Hollywood and the Movies of the Fifties: The Collapse of the Studio System, the Thrill of Cinerama, and the Invasion of the Ultimate Body Snatcher--Television

A fascinating look at Hollywoods most turbulent decade and the demise of the studio systemset against the boom of the postWorld War II years, the Cold War, and the atomic ageand the movies that reflected the seismic shifts The definitive book on 1950s Hollywood. Booklist Lavish. . . insightful, rich, expansive, penetrating. Kirkus Hollywood in the 1950s was a period when the film industry both set conventions and broke norms and traditionsfrom Cinerama, CinemaScope, and VistaVision to the epic film and lavish musical. It was a decade that saw the rise of the anti-hero; the smoldering, the hidden, and the unspoken; teenagers gone wild in the streets; the sacred and the profane; the revolution of the Method; the socially conscious; the implosion of the studios; the end of the production code; and the invasion of the ultimate body snatcher: the small screen television. Here is Eisenhowers Americaseemingly complacent, conformity-ridden revealed in Vincente Minnellis Father of the Bride, Walt Disneys Cinderella, and Brigadoon, among others. And here is its darkening, resonant landscape, beset by conflict, discontent, and anxiety (The Man Who Knew Too Much, The Asphalt Jungle, A Place in the Sun, Touch of Evil, It Came From Outer Space) . . . an America on the verge of cultural, political and sexual revolt, busting up and breaking out (East of Eden, From Here to Eternity, On the Waterfront, Sweet Smell of Success, The Wild One, A Streetcar Named Desire, and Jailhouse Rock). An important, riveting look at our nation at its peak as a world power and at the political, cultural, sexual upheavals it endured, reflected and explored in the quintessential American art form.