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The History of American Cinema: 1948

January - June

5/1 -

Warner Bros-Pathé begin distributing colour newsreels to cinemas. [ADD]

7/1 -

John Huston’s adaptation of B. Traven’s novel The Treasure of the Sierra Madre is released.   The film, which was shot in Mexico, stars Humphrey Bogart, Walter Huston and Tim Holt as prospectors whose friendship is destroyed by greed. [ADD]

4/3 -

Jules Dassin’s The Naked City is released.   Filmed in city locations, the film stars Barry Fitzgerald.  [ADD]

8/3 -

In return for a reduction in the UK import tax of 75%, US film companies undertake to reinvest the $60 million profit made in England  [ADD]

15/3 - 

After writing to Roberto Rossellini, Ingrid Bergman receives a telegram from the Italian director inviting her to Italy to discuss the possibility of working together. [ADD]

20/3 -

The 20^th Annual Academy Awards ceremony takes place at the Shrine Auditorium, Los Angeles. [MORE]

23/3 -

Fred Zinnemann’s semi-documentary The Search, which highlights one German child’s attempts to find his mother with the help of an American GI, is released.   Montgomery Clift makes his debut as the GI, while the boy is played by nine-year-old Czech, Ivan Jandl. [ADD]

19/4 -

Screenwriter John Howard Lawson is convicted of contempt of Congress for refusing to give evidence in front of the HUAC. [ADD]

26/4 -

MGM’s Sweater Girl, Lana Turner marries Henry J. Topping. [ADD]

15/5 -

Cyd Charisse marries singer Tony Martin after divorcing her first husband, Nico Charisse, who married her when she was fifteen-years-old. [ADD]

15/5 -

Multimillionaire Howard Hughes completes his purchase of 929,000 shares in the troubled RKO Radio company, including its studio and cinema chain for approximately $9 million   He immediately slashes staffing levels from 2,500 to 600 and begins selling off its film library. [ADD]

15/5 -

Following legal proceedings brought by the Justice Department, the Supreme Court find in the case of U.S. V Paramount Picture Inc., the five Hollywood majors guilty of ‘conspiracy and discrimination’ in order to secure a monopoly of the cinema circuits.   Ownership of cinema chains by producers and distributors is deemed to amount to ‘price-fixing conspiracies,’ and distribution companies are ordered to dispose of any exhibition interests. [ADD]

9/6 -

Rita Hayworth dyes her famous auburn locks to appear in husband Orson Welles’ The Lady from Shanghai.   Welles directs as well as co-starring as a naïve Irishman who falls for Hayworth’s femme-fatale. [ADD]

14/6 -

Under the Anglo-American Film Agreement, American film companies can repatriate a maximum of $17 million from Britain.   They spend much of the balance purchasing scripts, films, studios, equipment and other associated items from within the UK. [ADD]

24/6 -

The Betrayal, African-American filmmaker Oscar Micheaux’s last film, is released.   It fails at the box office. [ADD]

30/6 -

Fred Astaire is called out of a two-year retirement to co-star with Judy Garland in Easter Parade when Gene Kelly breaks his ankle. [ADD]

The History of World Cinema: 1948