Ten Days Of 1950's Romance Movies: 1955

YEAR: 1955

It was the year Rosa Parks refused to sit at the back of the bus, breaking the Montgomery, Ala., segregated seating law. Gunsmoke debuts on CBS, and will go on to be television's longest-running western. James Dean dies in a car accident at age 26. Albert Einstein also died this year. 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.

The Seven Year Itch. Like many other Manhattan husbands, Richard Sherman sends his wife and son to the country for the summer, while he stays behind to toil. Though reveling in temporary bachelor freedom of lifestyle, he's resolved not to carouse and philander like some others. But his overactive, over-vivid imagination goes into overdrive when a delightfully unconventional, voluptuous blonde moves in upstairs. This movie stars Marilyn Monroe and Tom Ewell. Interesting facts: Marilyn Monroe's lifelong bouts with depression and self-destruction took their toll during filming; she frequently muffed scenes and forgot her lines, leading to sometimes as many as 40 takes of a scene before a satisfactory result was produced. Marilyn Monroe's constant tardiness and behavioral problems made the budget of the film swell to $1.8 million, a high price for the time. The film still managed to make a nice profit. The movie premiere was on June 1st, 1955 which happened to be Marilyn Monroe's 29th birthday. Despite being one of the most iconic images in pop culture history, as well as one of the most recognizable photographs of Marilyn Monroe, the famous full-length image of Monroe standing with her dress being blown up never actually appears in the film. The shot used in the film is only of her legs, cut with reaction shots, and never shown full-length.

Marty. Marty is a 34-year-old butcher whose Italian family is constantly after him to get married. He meets plain-looking schoolteacher Clara. They are both lonely, unglamorous people who have resigned themselves to their unloved lives. But they manage, in time, to grope their way to love. Stars Ernest Borgnine and Betsy Blair. Interesting facts: At 91 minutes long, this has the shortest running time of any film to win the Academy Award for Best Picture. The only time in film history that the producers spent more on a film's award campaign ($400,000) than they did on making the movie ($343,000). The film, which cost only $340,000 to make and generated rentals of $3,000,000 at the domestic box office, reportedly was one of the most profitable movies ever made. This is the remake of a 1953 TV movie of the same name, with Rod Steiger in the title role.

Guys and Dolls. All the hot gamblers are in town, and they're all depending on Nathan Detroit to set up this week's incarnation of "The Oldest Established Permanent Floating Crap Game in New York"; the only problem is, he needs $1000 to get the place. Throw in Sarah Brown, who's short on sinners at the mission she runs; Sky Masterson, who accepts Nathan's $1000 bet that he can't get Sarah Brown to go with him to Havana; Miss Adelaide, who wants Nathan to marry her; Police Lieutenant Brannigan, who always seems to appear at the wrong time; and the music/lyrics of Frank Loesser, and you've got quite a musical. Stars Marlon Brando, Jean Simmons, Frank Sinatra, Vivian Blaine, and many more. Interesting facts: After filming repeated takes of the scene where Sky (Marlon Brando) and Nathan (Frank Sinatra) first meet, they had to quit for the day when Sinatra had too much cheesecake. He said he could not take one more bite. Practical joker (some would say jerk) Brando, knowing how much Sinatra hated cheesecake, purposely flubbed each take so that Sinatra would have to eat piece after piece of cheesecake. The next day, they came back and shot the scene perfectly on the first take. Frank Sinarta loathed the non-singing Marlon Brando for getting the starring role, while Sinatra got a lesser part. His nickname for the sometimes barely coherent Brando was "Mumbles."

Oklahoma!. Another top 3 movie for me - although I may be a little biased knowing I am originally from Oklahoma. Set in the times of the early 1900s', the musical is partially about the Indian Territory becoming the state of Oklahoma. Curly is a stubborn cowboy who had trouble admitting his feelings to Laurey, as does she. They both love each other, but have much difficulty telling each other because of their stubborn behaviors and reputation. The story is also set around Ado Annie trying to choose between Will, who has strong feelings for her, and the peddler, who thinks he's a ladies' man and doesn't really want to marry her. Judd, Laurey and Aunt Eller's hired hand, tries to come between Laurey and Curly, because he is alone and has feelings for Laurey. Aunt Eller is a peppy and friendly middle-aged woman who pretty much knows everyone, and everyone respects her. Stars Gordon MacRae, Gloria Grahame, Gene Nelson, and more. Interesting facts: Shot on location in and around Nogales, Arizona, because the real Oklahoma in 1955 was so heavily farmed and developed that few suitable areas could be found that resembled the highly-rural and undeveloped Oklahoma of the turn of the century when the musical is set. This was Fred Zinnemann's first musical, and it cost a then-astronomical $6.8 million. The interiors were shot at MGM in autumn of 1954, the first time that an outside production company not releasing through MGM was allowed to film a feature there. The song "Kansas City" was edited for censors. Will sang it, "I could swear that she was padded from her shoulders to her heel. And then she started dancing and her dancing made me feel that every single thing she had was absolutely real." In the original play script it went, "I could swear that she was padded from her shoulders to her heels. And later in the second act when she began to peel. She proved that everything she had was absolutely real." Filmed in both CinemaScope and Todd-AO. When both films are seen together, subtle differences may be discerned in such areas as line readings and overall pacing. Tone deaf, Gloria Grahame, who played Ado Annie, sang without dubbing, which required that her songs to be edited together from recordings made almost literally note by note.