The Five Biggest Stars of the 1950s

A while back, we had a lot of fun listing our picks for the Five Biggest Stars of the 1960s. Today, we're turning our attention to the 1950s--quite possibly our favorite decade for classic movies. As before, our very subjective criteria take into account boxoffice power, critical acclaim, and enduring popularity. We expect some dissenting opinions...so bring them on!

James Stewart in The Far Country.

1. James Stewart - Thanks to Alfred Hitchcock and Anthony Mann, no actor enjoyed a better decade. In Rear Window and Vertigo, Stewart portrayed complex "heroes" struggling with, respectively, commitment issues and an unhealthy obsession. His hard-edged protagonists in Mann's "adult Westerns" helped redefine the genre. He also starred in a number of hugely popular hits, such as Harvey and The Greatest Show on Earth.

2. Cary Grant - While his career probably peaked in the previous decade, Grant was still going strong in the 1950s. He also benefitted from Hitchcock's magic touch, appearing in To Catch a Thief and North by Northwest. He teamed up with Deborah Kerr in the romantic classic An Affair to Remember. And he started the decade with one of his most underrated and interesting films, People Will Talk.

Deborah in From Here to Eternity.

3. Deborah Kerr - She began the 1950s playing traditional heroines in big hits such as King Solomon's Mines, Quo Vadis, and The Prisoner of Zenda. She then switched things up as a passionate, adulterous wife in From Here to Eternity. She also charmed a generation in The King and I and caught Cary Grant's eye in the aforementioned An Affair to Remember.

4. Marilyn Monroe - She started the decade with a small part in All About Eve and ended it as a major star and iconic sex symbol. Along the way, she starred as a murder-minded spouse in Niagara, appeared in musicals like Gentlemen Prefer Blondes, earned critical praise for Bus Stop, and capped it all off with Billy Wilder's quintessential comedy Some Like It Hot.

Burt in Sweet Smell of Success.

5. Burt Lancaster - Admittedly, I struggled with this last slot, because there are a lot of excellent choices. I opted for Lancaster because of the variety and quality of his work. He appeared in lively swashbucklers (The Flame and the Arrow, the irrepressible Crimson Pirate). But he also turned electrified in dramas such as From Here to Eternity, The Sweet Smell of Success, and Gunfight at the OK Corral.  Two of his lesser films are personal favorites due to the Lancaster charm: The Kentuckian and The Rainmaker.

Honorable mentions:  John Wayne, Grace Kelly, Glenn Ford, Gary Cooper, Elizabeth Taylor, and Audrey Hepburn. Hey, the 1950s was a pretty impressive decade for Hollywood!

Billy Wilder's Game of Deception...and the Wonderment of Jack Lemmon

Tony Curtis and Jack Lemmon.

It can be a challenge to review a classic like Billy Wilder's Some Like It Hot, because so much has been written about it. So, instead of a traditional review, I want to focus on Wilder's theme of deception and also pay tribute to that marvelous actor known as Jack Lemmon.

For those who have never seen Some Like It Hot (and you should truly rectify that immediately), here's a plot synopsis. Tony Curtis and Jack Lemmon play Joe and Jerry, a couple of speakeasy musicians in Chicago in 1929. After losing their jobs when police raid the joint, they struggle to find employment. They become so desperate that Jerry suggests they pose as women for an available gig in sunny Florida with an all-girls band. When Joe and Jerry inadvertently witness a gangland killing, they need to go on the lam--and what better place than Florida disguised as women in an all-girls band?

Marilyn Monroe as Sugar.

The theme of deception is a favorite for Billy Wilder, who used it for comic effect earlier in The Major and the Minor. That 1942 comedy starred Ginger Rogers as a young woman who poses as a 12-year-old to save on train fare. With Some Like It Hot, Wilder ups the ante by adding several layers of deception. The most obvious one, of course, is Joe and Jerry posing as female musicians Josephine and Daphne. But Wilder delves deeper into deception when Joe decides to woo Sugar (Marilyn Monroe), the band's attractive blonde singer.

