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In an effort to show how females are treated while incarcerated, Hollywood studios have produce a number of what is called 'Serious Women in Prison' (WIP) movies. The first WIP picture set inside an all-women's penitentiary was May 1950's "Caged." This groundbreaking drama with three Oscar nominations reflected the movie industry's seriousness in portraying the bleakness of jail life for those offenders of the law, and how ineffective those institutions were in rehabilitating the incarcerated. The Warner Brothers film established the blueprint for future female prison movies, especially on the sadistic prison guards who purposely make life miserable for the prisoners. "Pile out, you tramps!'" says head guard Evelyn Harper (Hope Emerson) as she physically pushes a dozen convicted females out of the van to begin their prison sentences. "It's the end of the line." Screenwriter Virginia Kellogg, a former reporter for the Los Angeles Times, was given the assignment by Warner Brothers producer Jerry Wald to research the conditions in women prisons. His hope was to make a movie matching the studio's 1934 "I Am a Fugitive of a Chain Gang" made a generation before, which led to massive prison reform. Kellogg was able to be embedded in four separate penitentiaries. As a front she used an indictment of embezzlement for her to move freely among the prison population while seeing how the prison system works, and the relationship between the security personnel and the inmates. Kellogg, who was nominated for an Oscar for Best Story in 1949's "White Heat," teamed up with scriptwriter Bernard Schoenfeld to earn her second Academy Award nomination for Best Screenplay for "Caged." "There's a lot of social comment here, very deliberately so, from someone who had the talent to phrase it," wrote film reviewer Hal Astell on Kellogg's story. "The key line comes early in the film from one of the prisoners who arrives with Marie. 'Heads or tails you lose,' she says, and in doing so sums up the entirety of what these girls go through." Eleanor Parker, playing the wife whose husband spontaneously commits an armed robbery, netting $40, but killing him, was nominated an Oscar for Best Actress, the first of three for her. Marie Allen (Parker) receives one to fifteen years as an accessory to the robbery. The late teenager Marie is a well behaved, soft-spoken woman when she first enters the penitentary, but leaves jail after serving her sentence as a cynical, hardened ex-convict who joins a shoplifting gang which one of her prison-mates arranges for her to survive. Scriptwriter Kellogg's message is prisons' inhumane conditions with their corrupt guards creates criminals who will be back in jail again as repeat offenders. The cause of Marie's despair is hulking head guard Evelyn Harper, who doles out harsh treatment each day if she doesn't receive bribes from the inmates. Hope Emerson, nominated Best Supporting Actress by the Academy Awards as the unflinching evil guard, stood at 6'2" and weighed 230 pounds. The former vaudeville performer Emerson played mostly villainous roles largely because of her girth. She's famous for hoisting Spencer Tracy in the air during the court trial scene in 1949's 'Adam's Rib.' Emerson's harsh on-screen behavior became the prototype for those in security roles in numerous women prison films. Harper's orders such as "Come on you tramps - line up for Christmas. This ain't no upstairs delicatessen" echo throughout WIP films. Off camera Emerson was an absolute angel, according to Parker, who described the actress as just "the opposite of the woman she played in 'Caged.' She was a sweet, gentle lady who played the piano for us between scenes and was very worried about her sick mother." Agnes Moorehead is prison warden Ruth Benton, who's aware of Harper's brutality, but members of the police commission overseeing the jail refuse to fire her. Benton represents every warden who attempts to establish effective rehabilitation programs for the prisoners, but are stymied by outside forces who believe jail is built solely for punishment. Both Joan Crawford and Bette Davis refused Marie's part, with the later exclaiming she wasn't interested in making "a dyke movie." Many film critics see the similarities between 1948's "The Snake Pit" with Olivia de Havilland as a mentally ill patient at a horribly-run mental institution and "Caged." Film reviewer John Farr remarked of this expose on the penal system, "Still shocking today - perhaps because it makes one wonder how much has really changed for first-time offenders of either gender - 'Caged' provides shudder-inducing food for thought."

* Director/scriptwriter John Huston introduced a new kind of crime movie in May 1950's "The Asphalt Jungle," one which its criminals were presented with far more sympathy than in the past. Academy Awards voters appreciated Huston's unique approach to his examination of these robbers' backgrounds and in a way justified why they committed such illegal acts by nominating the film noir in four categories. The movie is also known for elevating actor Sterling Hayden's status, and giving young Marilyn Monroe a small yet impressionable early role.

* Huston rationalized his unique perspective of lawbreakers, saying, "My defense was that unless we understand the criminal there's no way of coping with him." Considered one of Hollywood's best heist films, "The Asphalt Jungle" follows thieves involved in a major jewelry robbery. Huston portrays these criminals as talented professionals, similar to those in the legal fields. Adapted from W. R. Burnett's 1949 novel of the same name, Huston and Ben Maddow's script opens with just-released convict Erwin "Doc" Riedenschneider (Sam Jaffee), who immediately launches into a sure-fire one-million dollar heist of valuable jewelry. He employs lawyer-fixer Alonzo D. Emmerich (Louis Calhern) to pay three professionals to carry out the robbery. First is safecracker Louie Ciavelli (Anthony Caruso), a family man supporting his young wife and infant. Next is Gus Minissi (James Whitmore), an owner of a diner who's finically looking for additional money to prop up his business. The third is enforcer Dix Handley (Hayden), who has dreams of repurchasing his parents' foreclosed horse farm. Dix's girlfriend 'Doll' Conovan (Jean Hagan) shares in his passion of living on his farm.

* Marilyn Monroe ranked her brief scene with Emmerich and the police towards the end of "The Asphalt Jungle" as one of her best. She plays Angela Phinlay, the lawyer's mistress, and received the role on suspect circumstances. One rumor had it her agent and lover, Johnny Hyde, vice president of a Hollywood major talent agency, leaned on MGM talent director Lucille Carroll to stongarm Huston to give Monroe the part. Carroll and her husband owned a horse ranch which the director owed them $18,000 to board his horses. She threatened to sell his horses to settle the debt if Monroe didn't get the part. Huston claims he didn't decide on Monroe until she auditioned along with eight others for the role. He later said she was "one of the few actresses who could make an entrance by leaving the room." The head of 20th Century Fox, Darryl F. Zanuck said he felt the same, signing her to a contract where she appeared in the 1950 Oscar-winning Best Picture "All About Eve." * Huston had first met actor Sterling Hayden in Washington, D. C. in 1947 when both, as members of the Committee for the First Amendment, protested the Congressional hearings about Communist influence in Hollywood. Hayden was adopted by an Upper Montclair, New Jersey couple, and dropped out of high school to become a fisherman. As a charter boat captain he posed for a photo on the cover of a magazine, which prompted Paramount Pictures to sign him to a contract in 1941. Earning the Silver Star in World War Two for his bravery in the Balkans and in the Mediterranean while in the military, Hayden returned to film acting after the war, only to be investigated for his Communist ties when he fought with partisans against the Nazis during WW2. He said the FBI threatened to take custody of his kids and jail him if he didn't reveal the names of those he knew in Hollywood who had Marxist leanings. He eventually did, a move he deeply regretted. "I don't think you have the foggiest notion of the contempt I have had for myself since the day I did that thing," Hayden wrote in his autobiography. Huston approached Hayden as the lead in "The Asphalt Jungle," saying, "I've admired you for a long time, Sterling. They don't know what to make of a guy like you in this business. I want you to do this part. The studio does not. They want a top name star. They say you mean nothing when it comes to box office draw. Fortunately, they're not making this picture. I am." After one particular emotional scene wrapped, Huston told the former fisherman, "The next time somebody says you can't act, tell them to call Huston." * The director, with Harold Rosson behind the camera, gave "The Asphalt Jungle" a gritty look, similar to Italian neorealism. Huston admitted he was influenced by Roberto Rossellini's 1945 "Rome: Open City" and Vittorio De Sica's 1948's "The Bicycle Thief," running counter to MGM's usual slick productions. Studio boss Louis B. Mayer bellowed after seeing the film, describing it as "trash. That Asphalt Pavement thing is full of nasty, ugly people doing nasty things. I wouldn't cross the street to see a picture like that." The groundbreaking film did make a small profit, with the Academy Awards nominating Huston for Best Director, Best Adapted Screenplay, Sam Jaffee for Best Supporting Actor, and Rosson for Best Black-and-White Cinematography. Directors Martin Scorsese and Michael Mann list it as one of their favorite movies. The crime thriller is one of '1001 Movie You Must See Before You Die." Stanley Kubrick's 1956 "The Killing," as well as 1960's "Ocean's Eleven" and its sequels are among the many heist films drawing inspiration from Huston's work. Three films based directly from "The Asphalt Jungle" have been subsequently produced: 1958's "The Badlanders" with Alan Ladd, 1963's "Cairo" with George Sanders, and 1972's "Cool Breeze."

By 1950 television sales were growing at an astronomical rate, from 172,000 sets sold in 1948 to 5 million a year at the beginning of the new decade. To capitalize on this new phenomenon, Hollywood produced its first satire on television programming in May 1950's "Champagne for Caesar." This farce on television was prescience on several levels, beginning with actor Ronald Colman, wrapping up a three-decade film career with his final lead role before transitioning to TV. Television personality Art Linkletter appears in his first of only two films (other than playing himself) before he became a household name with his long-running TV broadcast 'People Are Funny.' This late screwball comedy saw Vincent Price in a rare humorous performance as the owner of a soap company who stands to lose his business because a smart contestant is running the table on his sponsored TV quiz show. The most popular programs in the early days of television were boxing and wrestling matches, Milton Berle's 'Texaco Star Theater,' and quiz shows. Long-running contests such as 'What's My Line?' 'Beat the Clock' and 'Truth or Consequences' began airing on TV in 1950. "Champagne for Caesar" centers around voracious reader Beauregard Bottomley,(Colman), whose knowledge of everything is truly astonishing. He disdains the game shows on TV, which he believes caters to the lowest levels of society. One scene of historical interest was when Bottomley and his sister Gwenn (Barbara Britton) go out for the evening. They gather with others on a city sidewalk in front of an appliance store watching TV through the window. The broadcast is 'Masquerade for Money,' hosted by Happy Hogan (Linkletter), whose sponsor is Milady Soap, owned by Burnbridge Waters (Vincent Price). At the time of the movie's production only 20 percent of the households had TVs. Those without televisions would either be invited to homes owning one, or gather outside appliance stores where a television broadcast could be seen with the sound heard over a speaker. Unemployed Bottomley seeks revenge against the Milady Soap Company after its owner, Burnbridge Waters, rejects him during a job interview. Bottomley goes on Happy Hogan's show with the intentions of bankrupting Waters' business since there's no limit as to how much he can win. After seeing Bottomley win repeatedly, amounting to $40 million in double-or-nothing bets, Waters schemes to get the smarty pants to lose just once. "Vincent Price is laugh out loud funny in this film, a real revelation," said film reviewer Russell Brodie, "we wait for the hero (Broomley) to answer the final question to get his revenge on the evil (and loopy) executive, and it really works." "Champagne for Caesar" was Coleman's next film after 1948's "A Double Life," which saw him win his only Best Actor Oscar. After playing Beauregard Bottomley, Colman had a cameo in 1956's "Around the World in 80 Days," an Academy Awards Best picture, followed by his last movie 1957's "The Story of Mankind" with Vincent Price. Art Linkletter, 37, was born in Saskatchewan, Canadian and raised in San Diego, California. He was the adopted son of husband-wife evangelical preachers. First as a teacher then a radio announcer in the mid-1930s, Linkletter began his 1942 radio show 'People Are Funny,' which served as a prototype for his wildly popular television program, premiering in 1954. He and his wife Lois Foerster hold the record for the longest Hollywood marriage, 74 years, marrying in 1935, and lasting until his death in May 2010 at age 97. Comedian Phyllis Diller said at the time of his death, "In a couple of months Art Linkletter would have been 98 years old, a full life of fun and goodness, an orphan who made it to the top. What a guy." Barbara Britton as Bottomley's sister Gwenn was later a spokesperson for Revlon products, a position that saw her appearing on the quiz show 'The 64,000 Question.' Ironically the contest was the center of one of the biggest scandals in television history when it as revealed some of the contestants were fed the answers. And Mel Blanc, who voiced a number of Looney Tune cartoon characters, was credited as the voice of Bottomleys' pet parrot Caesar, whose background explains the title of the movie. "Champagne For Caesar" was ahead of its time, which audiences didn't fully appreciate when first released. But as film historian Laura Loyes observed, "the satire that seemed baffling half a century ago now seems right on the mark in a more cynical age."

