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The History of American Cinema: 1979

September - December

8/9 -

Ken Annakin's The Fifth Musketeer is released.   A variation on Alexandre Dumas' The Man in the Iron Mask, the film features an all-star cast including Beau Bridges, Sylvia Kristel, Ursula Andress, Cornel Wilde, Ian McShane, Lloyd Bridges, José Ferrer, Olivia De Havilland and Rex Harrison. [ADD]

30/9 -

Lauren Bacall’s autobiography, By Myself, is published. [ADD]

2/10 -

Universal and Walt Disney lose their breach of copyright case against Sony-Betamax when the court decides there is no breach when a video recorder is used for personal use. [ADD]

5/10 -

Blake Edwards' sex comedy, 10 is released and quickly makes a star of Bo Derek while also popularising Ravel’s Bolero.   Dudley Moore also stars, along with Julie Andrews, wife of writer, producer and director Edwards. [ADD]

23/10 -

The screening of Monty Python's Life of Brian is cancelled at Columbia, South Carolina by Ecclesiastical pressure.   However, this provokes accusations of censorship and prior restraint against Senator Strom Thurmond who was instrumental in the screening’s cancellation. [ADD]

7/11 -

Mark Rydell’s The Rose, featuring singer Bette Midler in her first starring role, is released.   Alan Bates, Frederic Forrest and Harry Dean Stanton co-star. [ADD]

6/12 -

The big-screen version of Gene Roddenberry's cult TV show Star Trek is released.   Directed by Robert Wise, Star Trek: The Motion Picture re-unites all the members of the original TV show, and introduces a new crew member in the bald-headed form of Persis Khambatta. [ADD]

18/12 -

David Begelman, who left Columbia under a cloud after admitting embezzlement charges, is appointed the new studio head of MGM, while Alan Hirschfield, who was also dismissed by Columbia, replaces Alan Ladd Jr. as the head of 20th Century-Fox.   Ladd, who left Fox in June, starts his own production company, The Ladd Co., with his former vice-presidents Gareth Wigan and Jay Kanter. [ADD]

19/12 -

Robert Benton’s Kramer vs Kramer is rush-released by Columbia to qualify for next year’s Academy Awards.   The film stars Dustin Hoffman and Meryl Streep as a divorcing couple who battle over the custody of their young son, played by six-year-old Justin Henry. [ADD]

19/12 -

Being There, Hal Ashby's satire on America’s obsession with fame, is released.   Peter Sellers, in a role he has wanted to play since reading Jerzy Kosinski’s short novel in 1971, stars as Chance the Garden, a child-like man who finds himself embroiled in the world of wealth and politics.   Support is provided by Jack Warden, Shirley MacLaine and Melvyn Douglas. [ADD]

20/12 -

Bob Fosse’s semi-autobiographical musical All That Jazz is released.   Roy Scheider stars as Joe Gideon, heavy drinking, womanising Broadway director who faces death when he suffers a heart attack. [ADD]

22/12 -

Film producer Darryl F. Zanuck dies of pneumonia in Palm Springs at the age of 77. [ADD]

22/12 -

The Disney corporation announces plans for its first co-production, Popeye, with Paramount Studios. [ADD]

– The American Broadcasting Company forms ABC Motion Pictures Inc. [ADD]

– Menaham Golan and Yoram Globus take over Cannon Films to form the Cannon Group. [ADD]

– Warner Bros. record a turnover of more than $200 million for the first time. [ADD]

– The letterbox video release of Woody Allen’s Manhattan is championed by the Directors’ Guild’s campaign against the practice of panning and scanning widescreen films for TV broadcasting. [ADD]

Other Key American Films of 1979

Breaking Away (Peter Yates) [ADD]

Dracula (John Badham) [ADD]

1941 (Steven Spielberg) [ADD]

Gal Young ‘Un (Victor Nunez) [ADD]

Heartland (Richard Pearce) [ADD]

Norma Rae (Martin Ritt) [ADD]

The Onion Field (Harold Becker) [ADD]

Quintet (Robert Altman) [ADD]

Wise Blood (John Huston) [ADD]

The History of Cinema: 1979