Junior explains the Shell Oil name.

Joe, in the guise of Josephine, befriends Sugar and learns about her perfect man: a gentle, sweet, helpless millionaire with a yacht or train who wears glasses ("they get those weak eyes from reading those long tiny little columns in The Wall Street Journal").  Possessing that knowledge, Joe transforms himself into Junior, the sensitive, glasses-wearing, Wall Street Journal-reading heir to the Shell Oil fortune. It's no wonder that Sugar falls for him immediately.

Of course, Sugar isn't above a few lies herself. When she first meets Junior, she implies that she comes from a wealthy family and even introduces Daphne as a "Vassar girl." Earlier in the film, we also learn that Sugar deceives the band's manager by swearing off her fondness for alcoholic beverages--while keeping a handy flask hidden under her garter belt.

It's no plot spoiler to reveal that, even after the truth comes out, Joe and Sugar wind up together. Still, one has to wonder about the success of a relationship built on deception. Fortunately, this is reel life--not real life--and so a likable cast and a well-written script make us forget about the realities of the situation (just as we do at the end of The Graduate).

Daphne dancing with Osgood.

Reality has nothing to do with the other romantic relationship in Some Like It Hot: Daphne's wooing by a real millionaire named Osgood Fielding III (Joe E. Brown). After a night of dancing, Osgood proposes marriage and Daphne, or rather Jerry, actually considers it because Osgood is a nice guy and provides security. When Joe tries to point out the obvious challenges, Jerry replies: "I'm not stupid. I know there's a problem. His mother. We need her approval. But I'm not worried, because I don't smoke."

Jack Lemmon gives a tour-de-force performance as Jerry/Daphne, transforming from a man who sees women as sex objects to one who can see them as friends. Joe's first remark when he sees Sugar is: "That's just like jello on springs." But later when a man pinches him as Daphne, he's not amused. His growing friendship with Sugar, even though it's in the guise of Daphne, is probably the strongest relationship in the film.

Daphne on the train.

Lemmon has the best scenes in the movie, including my personal favorite. After he covers up for Sugar's drinking on the train ride to Florida, she joins Jerry (as Daphne) in his upper berth. The scantily-clad Sugar snuggles up close to him and, upon discovering his cold feet, begins to rubs them with her feet. Jerry turns away briefly and mutters a reminder to himself: "I'm a girl. I'm a girl."

It's a great line, a classic Wilder situation, and features one of the finest actors of his generation. Who could ask for more?

Who's That Lady? Part II

This baby grew up to be a real doll.

Who is she? Becky recognized the icon to end all icons, Marilyn Monroe...before she blossomed into the legendary star she became and still is...thanks to Gilby, Avalon and Becky for playing...more next week.

This award winning actress has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame...

Who is she? Gilby recognized Oscar winner Margaret O'Brien, child actress/movie star whose heyday was in the 1940s.

Into the West: The River of No Return (1954)

River of No Return (1954). Romantic/adventure/western. Director: Otto Preminger. Cast: Marilyn Monroe, Robert Mitchum and Rory Calhoun.

In the beautiful Northwest Mountains 1875, there is a small town made up tents filled with saloons, gamblers and entertainers trying to make a living. Just released from prison, Matt Calder rides into the city looking for his 9-year-old son, who he had sent there from Illinois. When he finds his son Mark, the boy insists on saying goodbye to Kay, the saloon singer who has been keeping an eye on him. Kay scolds Calder for leaving his son alone. He thanks Kay and quickly leaves. On the ride home, Calder promises Mark that they are going to have a good life together.

At the saloon, Kay's fiance, gambler Harry Weston, rushes in to tell her that he has won a gold claim in a poker game and must go to the city to file the deed. Kay believes that Weston cheated to get the money, but he talks her into go along. Soon, they are floating in a raft down the river toward the big city. They have trouble in the rapids, but fortunately they are near Calder's farm, and are pulled to safety.