Hollywood ignored movies about outer space travel for nearly two decades before May 1950's "Rocketship X-M" cracked the barrier of the long neglected science fiction sub-genre. For almost twenty years studios avoided the subject of humans launched into and living in space in their feature films. The 1950 pioneering picture also touched upon the subject of alien life, a first for a full-length movie. Robert Lippert, the owner of a chain of theaters who produced low budget films for his numerous movie houses, was responsible for this cinematic milestone. In part Lippert was motivated after hearing the tremendous buzz surrounding a well financed producer's filming of a lavish outer space Technicolor picture. Lippert saw an opportunity to piggy-back on the public's thirst for such a movie by making a very cheap version of it. During the early years of filmmaking, France's Georges Melies introduced in his short silent film classic 1902 "Trip to the Moon" humans traveling into outer space. Years later the disastrous flop of the high-budgeted 1930 "Just Image," a musical looking at the 1980 futuristic world in space, discouraged Hollywood studios from making rocket sci-fi films. England did produce 1936's Things to Come," a H. G. Wells-scripted futuristic space travel movie, but that effort was equally a box office disappointment. The only inter-planetary sci-fi films made during that interim were inexpensive weekly serials, such as 1936's "Flash Gordon" and 1939's "Buck Rogers." Instead, Hollywood capitalized on the craze of monster movies during the 1930s and 1940s where scientists played God by creating such creatures as "Frankenstein," "The Invisible Man," and "Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde." That all changed with the United States' development of rocketry, a carryover from the Germans' V-2 rockets in World War Two, sparking interest in outer space. Special effects wizard George Pal conducted a splashy publicity campaign on his upcoming production of "Destination Moon." Sensing the public excitement on the subject, Lippert quickly gathered his low-budget team of filmmakers and produced "Rocketship X-M," beating Pal's picture in the theaters by a mere month (Some claim the January 1950-released 'The Flying Saucer' was the first new space sci-fi film released, but this B-film dealt with a saucer-shaped flying jet, not designed for space travel, by an American who was trying to sell it to the Soviets.). Kurt Neumann, a film director since the early 1930s, was hired to direct and assist in writing the script for "Rocketship X-M." The initial screenplay had the space expedition landing on the moon. When Pal heard about the clear rip-off his upcoming movie, he threatened legal action against Lippert. The screenplay was revised to show the astronauts experiencing engine troubles half-way to the moon, forcing them to recalibrated their fuel. The adjustment jolted them past the moon to Mars. Blacklisted screenwriter Dalton Trumbo wrote the scenes of the astronauts exploring Mars, where they discovered a nearly extinct civilization, most likely caused by a nuclear holocaust. The surviving Martians are cavemen with super strength capable of throwing massive boulders, killing two of the earthlings. Lloyd Bridges stars as a member of the space crew who hurls sexist barbs in Danish-born actress Osa Massen's direction. Others on the team include Tallulah Bankhead's former husband John Emery, Noah Beery, Jr., nephew of actor Wallace Beery, and Hugh O'Brian, later TV's Wyatt Earp. Lippert spent only $90,000 on the movie, with director Neumann shooting it in a rapid 18 days. "Rocketship X-M" relied on speculative space technology at the time, duplicating much of what director Fritz Lang presented in his 1929 "Woman in the Moon,." The German silent movie showed a multistage rocket propelling a capsule into space while using gravity-assisted propulsion to escape earth's orbit, a theory only proven by the Soviets in their 1959's Luna 3 mission. Like Lang's film, the astronauts slept in bunk beds and walked in heavy shoes to keep them grounded while in space. For the Martian scenes, tinted in a pinkish-sepia color, Neumann filmed in remote California locations as well as at Zabriskie Point in Death Valley National Park. The astronauts are seen walking on Mars using WW2 aviator Oxygen Breathing Apparati and are dressed in simple military clothing. And remarkably they give a press conference 15 minutes before their launch time. Thanks to Trumbo's portion of the script, "Rocketship X-M" is the first Hollywood movie to show the results of a nuclear war, a theme revisited by several future films, most notably 1968's "Planet of the Apes."

Late in his career director John Ford mentioned two movies that were his personal favorites. One was the Western April 1950 "Wagon Master." The director said the film about the trek of a Mormon caravan to establish a new homeland in southeastern Utah across the untamed West "came closest to being what I wanted to achieve." This was the fifth of eight movies his film company Argosy Pictures produced, and was one of six pictures he made within a three-year span-between 1948 and 1950. Five were Westerns, a genre he excelled at. Ford loved filming in the West, specifically in the states of Arizona, New Mexico and Utah, where "Wagon Master" was filmed outside of Moab. He said of making Westerns, it "gives me a chance to get away from the smog, to get away from L. A., to get away from people who would like to tell me how to make pictures. You're working with nice people - cowboys, stuntmen, that kind of person. It's a great life, just like a paid vacation. I love to make westerns. If I had my choice, that's all I would make." The idea of directing "Wagon Master" originated from Ford's son Patrick, who gave his father a description of the book he read about the Boers' trek across southern Africa to establish farms. John decided to incorporate the theme of group of people traveling through unfriendly territory to the United States by basing his film on the Mormons' 1879 'Hole in the Rock Trail Expedition." That journey saw the pioneers shave off hundreds of miles by diverting from the more established trails to a more rugged new one to get to the fertile San Juan River Valley. The original screenplay, written by his son Patrick and scriptwriter Frank Nugent, was changed drastically by Ford, who told the two after filming wrapped, "I liked your script, boys. In fact, I actually shot a few pages of it." To cut costs of the modestly budgeted "Wagon Master," Ford relied on his stock company of actors, avoiding any escalating salaries. The highest was Ward Bond, paid $20,000 as the wagon leader of the group of Mormons carrying loads of grain to plant crops in the winter. Accompany him were stunt rider-turned-actor Ben Johnson and young actor Harry Carey, Jr. As a pair of horse traders. Joanne Dru plays Denver, a cooche dancer of a traveling medicine show stranded in the desert. The wagon train rescues them, and in a provocative bathing scene Denver throws water out of the wagon while taking a bath, splashing Travis Blue (Johnson). His horse, an actual bucking bronco, went berserk, tossing Johnson off. Trainers immediately ran to his aid, ruining the shot. Ford gave Johnson the bad news he had to retake the scene, which he did, lasting even longer on the bucking horse than the first one. Members of Clegg gang, headed by actor Charles Kemper, and with James Arness, later star of TV's 'Gunsmoke, are the villains in "Wagon Train." Ford introduced the Cleggs by showing them robbing a bank before the movie's opening credits, unique during its time in film. Film critic Linda Rasmussen summed up the Western: "This wonderful film emphasizes the virtues of solidarity, sacrifice and tolerance, and shows John Ford at his most masterful, in total control of the production from the casting to the bit players to the grandeur and scope of the visual composition." Years later, teenager Stephen Spielberg had the opportunity to talk to Ford in his studio office. The veteran director gave the future filmmaker some advice: "When you can come to the conclusion that putting the horizon on the bottom of the frame or the top of the frame is a lot better than putting the horizon in the middle of the frame, then you may someday make a good picture-maker." No better example of this is seen in the "Wagon Master," where Ford masterly situates his wagon train in varying positions to the horizon in relation to the plot's events. Writer Paul Simpson observed the multiple secondary stories in "Wagon Master." "By dwelling on the community seeking a brave new world, they could weave many sub-plots, including a crowd-pleasing romance. Directors could always chuck in a set piece - an Indian attack, a river crossing that almost goes wrong, baddies trying to hitch a ride west - if things got dull." The 1950s/1960's NBC-TV 'Wagon Train' was inspired by "Wagon Master," starring Ward Bond in the first three seasons. After the actor's death in 1960, John McIntire took his place. Over a dozen of Ford's movie actors appeared in the TV series, including Joanne Dru for one episode in its inaugural season. Ford himself directed one program, 'The Colter Craven Story.' Ford's other personal favorite of his besides "Wagon Master" was 1953's "The Sun Shines Bright," another Western.

Cinematographers rarely turned to film directing after establishing themselves in Hollywood. One who made the successful permanent transition to a director was Rudolph Mate, who directed one of film noirs' most unusual openings where the main character has only minutes to live after revealing his amazing story in a flashback in April 1950's "D. O. A." In only his third picture as a primary director, the Hungary-Austria born Mate was one of cinema's most talented cinematographers, photographing such classics as 1928's "The Passion of Joan of Arc," 1942's "Pride of the Yankees," and 1946's "Gilda." For five straight years he was nominated by the Academy Awards for Best Cinematography, beginning with 1940 Alfred Hitchcock's "Foreign Correspondent." He had assumed his first spot directing duties in the Ginger Rogers' 1947 'It Had To Be You," before turning to full-time directing. Mate never returned to operating a camera, continuing in his new profession until 1963, retiring shortly before suffering a heart attack at 66.

Film reviewer Steve Morrison praised Mate's direction in "D. O. A," writing it's an "exemplary, a textbook example of forward-leaning and economical visual storytelling." Filmed in San Francisco, "D. O. A" is, as film historian Danny Peary describes it as "one of the first movie heroes to have no fear of being killed." Not that the movie's protagonist, Frank Bigelow (Edmond O'Brien, in one of his most famous roles), is any super hero. He's simply an accountant and a notary public who finds himself unknowingly in hot water. Taking a solo vacation to San Francisco, he sips a poison-laced drink at a nightclub bar, which has a delayed fatal effect. Trying to figure out who played the dirty trick on him, Bigelow gets a lead from his secretary, and begins to investigate a complex labyrinth of intrigue involving rare earth minerals sold to criminals. Notarizing documents for a transaction placed him in the cross-hairs of the syndicate.

"D. O. A.," meaning 'dead on arrival,' opens with Bigelow at the police station already figuring out why he was poisoned. Told in a typical film noir flashback, his narrative takes him throughout both San Francisco and Los Angeles streets. Mate's use of real cities sites is credited to earlier docu-dramas such as 1948's "The Naked City." Film critic A. K. Rode observed the movie "reflects the photographic roots of director Rudolph Maté. The lighting, locations, and atmosphere of brooding darkness were captured expertly by Mate and director of photography Ernest Lazlo." Frank Bigelow's girlfriend was played by actress Pamela Britton, 27. She was a Broadway star in the mid-1940s in the musical 'Brigadoon' before her first film role as Frank Sinatra's girlfriend in 1945's "Anchors Aweigh." "D. O. A" was only her third film, and she's known to TV viewers as the ditzy landlady Mrs. Brown in 'My Favorite Martian.' Beverly Garland (in the credits as Beverly Campbell), in her first credited film, is Miss Foster, the secretary who keeps secrets close to the vest. The California native Garland, 23, was in summer stock theater before appearing uncredited in several Hollywood movies. She took her last name from her first husband Richard Garland in 1951, a marriage lasting only two years, and kept the name throughout her life. She's known for her television work, appearing in several series including 1980s 'Scarecrow and Mrs. King' as the mother to Kate Jackson's character. But "D. O. A.'s" main assets are the work of the former director of photography Rudolph Mate and actor O'Brien, 34, a heartthrob to women back then who was voted the year before by the Young Women's League of America as the top male in the country.

Julian Dassin found himself in hot water during his stay in England directing April 1950's "Night and the City." 20th Century Fox head Darryl F. Zanuck, an admirer of Dassin, spotted storm clouds over the talented director after his past Communist affiliation was about to be made public in the upcoming U. S. Congressional hearings. As was common practice after World War Two, Fox studio had a pile of cash in profits from the movies it had shown in England during the war. But the British government prohibited the studios from transferring the cash back to the states, forcing them to spend it in England. Zanuck arranged Dassin to produce in London what turned out to be one of cinema's best film noirs, instructing him to direct its most expensive scenes before he faced an inevitable blacklisting. Dassin had survived the first round of Congressional hearings in 1948, which blacklisted 'The Hollywood Ten' filmmakers. A second round of hearings was approaching, and rumors floated film director Edward Dmytryk, one of the ten who initially refused to divulge those he knew had Communist ties, was changing his mind and decided to name names. Dassin, whose resume included the much respected docu-drama 1948 "The Naked City," was one name whom Dmytryk, along with another film director, Frank Tuttle, would reveal. Delays in the hearings gave Dassin enough time to finish "Night and the City," adapted from the Broadway play he directed with Bette Davis. But when he returned to his home in the United States, he was banned from stepping foot on Fox property to supervise the editing or having input in its musical score. He relocated to England when blacklisted, writing several uncredited scripts for Zanuck, who kept him on the studio's British subsidiary's payroll. Dassin was rushed to begin filming "Night and the City," based on the 1938 novel by British author Gerald Kersh set in pre-war London. Scouting and filming in over fifty-four London locations, Dassin was given an experienced Hollywood cast, headlined by Richard Widmark, in his seventh movie, as the conniving hustler Harry Fabian. He plays opposite his love interest, Gene Tierney. The actress' private life was jarred by her tempestuous marriage to Oleg Cassini, sending her spiraling into fits of manic depression. She was sent to England by Zanuck in the hopes of being away from Hollywood would distract her from her personal problems. As Mary Bristol, a nightclub entertainer, Tierney was sympathetic towards the ever-hustling Fabian, who was constantly on the run from those he burnt. Widmark's performance was described by critic Pauline Kael as "possibly his best role." The exhausted actor said afterwards he had lost weight from all the running he had to do in the movie. One of Fabian's schemes was arranging a match between a Graeco-Roman wrestler against a popular wrestling showman. But his plan was stymied by the city's mobster who controlled London's sports exhibitions. He objected to the match, and made Fabian's life miserable. Upon release, "Night and the City" was met with lukewarm reviews by critics, but as his many film noirs were being reassessed in the 1960s, it was hailed as a masterpiece. Dassin's use of Wellesian aesthetics, the look Orson Welles gave to his movies, elevated the noir's opinion with the more appreciative film critics. Says reviewer James Kendrick, the movie "is a powerful film, one that uses the broad structure of a thriller to paint an indelible portrait of the foibles of human ambition in a violent world." Once Dassin moved overseas, no European studio wanted to hire him since those blacklisted were unable to show their movies back in the states. He was able to direct his first movie in five years in the 1955 French film "Rififi." Hollywood's United Artists set up a fake subsidiary to distribute the film in the United States, making it the first movie by a blacklisted filmmaker to be shown in America. Two versions of "Night and the City" exist, one the British cut with scenes of Gene Tierney's role expanded, accompanied by English composer Benjamin Frankel's musical score, and the shorter American one with Franz Waxman's music soundtrack. A 1992 remake with Robert De Niro and Jessica Lange switched the promotion of the sport of wrestling to boxing.

