The 1950s
1954 & 1959 | Cold War | Second Red Scare
During the 1950s, Hollywood continued to produce war movies, modifying them to reflect the Cold War. Film noir’s popularity also carried over but declined by the latter half of the decade. Horror films gained demand in Little Rock in the late 1950s because of the fear that still permeated the national atmosphere.
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War, Film Noir,
& Horror
What Was
Popular?
Historical Events of the 1950s
Cold War and the Second Red Scare
After WWII, hostility between the United States and the Soviet Union grew. Generally dated from the mid-1940s to early 1990s, the Cold War was a period of political and economic tension between these world powers and their allies. Senator Joseph McCarthy further enflamed this tension by spreading fear that Soviet communists had infiltrated American society and government. From the mid-1940s to late 1950s, the Second Red Scare or "McCarthyism" caused the country to become immensely paranoid.
The Cold War and Second Red Scare deeply shaped the movie industry and the types of films they released. The House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC) under the direction of the U.S. House of Representatives investigated Hollywood for any traces of pro-Soviet support. Their investigations compounded the anxiety and paranoia in the industry caused by dropping ticket sales and labor unrest. By turning Hollywood inside out in a Communist witch hunt, HUAC turned “the dream factory into a paranoid fantasy.”
By turning Hollywood inside out in a Communist witch hunt, HUAC turned “the dream factory into a paranoid fantasy.”
Genre Trends of the 1950s
Modification of War Films
Because of pressure from HUAC, film makers adapted the features of World War II combat movies to fit an anti-Communist theme.
Instead of fighting evil Nazi villains, the protagonists of these Cold War films took on enemy communists. The movies depicted Soviets as angry, greedy automatons determined to take over and enslave the world while Americans were the liberators and bringers of democracy. Through these oversimplified morality plays, Hollywood blamed the Cold War on the Soviet Union and depoliticized communism, reducing it to a set of extremist personality types instead of a political ideology.
However, these Cold War films did not necessarily reflect the ideologies of the studios. They had no economic incentive to make the films because the producers knew that political movies would not draw the crowds and profits they sorely needed. Instead, they made these films because they were afraid of HUAC.
Shown in Little Rock
Genre Trends of the 1950s
Decline of Film Noir
Film noir also felt the effects of the Cold War. While it continued to be very successful in the early 1950s, its popularity began to decline by the middle of the decade.
A different style of crime drama emerged that better fit the narrative of the “American way of life” that the McCarthy era pushed on the public. In these new dramas, the tortured protagonist dealt with criminal activity in the light suburbs rather than the dark cities in order to better hide film noir’s social critiques and avoid falling prey to HUAC.
Another reason for the fall of film noir’s popularity in the mid-1950s was the rise of television. Film noir’s signature black and white pictures and smoky mystery lighting did not fit with the new high-tech color televisions in people’s homes, making the style feel antiquated. By 1958, film noir’s classical period came to an end.
Shown in Little Rock
Genre Trends of the 1950s
Rise of Horror Movies
While film noir’s time came to a close, horror movies picked up in the later 1950s. While still a minority on the movie market, comprising only 6% of the films shown, horror movies did significantly grow in popularity in 1959 in Little Rock.
By the mid-1950s, the major political conflicts gradually began to ease. McCarthy’s communist witch hunt and the Red Scare were coming to a close, and the threat of nuclear destruction slowly lessened. However, the American people were still very much afraid and grew paranoid about the political calm. They suspected the enemy was just better hidden and lurking under the surface, waiting to strike when they became lax. As a result, paranoia, alienation, and a distrust of conformity dominated the social consciousness of the 1950s.
Horror movies allowed audiences to express and grapple with their anxieties caused by living through a continuous stream of historic stressful events
From this anxiety grew American’s preference for horror films. Like how film noir allowed people to come to terms with the Great Depression and World War II, horror movies allowed audiences to express and grapple with their anxieties caused by living through a continuous stream of historic stressful events.
These movies invoked horror in the audience by violating society’s natural laws and social presumptions such as making the dead come back to life or having ordinary objects undergo monstrous transformations. By violating the normal and predictable, horror films showed the world’s actual instability and uncontrollability. These themes of lack of control and being overwhelmed by destructive forces beyond their power spoke to moviegoers and reflected how they felt. In addition, the main characters’ screams and displays of paranoia on the screen not only mirrored moviegoers’ inner turmoil but also cued the same responses from them. The protagonists and the audience screamed together, expressing their fear caused by uncertain and uncontrollable circumstances and allowing them to process their emotions.
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Another reason for the increased interest in horror movies in the late 1950s was the rise of the television and the teenager. With the economic boom at the beginning of the decade, more Americans began buying televisions for their homes, causing theater attendance to drop by over 50% from 1949 to 1959.
To draw people back to the movies, Hollywood made 3-D pictures, offered more mature content, and made the theater screens larger. When these tactics failed, they started marketing to the teenager. Teenagers still frequented the movies on a regular basis to hang out with friends or catch a date with a sweetheart at the drive-in theater. Horror movies particularly appealed to this age group because like the characters on the screen, they were going through bodily changes and experiencing alienation. Eventually, teen horror movies became one of the most popular subgenres of teen films.
