Links to the Hollywood movie collections for the periods covered in this section:
1940s 1950s 1940s & 1950s (All) 1940s & 1950s GEMs
Commentary:
I refer to this period as the “Post-Studio Era” for the following reason. In the 1940s, the studio system started to wane, and independent filmmakers began to emerge. The studios started to release actors and technical staff from their contracts, which gave them free rein to exercise their independence and creativity. This changed the paradigm of film-making, as each movie could have an entirely different cast and creative team. It also reduced the influence of the major studios including MGM, Paramount Pictures, Universal Studios, Columbia Pictures and 20th Century Fox on the kind of movies being made.
While this gave free rein to the creative talent in the movie industry, the financial model for movie-making changed significantly, since individual filmmakers could not spread out their costs over a large number of films produced every year. Thus, the number of movies being produced annually dropped markedly. On the other hand, the release from the restrictive environment of the studio gave free rein to the creative talent in the movie industry, so the average quality of the films improved considerably. Some of the greatest Hollywood movies in a variety of genres were made during this era, such as Casablanca, Citizen Kane, All About Eve, Singin’ in the Rain, Double Indemnity and Some Like It Hot.
Another milestone of this era was the advent of television, which offered an alternative, at-home means of entertainment for the audiences. To counter this, the movie studios began to produce entertainment that could not be offered by television: spectacular, larger-than-life productions such as The Ten Commandments, The Bridge on the River Kwai and Ben-Hur.
Meanwhile, Alfred Hitchcock moved from England to America and made a splash with the superb Gothic thriller Rebecca in 1940. He had the most productive period of his career in the 1940s and 1950s, making masterpieces like Shadow of a Doubt, Dial M for Murder and Vertigo, plus many other incredible films. Hitchcock was at the peak of his powers at this time and had essentially no rivals in his chosen genre of mystery and suspense.
Among the directors who made their mark during this period were Billy Wilder, David Lean, George Stevens, John Ford and Orson Welles, while others like Frank Capra and Howard Hawks who had made their debut earlier continued their successful run. In the field of acting, a tremendous amount of talent came forth, and the luminaries who established themselves during this period included:
- Alec Guinness, Burt Lancaster, Gregory Peck, Humphrey Bogart, Jack Lemmon, Lawrence Olivier, Marlon Brando, Sidney Poitier
- Audrey Hepburn, Bette Davis, Elizabeth Taylor, Grace Kelly, Ingrid Bergman, Marilyn Monroe.
Many of the above stars continued their career well past the 1950s, some of them until the last decade of the twentieth century.