Walt Disney and his film studio were on the verge of bankruptcy, owing $4 million in debt, when he embarked on his first full-length animated movie in eight years in February 1950's "Cinderella." His brother Roy, in charge of the company's finances, had warned Walt of the precarious state they were in, and recommended he sell his assets and enjoy a long retirement. Instead, Walt proceeded with the very expensive fairy tale movie, his first cartoon feature film since 1942's "Bambi" when World War Two closed down the international market, severely putting a crimp on his finances.

In the end, Walt's gamble paid off-if it had been a flop, this would have been the end of Disney Productions as we know it. "Cinderella" became one of 1950's biggest hits of the year, ranking fifth at the box office. It outdrew Disney's most popular movie up to that time, 1937's "Snow White and the Seven Drawfs." Beginning in the early 1940s Disney Productions survived on government contracts producing training films, propaganda and "package films' consisting of short cartoons or longer animated pictures mixed with live-action. The most successful of these was 1946's "Song of the South," Animators at the Disney studio had been in competition between "Cinderella" and those working on "Alice in Wonderland." The French writer Charles Perrault's 1697 fairy tale of the poor sister who lassos a prince had been adapted earlier by Disney in 1922 as part of his 'Laugh-O'Gram' series. But his latest feature film was far more ambitious. The team of animators working on "Cinderella" was clearly ahead of the more complex "Alice in Wonderland," so he put all his resources on the tale of the rags-to-riches girl. Disney kept the Perrault's story largely intact about the daughter of a deceased father who left her to his mean wife and her two spoiled daughters from an earlier marriage. Adding to Perrault's fairy tale was Cinderella's friendship with the house mice in the face of her stepmother's big, fat cat Lucifer. A fairy godmother comes to Cinderella's rescue by magically conjuring up a carriage (from of a pumpkin) with a team of horses (transformed from mice) to take her to the ball, where she falls in love with the country's prince, who reciprocates in her passion. A glass slipper left behind is the only evidence he has to find his true love. Walt's favorite scene in all his movies was where the fairy godmother transforms Cinderella's torn, shoddy dress into a formal gown for the ball.

Artist Ward Kimball was having a difficult time coming up with a convincing satanic villainous look for the evil cat Lucifer after studying dozens of cats. One day Walt paid a visit to Kimball's house to see his progress. Walt hated cats, which Kimball had one as a house pet. The artist's cat Feetsy was annoying Disney to no end during the meeting, constantly rubbing against his leg. Finally, Walt looked at the cat and said, "For gosh sakes, Kimball, there's your Lucifer right here!" The artist drew the stepmother's cat just like his. Walt also told his stumped animators who were having trouble portraying the mean stepmother to draw her like "Joan Crawford gone mad." To save money and time on the pumpkin scenes with the horses pulling it, the film's directors decided to show it floating in the air instead of lumbering on the ground, eliminating the need to draw the wheels in motion and the horses' legs galloping. "The Nine Old Men," a collection of Disney veteran animators, which included Kimball and Frank Thomas, gathered to work together for the first time on "Cinderella." Disney was so impressed with the thirty-year-olders' work as a team he delegated much of his productions' responsibilities to them for the next twenty years.

Over 300 auditions were conducted for the voice of Cinderella. Singer Irene Woods recorded three original songs by composers Jerry Livingston and Mack David in the hopes Disney would buy their compositions for the movie. Unaware the pair were submitting the recordings to Disney, Woods received a phone call from Walt two days later and invited her to his office. "We met and talked for a while," recalled Woods, "and he said, 'How would you like to be Cinderella?'" She jumped at the offer. Woods said years later, "Seeing the film in its new form was breathtaking for me. It's so beautiful. The color is magnificent, it just took my breath away, it was so wonderful. I sort of forget when I'm watching the movie that I had anything to do with it. Yet, it brings back so many beautiful memories of working with the wonderful artists and working with Walt mostly. It brings back wonderful, wonderful memories." Woods was eventually afflicted with Alzheimer's and had no recollection being the voice of Cinderella. There was one song, her nurses said, which drew a broad smile to her face, 'A Dream Is A Wish Your Heart Makes,' one of the three songs she recorded that made it into the film.

"Cinderella" was a bridge between the older Disney classics, where each one such as "Snow White" and 1940's "Fantasia" were groundbreaking, and the more formalistic and less complex visual ones. WIth "Cinderella," new technologies allowed Disney's future full-length animated films to be more financially successful because of their lower costs and their simplicity. Collectively, these Disney films in the 1950s through the 1970s were still high quality, but Disney's 'golden age' of animation ceased with "Cinderella." "Cinderella's" box office success, both at home and in the overseas open markets, compounded by the sales of its record albums and merchandise, helped the Disney studio stave off bankruptcy. The cartoon with several re-releases as well as home video VHS and DVD purchases has totaled nearly $600 million, which allowed the Disney Production Company to form its own distribution branch, sponsor its own television series, and begin construction on Disneyland. The Academy Awards nominated the movie for three Oscars, Best Musical, Best Song ('Bibbidi-Bobbidi-Boo" or 'The Magic Song') and Best Sound Recording. The American Film Institute ranks "Cinderella" as the ninth Greatest Animation Movie. Film historian Ben Mankiewicz succinctly summed up the picture's importance: "Disney was on the ropes. Cinderella saved Disney."

Baby Boomers were popping out all over the United States in the post-World War Two years. 20th Century Fox pounced on the nationwide population explosion by producing a film about parents who have multiple kids in March 1950's "Cheaper By The Dozen." The comedy was one of the first films to show a large family functioning efficiently-but not without some light-hearted drama. It centers on a married couple who specialize in industrial efficiency and time management, and how the two easily handled twelve kids while conducting revolutionary research in manufacturing productivity. "Cheaper By The Dozen" was based on the real lives of business-flow experts Frank Gilbreth and his wife Lillian in a 1948 account of the same name written by their two adult children, Frank and Ernestine. The movie, ranked fourth at the box office, was followed by a sequel, 'Belles on Their Toes' in 1952. In the original, Clifton Webb stars as Frank Gilbreth and Myrna Loy as his wife, who supports and eventual assumes her husband's business and lecture circuit after he dies. The Fox film covers the family's relocation from Providence, Rhode Island to Montclair, New Jersey as the kids adjust to their new home. The title of both the book and the movie derives from Frank's favorite retort whenever someone asks, "Hey, mister! How come you got so many kids?" The father automatically answers, "Well, they come cheaper by the dozen, you know." The Gilbreth children range from a toddler to high schooler Ann, played by Jeanne Crain, 24, who in real life already had two kids of her own. Crain's stardom had risen after her Academy Awards nomination for Best Actress in 1949's "Pinky." But her heart sank when she was assigned by her studio the role of a teenager in "Cheaper By The Dozen." She revealed afterward, "After having the best role of my career in 'Pinky,' I was absolutely crushed when they cast me as a teenage ingénue. Well, I accepted the role and the whole thing turned out to be a joyful association." Crain has a memorable dancing scene with her screen father, Webb, who began his acting career as a stage dancer. But off camera, Crain loathed the actor, describing him, as "temperamental, bombastic and dictatorial." She, however, loved Myrna Loy, 45, whose career was now pigeonholed into motherly roles. Crain noticed, "Myrna was the perfect foil for Clifton by letting him fly all over the place while she remained serene and submissive and really in charge of the whole thing. Their surprising chemistry made the picture believable and successful." "Cheaper By The Dozen" was largely centered around Webb. Critics say the actor's on-screen clashed with the real-life personality of Frank Gilbreth, who in the book describes him "like a breath of fresh air when he walked into a room." Readers of the popular novel and those who knew the real Frank in his many industrial films narrating his industrial research were troubled by the two images, let alone Webb's incongruous temperament calmly controlling his twelve kids. Wrote film reviewer Bea Soila, "This film would probably have worked better for me if I had not been looking forward to Clifton Webb once again playing Mr. Belvedere. Here he is positively avuncular." "Cheaper By The Dozen" is also known for two technological milestones. The publication Hollywood Reporter claims this was the first movie to use a magnetic audio track embedded in its filmstrip rather than normal optical waves, producing a cleaner, clearer sound. The German invention of magnetic tape was discovered in the late stages of World War Two, and was refined in the years afterwards, funded in part by actor/singer Bing Crosby. Also, the movie was the first time in years Natalie Kalmus was not the color advisor for Technicolor. The ever-present Kalmus saw her last studio work in 1949's "Samson and Delilah" and in Danny Kaye's "The Inspector General," both released in late 1949. As the wife of Technicolor's owner Herbert Kalmus and co-developer of the company's color film process, she was the on-site consultant for every movie using the technology. She had strong opinions about every aspect of color choices for her complex cameras' films, with directors, cinematographers and set designers either appreciating her assistance or clashing with her demands. Divorced from Herbert for over twenty years but still living together, Natalie unsuccessfully sued him for alimony when he wanted to marry someone else. She left Technicolor in 1949, deferring her production duties to other company consultants. Natalie concentrated on a line of designer television cabinets, which ironically housed just black-and-white TV's. She passed away in November 1965 at 87, and is buried in Centerville, Massachusetts, on Cape Cod. The theme of extremely large families has endured through generations. The 1950 film was remade in 2003 using the same title "Cheaper By The Dozen" with Steve Martin, Bonnie Hunt and Hilary Duff. Its success spurred on Fox studios to produce a sequel in 2005, "Cheaper By The Dozen 2," with the same cast. A generation later, Disney's streaming-plus service produced a mixed-race version in 2022. But because of the return to normalcy after WW2, the original Webb-Loy film especially resonated with the public because of the overwhelming amount of child birthing at the time.

Alfred Hitchcock created quite a controversy with his release of February 1950's "Stage Fright." Opening flashbacks, found especially in film noirs, were usually honest and reliable. They occur in the first scenes of the movie where the primary characters, speaking in the present, recall the crucial event of the plot's past, setting the stage for their story to begin. But Hitchcock didn't abide to the roles of cinema when he introduced what has come to be known as the 'false story flashback' or 'lying flashback.' The director was skewered by critics who felt he misled them and his audience by presenting an untrue opening which relied on a dishonest narrator. There were rare occasions this would be seen in literature-but never in film.

Movie reviewer Matt Buchholz wrote, "this is a trick played by Hitchcock, where he takes the common, unspoken language of filmmaking (in this case, the agreement that anything the filmmaker shows us onscreen and during a flashback is true), and subverts it." "Stage Fright" opens with Jonathan Cooper (Richard Todd) carrying the bloodstain dress of his secret lover Charlotte Inwood (Marlene Dietrich) over to the apartment of his longtime friend Eve Gill (Jane Wyman). He explains to Eve, an aspiring actress, that Charlotte, a highly popular singer and stage actress, went to his place wearing the bloody dress saying she killed her husband. According to Jonathan he went back to Charlotte's house to retrieve another dress when her maid, Nellie Goode (Kay Walsh), spotted him before seeing Mr. Inwood dead on the floor. Nellie went to the police, and now he's begging Eve to help him in the case, feeling Charlotte is innocent. Eve decides to play investigator by pretending to be a news reporter, and bribes Nellie so she can take her place at the Inwood household for a couple of days. Hitchcock adapted the movie based on Selwyn Jepson's 1947 novel 'Man Running' with the help of his wife Alma Reville and scriptwriter Whitfield Cook.

