#1951 movies

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One Dress a Day Challenge

November: Oscar winners

A Place in the Sun / Elizabeth Taylor as Angela Vickers

Year: 1951

Designer: Edith Head

This has been called the most copied dress in cinema history. It was a bit of a gamble for Edith Head, as she knew there would be a long lead time before the film was released, and she had to predict whether the New Look would stay in fashion that long. Not only did it stay, but this particular dress became a sensation and set the style for party and prom dresses for years to come. As one blogger wrote, "It's hard to remember when the silhouette of this dress was not in our public consciousness; it's that much of a mainstay in fashion now."

Ms. Head's own comments on the gown: “For the debut gown, I relied on flowers, little violets, to accent the bodice, and I sprinkled them on the skirt. The dress became especially dramatic because I made the skirt exceedingly full, with yards and yards of tulle over a pastel underskirt, and the flowers made the bust look fuller. The combination of the full bust and wide skirt accented the waist, making it appear even smaller than it was.” Another website notes that the dress consisted of "six layers of white net over pale mint green taffeta, studded with single velvet violets and a bodice covered in white velvet violets."

At least two copies of the dress have survived (multiple ones were made for the film), and one is on display at Grauman's Chinese Theater. Below is a recreation of the dress for the stage show A Conversation with Edith Head, showing how it may have looked when new.

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B style movie poster by an unknown artist, distributed by the National Screen Service (#51/460), for the 1951 Paramount motion picture When Worlds Collide.

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Creature from the Black Lagoon at the Drive-In

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To understand one human soul is like trying to empty the sea with a cup.

PANDORA AND THE FLYING DUTCHMAN 1951, dir. Albert Lewin

[adamwatchesmovies]

Scrooge (1951)

You know Charles Dickens’s A Christmas Carol. It’s been adapted many times. If you can only include one adaptation in your holiday marathon, which one should you choose? My pick would be the 1951 version. You’ll have to do some research to find a properly restored version but no film has ever portrayed the legendary Ebenezer Scrooge as well as this one.

On Christmas Eve, money lender Ebenezer Scrooge (Alastair Sim) dismisses all warm sentiments. He wants nothing to do with his nephew, Fred (Brian Worth), refuses to give to the poor, and only reluctantly agrees to give his poor clerk Bob Cratchit (Mervyn Johns) Christmas Day off. Once home, the spirit of his former partner, Jacob Marley (Michael Corden), appears. The ghost warns Scrooge that his current behavior will damn him forever unless he changes his ways. To convince him, the spirits of Christmas Past (Michael Dolan), Present (Francis de Wolff) and Yet to Come (Cselaw Konarski) come to his door.

Besides the black-and-white photography, what distinguishes this interpretation is its darkness. We’re accustomed to seeing A Christmas Carol rendered with puppets, cartoon animals or sitcom casts but this is a scary story. The black-and-white cinematography adds mood to a tale of ghosts, eternal damnation, and haunting visions. It's frightening, particularly when Marley’s ghost shows Scrooge what fate awaits him. We see thousands of impotent phantoms roaming the earth, lamenting and screeching in a vain attempt to undo the wrongs they did in life. For a film made in 1951, the extensive special effects are impressive.

It’s a timeless tale that still rings true today and aside from the muddy sound and scratchy picture that may accompany lousy prints, this picture has aged remarkably well. Sim is a delight as Scrooge. He’s so cheap, so stubborn he refuses to acknowledge the obvious if it doesn’t suit him. This humor balances the gloom well and gives the story its trademark emotional highs and lows as we dig into the drama of this story. Through Scrooge's journey, we come to understand what made him the person he is today. No one watching could be as greedy as he is but try as you might to distance yourself from the miserable miser who declares Christmas to be humbug, you can't help but see a piece of you in him. If he can be saved, then anyone can be. It means there’s hope and hope is the essential sentiment at the heart of the Christmas season.

To a certain extent, everything that’s good about this adaptation can be found in another version of the story… except Alistair Sim, who brings the classic literary character to life like no one else. He’s funny, he’s loathsome and his performance is what makes this picture by Brian Desmond Hurst truly great. He nails it so perfectly, particularly in the film’s final scenes. On his own, he ensures the picture will imprint itself permanently into your head.

There are many different ways to see Charles Dickens's A Christmas Carol. Before you check out more recent adaptations, see this one. The 1951 adaptation of Scrooge is the benchmark from which you’ll judge all other tellings of this story. (On Blu-ray, December 22, 2019)

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Robert Ryan and Nita Talbot in “On Dangerous Ground” - 1951

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Simone Simon in Olivia (1951) dir. Jacqueline Audry

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Symphony in Slang (1951)

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OLIVIA (1951) dir. Jacqueline Audry

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One Dress a Day Challenge

Black and White October

An American in Paris / Ensemble cast, including Leslie Caron, Nina Foch, Gene Kelly, Oscar Levant, and Georges Guétary

What better post for Halloween, and to finish up the this month's theme, than a giant costume party where all the costumes are black and white? There's a special closeup on Leslie Caron's costume at the bottom, but the effect of all the costumes together is what really makes the scene.

The variety of costumes in this sequence is just dizzying. Check them out here:

[popculturebaby]

Marlon Brando as Stanley Kowalski in ‘A Streetcar Named Desire’ (1951) ✨

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What's straight?

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Lucky Number (1951)

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Alice in Wonderland - Concept art by Mary Blair (1951)

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Marilyn Monroe, photographed by David Cicero, 1951

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Swedish actress Anita Björk in the movie Fröken Julie (1951).