From cold war hysteria and rampant anticommunist witch hunts to the lure of suburbia, television, and the new consumerism, the 1950s was a decade of sensational commercial possibility coupled with dark nuclear fears and conformist politics. Amid this amalgamation of social, political, and cultural conditions, Hollywood was under siege: from the Justice Department, which pressed for big film companies to divest themselves of their theater holdings; from the middleclass, whose retreat to family entertainment inside the home drastically decreased the filmgoing audience; and from the House Un-American Activities Committee, which was attempting to purge the country of dissenting political views. In this difficult context, however, some of the most talented filmmakers of all time, including John Ford, Alfred Hitchcock, Vincente Minnelli, Nicholas Ray, and Billy Wilder produced some of their most remarkable work.

Bringing together original essays by ten respected scholars in the field, American Cinema of the 1950s explores the impact of the cultural environment of this decade on film, and the impact of film on the American cultural milieu. Contributors examine the signature films of the decade, including From Here to Eternity, Sunset Blvd., Singin' in the Rain, Shane, Rear Window, and Rebel Without a Cause, as well as lesser-known but equally compelling films, such as Dial 1119, Mystery Street, Suddenly, Summer Stock, The Last Hunt, and many others.

Provocative, engaging, and accessible to general readers as well as scholars, this volume provides a unique lens through which to view the links between film and the prevailing social and historical events of the decade.

Murray Pomerance is a professor and chair in the department of sociology at Ryerson University.

Contents
Acknowledgments
Murray Pomerance
Introduction: Movies and the 1950s
Mary Beth Haralovich
1950: Movies and Landscapes
Kristen Hatch
1951: Movies and the New Faces of Masculinity
Sumiko Higashi
1952: Movies and the Paradox of Female Stardom
Rebecca Bell-Metereau
1953: Movies and Our Secret Lives
Michael DeAngelis
1954: Movies and the Walls of Privacy
Jon Lewis
1955: Movies and Growing Up . . . Absurd
Barry Keith Grant
1956: Movies and the Crack of Doom
Murray Pomerance
1957: Movies and the Search for Proportion
Adrienne L. McLean
1958: Movies and Allegories of Ambivalence
Arthur Knight
1959: Movies and the Racial Divide
Timeline: The 1950s
Select Academy Awards, 1950-1959
Works Cited and Consulted
Contributors
Index