Diary of a 1950's Teenager: MOVIES FROM THE 1940s AND 50s

The first movie I remember seeing was Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo starring Van Johnson, Robert Mitchum and Robert Walker. I went to the Palace Theater with my aunt and felt very grown up. It was early 1945. I was 8 years old. Like many people from my generation, I thought going to the movies was a special treat. And back then it really was, as some of the best movies ever made were from the 1940s and ‘50s.
The Palace Theater in Fairview showed first run movies on Sunday night. Not only was that a big movie day for the young people, but mom and pop and the grandparents, too. On Saturday and Wednesday nights, the popular movies from the 1940s were replayed. These movies continued to set the tone for our lives in the early part of our high school years.
Each generation seems to find these old movies equally entertaining, watching on TV, VHS or DVD. But we saw them on the big screen. The impact was tremendous. This was a fairly new medium and we watched everything from spy movies to film noir to the lavish musicals. There were no “teen” stars back then. All the girls thought Van Johnson and June Allyson were the living end. James Dean and Natalie Wood had not yet arrived on the scene. The mature, older actors were everyone’s favorites. Even at a very young age we were intrigued by Humphrey Bogart, Clark Gable and Cary Grant. Sadly, I’m not so sure 12 year olds would find Humphrey Bogart appealing today.
We didn’t know it at the time, but the director had a lot to do with the success of a movie. I think my friends and I thought if William Holden was in the movie, it was automatically a good movie...and it usually was!
John Ford, Alfred Hitchcock, Howard Hawks and Henry Hathaway emerged as some of the great directors. John Ford directed The Grapes of Wrath in 1940. Orson Welles gave us Citizen Cain in 1941. One of my favorites to this day is Shadow of a Doubt directed by Alfred Hitchcock.
Over the years, I wonder how many people have seen His Girl Friday with Cary Grant and Rosalind Russell. That movie came out in 1940. The Maltese Falcon with Humphrey Bogart is from 1941 and Casablanca was the mega hit from 1942. I can’t think of a single movie from the 1990s and beyond that could possibly be popular 70 years from now. I wonder if my grandchildren will think High School Musical is “awesome” when they’re my age.
If kids would give them a chance, I think they would enjoy some of these classic “adult” movies from the early 1940s.
Knute Rocken: All American starring Ronald Reagan
Casablanca - Humphrey Bogart
Woman of the Year - Spencer Tracy and Katherine Hepburn, their first pairing on film
The Pride of the Yankees - Gary Cooper
Citizen Cain - Orson Welles
The Matese Falcon - Humphrey Bogart
Random Harvest - Ronald Colman, Greer Garson
Heaven Can Wait - Don Ameche
Arsenic and Old Lace - Cary Grant
Double Indemnity - starring Fred MacMurray and Barbara Stanwyck
To Have and Have Not - starring 19-year-old Laren Bacall and Humphrey Bogat

Of course there were fun movies, too. Any age group was sure to enjoy Bambi, the Disney animated classic. or The Wolf Man starring Lon Chaney. Home In Indiana starred three young talents – Jeanne Crain, June Haver and Lon McCallister. This 1944 film was one of the first movies showing young people having real, every day kind of fun together. It is still popular today!

It seemed as if the late 40's was when I really started going to the movies..
Miracle on 34th Street, Maureen O’Hara, John Payne and Natalie Wood
It Had to Be You - Ginger Rogers and Cornel Wilde
Homestretch - Cornel Wilde and Maureen O’Hara
Forever Amber - Linda Darnell, Cornel Wilde
Mother Wore Tights with Betty Grable and Dan Dailey
Blue Skies with Bing Crosby and Fred Astaire
THE EGG AND I with Claudette Colbert and Fred MacMurray
HIGH BARBAREE with Van Johnson and June Allyson
CLAUDIA AND DAVID with Dorothy McGuire and Robert Young
I WONDER WHO’S KISSING HER NOW starring June Haver, Mark Stevens
DESERT FURY starring John Hodiak, Lizabeth Scott and Burt Lancaster
FRONTIER GAL starring Yvonne De Carlo and Rod Cameron
DESIRE ME wtih Greer Garson and Robert Mitchum
THE BACHELOR AND THE BOBBY-SOXER starring Cary Grant, Myrna Loy and Shirley Temple
THE POSTMAN ALWAYS RINGS TWICE starring Lana Turner and John Garfield
GILDA starring Rita Hayworth and Glenn Ford
THE BIG SLEEP starring Humphrey and Lauren Bacall
MARGIE - Jeanne Crain
TILL THE CLOUDS ROLL BY - all star cast
TAP ROOTS with Susan Hayward
SORRY WRONG NUMBER with Barbara Stanwyck
A LETTER TO THREE WIVES starring Jeanne Crain, Linda Darnell, Ann Southern, Kirk Douglas
THE BEST YEARS OF OUR LIVES
LEAVE HER TO HEAVEN
OUT OF THE PAST
IT’S A WONDERFUL LIFE
DUEL IN THE SUN
MEET ME IN ST. LOUIS
THE BARKLEYS OF BROADWAY
STATE FAIR
WEST OF THE PECOS
SCUDDA-HOO! SCUDDA-HAY!
A DATE WITH JUDY
JESSE JAMES - RANDOLPH SCOTT, TYRONE POWER, HENRY FONDA
SMOKY starring Fred MacMurray and Anne Baster

Movie Posters

CARY GRANT PHOTO