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The History of American Cinema: 1958

January - June

8/2 -

Paramount sells TV rights of its pre-1948 film library to the Music Corporation of America (MCA) for a sum of $50 million. [ADD]

21/2 -

The long-running Ma and Pa Kettle series starring Marjorie Main and Percy Kilbride comes to an end after eleven years. [ADD]

3/3 -

The Supreme Court in Washington ratifies the Hollywood studios’ decisions to blacklist 23 victims of the HUAC hearings [ADD]

25/3 -

Cinemas screening Mike Todd’s Around the World in 80 Days in Chicago, New York and Los Angeles close their doors for the day following the producer’s death.   Todd died in an airplane crash in a storm near Albuquerque.   He had been married to Elizabeth Taylor for only seven months. [ADD]

2/4 -

Marlon Brando stars as a Nazi officer opposite Montgomery Clift’s persecuted Jew in the screen adaptation of Irwin Shaw’s novel The Young Lions [ADD]

4/4 -

Police are called to an incident at the home of Lana Turner to find former gangster – and Turner’s current boyfriend – Johnny Stompanato dying from stab wounds inflicted by Cheryl Crane, Turner’s 14-year-old daughter.  Crane claims she was acting in self-defence following sexual abuse by Stompanato. [ADD]

11/4 -

Cheryl Crane is found not guilty of murdering Johnny Stompanato.   The Coroner's Inquest rules the case justifiable homicide. [ADD]

23/4 -

Orson Welles’ classic noir Touch of Evil is released.   Featuring an extended opening crane and tracking shot, the film is filled with typically idiosyncratic Welles touches.   Charlton Heston and Janet Leigh co-star with Welles, and the supporting cast includes Joseph Calleia, Akim Tamiroff and Dennis Weaver. [ADD]

9/5 -

Alfred Hitchcock’s Vertigo, shot on location in San Francisco in VistaVision, is released.   The film stars James Stewart and Kim Novak, who both give superb performances in one of Hitchcock’s most psychologically complex thrillers. [ADD]

11/5 -

Marlon Brando’s wife of nine months, actress Anna Kashfi, gives birth to a son, Christian Devi, in New York. [ADD]

15/5 -

Vincente Minelli’s Gigi is released.   Shot largely on location in France, the film stars Leslie Caron, Louis Jourdan, Hermione Gingold and Maurice Chevalier, who sings "Thank Heaven for Little Girls," [ADD]

The History of Cinema: 1958