Film reviewer Terrence Brady justifies Hitchcock's use of "Stage Fright's" opening 'lying flashback' by observing, "The film delves into various falsehoods, in almost every scene, from theatrical performances to outright lies. It investigates the deceptions people use to hide the truth about themselves and how this 'act' of lying is taken one step further onto the stage of everyday life." Hitchcock himself was fascinated by Jepson's novel, stating, "the aspect that intrigued me is that it was a story about the theatre. What specifically appealed to me was the idea that the girl who dreams of becoming an actress will be led by circumstances to play a real-life role by posing as someone else in order to smoke out a criminal." "Stage Fright" was the third movie Hitchcock directed for his Transatlantic Pictures. Since his previous two efforts for his film production company performed poorly, he signed with Warner Brothers to finance most of the movie and to distribute it. To get Marlene Dietrich on board, he gave her the freedom to handle all her scenes, including supervising her own lighting on the set. He respected her insights after working under director Josef von Sternberg as well as a few highly regarded cinematographers. Someone asked Hitchcock how the no-nonsense director handled the strong-willed actress. "Everything is fine," he replied. "Miss Dietrich has arranged the whole thing. She has told them exactly where to place the lights and how to photograph her." After filming wrapped, Hitchcock quipped, "Marlene was a professional star. She was also a professional cameraman, art director, editor, costume designer, hairdresser, makeup woman, composer, producer and director." The English production was the first time Hitchcock worked in England since 1939, and slotted only two American movie actresses to play among the all-British cast. One was his daughter Patricia in her film debut, which was one of the main reasons he wanted to film in England because she was attending London's Royal Academy of Dramatic Art as a drama student. The other was Jane Wyman, the Best Actress Oscar-winner for her role in 1948's "Johnny Belinda." Hitchcock figured her box office appeal would be an asset. Hers was the biggest role in the film, not only as Eve Gill, but as a housemaid replacing Nellie while leading her new friend, Wilfred 'Ordinary' Smith (Michael Wilding), the lead detective on the murder case who's attracted to her, astray. Pretending to be a dour maid in the services of Charlotte proved to be difficult for Wyman. "I ran into great difficulties with Jane," Hitchcock recalled "In her disguise as a lady's maid, she should have been rather unglamorous; after all, she was supposed to be impersonating an unattractive maid. But every time she saw the rushes and how she looked alongside Marlene Dietrich, she would burst into tears. She couldn't accept the idea of her face being in character, while Dietrich looked so glamorous, so she kept improving her appearance every day and that's how she failed to maintain the character." Dietrich didn't harbor a high opinion Wyman. Said Dietrich, "I heard she'd only wanted to do the movie if she were billed above me, and she got her wish. Hitchcock didn't think much of her. She looks too much like a victim to play a heroine, and God knows she couldn't play a woman of mystery, that was my part. Miss Wyman looks like a mystery nobody has bothered to solve." Wyman, however, appreciated Hitchcock's style of directing, stating during the American Film Institute's tribute to him, she learned more from this film than from any other, and was grateful for her experience with the director, saying how much she loves him.

Hitchcock would return to his native England to film only two more times, once briefly to shoot the famous Albert Hall sequence in 1955's "The Man Who Knew Too Much," and the second in 1971 for "Frenzy." Despite all the flack he received from "Stage Fright," the movie did make it acceptable for future scriptwriters to use the 'false story flashback.' Australian film director Richard Franklin praised Hitchcock's innovative opening, saying it was the "cutting edge of mystery filmmaking." Because of its use today modern movie audiences aren't surprise if the story's beginning leads them down a rabbit hole.

Doris Day's brief three-year movie career so far consisted of light musicals. But that didn't stop director Michael Curtiz from handing the singer-actress her first serious role in March 1950 "Young Man With A Horn" with Kirk Douglas and Lauren Bacall. Curtiz felt the character Jo Jordan, a singer in a band, was ideal for Day since her personal background had her singing alongside big bands such as Jimmy James, Bob Crosby and Les Brown. Biographer George Morris wrote, "Jo Jordan (Day) is a celluloid creation not far removed from the real Doris Day when she was just the kid with the vocal chords, traveling from town to town on one-night stands. Although the songs in 'Young Man With a Horn' are subordinated to the drama, Day's renderings are smooth and mellow, perfectly capturing the style and tone of the big band singer she is." Curtiz directed Day in her film debut, 1948's "Romance on the High Sea," which was followed by two similar musical comedies. Although "Young Man With A Horn" contained a few musical interludes, the picture about a trumpet player who felt he was more important than the entire band was largely a study of a tremendous ego, which the cheerful, optimistic Doris had a major part. Adapted from Dorothy Parker's 1938's novel of the same name, the Warner Brother's film-and the book-was based loosely on jazz cornet player Bix Beiderbecke, labeled as one of the most influential soloists in the 1920s who died of pneumonia brought on by alcoholism at age 28. Kirk Douglas plays Rick Martin, a loner dating back to his school days who finds his passion in a trumpet he bought for $9. Juano Hernandez (1949's "Intruder in the Dust" fame) plays jazz trumpeter Art Hazzard, teaching Rick how to perfect his playing, but also warning him of the pitfalls of a musician's life, especially as a soloist. Martin meets Jo Jordan (Day) in his first gig in a big band, accompanied by piano player Willy "Smoke" Willoughby (Hoagy Carmichael). It was Carmichael, a friend of Bix Beiderbecke, who gave valuable insights on the late musician to Kirk Douglas and Curtiz. Lauren Bacall plays Jo's friend Amy North, and ends up marrying Martin. But her dark past haunts their relationship, and only Jo can save him. Bacall was developing quite a reputation for rejecting scripts Warner Brothers had thrown her way, feeling most were inferior-but not this one.

Trumpeter Harry James, who's heard while Douglas mimics his playing in "Young Man With A Horn," taught the actor how to convincingly handle the instrument. Once filming began, Day wasn't all that happy to be in the dramatic film, largely because of Douglas' personality, ranking it as one of her least pleasant. "Kirk was civil to me and that's about all," Day later recounted. "But then Kirk never makes much of an effort toward anyone else. He's pretty wrapped up in himself. The production was one of the few joyless experiences I had in films." She sensed he and Bacall were giving her the cold shoulder, noting the two, good friends off the set, had dated before she met Humphrey Bogart. Douglas was equally dismissal of Day in their only movie together. "That face that she shows the world - smiling, only talking good, happy, tuned into God - as far as I'm concerned, that's just a mask," Douglas later said. "I haven't a clue as to what's underneath." But the actor was familiar with Day's manager and film producer Martin Melcher. He had given Kirk same bad financial advice in the past, and he warned Day about her manager. She ignored his warnings, and married Melcher in 1951, lasting until his death in 1968. Soon after, Day discovered he left her in serious debt. Melcher must have had an engaging personality since Douglas, despite their past problems with money, had hired him as president for his company's music publishing subsidiary.

Douglas was rocked by a scandal while in the midst of filming "Young Man With A Horn." Dancer-actress Jean Spangler, 23., had a brief part in the movie when, on October 7, 1949, she mysteriously disappeared. She had left her mother's home in the evening to see her ex-husband about child support. Her purse was found two days later in Los Angeles' Griffin Park with a note stating, "Kirk: Can't wait any longer. Going to see Dr. Scott. It will work best this way while mother is away." Police interviewed Spangler's mother, who recalled a man named Kirk picked her daughter up twice at the house, but remained in his car. When Douglas read about the note, he immediately called police and denied knowing of any Spangler. Later, when detectives came to his house, he did recollect a short small conversation he had with her on the set, but that was all. He issued a press release stating, "I told Detective Chief Thad Brown that I didn't remember the girl or the name until a friend recalled it was she who worked as an extra in a scene with me in my picture Young Man with a Horn . Then I recalled that she was a tall girl in a green dress. I talked and kidded with her a bit on the set. But I never saw her before or after that and have never been out with her." No suspect ever emerged from her disappearance.

"Young Man With A Horn" offers a glimpse of Doris Day's future as both an entertainer with a pleasant personality along with a dramatic side, giving her an added dimension to her ever-growing popularity as a film star.

Hollywood had a long history of trying to have animals look like they're talking realistically on the screen. Arthur Lubin was the first to successfully pull off the most natural-looking kspeaking animal when he directed February 1950's "Francis," featuring a mule who could converse in English no less. Skeptical at first when Lubin approached Universal Pictures with his novel idea, the studio gave him $10,000 to make a demonstration reel. His results were enough to convince studio executives to produce the movie about a mule who will talk only to a U. S. Army officer during World War Two. The comedy was a massive hit, inspiring Universal to create an addition six feature films on Francis, the talking mule. Previous attempts at having real-life animals speak in a human voice proved laughable, beginning with MGM's 1929 'Dogville Comedies,' which consisted of making dogs bark, then inserting human voices. 'Looney Tunes' animation director Tex Avery used rudimentary special effects in Paramount's 'Speaking of Animals' 1941 series, overlaying drawn moving lips placed around the animals' mouths to make it appear they were talking. Lubin went in a different direction Key to the "Francis" films was the casting of the perfect mule to play the main character. Lubin sought out horse trainer Les Hilton, owner of Hollywood's premier horse stable, which included the horse in 1942's 'My Friend Flicka.' Famed mule breeder Edward D. Frazier in Drexel, Missouri, provided the female Molly, beating out eight other competing mules because of her "appeal, great personality, long eyelashes and photogenic face." Molly appeared in all seven 'Francis' movies. Actress Mamie Van Doreen, star of 1954's 'Francis Joins the WACs,' observed, "Of course, Francis was really a female because the censors would not allow a mule's slong on screen, effectively upstaging everyone!" Molly was the first to win Picture Animal Star of the Year, sponsored by the American Humane Association, in 1951, and was runner up for the next several years. Molly retired to Hilton's ranch after her last movie, 1956's 'Francis in the Haunted House.' Donald O'Conner, star of six out of the seven 'Francis' movies, said of Molly, whom he referred to as a male, "Francis never attempted to hurt me in any way or step on me, even when I would walk behind him and hold on to his tail. He was the most docile animal I've ever worked with. Francis had three understudies, but nine out of ten times, they'd balk and he'd have to do it anyway. He was a trouper." Molly even made an appearance on the 1952 game show 'What's My Line?' Actor Chill Wills voiced Francis, whose mouth realistically moved. Hilton tied a nylon fishing line into Molly's mouth, contorting it as she was trying to free the line. Francis (Wills) always speaking sarcastically. Adapted from former newspaper reporter David Stern's 1945 collection of stories titled 'Francis,' all the films have a military setting, largely because Stern was in the service when he wrote his series. Stern, who wrote most of the 'Francis' screenplays, used his talking mule to satirize the stubbornness and incompetency of the higher-ranked Army officers whose orders oftentimes went against common sense. In Francis' first film second lieutenant Peter Sterling (O'Connor) finds himself separated from his squad behind enemy lines. An American bombardment sends him stumbling upon an Army mule, whom he discovers can talk. The mule, calling himself Francis "with an 'I,'" gets Sterling back to safety. No one believes Sterling, who's committed to an Army mental hospital. Seeing his friend in trouble, Francis eventually opens up to others, saving Sterling from permanent residency in an insane asylum. With each new 'Francis' film, however, the mule reverts back to only speaking privately to Sterling. O'Connor, 24, was mostly known for his musicals before selected for the 'Francis' movies, As a childhood film actor, O'Connor shared scenes with Gary Cooper and Betty Grable before he was drafted during WW2. O'Connor loved the role of Sterling, but found the Francis films demanding. Long afterwards he remembered they "were fun to make. Actually, they were quite challenging. I had to play straight in order to convince the audience that the mule could talk." By the seventh film, 1956 'Francis in the Haunted House,' O'Connor, director Lubin and voice-actor Wills dropped out of the series, with the lead going to Mickey Rooney as bumbling reporter David Prescott. The series was a springboard for David Janssen of TV's 'The Fugitive,' appearing in the third film, 1952's "Francis Goes To West Point.' Clint Eastwood, whom Lubin was the first to audition him when the former U. S. Army men arrived in Hollywood in 1954. "He was quite amateurish," recalled Lublin on Eastwood's first audition. "He didn't know which way to turn or which way to go or do anything." The director saw potential in Eastwood and, after drama classes and a couple of brief movie roles, gave him a part as a sailor in 1955's "Francis in the Navy." A decade later, Lubin resurrected the talking horse technique when he produced and directed a few episodes of the 1960s TV series 'Mr. Ed.' Unable to secure the television rights to 'Francis,' Lubin turned to author Walter Brooks' 1937 magazine story 'The Talking Horse,' hiring Les Hilton again with his fishing line. The palomino stallion Bamboo Harvester was fed the nearly invisible line through his headstall. Anytime Mr. Ed was required to speak, Hilton pulled on the string, moving his mouth. Sensitive to his children viewers, actor Alan Young made up the story the trainer used peanut butter in the horse's mouth to make it move. Bamboo got wise to the string after the first season, and automatically moved his mouth after Young stopped talking, putting the string-puller Les Hilton out of a job.

