John Ireland and Joanne Dru. [ADD]

30/9 -

Actor Robert Mitchum is released from prison after serving 21 days for possession and use of marijuana. [ADD]

20/10 -

MGM release the fifth American adaptation of Alexander Dumas’ novel The Three Musketeers.  Directed by George Sidney, it stars Gene Kelly as D'Artagnan. [ADD]

4/11 -

20^th Century-Fox releases Anatole Litvak’s The Snake Pit, based on the autobiographical novel by Mary Jane Ward.   Olivia De Havilland plays a woman facing a complete mental breakdown in an overcrowded asylum.   Others in the cast include Mark Stevens, Leo Genn, Betsy Blair, Isabel Jewell, Jan Clayton and Beulah Bondi. [ADD]

9/11 -

Robert Wise’s psychological western Blood on the Moon is released.   The film stars Robert Mitchum, Barbara Bel Geddes, Robert Preston, Walter Brennan, Phyllis Thaxter and Frank Faylen. [ADD]

11/11 -

Joan of Arc, Victor Fleming’s version of the life of the Maid of Orleans is released.   The RKO picture stars Ingrid Bergman in the title role, with support from Francis L. Sullivan, J. Carrol Naish, Ward Bond, Gene Lockhart, Leif Erickson, Cecil Kellaway and José Ferrer. [ADD]

30/11 -

Rita Hayworth and Orson Welles file for divorce. [ADD]

30/11 -

Joseph Losey’s The Boy With Green Hair is released.   Dean Stockwell stars in the title role as a boy who comes up against prejudice and ridicule when his hair unaccountably turns green. [ADD]

23/12 -

Robin Hoodlum, UPA’s first theatrical animated short is released. [ADD]

31/12 -

Silent star Louise Brooks is reduced to working as a $40-a-week sales assistant at Saks Fifth Avenue. [ADD]

– The International Alliance of Theatrical and Stage Employees (IATSE) regains control of organised labour from the more militant Conference of Studio Unions (CSU). [ADD]

– Hollywood studios cut costs by filming original screenplays rather than buying more expensive novels and stage plays. [ADD]

– Small production companies start selling B-movies and serials to the TV networks. [ADD]

– The RKO Theaters exhibition company is established. [ADD]

– America now boasts 820 drive-in cinemas. [ADD]

– Cellulose triacetate begins to be used as the base for 35mm negative and print films. [ADD] 

– Columbia/Screen Gems ceases production. [ADD]

Top Ten US Box-office Stars of 1948

1.      Bing Crosby

2.      Betty Grable

3.      Abbott & Costello

4.      Gary Cooper

5.      Bob Hope

6.      Humphrey Bogart

7.      Clark Gable

8.      Cary Grant

9.      Spencer Tracy

10.    Ingrid Bergman

Source: Quigley Poll

Other Key American Films of 1948

The History of World Cinema: 1948