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The History of American Cinema: 1957

July - December

11/7 -

An Affair to Remember, Leo McCarey’s remake of his own 1939 romantic comedy, Love Affair, is released.   Cary Grant and Deborah Kerr take up the roles originally played by Charles Boyer and Irene Dunne. [ADD]

29/7 -

Jayne Mansfield cements her position as a pneumatic rival to Marilyn Monroe opposite Tony Randall in Will Success Spoil Rock Hunter? [ADD]

23/8 -

Henry King’s adaptation of Ernest Hemingway’s The Sun Also Rises is released.   Tyrone Power, Ava Gardner, Mel Ferrer, Errol Flynn and Eddie Albert star. [ADD]

22/9 -

Kim Novak refuses to perform in front of cameras until she receives an increase to her weekly salary of $1,250. [ADD]

30/9 -

Eight months after the death of her husband Humphrey Bogart, Lauren Bacall officially denies claims that she is about to marry Frank Sinatra. [ADD]

4/10 -

Raintree County, MGM’s attempt to outshine Gone With the Wind, is released.   Directed by Edward Dmytryk, the film stars Elizabeth Taylor and Montgomery Clift, who suffered facial injuries in a car crash during the filming. [ADD]

10/10 -

RKO Studios are sold to Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz’s Desilu TV production company. [ADD]

30/10 -

John Sturges re-creation of the Gunfight at the OK Corral is released.   Burt Lancaster stars as Wyatt Earp, and Kirk Douglas is the consumptive Doc Holliday.   Jo Van Fleet also stars. [ADD]

29/11 -

Erich Wolfgang Korngold, composer of scores of Hollywood films, dies in Hollywood at the age of 60. [ADD]

25/12 -

Stanley Kubrick’s anti-military drama Paths of Glory, which is based on a true story, is released.   The film is banned in parts of Europe and American military cinemas. [ADD]

31/12 -

G. W. Pabst’s 1954 German production Das Bekenntnis der Ina Kahr (Afraid to Love), starring Curd Jurgens, is released in the US. [ADD]

– There are approximately 6,000 drive-in cinemas in America. [ADD]

– MGM’s Cinema 65 Film production format is used for Cecil B. DeMille’s Ben-Hur. [ADD]

– MGM closes its animation production department. [ADD]

– Following the closure of MGM’s animation unit, two former employees – William Hanna and Joseph Barbera – found their own studio. [ADD]

– By 1957 around 85% of USA’s cinemas are equipped for CinemaScope films.   Apart from Paramount, which uses VistaVision, all major studios use the CinemaScope format. [ADD]

Other Key American Films of 1957

The History of Cinema: 1957