The Three Stooges revisited one of their all-time classics with Curly, this with Shemp taking the retired Stooge place in October 1949's "Vagabond Loafers," a title totally non-descriptive of the hard-working plumbers. The Three inexperienced plumbers answer an emergency call needing to patch a basement leak while a posh party celebrating the unveiling of an expensive painting takes place upstairs. Just as Curly did in 1940s "A Plumbing We Will Go," Shemp reroutes the bathroom's pipes into the electric wiring ducts. In fact, some of the footage in the earlier short film is sliced into the update, including regular Dudley Dickerson as the wide-eyed cook. But Dickerson's new scene is memorable after he battles with several water leaks throughout his kitchen. Wearing a raincoat, he announces to the hungry guests, "dinner's postponed on account of rain." The film, Dickerson's seventh Stooges' appearance, was his last, although the studio used a few of his previous scenes for remakes. Another regular's last credited appearance with The Three Stooges was Symona Boniface, whose films with the three comics dates back to 1935's "Pardon My Scotch." In "Vagabond Loafers" Boniface plays Mrs. Norfleet, typical of her characters with the Stooges as a snobbish, upper crust wife. Here she just purchased a 'Van Brocklin' painting for $50,000. The painting's name is a joke on the Los Angeles Rams' 1949 rookie quarterback, Norm Van Brocklin. When the Stooges as plumbers enter through the front door to fix the leak, she bellows, "How dare you come in here and mingle with my guests! Such impertinence!" She turns to her butler and commands, "Wilks, get them out of here and put them to work!" The Stooges have the last laugh when its discovered the 'Van Brocklin' painting has been stolen-by invited guest Mr. (Kenneth MacDonald) and Mrs. Allen (Christine McIntyre). Boniface was in a handful of uncredited roles and played in a Buster Crabbe 1950 serial episode before succumbing to pancreatic cancer in September 1950 at age 50.

November 1949's "Dunked in the Deep," the comics delve into current political events, something they only did infrequently in the past. The Jules White-directed short sees the Stooges as friendly neighbors to Borscht (Gene Roth), who's smuggling microfilm hidden in three watermelons overseas. He asks the three to meet him on a boat transport to deliver him the melons. Stuck on the ship as stowaways, the Stooges ultimately discover the hidden microfilm, sparking an adventurous chase that has to be seen to believe. The Felix Adler script refers to the highly publicized 'Pumpkin Papers,' which led to the conviction of U. S. government official Alger Hiss for colluding with the Soviets. An editor for Time magazine, Whittaker Chambers, had been a Communist spy in the 1930s for the Ware Group, a covert unit of the Communist USA party, of which Alger was a member. As the courier for the group, Chambers took a few documents in 1938 right before quitting just in case the Wares got tough with him. Ten years later Chambers knew Congress was focusing on him and his Communist ties. He placed the incriminating papers and microfilm inside a pumpkin on his Westminster, Maryland farm, implicating, among others, US State Department official Alger Hiss.

Gene Stutenroth, who shortened his name to Gene Roth, plays the Soviet agent in "Dunked in the Deep." The soon-to-be actor was a successful businessman visiting Universal studio to watch a movie in progress when a member of the film crew spotted him, thinking he looked like a friend of German dictator Adolf Hitler. Gene was in high demand during and after WW2, eventually appearing in over 250 films and TV shows. Of all the roles he had played, his most famous line was delivered to Shemp who had the microfilm in "Dunked in the Deep," "Giff me dat fill-um!" ("give me that film" with a Russian accent.). Shemp had hurt his hand while opening a door while filming, and yes, that's Moe's voice on the radio in the movie's opening.

The beginning of a new decade saw The Three Stooges sustain their popularity with the public with their Columbia Pictures short films after seventeen years on the screen. They began the 1950s with the release of January 1950 "Punchy Cowpunchers," written and directed by Ed Bernds. Of all the Stooges' films he handled, this was Bernds' personal favorite. The short had a concise opening and closing containing multiple sub-plots, supported by a musical soundtrack, something highly unusual in a Stooges' short. By this time working with the comics and supporting cast, Bernds knew to limit his scripts to just the bare minimum to allow the three geniuses fill in the details with their spontaneous dialogue and physical humor. This parody on Western movies sees the Stooges as members of the U. S. Cavalry who are sent on an undercover mission to infiltrate the notorious Dillon gang. In town they meet Nell (Christine McIntyre) and her boyfriend Elmer (Jock O'Mahoney), who realize the three are in trouble. They Stooges meet the gang at the Red Dog Saloon, which is the name of the famous decades-old establishment in Juneau, Alaska, still in existence. Elmer rides to get the Army's help, only to be told by the outpost's colonel (Vernon Dent) that it's payday-"And boys will be boys." This is the rare post-Curly film containing four main Stooges character actors in the same movie, McIntyre, Dent, Emil Sitka, and Kenneth MacDonald as the leader of the Dillons. "Punchy Cowpunches" was one of the most prominent Stooges' roles Mahoney played. As the stumbling, bumbling Elmer, he was able to showcase his stuntman's dexterity by tripping over furniture and performing an eye-popping leap when Nell accidentally hits him with a haymaker. Because of this movie, Columbia executives realized Mahoney had acting skills, and assigned him in two serial adventures, 1950's 'Cody of the Pony Express' and 1951's 'Roar of the Iron Horse.' Gene Autry, employed by Columbia Pictures, used Mahoney for his 1951 TV show 'The Range Rider' where he played the character Dick West. His second marriage was to actress Margaret Field, Sally Field's mother in 1952. They divorced sixteen years later.

Low Budget films don't necessarily mean crapola movies. Cited as one of the best B-pictures is the black-and-white crime thriller January 1950's "Gun Crazy." Its influence about a couple on the run after robbing banks and killing people is enormous, with such films as Warren Beatty and Faye Dunaway's 1967 "Bonnie and Clyde" and Oliver Stone's 1994 "Natural Born Killers," following the pattern established by the script of blacklisted Dalton Trumbo. In fact, Dunaway wore the same style of beret and sweater actress Peggy Cummins had on in the film. The 1950 picture was an affirmation of Hollywood's post-WW2 obsession connecting violence with sex.

The story of sharpshooter Annie Starr (Cummins) and gun aficionado Bart Tare (John Dall) has the two meet at her struggling carnival show. Annie realizes there's more to her dreary life than shooting lighted candles off volunteers' heads. She looks towards holding up banks, largely for the money, but also for the thrill of getting away with it. Annie's the strong-willed and the brains in the relationship, with Bart totally caught up in her romantic web. "Gun Crazy" is famous for a nearly four-minute unedited sequence showing the two robbing a bank. Director Joseph Lewis, nicknamed "Wagon-Wheel Joe" for his habit of filming through wheels to frame his characters, positioned his camera in the back seat of a Cadillac, capturing the two driving on a city street on their way to hold up a bank. No one in town was told about the filming besides an actor posing as a police officer and the bank. Cummins and Dall ad-lib their lines throughout their drive and the robbery. Only two pedestrians react as Dall carries the loot to the car with alarm bells ringing. Film reviewer Gary Loggins writes, "It's a pure adrenaline rush of a scene, and the thrill in Laurie's eyes as they make their getaway says more about her character than words could do justice." Two audio technicians with boom mics were strapped onto the roof of the car to record Annie and the policeman speaking on the sidewalk as the camera rolled inside the car. To convince producers Frank and Maurice King he could minimize the 17-page scripted scene to one uninterrupted shot, Lewis recorded a dry run filming with a 16mm camera to show how the robbery sequence could play out.

The Kings specialized in hard-nosed low-budget crime films, producing the mega-hit 1945 "Dillinger." They were the first to hire backlisted Hollywood screenwriters, with Dalton Trumbo, just released from jail after serving nearly a year, contracted to write the script for "Gun Crazy." He pared down the bulky 450-page script MacKinlay Kantor had adapted from his own 1940 Saturday Evening Post story. Frank King later said, "We just had a short budget to make a picture and saw this as an opportunity to get a fine writer to work for us whom we could not otherwise afford." Trumbo, credited under writer Millard Kaufman's name, emphasized the love affair between the untamed Laurie, who gets an adrenaline rush by killing people, and Bart, her opposite who possesses an overriding aversion for taking a life. This was the first of many screenplays Trumbo wrote under an alias name.

Lewis originally wanted Veronica Lake to play Annie, but British actress Cummins, 23, agreed to the role. Cummins saw her first Hollywood film as the lead Amber in 1947's "Forever Amber" cut short after the studio replaced her with Linda Darnell. After a handful of movies for 20th Century Fox, she made "Gun Crazy" before returning to England permanently. In a 2009 interview, Cummings said of low-budget film exit, "It was a great part. It was a brilliant story from a brilliant writer. We had a very good director and a great cameraman. I think John Dall and myself were in those days quite well-suited in the parts we had." Her last film was in 1961, devoting the rest of her life to charity work. She died in 2017 at age 92.

Dall, who made a splash in his film debut 1945's "The Corn is Green" with Bette Davis, earning his only Oscar nomination, had a major role in Alfred Hitchcock's 1948's "Rope." He appeared in only three more movies after "Gun Crazy," one as a Roman soldier in 1960's "Spartacus." He turned to live stage acting and television, dying from a heart attack in 1971 at age 50. Filmlink Magazine called Dall's acting in "Gun Crazy, "a deserved cult sensation and Dall's chemistry with Cummins is electric." Film historians point to Fritz Lang's 1937 "You Only Live Once" as the movie which introduced killer lovers running away from the law. But it was "Gun Crazy," whose initial release was titled 'Deadly is the Female,' that modernized and heightened the violence copied in later romantic couple crime thrillers. The American Film Institute nominated this cult film as Best Love Story, the Most Thrilling, and the Best Movie Ever Made. Time Magazine included the film in its Top 100 Movies, while it was voted as displaying the 25th Best Movie Poster Ever Produced. And it is one of '1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die.' Director/biographer Peter Bogdanovich asked Lewis in a 1994 interview, "Do you have a favorite among your films?" The director quickly answered, "Gun Crazy." He was then asked, What's your second favorite?" Lewis didn't hesitate, saying "Gun Crazy."

"Here-for me-is the climax of thirty-seven years of motion picture making, the dream of a lifetime come true," sighed a relieved but proud director Cecil B. DeMille after he finished his December 1949's "Samson and Delilah." The number one box office hit of the year, and the third highest grossing movie ever behind 1939's "Gone With The Wind" and 1946's "The Best Years of Our Lives," this Biblical epic tells the story of the Hebrew strongman Samson (Victor Mature) and the woman Delilah (Hedy Lamarr), who turned against him as described in the Book of Judges. This was Paramount Pictures biggest money-maker since 1923's "The Ten Commandments," also directed by DeMille.

"Samson and Delilah" was the third-to-last movie DeMille directed. He initially approached the subject of the two lovers in 1935 when he said, "Some subjects require less outlay than others. My next is going to be a simple story about a man and a woman." Despite thinking the Biblical tale would require a modest budget, DeMille wasn't able to get his project off the ground until after WW2. He based his film on an obscure 1927 novel, 'Judge and Fool,' by Vladimir Jabotinsky, which described Delilah as the younger sister to Samson's bride-to-be, the Philistine Semadar. "The Bible does not say Delilah was the younger sister," related DeMille. "The Bible introduces her much later as a woman Samson loved. But she could have been the younger sister." Samson's initial rejection of Delilah motivated her to cut his hair, making him impotent when the Philistines overtook him.

