Movies from the 1950s

Bridge on the River Kwai (1957)

The “Colonel Bogey March”, or “theme from the Bridge on the River Kwai” as it’s occasionally mistakenly called, began life in 1914, when it was pseudonymously written by Lieutenant F. J. Ricketts, inspired by a golfer and military man who would apparently give a two-note whistle in place of shouting ‘fore!’. Those two notes provide the beginning of each line of the melody. (more…)

Harvey (1950)

In Henry Koster’s 1950 comedy Harvey, James Stewart plays Elwood P. Dowd, a good-natured sort who’s befriended Harvey, a giant invisible rabbit. At least, he seems to be a giant rabbit, by the way that Stewart spends the film looking up at him. (more…)

The Caine Mutiny (1954)

There was a great deal of interest right from the start in making a film of Herman Wouk’s 1951 novel The Caine Mutiny. Several studios tried to get a project off the ground, but always came up against the same stumbling block: the US Navy. (more…)

The Ladykillers (1955)

The original 1955 Ealing film of The Ladykillers featured Alec Guinness as the leader of a band of robbers who find their plans scuppered by Mrs Wilberforce, an elderly widow. Alec Guinness also appears in a second, minor role in the film. (more…)

Tarantula (1955)

In the mid 1950s, the young Clint Eastwood arrived in Hollywood, where he signed a contract with Universal (then known as Universal-International). What followed was a series of bit parts: (more…)

The Man in the White Suit (1951)

When Sidney Stratton (Alec Guinness) invents a seemingly indestructible fibre in Ealing’s satire The Man in the White Suit, he soon finds himself on the run from capitalists and workers alike. Finding himself locked in the attic of one of the factory owner’s houses, he makes his escape by lowering himself to the ground on a single strand of his special fibre.

You might think that this was done by rotating the set 90 degrees, Batman style, but you’d be wrong: (more…)

The Trouble With Harry (1955)

Hitchcock’s disarming comedy The Trouble With Harry is based on a novel by Jack Trevor Story, which was set in England.

Transposing the story across the Atlantic, Hitchcock wanted to set it in a rural New England community, complete with Vermont’s golden autumn leaves. (more…)

The Man Who Knew Too Much (1956)

When French spy Louis Bernard (Daniel Gélin) is stabbed in the back in Alfred Hitchcock’s 1956 remake of The Man Who Knew Too Much, he uses the last of his energy to seek out American tourist Dr. Ben McKenna (Jimmy Stewart). McKenna doesn’t recognise him immediately because he’s disguised as a native Moroccan, complete with a blacked up face. It’s only when Bernard’s make-up comes off on McKenna’s fingers that his identity is revealed…

…so the story has it, anyway. The actual process of filming the scene was a tad more complicated. (more…)

Strangers on a Train (1951)

At the climax of Alfred Hitchcock’s Strangers on a Train, there’s a frenetic fight that takes place on an out-of-control fairground carousel (or merry-go-round, if you’re British like Hitchcock).

Although most of the scene was shot in a studio using rear projection and sometimes miniatures, there was one stunt that was done for real: the old man who crawls under the carousel in order to try to turn it off.

There are a lot of rumours about this scene: (more…)

The Man Who Knew Too Much (1956)

You know more scores by veteran film composer Bernard Herrmann than you think you do. (more…)