For many people in the UK the 1950’s was a golden age. The war was over, rationing was finished and as Harold Macmillan said in 1957:
‘Let’s be frank, most of our people have never had it so good.’
As the economy began to boom and wages started to soar, the people of the UK shook off the confines of the forties and rock ‘n’ rolled their way into the fifties, with movies high on their entertainment list.
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As part of our ByGone Christmases series we dive into the classic movies of the 1950s.
A British war film based on the true story of Special Operations Executive French-born agent Odette Sansom, who was captured by the Germans in 1943, condemned to death and sent to Ravensbrück concentration camp to be executed
Scrooge is a 1951 film adaptation of Charles Dickens’s A Christmas Carol. featuring Alistair Sim as Ebenezer Scrooge. This classic is always a popular Christmas hit, with many different remakes of the film available.
Directed by Gene Kelly and starring Gene Kelly alongside Debbie Reynolds and Donald O’Connor, Singin’ In The Rain is probably the most treasured musical in the history of cinema and is ranked Americas 5th motion picture of all time.
Based on the classic J M Barrie novel. Wendy and her brothers are whisked away to the magical world of Neverland with the hero of their stories, Peter Pan.
Starring Bing Crosby and Danny Kaye as a successful song-and-dance team become romantically involved with a sister act and team up to save the failing Vermont inn of their former commanding general.
Much-loved World War II classic about the famous bombing raid. Dr Barnes Wallis creates a revolutionary new bouncing bomb to destroy the Ruhr dams and flood Nazi Germany’s industrial heartland. Wing Commander Guy Gibson and his 617 Squadron take on the task
Starring Yul Brynner and Deborah Kerr in a musical about a widowed English schoolteacher who accepts a job as a live-in governess to the King of Siam’s children.
The Curse of Frankenstein, 1957
Breakthrough horror that made stars of Peter Cushing and Christopher Lee. The Curse of Frankenstein was also the first horror film to feature Cushing and Christopher Lee together. On the eve of his execution for murder, Baron Victor Frankenstein explains how his dreams of creating the perfect human being have spawned a monster.
The comic and sentimental misadventures of the patients and staff in the men’s surgical ward of Haven Hospital. This film is probably best remembered for its notorious final gag, in which the nurses decide to get even with the overbearing Colonel, played by Wilfrid Hyde-White, by replacing a rectal thermometer with a daffodil
Disney’s 1959 Sleeping Beauty falls asleep after wicked witch casts a curse on a princess that only a kiss from a prince can break, with the help of three good fairies will the prince, on his gallant white steed arrive in time to save her life.
Set in the 1950’s and starring John Travolta and Olivia Newton-John, no 1950’s list would be complete without this classic love story. As good girl Sandy meets and has a holiday romance with greaser Danny only to discover that when the new school year begins they’re now in the same high school, will they be able to rekindle their romance?
The 1950’s was jam packed full of fun and exciting movies, with most still being watched today. Are you hunting out all of those traditional DVD’s from the ear?….We know we are!
Do you have a favourite film from the fifties? Get in touch below and tell us which one it is and why you love it so much.
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