DeMille envisioned Samson as a combination of Tarzan, Robin Hood and Superman. He felt Victor Mature displayed all three traits after seeing the actor in 1947's "Kiss of Death." Once the actor was on the set, however, the director wasn't exactly enamored by Mature's lack of a spine when it came time for the brawny actor to perform his own stunts. In an early scene where Samson wrestles a lion, its trainer declawed the animal while taking out all its teeth. Despite all those precautions, Mature cowered at the thought of being bear-hugged by the animal, saying "I don't want to be gummed to death." DeMille was disgusted by the muscular actor; after all he had filmed Gloria Swanson in 1919's "Male and Female" where she cozied up to a live lion. The director turned to stuntman Kay Bell as a double. In the sequence leading up to the lion attack, DeMille wanted to film the lion and the actor sizing up one another. "In the scene where I was supposed to be stalking him," Mature recalled, "DeMille kept urging me to get closer, and I was calling out, 'Nice kitty, nice kitty.' The cameraman, seeing the situation, yelled, 'If he jumps, Vic, try to keep yourself properly lighted for the shot.'" Mature was even afraid of fake swords and deep water. During one shot, the exasperated director, with megaphone in hand, bellowed, "I have met a few men in my time. Some have been afraid of heights, some have been afraid of water, some have been afraid of fire, some have been afraid of closed spaces. Some have even been afraid of open spaces -- or themselves. But in all my 35 years of picture-making experience, Mr. Mature, I have not until now met a man who was 100 percent yellow." The actor shot back, "Take it easy, Bud. You can't replace me, y'know. Where else in town could you get anything this big who can talk." DeMille, said Mature, "Didn't know how to take me. He just stood there. Now he laughs." After DeMille considered several actresses to play Delilah, Hedy Lamarr was selected. Her agent bragged to Lamarr, in her first Technicolor movie, this was a great opportunity to work with the famed director. "C. B. is brilliant. When it comes to sex and spectacle, no one can tear down a temple and tear off a piece at one and the same time like he can. When he sells sex, sister, people buy because he wraps it in fancy paper with pink ribbons." Towards the end of her career, Lamarr considered her role as Delilah as her best acting performance and her favorite part ever. But she admits it was a challenge working with the difficult director. DeMille recalled, "We argued quite a bit but I respected Hedy. When I was blowing up, Hedy remained calm. Though I dread doing another picture with her because of our clash of temperaments." Despite all the disputes, the director did asked her to be in his next picture, 1952's "The Greatest Show on Earth," but she refused. "He took too much out of me," Lamarr admitted. "I don't even say I was right, but as a successful actress, I was entitled to cut my own pattern and let the others cut theirs." The actress did get the chance to wear ten different costumes, including a peacock gown and cape consisting of 2,000 feathers. It took twelve women three weeks to create this dashing outfit seen towards the end of the movie, contributing to Edith Head's second Oscar win for Best Color Costume Design.

Angela Lansbury played Delilah's older sister Semadar, even though the actress was ten years younger than Lamarr. Henry Wilcoxon, 43, who was under consideration back in 1935 to play Samson, is Prince Ahtur, an adversary of Samson's who quickly marries Semadar before the strongman can return with the cloaks he promised to pay for a lost bet. Wilcoxon was injured by a collapsed column during the climatic temple destruction scene, and went up to DeMille with a stream of blood rippling down his face. "Good God, Harry, you look terrible," said the director in astonishment. "You're going to hold up production." Wilcoxon replied, "Well, I wouldn't be the first actor to be destroyed by a (newspaper) column." George Sanders was paid $100,000 (over $1 million today) to play the villain The Saran of Gaza. He was so overjoyed by the role opposite Mature he promptly went out and purchased 26 television sets from the store Victor owned and gave them to his friends.

"Samson and Delilah" is famous for the spectacular conclusion where Samson is brought into the temple of Dagon, the Philistines' major god, to be killed. Blinded, he was able to achieve a feat no mere mortal would be able to perform, wedged between two columns with just his bare hands. The set cost over $150,000 and took a year to film. It was shot on two Paramount sound stages with the bottom half of the temple at full scale. The upper section with the Dagon statue was processed as a matte special effect. The conclusion was shot on three separate occasions with a number of Technicolor cameras, taking months to reconstruct between each shoot.

Billy Wilder's 1950 "Sunset Boulevard" has a scene where Gloria Swanson pays a visit on the set of "Samson and Delilah" where the former silent movie actress thinks DeMille wants to hire her for his next film. The four-day shoot for Wilder's picture was filmed in May 1949, several weeks after the Biblical film wrapped, and was recreated for "Sunset Boulevard." After the session wrapped, Wilder thanked DeMille, with the parting shot, "Very good, my boy. Leave your name with my secretary. I may have a small part for you in my next picture." Besides its number one box office ranking, "Samson and Delilah" won two Oscars, one for Best Color Art Direction, and the other for Best Color Costume Design. The epic was nominated for Best Color Cinematography, Best Music Score (Victor Young) and Best Special Effects. The American Film Institute members nominated the DeMille picture as the Most Passionate Movie, the Best Film Score, and the Best Epic.

Life can be just as strange as fiction. In the case of the domestic thriller December 1949's "The Reckless Moment," the circumstances surrounding its production proved life came be as treacherous as fictional plots, as in the case of this film's leading personalities. Prominent independent film producer Walter Wagner and his wife, the movie's lead actress, Joan Bennett, were involved in one of Hollywood's biggest scandals at the time.

Wagner had taken a financial hit in 1948's "Joan of Arc," starring Ingrid Bergman, in his previous movie. He hired the respected Max Ophuls to direct "The Reckless Moment," taking a second mortgage on his and Joan's house to help finance it. The film's story about a mother who hides a corpse in an effort to protect her daughter, leading to a series of deceptions, has an uncanny parallel to Wagner and his stormy marriage to Bennett.

Film historian Karina Longworth notes, "Ironically, the movie that put Joan's house in danger cast Joan as a woman in danger of losing her hard-won domestic stability." Shortly after "The Reckless Moment's" failure at the box office, Bennett began having an affair with her agent Jennings Lang. By this time Wagner was relying on Joan's salary to keep them afloat. He was becoming suspicious of his wife as he saw their bank account dwindling. He hired a private eye to keep tabs of her as she was vacationing without him in New Orleans and the Caribbean. The detective found the actress spending the evenings with her agent Jennings in his Beverly Hills apartment, and he revealed to Wagner all the sordid details. "For two years things had been getting worse and worse," Wanger related. "I felt pretty well physically, but there were just so many disappointments and ordeals." Grabbing a gun, he found Joan in her green Cadillac outside the MCA talent agency waiting for Lang to end his workday. As Wanger biographer Matthew Bernstein wrote, "There was a violent argument between the two men, with Bennett yelling, 'Get away from here and leave us alone.' Wanger was standing there like a man hypnotized." Lang held up his hands, but Wanger fired two times, missing on his first shot, but hitting the agent's thigh on the second. Once police arrived on the scene, Wanger told them, "I shot him because I thought he was breaking up my home." Coincidentally, Bennett's role as Lucia Harper in "The Reckless Moment" resembled the actress' real life. Lucia had discovered a man's corpse whom she thought was killed by her daughter the evening before. She dragged the body into the family boat and deposited him in the ocean. Adapted from Elisabeth Holdings 1947's novel of the same, this thriller saw Lucia living a lie at every turn. She knew her rebellious daughter Bea (Geraldine Brooks), an art student, was seeing a much older man, crooked art dealer Ted Darby (Sheppard Strudwick). Lucia warns Darby to stay away from her daughter, but he abruptly visits Bea at the family's boat house. That night Bea and Ted have a huge argument, and as he was leaving he fell off an elevated walkway, landing on an upright boat anchor, impaling him. Bea, not aware of his fall, retreated back to the house. After Lucia, who had discovered the corpse on her morning walk, disposes the body, she keeps it a secret from everyone. Enforcer Martin Donnelly (James Mason) pays Lucia a visit shortly afterwards, and deduces she killed Darby. He blackmails the housewife before falling in love with her and her domesticated lifestyle.

"The Reckless Moment" was Max Ophuls last of four movies he made in Hollywood after escaping his native Germany as Adolf Hitler rose to power. Ophuls visually frames each scene showing the walls closing in on Lucia as she's hiding her shame and secret from the family. "With Ophuls, there's no ignoring the backgrounds or ancillary action - it all means something, and is all as complex and textured as the foreground drama," wrote film reviewer Michael Atkinson. With nagging father-in-law Tom (Harry O'Neil) questioning her every move and son David (David Blair) nosing around, Lucia feels claustrophobic as blackmailer Donnelly demands payment for the deceased art dealer's loans-just as in real life Bennett hid her affair with her agent.

"The Reckless Moment" marked one of the first roles Bennett transitioned into more motherly parts such as 1950's "Father of the Bride" and 1951's "Father's Little Dividend," a departure from her earlier femme fatale on-screen persona. That was before her husband's finger-trigger outburst. She saw her career free-fall after the shooting, appearing in only four movies in the 1950s, forcing her to seek stage work. "I might as well have pulled the trigger myself," lamented Joan years later. The December 1951 shooting drew a four-month sentence for Wanger, who pled temporary insanity. Remarkably, he and Joan remained married until 1965. The box office failure of "The Reckless Moment" was a disappointment for director Ophuls in his last Hollywood movie. He left the United States and returned to France where he enjoyed his best years in film. His final American movie, as unsuccessful as it was in its initial release, has gained quite a solid reputation over the years, and is listed as one of '1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die.'

During her peak years Olivia de Havilland was the go-to actress for some of cinema's most inpactful dramatic roles. She accepted the part of Catherine Sloper, the daughter of a wealthy physician in December 1949's "The Heiress," an Academy Award Best Picture nominee. Her portrayal of the timid daughter of a strong-willed doctor earned de Havilland her sixth Academy Award acting nomination--her last--as well as her second Oscar for Best Actress. After seeing the Broadway play from which the movie is based on, de Havilland contacted William Wyler, who directed more Oscar-winning performances than anyone in Hollywood, encouraging him to see the play for a possible film. She may have affected by one of its underlying messages resonating with female viewers who recognized a new independence after WW2 seeing how Catherine responded to Morris' actions. Wyler loved the 1947 play by Augustus and Ruth Goetz so much he convinced Paramount Pictures to buy its rights.

Intrigued by the play's psychological underpinnings and the tension between family members, Wyler had the Goetzes write the screenplay to "The Heiress." Ruth Goetz recalled, Wyler "wanted to know all about (Henry) James's original story, and what he changed and what we had supplied. By the time we left him that day, we knew he wanted us. I thought he was first-rate." Wyler did ask the couple to change the character of Morris Townsend (Montgomery Clift), who meets Catherine Sloper at a ball, and becomes friendly with her, the rich daughter of Dr. Austin Sloper (Ralph Richardson). The director wanted to tamp down the obvious references of Morris as a male gold digger solely interested in the money of plain and socially awkward Catherine. Wyler later said of the Goetzes' objection to his request, "When I saw the play in New York, it was so obvious, the way he was leering and estimating the value of everything in Dr. Sloper's home. He was clearly, heavily, and awkwardly established as being there only for the money. I decided I wouldn't do that. It became an argument, but I still think I was right." Actor Basil Rathbone, famous for his Sherlock Holmes roles, played Dr. Sloper on Broadway, and was downcast when he heard English actor Ralph Richardson, 46, was selected over him. Errol Flynn, one of Wyler's initial first choices to play Morris, eventually was nixed by the director because of his on-screen persona as a rake, which would have made the suitor's intentions obvious from the beginning. Montgomery Clift, in only his third film, was Wyler's next pick. The initial meeting between the actor and the Goetzes was less than impressive. "He looked like a bum," remembered Augustus, who greeted the actor wearing a jacket that was torn, blue jeans and a simple T-shirt, "and I thought, how could he ever play the suave, elegant Townshend?" The writers had no say in the cast selection, but when they saw Montgomery on the set dressed in a formal 1840s attire and make-up, a surprised Augustus recalled, "The transformation was startling. He was the most fashionable youth I ever saw." Clift, who brought his acting coach Mira Rostova on to the set every day, wasn't the warm and fuzzy actor some were expecting. Wyler greeted the young actor the first day of the shoot, and related, "Monty came to me on the set and said quietly, 'If you ever bawl me out, don't do it in front of the crew.'" Clift, 28, was a big proponent of 'method acting,' and looked down on veteran actress de Havilland, writing to friend actress Sandy Campbell after the production wrapped, "She memorizes her lines at night and comes to work waiting for the director to tell her what to do. You can't get by with that in the theater; and you don't have to in the movies. Her performance is being totally shaped by Wyler." Clift was also miffed by Richardson's lack of spontaneity on different takes for each scene, not allowing him to vary his own acting. "Can't that man make any mistakes?" He thought to himself. Wyler had a different opinion on the Old Vic English veteran, saying, "You don't direct an actor like Sir Ralph Richardson." Wyler and de Havilland had only one disagreement when the director felt she didn't display the emotion he expected from her in one crucial scene. Morris doesn't show up for Catherine's planned elopement after she told him her father threatened to disinherit her if she marries him. After several takes, de Havilland angrily threw the suitcase at the demanding director. Wyler finally realized what was wrong: the empty suitcase she was carrying up the stairs was too light, so he filled it with heavy books. The ploy worked as the weighted prop showed Catherine struggling upstairs in total dejection.

