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The History of American Cinema: 1954

January - September

8/1 -

New York critics vote French director André Cayatte's  Justice est faite (Justice Is Done) the best foreign film released in the United States in 1953 [ADD]

26/1 -

Director Billy Wilder and Broadway producer Leland Hayward buy the film rights to Charles Lindbergh's autobiography The Spirit of St. Louis for an estimated $1million, the highest price ever paid by Hollywood for a literary work. [ADD]

16/2 -

David O. Selznick complains about the screening of a clip from Gone With the Wind during a birthday tribute to MGM on the Ed Sullivan Show, as the film was not an MGM production. [ADD]

2/3 -

Clark Gable announces he is leaving MGM.   Under contract with them for 23 years, his salary upon leaving is $500,000. [ADD]

18/3 -

Howard Hughes pays $23,489,478 to become sole owner of RKO, thus becoming the first individual to ever wholly own a film company. [ADD]

19/3 -

In response to rumours speculating upon their imminent break-up, comedy duo Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis announce, "We do indeed intend to dissolve our team... on 25 July 1996, for the 50th anniversary of our partnership." [ADD]

Apr -

Paramount demonstrates its VistaVision wide-screen format in comparison with 20^th Century-Fox’s CinemaScope at Radio City Music Hall in New York. [ADD]

Apr -

20^th Century-Fox’s first Cinemascope release, The Robe, has taken $30 million at the box-office since its release. [ADD]

2/5 -

A letter from French director Robert Bresson protesting against the cuts made by the US distributor of his film Diary of a Country Priest, appears in the New York Times. [ADD]

29/5 -

Dial M for Murder, Alfred Hitchcock’s last film for Warner Bros., is released.   Filmed in 3D, it is released in a ‘flat’ version. [ADD]

19/6 -

Warner Bros release Them!, a cautionary sci-fi/horror film in which ants that have mutated into giants due to the fallout from nuclear tests go on the rampage in New Mexico.   One of the first of the particular sub-genre that flourished with the inception of nuclear power, the film was a huge success.   Edmund Gwenn, Joan Weldon, James Whitmore and James Arness star. [ADD]

19/6 -

The Tasmanian Devil makes his debut appearance in the Bugs Bunny short, Devil May Hare. [ADD]

28/7 -

Elia Kazan’s On the Waterfront is released.   Seen by some as a reflection by Kazan on the part he played in the HUAC hearings in 1952, the film stars Marlon Brando as a dock worker who denounces his corrupt union boss (Lee J Cobb) to the authorities.   Rod Steiger, Karl Malden and Eva Marie Saint also star. [ADD]

1/8 -

Alfred Hitchcock’s Rear Window, in which James Stewart plays a photographer with a broken leg who observes his neighbours from his apartment window, is released.   When he witnesses what he believes to be a murder, Stewart puts himself and girlfriend Grace Kelly in danger to prove himself right.   Thelma Ritter, Cameron Mitchell and Raymond Burr support. [ADD]

4/8 -

Douglas Sirk’s lush melodrama, Magnificent Obsession, in which a young ne’er-do-well (Rock Hudson) accidentally blinds a woman (Jane Wyman), then wins the Nobel Prize after becoming an eye surgeon so that he can put things right, is released. [ADD]

20/9 -

Walt Disney ends his distribution agreement with RKO, and begins distributing through his own subsidiary, Buena Vista. [ADD]

29/9 -

George Cukor’s remake of A Star is Born is released.   Judy Garland stars as Esther Blodgett, reborn as Vicky Lester, and married to self-destructive star Norman Maine, who descends into alcoholism as her star rises.   James Mason plays Maine, in a role turned down by Cary Grant and Humphrey Bogart. [ADD]

29/9 -

Joseph L. Mankiewicz’s The Barefoot Contessa is released.   Filmed on location in Spain, Italy and on the French Riviera, the film is a thinly disguised examination of some real-life Hollywood types, and certain cuts had to be made before the film was released.   Humphrey Bogart, Ava Gardner, Rossano Brazzi and Edmond O'Brien star. [ADD]

The History of Cinema: 1954