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The History of American Cinema: 1960

July - December

7/7 -

Writer-director Richard Brooks’ adaptation of Sinclair Lewis’s novel Elmer Gantry is released.   Burt Lancaster stars as the salesman in Jean Simmon’s evangelical troupe.   Arthur Kennedy and Shirley Jones provide support. [ADD]

11/7 -

Frank Sinatra and fellow rat-packers Dean Martin and Sammy Davis Jr open John F. Kennedy’s Democratic National Convention with a rendition of the national anthem. [ADD]

20/7 -

Jerry Lewis’s ‘silent’ comedy, The Bellboy is released.   The film was shot in just four weeks. [ADD]

28/7 -

Veteran set designer Cedric Gibbons, who had been involved in movies since 1914 and was married to Dolores Del Rio, dies in Hollywood at the age of 67. [ADD]

1/9 -

When questioned by columnist Hedda Hopper about his relationship with Let’s Make Love co-star Marilyn Monroe, Yves Montand, husband of French actress Simone Signoret, declares that "Nothing could destroy my marriage." [ADD]

7/9 -

Ronald Reagan and his wife Nancy Reagan resign from the Screen Actors Guild.   Neither of them has worked in film since 1956. [ADD]

28/9 -

The New American Cinema Group is created by Lithuanian filmmaker Jonas Mekas and issues a statement stating "We don't want rose-colored films any more, but films the color of blood." [ADD] 

6/10 -

Stanley Kubrick’s Spartacus, adapted from the Howard Fast novel by Dalton Trumbo, is released.   Executive producer Kirk Douglas stars as the rebel slave who leads an army of gladiators against the Romans.   Included in the large cast are Laurence Olivier, Charles Laughton, Peter Ustinov, Tony Curtis and Jean Simmons. [ADD]

16/10 -

The Supreme Court rejects an appeal by the major studios against the 1948 order to divest themselves of their cinema chains. [ADD]

23/10 -

The Magnificent Seven, John Sturges’ remake of the 1954 Japanese film Shichinin no samurai (The Seven Samurai) is released.   Yul Brynner stars as the leader of a band of gunfighters hired to protect a village from a gang of marauding bandits.   Steve McQueen, Charles Bronson, James Coburn, Robert Vaughn and Eli Wallach also star. [ADD]

2/11 -

Filming of John Huston’s The Misfits is completed.   It will prove to be the last film of both Clark Gable and Marilyn Monroe. [ADD]

4/11 -

Daniel Mann’s adaptation of John Steinbeck’s novel Butterfield 8, in which Elizabeth Taylor stars as a disillusioned prostitute, is released. [ADD]

11/11 -

Marilyn Monroe divorces her playwright husband Arthur Miller after completing the filming of The Misfits, which Miller wrote for her. [ADD]

16/11 -

"If Marilyn Monroe is in love with my husband that only proves she has good taste, because I am also in love with him." French actress Simone Signoret, quoted by the Los Angeles Times when questioned about rumours of an affair between her husband Yves Montand and Marilyn Monroe. [ADD]

17/11 -

Clark Gable dies of a heart attack at his home in Encino at the age of 60.   The physical nature of the filming of his final film, The Misfits, is believed to have been a contributing factor.   Gable had just learned he was to be a father for the first time. [ADD]

28/11 -

Marlon Brando arrives in Tahiti for the filming of MGM's Mutiny on the Bounty, under the direction of Carol Reed. [ADD]

– ‘Exodus’ and Other Great Themes by Mantovani and his Orchestra, a British album of film title music, begins a 65-week run in the US album charts. [ADD]

Other Key American Films of 1960

Comanche Station (Budd Boetticher) [ADD]

The Dark at the Top of the Stairs (Delbert Mann) [ADD]

Inherit the Wind (Stanley Kramer) [ADD]

The Rise and Fall of Legs Diamond (Budd Boetticher) [ADD]

Sergeant Rutledge (John Ford) [ADD]

Studs Lonigan (Irving Lerner) [ADD]

The History of Cinema: 1960