Retaining Their Values

The sunny, eternally optimistic images of the 1950s depicted in such TV comedies as “Leave It to Beaver” and “The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet” could leave one to believe that the decade was carefree and fun. Fatherly Dwight Eisenhower was the president; the country was enjoying post-World War II prosperity. All was calm and copacetic in the suburbs.

In reality, the ‘50s were also marked by turmoil and fear. The Cold War was raging between the U.S. and the Soviet Union. The threat of Communism lead to the blacklist. Women’s roles were changing. Teens began confronting authority. And the civil rights movement began to gain ground.

Beginning Tuesday, cable’s Turner Classic Movies examines the films of the ‘50s and how they reflected that changing culture. The monthlong festival “Hidden Values: Movies of the 1950s” kicks off with a new documentary featuring a movie-by-movie examination of such classics as “The Wild One,” “Rebel Without a Cause,” “Giant” and “Anatomy of a Murder.” Critic and author Molly Haskell, journalist and author Peter Biskin, actress-director Lee Grant and directors John Carpenter, Paul Mazursky and Roger Corman discuss the films.

Thirty-three films--divided into such topics as “Rebels and Delinquents,” “The Red Scare,” “Sci-Fi: The Exploration of Space,” “The Move to Wide Screen” and “Challenging the Production Code”--will air during the festival. The retrospective includes such popular titles as “North by Northwest,” as well as lesser-known films like “A Bullet for Joey.

We didn’t want it to be just movies that were popular in the ‘50s, but more movies that were reflecting what was going on in the country,” says Charlie Tabesh, TCM’s vice president of programming. “Doing research, certain themes seemed to come up. It was a matter of finding movies that were appropriate and fit the themes and balanced it out.”

Haskell, who grew up in the ‘50s, learned about the rules of courtship from the movies. “We were all pretty sheltered in those days,” she says. “What we learned about men and women we pretty much learned from movies. It was Doris Day, Debbie Reynolds, Audrey Hepburn and Marilyn Monroe.”

Grant, who was blacklisted shortly after making her film debut in 1951’s “The Detective Story,” was amazed at how her perception of the 1956 Oscar-winner “Giant” changed over the years. When she watched it for the special, she realized the drama was an exploration of feminism and the roles of men and women. Rock Hudson stars in “Giant” as a macho Texas rancher; Elizabeth Taylor plays his independent-minded wife.

“When ‘Giant’ was mentioned to me, I thought ‘Hollywood claptrap’--those usual big, expansive movies of the ‘50s,” Grant says. “But when I watched it, I thought, ‘How did I miss the relationship between this kind of testosterone guy that every woman is attracted to and marries, then she finds she has given up something--she’s lost control of her life.’ ”

The strict Production Code began to loosen ever so slightly in the ‘50s, especially with Otto Preminger’s 1959 courtroom drama “Anatomy of a Murder,” which dealt frankly and openly with rape. “It was absolutely contemporary and fascinating,” says Grant.

“It’s a fantastic film,” adds Haskell. “There hadn’t been anything like it that looks at rape the way that it does. It sort of demystifies it. It is so blunt. Preminger pushed the envelope. He was really there in the forefront with blacks, with sex and with language.”

Haskell misses the strong story structure found in ‘50s films and “the male and female partnerships that were wonderful. I think it was really exciting what directors like Preminger and Nicholas Ray were doing. ... When you think that all of these were Hollywood films and you look at what is being made today--it’s pathetic. They were grown-up movies.”

*

/ “Hidden Values: Movies of the 1950s” can be seen Tuesday at 5 and 8 p.m. on TCM; also airing that night are “Rebel Without a Cause” at 6 p.m., “The Wild One” at 9 p.m., “The Blackboard Jungle” at 10:30 p.m. and “The Delinquents” at 12:30 a.m. The festival continues every Tuesday and Thursday through Sept. 27.