One of my favorite scenes in the movie is when Calder tells Weston that he is crazy to brave the river. Weston offers to buy his rifle and horse so that he can ride to the city. Calder says that he needs his rifle and horse to protect the farm. Weston steals the rifle and horse and claims that he will return them, then knocks him out when Calder tries to stop him. Stunned, Kay decides to stay behind and take care of Calder while Weston rides off. When Calder comes to, he sees that Indians have been watching and are about to attack, so he quickly loads Mark and Kay onto the raft and head down the river. Calder watches as the farm is burns. That night, as they camp by the river, Kay tries to explain that Weston is really not a bad man. When she realizes that Calder intends to go after Weston, she tries to cut the raft free, but Calder stops her . He does not understand her devotion to a man who would leave a child to die. She reminds him Harry never killed a man like he did. Mark overhears their argument and Matt is forced to tell the truth about his past to his son. They return to the river and so begins their adventure as they fight off Indians and the elements, trying to keep from starving and trying to learn each others' secrets. The story is charming and beautifully photographed. I thought Robert Mitchum and Marilyn Monroe made a great team. The ending will pull at your heart strings.

FUN FACTS:

The three pairs of jeans that Marilyn Monroe wore in the movie were among a collection of her personal items that were sold for $42,550 at auction at Christies Auction House to designer Tommy Hilfiger.

This movie was not the first meeting of Robert Mitchum and Marilyn Monroe. Mitchum had worked at Lockheed Aircraft with Monroe's first husband, James Dougherty. The two had met on at least one occasion during the mid 1940s.

Marilyn Monroe's singing voice was dubbed by Gloria Wood.

A Month of Mysteries: Niagara (1953)

Niagara (1953) thriller/noir. Directed by Henry Hathaway. Niagara was filmed in Technicolor instead of black and white, like most of the film noirs of the 50s. Cast: Marilyn Monroe, Joseph Cotten, Jean Peters. Along with Gentlemen Prefer Blondes and How to Marry a Millionaire, it helped Monroe become a star.

The film begins when businessman Ray Cutler wins a trip to Niagara Falls. Ray and his wife arrive to find that their reserved cabin has not been vacated by George and Rose Loomis. Rose tells the motel manager and the Cutlers that her husband has not been feeling well and asks them not to wake him, so the Cutlers take another cabin. Rose also confides that George had spent time in a military psychiatric hospital.

On a walk, Polly accidentally sees Rose in the arms of another man at Horseshoe Falls.

In one of my favorite scenes: Back at the motel, Rose, in a sexy hot pink dress, asks some teenagers to play a record of her favorite song, "Kiss." George in a rage storms out of their cabin and smashes the record. Rose tells the Cutlers that George has a bad temper. While Polly tends to George's cut hand, George tells her that he loves Rose, but she is a tramp. Ray joins them, and George says that he gave up his farm because Rose was bored with country life, then volunteered for duty in Korea. He was sent home early with battle fatigue and discovered Rose was having an affair.

In the meantime, Rose calls her lover Ted Patrick, and tells him that they "must put their plan to kill George into action in the morning." Ted agrees. The next day, George, thinking something is up, follows Rose when she goes to buy bus tickets for their trip home. Rose knows she is being followed.. She ducks into the Horseshoe Falls gift shop and loses George. After leaving Rose a card telling her that if things go well, the bell tower will play "Kiss," Ted follows George. Later in the day, Rose asks Polly and Ray if they have seen George. The Cutlers file a missing persons report.  Later that day, the attendant at the Horseshoe Falls finds one rain slicker and one pair of shoes is missing. He informs Inspector James Starkey. Starkey asks Rose and the Cutlers to go with him, where Rose identifies the shoes as George's. While Rose is walking home, she hears the bell tower playing "Kiss" and smiles. Soon, the police discover a body along the shore and ask Rose to identify it.

Will Rose and Ted get away with murder?

This is one of my favorite noir movies. It has Marilyn Monroe and beautiful Niagara Falls for breathtaking scenery. Marilyn's performance as the bad girl was amazing. I do not think any other actress could have done a better job with Rose's character.