Composer Aaron Copland won the Oscar for Best Musical Score after three previous Academy Award nominations. But Wyler overruled the so-called "Dean of American Composers" by having Hugo Friedhofer rewrite the music in the opening credits as well as other sections, leaving only 15 minutes of Copland's work in the film, which the composer didn't appreciate.

"The Heiress" carried the most nominations going into the 22nd Academy Awards, but not one for Clift, who didn't like his acting in the film. He failed to attend the movie's premier. Also not nominated was Miriam Hopkins as Catherine's aunt Penniman. This was Hopkins first movie since 1943's "Old Acquaintance" with Bette Davis, but she did win a Golden Globe acting award for her auntie part. De Havilland said she was humbled getting her second Oscar for Best Actress after her first in 1946's "To Each His Own." "When I won the first award in 1946, I was terribly thrilled," de Havilland told the press after the ceremonies. "But this time I felt solemn, very serious and shocked. Yes, shocked! It's a great responsibility to win the award twice." "The Heiress" also won the Oscar for Best Black-and-White Set Direction and Best Costume Design by Edith Head, her first of an Academy Awards record eight career Oscars. The Academy nominated it for Best Picture, Wyler for Best Director, his seventh, Richardson for Best Supporting Actor, and Leo Tover for Best Black-and-White Cinematography. The American Film Institute nominated the picture for the Greatest American Movie, Greatest Musical Score and Greatest Love Story. And it's one of '1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die."

Combat on land, sea or air can be psychologically damaging as well as physically exhausting. In one of cinema's most insightful movies looking into the physical and mental limits of those in war is December 1949's "12 O'Clock High." This Academy Award Best Picture nominee ranks as one of the most highly-regarded films on the subject. The World War Two film was set in 1942 when the United States airmen were tasked with bombing German military facilities and factories during the daylight. Their assignments were as dangerous, if not more so than their British counterparts who flew night bombing missions. The Gregory Peck-headlining picture vividly portrays the stress these American aviators underwent, not knowing if they would return safely back to their English bases.

"Consider yourselves already dead," said Brigadier General Frank Savage (Peck) to the airmen under his command as they were about to embark on yet another dangerous bombing mission. "Once you accept that idea, it won't be so tough." Historically casualty rates were high in the early days of the United States' involvement in WW2 as its Army Air Corps' bombers were shot down in high numbers. Its head command insisted daylight attacks were much more effective in eliminating enemy targets than night flights. Sy Bartlett and Beirne Lay based their screenplay on the 1948 book they wrote of the same name, using their experiences during WW2 to portray the aviators of the fictitious 918th Bomb Group, known as the 'hard-luck group.' The pressure of flying over enemy territory facing daily ground flack and fighter planes was enormous. Bartlett and Lay combined two WW2 officers to constitute Brig. Gen. Savage. One was Colonel Frank Armstrong, known for troubleshooting unfit air units. Relieving sub-par commanding officers, Col. Armstrong was harsh in his retraining of the men. He personally led the first B-17 Fortress air raid into Europe. When Gen. Savage in "12 O'Clock High" experiences the strain of repeated bombing runs, his combat fatigue leads to a catatonic state, similar to what the writers' knew of another Air Corps officer, Brig. Gen. Newton Longfellow, who suffered a similar breakdown after a particularly devastating mission. 20th Century Fox was grateful for the cooperation of the U. S. Air Force, established in 1947 to replace its predecessor, the Army Air Corps, in supplying planes and air bases for its filming. The military brass, however, strongly objected to Savage's behavior portrayed in the script, claiming its officers would never "burst out hysterically or have a complete mental collapse." The studio changed the general's breakdown to a measured, temporary state of listlessness, satisfying the Pentagon.

Peck, who didn't qualify to be in the service during WW2 because of a medical condition, was a hard sell to play Gen. Savage. The actor saw similarities between "12 O'Clock High" and the earlier MGM's 1948 "High Command," a box office flop starring Clark Gable centered around the stress of Bomber Group officers handling missions over Europe during the war. Fox president Darryl F. Zanuck reasoned the Gable film had too much star power, overwhelming the characters they were playing. Still, well-known actors such as Dean Jagger, who won the Oscar for Best Supporting Actor and Gary Merrill co-star alongside Peck.

"12 O'Clock High" was originally planned to be filmed in Technicolor. But with actual footage used from American and German planes in aerial combat, the mix precluded color film juxtaposition with the black-and-white pictures shot in WW2. Filming at Eglin Air Force Base outside Pensacola, Florida, Henry King directed the opening sequence showing a B-17 crash landing without its wheels down. The plane was steered by stunt pilot Paul Mantz, who was paid $4,500 ($60,000 in 2025 money), the largest amount handed to a stuntman until the 1970s. This was the only time a pilot flew a B-17 alone without a crew on board. The term '12 O'Clock High' came from the direction enemy planes flew diving from above the bombers, the B-17s most vulnerable approach. American aviation designers began outfitting the bombers with topside gun turrets to ward off those attacks. In one scene the German planes are seen ramming the U. S. bombers, which actually happened during the last months of the war. Germany built later fighter planes with reinforced wings for the purpose of clipping the bombers' wings to make them crash. The German pilots also adopted a tactic known as 'Sonderkommando Elbe' where they would dive from above or fly head on into the bombers before bailing out at the last second. Trouble was if the pilot left too early, the plane could veer off, and if he left too late he would die from the explosion.

"12 O'Clock High" continues to be shown today at military academies, colleges and the branches of officer candidate schools for its examples of leadership and the handling of stress in combat situations. Film critic Christopher Tookey calls it "probably the best picture about the pressures which war imposes." Besides nominated for the Academy Awards Best Picture, the WW2 aviation film saw Peck, 33, earn his fourth of five Oscar Best Actor nominations. The American Film Institute nominated the war movie as one of the Greatest as well as one of the Most Thrilling pictures ever made in Hollywood. The 1960s television series '12 O'Clock High' starred Robert Lansing as Gen. Savage in the first season before replaced by actor Paul Burke as the colonel who relieves him for the next two seasons.

Hollywood musicals were never filmed on locations other than inside its film studios until Gene Kelly's directorial debut, December 1949's "On The Town." Kelly felt the movie, set in New York City, would greatly benefit if some of its scenes and songs were filmed in the city. MGM executives realized the advantages and granted him one week to shoot there. Kelly along with co-director Stanley Donen captured The Big Apple's landmarks, filming the three Navy sailors romping around on a 24-hour leave from their ship. The movie won the Oscar for Best Musical Score, and, because of its location shots, marked a turning point in cinema. Donen biographer Joseph A. Casper wrote, the picture was the "first bona fide musical that moved dance, as well as the musical genre, out of the theater and captured it with and for film rather than on film; the first to make the city an important character; and the first to abandon the chorus." It also marked Kelly's introduction to modern dance to the screen, a style he would later expand on in his 1950s movies.

Kelly's first directed film was based on the 1944 Broadway musical 'On The Town,' which itself was adapted from Leonard Bernstein's earlier ballet 'Fancy Free,' the composer's first stage work. Jerome Roberts directed the ballet about three Navy sailors looking for love on a day's leave in New York City. For the Broadway and the movie musicals, writing couple Betty Camden and Adolf Green shaped the characters of Gary (Gene Kelly), who falls for the city subway's beauty pageant winner Miss Turnstile, Ivy Smith (Vera-Ellen), after spotting her picture on the wall. A day's long search for the elusive Ivy results in a wild cab ride driven by man-hungry Hildy Esterhazy (Betty Garrett), who seductively slobbers over Chip (Frank Sinatra). The third sailor Ozzie (Jules Munshin) becomes friendly with anthropologist Claire Huddenson (Ann Miller) at the Museum of Natural History. Taxi driver Hildy's plans to seduce the virginal Chip is frustrated by her roommate Lucy Shmeeler (Alice Pieare), who suffers from a vicious cold. Pieare was the only holdover from the Broadway play to appear in the movie, and is most famous for her role as nosey neighbor Gladys Kravitz in TV's 1960s 'Bewitch.' Filming Anne Miller's number 'Prehistoric Man' in the natural history museum (back at the studio), her skirt caught the edge a large dinosaur's bone, sending the prop cascading to the ground. The crew had to spend an inordinate amount of time reassembling the skeleton, delaying the production.

"On the Town" kept just four of Bernstein's songs, relying on Roger Edens' new tunes to pad the soundtrack. The film opens and closes with the song 'New York, New York' (not to be confused with Martin Scorsese's 1977 movie theme song.). The Bernstein composition saw its lyrics changed by the censors at the Hays Office from 'helleva town' to 'a wonderful town.' Sinatra later combined the Scorsese 1977 song with the first stanza of the 1944 Bernstein composition as his live concert showstopper. Sinatra's movie persona at the time "On the Town" was produced was playing naive characters, which was remarkable considering he was at the height of his wild public mania with his adoring fans. At the tail end of filming the opening 'New York, New York' number in the city, a mob gathered to watch the three sailors sightseeing at 30 Rockefeller Plaza. The perceptive viewer can spot the heads of spectators peering over the statue of Prometheus to catch a glimpse of Sinatra. The popular singer was the butt end of jokes from cast members throughout the filming because the producers felt he needed padding in his derrière to fill out his flat buttocks. Actor Jules Munshin inserted a line about Sinatra's personal affair with actress Ava Gardner by telling Kelly after he shook off a pretty female in his quest for Miss Turnstile, "Who you got waiting for you in New York, Ava Gardner?" Filming in New York City wasn't the easiest task for the production crew to achieve since the massive Technicolor camera had to be accommodated in a modified station wagon to capture the three as they traveled throughout several Manhattan sites.

Kelly choreographed all the dance numbers in "On The Town." Viewers remarked how fluid Sinatra looked dancing in the musical. The singer later admitted, "I could never dance, but Gene Kelly made me look like I could." The Bernstein tune 'A Day In New York' featured a complex series of jazz and ballet dance sequences. Only Kelly and Vera-Ellen, who was a trained ballerina, danced in the dreamy scenes; the other four lead actors were substituted by professional dancers. The film delighted MGM head musical producer Arthur Freed after viewing the rushes, writing to Kelly and Dornen the dance numbers "were the greatest and most inspiring works I have seen since I have been making moving pictures. Emeric Pressburger and Michael Powell can't shine your shoes - red, white or blue. Much love from your proud producer." Kelly praised Donen, 25, in his first credited director role. He noted, "when you are involved in doing choreography for film, you must have expert assistants. I needed one to watch my performance, and one to work with the cameraman on the timing; without such people as Stanley, I could never have done these things." Years later Kelly still had fond memories of the musical, saying he "made better pictures than that, but that was the apex of our talent. That was it." The Writers Guild of America named "On The Town" the year's Best Screenplay while the American Film Institute ranks the film as the 19th Best Musical Ever Made, and its composition "New York, New York" as the 41st Best Song in Movies. It's one of '1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die.'

Milton Berle earned the nickname "Mr. Television" because he dominated the airwaves during the early days of TV in the late 1940s. As host of television's first widely popular program, 'Texaco Star Theater,' Berle's first year on the show inspired Warner Brothers to make a movie with him in November 1949's "Always Leave Them Laughing." The comedy was filmed during Berle's summer break from TV, and serves as a historic window displaying his comedic talents in his first year of stardom on the tube.

"Always Leave Them Laughing" shows Berle playing actor Kipling Cooper as he starts out as a struggling nightclub entertainer in Ashbury Park, New Jersey. After an unsuccessful run there he hobbles back to New York City where he eventually fills in for the ailing comedian Eddie Eagan (Bert Lahr) while in the middle of his touring show. The movie turns serious towards the end, allowing Berle to show off his dramatic chops, which remarkably he failed to earn an Oscar. With the working title "The Thief of Broadway," the picture makes fun of Cooper's-and Berle's-habit during his vaudeville days of copying jokes from other comics and working them into his own personal repertoire. One scene shows a character making a wise crack. Berle came back with "I wish I'd said that," to which the person replied, "You will." Newspaper columnist Walter Winchell labeled Berle 'The Thief of Bad Gags." Even Bob Hope said of Berle, he "never heard a joke he didn't steal." Berle had credited parts in movies since 1933 at 25, and appeared in film as early as a seven-year-old in 1915. He was especially active in Hollywood in the early 1940s, seen in a number of movies such as 1941's "Sun Valley Serenade." He rose from the ranks of a vaudeville comic and emcee during the 1920s, and frequently was heard on radio in the 1930s and the 1940s, hosting his own variety program, 'The Milton Berle Show.' Meanwhile, the 'Texaco Star Theater' began on radio in 1938, and was hosted by comedian Fred Allen from 1940 until 1944. Once it transformed to television in 1948, Berle began as its host in 1948, displaying his old vaudeville schtick and outlandish attire. His presence on early Tuesday evenings that first season sent sales of television sets skyrocketing, from 500,000 sold in his first year when the program drew 80 percent of TV's viewership in that time slot, to 30 million when the series ended in 1956. Berle's popularity during those early years on television forced many movie and live theater owners to delay their shows until 9 p.m. When the 'Texaco Star Theater' clocked off. Other businesses, including restaurants, would close up shop entirely on Tuesdays, seeing their patrons disappear. Monitors at a Detroit reservoir noticed its water level suddenly drop at 9 p.m. When the show ended. An investigation revealed hundreds of thousands of viewers waited until the program finished before going to the bathroom.

