Ten Days Of 1950's Romance Movies: 1954

YEAR: 1954

It was the year Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka the Supreme Court unanimously bans racial segregation in public schools. The World Series is broadcast in color for the first time. The first children receive Dr. Joah Salk's polio vaccine. These three romance movies were released, have since become three of my favorite romance movies of the 50's and may potentially become the movie you watch with your sweetie on Valentine's Day 2010.

Seven Brides For Seven Brothers. This is actually in my top 3 for the 1950's. Adam, the eldest of seven brothers, goes to town to get a wife. He convinces Milly to marry him that same day. They return to his backwoods home. Only then does she discover he has six brothers - all living in his cabin. Milly sets out to reform the uncouth siblings, who are anxious to get wives of their own. Then, after reading about the Roman capture of the Sabine women, Adam develops an inspired solution to his brothers' loneliness. This movie stars Howard Keel and Jane Powell. Interesting facts: Scenes for the widescreen version were shot in the morning and, for the normal ratio, in the afternoon. Because there was no way of distinguishing between them and the Town Suitors, MGM decided to make all the Pontipee Brothers red-headed. MGM considered this a B movie - they had higher aspirations for the more expensive Brigadoon. For this reason, they slashed the budget on "Seven Brothers", forcing Stanley Donen to use painted backdrops instead of location filming. For the brides costumes, designer Walter Plunkett went to the Salvation Army, found old quilts and turned them into dresses. The censors weren't too happy about the line in the song "Lonesome Polecat" where the brothers lament "A man can't sleep when he sleeps with sheep". By not showing any sheep in the same shot as the brothers, the film-makers were able to get away with it. Only four of the brothers were dancers. Russ Tamblyn (Gideon) was an acrobat, and Jeff Richards (Benjamin) was an actor. Benjamin rarely dances in the movie. Rehearsals for the barn-raising sequence took 3 weeks This movie was shot in only 48 days. Reportedly Howard Keel's personal favorite of his movies.

Rear Window. I know, this is not what you'd expect to be under "romance movies" but it does have a romance within the story line and would be an easy sell for your sweetheart to watch on Valentine's day. Believe it or not, most movie websites do include this when searching for romance. Professional photographer L.B. "Jeff" Jeffries breaks his leg while getting an action shot at an auto race. Confined to his New York apartment, he spends his time looking out of the rear window observing the neighbors. He begins to suspect that a man across the courtyard may have murdered his wife. Jeff enlists the help of his high society fashion-consultant girlfriend Lisa Freemont and his visiting nurse Stella to investigate. Stars James Stewart and Grace Kelly. Interesting facts: All of the sound in the film is diegetic, meaning that all the music, speech and other sounds all come from within the world of the film. While shooting, Alfred Hitchcock worked only in Jeff's "apartment." The actors in other apartments wore flesh-colored earpieces so that he could radio his directions to them. The love affair between war photographer Robert Capa and actress Ingrid Bergman is believed to be Alfred Hitchcock's inspiration for the film's romantic aspect. One thousand arc lights were used to simulate sunlight. Thanks to extensive pre-lighting of the set, the crew could make the changeover from day to night in under forty-five minutes. Once during the filming, the lights were so hot that they set off the soundstage sprinkler system. The film was inspired in part by the real-life murder case of Patrick Mahon. In 1924, in Sussex, England, Mahon murdered his pregnant mistress, Emily Kaye, and dismembered her body. In the modern interview, Alfred Hitchcock claimed that Mahon threw the body parts out of a train window piece by piece and burned the head in his fireplace. Another modern source, however, states that Mahon quartered the body and stored it in a large trunk, then removed internal organs, putting some in biscuit tins and a hatbox and boiling others on the stove.

White Christmas. My favorite Christmas movie of all time. After leaving the Army after W.W.II, Bob Wallace and Phil Davis team up to become a top song-and-dance act. Davis plays matchmaker and introduces Wallace to a pair of beautiful sisters (Betty and Judy) who also have a song-and-dance act. When Betty and Judy travel to a Vermont lodge to perform a Christmas show, Wallace and Davis follow, only to find their former commander, General Waverly, is the lodge owner. A series of romantic mix-ups ensue as the performers try to help the General. This movie stars Bing Crosby, Danny Kaye, Rosemary Clooney, and Vera-Ellen. Interesting facts: The first film produced in Paramount's wide screen process "VistaVision". The Vermont inn is the remodeled Connecticut inn set from the movie Holiday Inn which Bing Crosby also starred in singing songs written by Irving Berlin. The "Sisters" comedy act that Bing Crosby and Danny Kaye perform was not originally in the script. They were clowning around on the set and the director thought it was so funny that it was written in. Even though Betty was the elder of the Haynes sisters, Rosemary Clooney was actually seven years younger than Vera Ellen in real life. According to Rosemary Clooney, the "midnight snack" scene in which Bob Wallace expounds on his theory of what foods cause what dreams was almost entirely improvised. Though Rosemary Clooney couldn't be on the original album due to contractual conflicts, she recorded the song "Sisters" with her real-life sister, Betty Clooney. On the official album, Peggy Lee recorded the song and sang both parts via overdubbing, a new technology in 1954. Third of three films to feature Bing Crosby singing "White Christmas".