Movie Events, 1945

Hollywood Bloody Friday. On October 5, 1945 a six month strike by set decorators represented by the Conference of Studio Unions boiled over into a bloody riot at the gates of Warner Bros. studios in Burbank, California. Over time, and with government support, the studios suppressed the unions. Repeat, ad nauseam…

Serials were popular from the dawn of cinema. In 1945, Columbia Pictures released their 25th serial, Brenda Starr, Reporter. Joan Woodbury played Brenda Starr, a lady who found herself in peril at the end of each episode, but somehow managed to escape at the beginning of the next episode. I’ve seen the series. It’s dialogue-driven, and a good example of its genre.

Highest Grossing Movies, 1945

#3 Spellbound 

Spellbound’s stars Gregory Peck and Ingrid Bergman had an affair, producer David O. Selznick and his associates clashed with director Alfred Hitchcock and his associates. And the Motion Picture Association of America objected to various words and phrases in the screenplay “sex menace,” “frustrations,” “libido,” and “tomcat.”

Maybe they should have made a film about the making of the film 🤔

#2 Leave Her to Heaven

Leave Her to Heaven is often described as the first film noir to be shot in colour, although film scholars have also characterised the film as a thriller, melodrama, psychological melodrama and romance. It’s a blend of all the above, with elements of Greek mythology thrown in, and quite good.

#1 The Bells of St Mary’s

Bing Crosby as a priest + Ingrid Bergman as a nun = a movie at #1.