Books in French are on www.livres-cinema.info
American Cinema of the 1950s
Themes and Variations
Edited by Murray Pomerance
(0 vote)Average rating:
| 0 | rating |  = We can do without |
| 0 | rating |  = Good book |
| 0 | rating |  = Excellent book |
| 0 | rating |  = Unique / a reference |
Your rating: -
Book Presentation:
From cold war hysteria and rampant anticommunist witch hunts to the lure of suburbia, television, and the new consumerism, the 1950s was a decade of sensational commercial possibility coupled with dark nuclear fears and conformist politics. Amid this amalgamation of social, political, and cultural conditions, Hollywood was under siege: from the Justice Department, which pressed for big film companies to divest themselves of their theater holdings; from the middleclass, whose retreat to family entertainment inside the home drastically decreased the filmgoing audience; and from the House Un-American Activities Committee, which was attempting to purge the country of dissenting political views. In this difficult context, however, some of the most talented filmmakers of all time, including John Ford, Alfred Hitchcock, Vincente Minnelli, Nicholas Ray, and Billy Wilder produced some of their most remarkable work.
Bringing together original essays by ten respected scholars in the field, American Cinema of the 1950s explores the impact of the cultural environment of this decade on film, and the impact of film on the American cultural milieu. Contributors examine the signature films of the decade, including From Here to Eternity, Sunset Blvd., Singin' in the Rain, Shane, Rear Window, and Rebel Without a Cause, as well as lesser-known but equally compelling films, such as Dial 1119, Mystery Street, Suddenly, Summer Stock, The Last Hunt, and many others.
Provocative, engaging, and accessible to general readers as well as scholars, this volume provides a unique lens through which to view the links between film and the prevailing social and historical events of the decade.
About the Author:
MURRAY POMERANCE is a professor and chair in the department of sociology at Ryerson University.
Press Reviews:
"There is nothing like this series. Screen Decades firmly situates American cinema in the realms of material culture, popular culture, cultural narrative, reception analysis, and industrial history."
— American Quarterly
See the publisher website: Rutgers University Press
> From the same author:
Mervyn LeRoy Comes to Town (2025)
Dir. Murray Pomerance and R. Barton Palmer
Subject: Director > Mervyn LeRoy
The Biggest Thing in Show Business (2024)
Living It Up with Martin & Lewis
by Murray Pomerance and Matthew Solomon
Subject: Actor > Jerry Lewis, Dean Martin
Autism in Film and Television (2022)
On the Island
Dir. Murray Pomerance and R. Barton Palmer
Subject: Sociology
The Other Hollywood Renaissance (2020)
Dir. Dominic Lennard, R. Barton Palmer and Murray Pomerance
Subject: Countries > United States
The Many Cinemas of Michael Curtiz (2018)
Dir. R. Barton Palmer and Murray Pomerance
Subject: Director > Michael Curtiz
Close-Up (2018)
Great Cinematic Performances Volume 2: International
Dir. Murray Pomerance and Kyle Stevens
Hamlet Lives in Hollywood (2017)
John Barrymore and the Acting Tradition Onscreen
Dir. Murray Pomerance and Steven Rybin
Subject: Actor > John Barrymore
Moment of Action (2016)
Riddles of Cinematic Performance
Thinking in the Dark (2015)
Cinema, Theory, Practice
Dir. Murray Pomerance and R. Barton Palmer
Subject: Theory
George Cukor (2015)
Hollywood Master
Dir. Murray Pomerance and R. Barton Palmer
Subject: Director > George Cukor
Hollywood's Chosen People (2012)
The Jewish Experience in American Cinema
Dir. Daniel Bernardi, Hava Tirosh-Samuelson and Murray Pomerance
Subject: Countries > United States
Shining in Shadows (2011)
Movie Stars of the 2000s
Dir. Murray Pomerance
Subject: On Films > Per period
A Little Solitaire (2011)
John Frankenheimer and American Film
Dir. Murray Pomerance
Subject: Director > John Frankenheimer
Michelangelo Red Antonioni Blue (2011)
Eight Reflections on Cinema
Subject: Director > Michelangelo Antonioni
Sugar, Spice, and Everything Nice (2001)
Cinemas of Girlhood
Dir. Frances Gateward and Murray Pomerance
Subject: Sociology
Ladies and Gentlemen, Boys and Girls (2001)
Gender in Film at the End of the Twentieth Century
Dir. Murray Pomerance
Subject: Sociology
> On a related topic:
Projections of Passing (2021)
Postwar Anxieties and Hollywood Films, 1947-1960
Subject: On Films > Per period
Hollywood and the Movies of the Fifties (2023)
The Collapse of the Studio System, the Thrill of Cinerama, and the Invasion of the Ultimate Body Snatcher--Television
Subject: Countries > United States
From Dead Ends to Cold Warriors (2021)
Constructing American Boyhood in Postwar Hollywood Films
Subject: Sociology
Apocalypse Then (2017)
American and Japanese Atomic Cinema, 1951–1967
by Mike Bogue
Subject: Genre > Disaster films
Invasion USA (2017)
Essays on Anti-Communist Movies of the 1950s and 1960s
Dir. David J. Hogan
Subject: Sociology
Demographic Angst (2017)
Cultural Narratives and American Films of the 1950s
by Alan Nadel
Subject: Sociology
Red and the Black (2016)
American Film Noir in the 1950s
Film Criticism, the Cold War, and the Blacklist (2014)
Reading the Hollywood Reds
by Jeff Smith
Subject: History of Cinema
Back
