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The History of American Cinema: 1956

July - December

3/8 -

Robert Wise’s Somebody Up There Likes Me, starring Paul Newman as middleweight world champion Rocky Graziano, is released by MGM. [ADD]

21/8 -

King Vidor’s three-and-a-half-hour epic War and Peace is released.   Shot on location in Italy, the film cost $6 million to produce and stars a multi-national cast.  Henry Fonda and Audrey Hepburn star, with Vittorio Gassman, John Mills, Mel Ferrer and Anita Ekberg in support. [ADD]

17/9 -

Vincente Minelli’s Lust for Life, starring Kirk Douglas as the angst-ridden artist Vincent Van Gogh, is released.   Shot on location in Europe, the film also stars Anthony Quinn as Van Gogh’s friend and fellow artist, Paul Gauguin. [ADD]

5/10 -

Cecil B. DeMille’s epic The Ten Commandments is released.   Charlton Heston, Yul Brynner, Anne Baxter, Edward G. Robinson and Yvonne De Carlo star. [ADD]

17/10 -

Following a troubled shoot that faltered several times due to its producer, former carnival barker Mike Todd running out of money, Around the World in 80 Days is released.   David Niven stars as Phileas Fogg in the adaptation of Jules Verne’s novel, with Mexican actor Cantinflas playing his sidekick, and Robert Newton the pursuing Inspector Fix.   Among the numerous guest stars are Ronald Colman, Noel Coward, Marlene Dietrich, Buster Keaton, Bea Lillie, Peter Lorre, Red Skelton, John Gielgud, George Raft, Fernandel, Shirley Maclaine and Juliette Greco.   Michael Anderson replaced John Farrow as director after the former was fired by Todd. [ADD]

15/11 -

Elvis Presley makes his film debut in Love Me Tender. [ADD]

23/11 -

Paul Mansfield serves a writ on his wife, Jayne Mansfield, accusing her of being an unfit mother for living with her lover and posing nude for Playboy magazine. [ADD]

25/11 -

William Wyler’s Friendly Persuasion is released by Allied Artists without a screenwriting credit for Michael Wilson.   Wilson refused to testify before the HUAC in 1951, and so the studio invokes a clause in the Screen Writers Guild’s contract denying credits to a writer for just such a reason. [ADD]

Nov -

20^th Century-Fox sells its pre-1948 films for TV distribution for $30 million.   Together with Warners’ and Columbia’s films, this makes a total of 2,700 pre-1948 films released for TV screening. [ADD]

13/12 -

– The release of Anatole Litvak’s Anastasia marks the return to Hollywood of Ingrid Bergman following her exile from the world’s moviemaking capital because of her affair with Italian director Roberto Rossellini. [ADD]

18/12 -

The National League of Decency are joined by the Roman Catholic Church in condemning Elia Kazan’s Baby Doll, claiming it "dwells almost without variation or relief upon carnal suggestiveness."   Karl Malden stars as an aging cotton mill owner who takes Carroll Baker as his child bride only to see her seduced by Sicilian labourer Eli Wallach. [ADD]

– The MPAA Production Code is revised to such a degree that only venereal disease and sexual perversion are considered taboo subjects. [ADD]

– Laurence Olivier’s Richard III is the first UK film to be broadcast on American television at the same time as its theatrical release. [ADD] 

Other Key American Films of 1956

The History of Cinema: 1956