Berle was paid $75,000 and a percentage of the profits to be in "Always Leave Them Laughing." Co-stars Virginia Mayo, as the gold digging wife of Eddie Eagan, and Ruth Roman spiced up the plot with their sex appeal. The Hollywood Reporter wrote the movie was "the comedy riot of year," describing the actor's "slapstick is superb." The New York Times film critic Bosley Crowther was less kind, saying, "television (and Mr. Berle) should be left to homes and bars." Berle took Crowther's advice and didn't return to the big screen for another fourteen years, starring in the 1963 comedy, "It's A Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World." Film reviewer David Serritt noted, "Rarely laugh-out-loud funny but often likable and lively, the comedy affords an interesting glimpse at TV's first superstar in a big-screen vehicle that was made for him."

A backlog of World War Two combat films produced during the war was largely exhausted nearly a year after Japan's surrender. After that Hollywood ignored the carnage of the conflict, concentrating largely on producing movies about the adjustments service men and woman had to make returning home. Producer Dore Schary, newly hired by MGM, brought the first WW2 combat film to the screen after a long hiatus in November 1849's "Battleground." The movie, an Academy Award Best Picture nominee, was so successful it led to other film studios to make their own WW2 movies. It's popularity was one of the reasons Schary was elevated later as a replacement to long-time MGM boss Louis B. Mayer.

"Battleground" ranked second at the box office for the year just behind 1949's "Jolson Sings Again." It was a pet project of Schary's when he was a lead producer at RKO, but the incoming RKO owner Howard Hughes immediately rejected the Robert Pirosh script. Schary quickly exercised his departure option and left RKO. MGM then hired Schary as vice president in charge of production in July 1948. The new producer favored "message movies," philosophically stating, "Films must provoke thought in addition to entertainment. They must educate and inform as they entertain." After the success of "Battleground," The New York Times proclaimed Schary as "a boy wonder, very probably the most important man in the movie industry." The combat movie proved to be MGM's most profitable film over the past five years.

It wasn't easy for Schary to convince Mayer to make a movie about a U. S. Army regiment caught in the middle of the German onslaught during the Battle of the Bulge. Mayer initially turned down the project, feeling the public was sick of war and WW2 films. But Schary had stipulated in his contract he wouldn't sign with MGM unless "Battleground" was funded, forcing his boss to sign on to the project. Schary justified bringing "Battleground" to the screen by claiming it would show "the war was worth fighting despite the terrible losses. There was something at stake. It was the first time in a long, long time, hundreds of years, that there had been a real danger of a takeover by a very evil and strong force." Screenwriter Pirosh, who was drafted into the Army in 1943, saw his regiment, the 320th Infantry, ordered to plug up the Allies gaps during the Battle of the Bulge. Two years later he revisited the Bastogne area where he fought by recapturing the feeling of "what did it do to us? How did we feel?" William Wellman, who directed one of Hollywood's last combat WW2 films in 1945's "The Story of G. I. Joe," labeled Pirosh's work "a hell of a script," and promised "I'll just make a picture about a very tired group of guys." Scriptwriter Pirosh originally wanted to highlight General Anthony McAuliffe's answer to the Germans' surrender demands by famously saying, "Nuts!" But when he was revisiting Belgium in 1947, the writer was told by General McAuliffe to focus on the men and ignore him. "You were just as cold," McAuliffe said of Pirosh's time he spent fighting in the winter battle, "the fog was just as thick, the suspense was just as great. Go ahead and write it the way you feel it." A few of the actors in "Battleground" happened to have fought in WW2, many decorated for their service. James Arness, later famous for TV's 'Gunsmoke,' played Sergeant Garbo. He was a Purple Heart recipient, and earned three campaign stars and a slew of medals. Actor Douglas Fowler as Private Kippton is seen constantly losing his false teeth. He served on an aircraft carrier where his upper teeth were blown out by a Japanese explosion. James Whitmore, 28, in only his second film, played Staff Sergeant Kinnie, and was nominated for the Academy Awards Best Supporting Actor, winning a Golden Globe. Whitmore, a U. S. Marine Corps veteran in the Pacific Campaign, had replaced actor-dancer James Mitchell because director Wellman didn't like the way he walked. The White Plains, New York-native Whitmore modeled his movie character after the 'Willie and Joe' cartoons drawn by Bill Mauldin. After giving up football at Yale, he turned to acting, where he appeared in the 1947 stage play 'Command Decision,' winning the Tony Award Best Newcomer. Whitmore was later known as the 'King of the One Man Shows,' giving solo performances of such luminaries as Will Rogers, Harry S. Truman's and Theodore Roosevelt.

"Battleground" was filmed mostly inside the MGM studio sound Stage 15. Schary had knocked down a wall to create a cavernous 130 by 320-foot interior with a 70-foot ceiling. Paul Vogel's camera work made it appear the battle scenes were shot outdoors, filming amongst snow and fog. Because of Vogel's talent shooting a variety of angles in a confined space, the cameraman earned the Oscar for Best Black-and-White Cinematography. Besides Volgel's win, Pirosh took home the Oscar for Best Original Screenplay. Wellman was nominated for Best Director, Whitmore for Best Supporting Actor, and John Dunning for Best Film Editing. The American Film Institute nominated the war picture as the Most Thrilling. Louis Mayer's abysmal track record of predicting massive financial loses on war movies, especially "Battleground," was similar to 15 years earlier when he initially nixed the late producer Irving Thalberg 1925's WW1 silent war film "The Big Parade," which became an enormous success. Ironically history repeated itself when new arrival Schary stroke paydirt, ultimately costing Mayer his job.

The legendary animated cartoon director Chuck Jones, responsible for creating many of Warner Brother's Looney Tunes characters, won the Oscar for the first time for November 1949's "For Scentimental Reasons." The Academy Awards Best Animated Short Film introduced Penelope Pussycat, who's constantly stalked by skunk Pepe Le Pew. Per Academy rules, the studio producers accepted the trophy rather than who really deserved it, Chuck Jones.

"For Scentimental Reasons" was the second Oscar the Warner Brothers Cartoon unit took home, the first was for 1947's "Tweetie Pie," which Jones wasn't involved. Penelope, a feline cat, didn't officially get her name until the 1995 cartoon "Carrottblanca." Jones originally had created the pussy cat as a permanent love interest to Pepe Le Pew. The skunk was voiced by Mel Blanc, who sounded like actor Charles Boyer when he appeared in 1938's "Algiers." The Boyer Hollywood film was based on the French 1937 classic movie "Pepe le Moko." In "Scentimental" Pepe breaks the fourth wall by talking directly to the audience, a habit he continued throughout his career. Pepe thinks Penelope is a skunk, calling her "la belle femme skunk fatale." Pussycat looks like a skunk when, in her very first cartoon, she has an accident with white paint, causing a white streak smearing down her black furry back. Penelope, as all other Looney Tune characters, is repulsed by the skunk's smell, and she tries to create as much distance from him as she can.

A few may say Le Pew cruelly stalks Penelope in all their cartoons. But in "For Scentimental Reasons" she turns the table when Pepe's scent is neutralized after he's completely immersed in blue paint. Suddenly, the bedraggled Penelope, who fell into a rainwater barrel, finds herself attracted to Pepe. Expressing herself by meowing and purring, also voiced by Mel Blanc, Penelope didn't actually speak until 1959. When she did talk, a number of actresses stepped in to voice the feline Penelope.

Pepe Le Pew was introduced in 1945 in the cartoon "Ordor-able Kitty." After Penelope's animated debut, she was featured in over a dozen Looney Tunes cartoons as well as appearing in a number of feature films and video games.

Only two Academy Awards Best Pictures have been based on Pulitzer Prize-winning novels. The first was Margaret Mitchell's 1936 'Gone With The Wind,' while the second was adapted from Robert Penn Warren's 1946 novel and made into November 1949's "All The King's Men." Loosely based on the political life of Louisiana Governor and United States Senator Huey Long, the movie adaptation saw Broderick Crawford win the Oscar as well as the Golden Globe for Best Actor.

Broderick, 39, was mainly a supporting actor since 1937. As Willie Starke, a bullying governor of an unnamed state who's corrupt to the core, Broderick, writes film reviewer James Teller, is "full of anger and resentment and raw truth, but he's comparably effective at showing the low-key bullying Starke employs to get his way behind closed doors." Director Robert Rossen, who also scripted "All The King's Men" with a little help from uncredited Norman Corwin, refocused Warren's central character to Starke rather than reporter Jack Burden (John Ireland), a witness to the politician's rising power. The movie opens with Stark's humble campaign for a small town treasury office, ironically running on a platform of honesty. Corruption is the overriding theme in the movie right from the get-go, where Stark uncovers town officials' malfeasance by receiving a payoff from a well-connected developer whose shoddy, cheap school construction results in the death of 12 children. Stark's political career begins benignly, but as he climbs the state's ladder towards governorship he resorts to questionable tactics. Writer Harry Keyishian asks whether Stark is "a good man corrupted by the political process, or a bad one whose inherent vice emerges when he gets a chance for power?" Initially Rossen offered the role of Stark to John Wayne, figuring on his marquee popularity. Once the actor read the script, Wayne told his agent, "You can take this script and shove it up Robert Rossen's derrière." Then he dashed off a letter to the director, writing the screenplay "smears the machinery of government for no purpose of humor or enlightenment," and is filled with "drunken mothers; conniving fathers; double-crossing sweethearts; bad, bad, rich people; and bad, bad poor people if they want to get ahead, smearing the American way of life." Coincidentally Wayne was nominated Best Actor for his 1949 "Sands of Iwo Jima," only to see Crawford win the Oscar for the role he rejected.

Many credit editor Robert Parrish for elevating "All The King's Men." Rossen tended to overshoot his movies, resulting in a four-hour rough cut, which a preview audience lambasted. Parrish, who won the Best Editing Oscar for Rossen's 1947 "Body and Soul," was called in to coherently pare down the movie. The director told him, "select what you consider to be the core of each scene, put the film in the sync machine and wind down 100 feet before and 100 feet after, and chop it off, regardless of what's going on. Cut through dialogue, music, anything. Then, when you're finished, we'll run the picture and see what we've got." Parrish followed Rossen's instructions, and with a few additional shots, whittled the bulky movie to well under two hours, earning him another Academy Awards Best Editing nomination.

Mercedes McCambridge, in her film debut, won the Oscar for Best Supporting Actress as Sadie Burke, a mole for an opposing candidate embedded in Stark's campaign. She witnesses Stark's rise in popularity, and falls in love with the bombastic Willie. The Joliet, Illinois-native McCambridge, 33, gained fame early on for her dramatic voice on popular radio shows before appearing on Broadway in 1941. Responding to an open audition in New York City for the part of Sadie, McCambridge and other actresses were kept waiting for what seemed like eternity by the film's producers. Angry, she ripped into them and left. Shocked yet admiring in what they saw, the producers called her back and she received the role. Mercedes was famous for Linda Blair's Satanic voice in 1973's "The Exorcist." John Ireland earned his only Oscar nomination as Jack Burden, reporter for a state capital city newspaper who's artIcles on Stark early on thrust Willie into the spotlight. The British Columbia-native Ireland was the first Canadian actor to be nominated for the Oscar.

"All The King's Men," a reference to the Humpty Dumpty's rhyme, was clearly based on the life of Huey Long, who was assassinated in 1935. Columbia Pictures wanted to keep the obvious hush-hush. Broderick Crawford, who studied the Louisiana governor's speeches watching newsreels and hearing voice recordings, said, "During the filming, we never mentioned the name of Huey Long on the set. That was the unspoken law at the studio." Nominated for seven Oscars, including Rossen for Best Director and Best Screenplay, the movie was the director's second-to-last Hollywood picture he steered before he refused to give names during Congressional hearings into Communist ties in the movie industry. Shortly after taking the fifth, he was released from Columbia, only to reveal two years later to Congress over fifty names who had Communist leanings, earning him the scorn from fellow colleagues. The American Film Institute nominated the 1949 Best Picture as one of the Greatest Movies Ever Made. The Oscar-winning Best Picture proved Pulitzer Prize novels can serve as the basis for great movies.