1951 in film

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The year 1951 in film involved some significant events.

Events

• Sweden - May Britt is scouted by Italian film-makers Carlo Ponti and Mario Soldati

Top grossing films (U.S.)

Rank	Title	Studio	Actors	Gross
1.	Quo Vadis	MGM	Robert Taylor and Deborah Kerr	$11,902,000
2.	Alice in Wonderland*	Disney/RKO		$7,196,000
3.	Show Boat	MGM	Ava Gardner, Howard Keel and Kathryn Grayson	$5,533,000
4.	A Streetcar Named Desire	Warner Brothers	Vivien Leigh and Marlon Brando	$4,800,000
5.	David and Bathsheba	20th Century Fox	Gregory Peck and Susan Hayward	$4,720,000
6.	An American in Paris	MGM	Gene Kelly and Leslie Caron	$4,531,000
7.	The African Queen	United Artists	Humphrey Bogart and Katharine Hepburn	$4,300,000
8.	A Place in the Sun	Paramount	Montgomery Clift, Elizabeth Taylor and Shelley Winters	$4,213,000
9.	Strangers on a Train	Warner Brothers	Farley Granger and Robert Walker	$3,800,000
10.	Pandora and the Flying Dutchman	MGM	Ava Gardner and James Mason	$3,500,000

(*) After theatrical re-issue(s)

Awards

Academy Awards:

Best Picture: An American in Paris - Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer

Best Director: George Stevens - A Place in the Sun

Best Actor: Humphrey Bogart - The African Queen

Best Actress: Vivien Leigh - A Streetcar Named Desire

Best Supporting Actor: Karl Malden - A Streetcar Named Desire

Best Supporting Actress: Kim Hunter - A Streetcar Named Desire

Golden Globe Awards:

Drama:

Best Picture: A Place in the Sun

Best Actor: Fredric March - Death of a Salesman

Best Actress: Jane Wyman - The Blue Veil

Musical or comedy:

Best Picture: An American in Paris

Best Actor: Danny Kaye - On the Riviera

Best Actress: June Allyson - Too Young to Kiss

Other

Best Director: Laslo Benedek - Death of a Salesman

Grand Prix (Cannes Film Festival):

Miss Julie (Fröken Julie), directed by Alf Sjöberg, Sweden

Miracle in Milan (Miracolo a Milano), directed by Vittorio De Sica, Italy

Golden Lion (Venice Film Festival)

Rashômon, directed by Akira Kurosawa, Japan

Films released in 1951

U.S.A. unless stated

• The 13th Letter

A

• Abbott and Costello Meet the Invisible Man
• Ace in the Hole (aka The Big Carnival), directed by Billy Wilder, starring Kirk Douglas
• Across the Wide Missouri, starring Clark Gable
• The African Queen, directed by John Huston, starring Humphrey Bogart (Oscar for best actor) and Katharine Hepburn - (U.K.)
• Alice in Wonderland
• Along the Great Divide, starring Kirk Douglas
• An American in Paris, starring Gene Kelly and Leslie Caron
• Angels in the Outfield, starring Paul Douglas
• Anna, starring Silvana Mangano, Raf Vallone and Vittorio Gassman - (Italy)
• Another Man's Poison, starring Bette Davis
• Apache Drums
• Appointment with Danger, starring Alan Ladd
• As Young as You Feel, starring Monty Woolley
• Awaara, directed by and starring Raj Kapoor - (India)

B

• Bedtime for Bonzo, starring Ronald Reagan (with a chimpanzee)
• Bellissima, directed by Luchino Visconti, starring Anna Magnani - (Italy)
• The Blue Veil, starring Jane Wyman
• Bright Victory, starring Arthur Kennedy
• The Browning Version, directed by Anthony Asquith, starring Michael Redgrave and Jean Kent - (U.K.)
• Bullfighter and the Lady

C

• Callaway Went Thataway, starring Fred MacMurray, Dorothy McGuire, Howard Keel
• Call Me Mister, starring Betty Grable
• Captain Horatio Hornblower, starring Gregory Peck - (U.K.)
• Cattle Drive
• Cause for Alarm!, starring Loretta Young
• China Corsair
• Come Fill the Cup
• Comin' Round The Mountain
• Cops and Robbers (Guardie e ladri), directed by Mario Monicelli - (Italy)
• Cry Danger, starring Dick Powell and Rhonda Fleming
• Cry, the Beloved Country, directed by Zoltan Korda, starring Sidney Poitier - (U.K.)

D

• David and Bathsheba, starring Gregory Peck and Susan Hayward
• The Day the Earth Stood Still, directed by Robert Wise, starring Michael Rennie and Patricia Neal
• Death of a Salesman, starring Fredric March
• Decision Before Dawn, starring Richard Basehart
• The Desert Fox: The Story of Rommel, starring James Mason
• Detective Story, starring Kirk Douglas, Eleanor Parker, William Bendix, Lee Grant
• Diary of a Country Priest (Journal d'un curé de campagne), directed by Robert Bresson - (France)
• Dream of a Cossack, starring Sergei Bondarchuk - (U.S.S.R.)

E-F

• Early Summer (Bakushū), directed by Yasujirō Ozu - (Japan)
• Father's Little Dividend, starring Spencer Tracy and Elizabeth Taylor
• The Fighting Seventh
• Flying Leathernecks, starring John Wayne and Robert Ryan
• Follow the Sun, starring Glenn Ford (as Ben Hogan)
• The Forbidden Christ (Il Cristo proibito), starring Raf Vallone - (Italy)
• Fort Worth, starring Randolph Scott
• Fourteen Hours
• The Frogmen, starring Richard Widmark and Dana Andrews
• Furrows (Surcos) - (Spain)

G-J

• Gerald McBoing-Boing
• Go for Broke!
• The Golden Horde
• Goodbye My Fancy
• The Great Caruso, starring Mario Lanza
• He Ran All the Way, starring John Garfield and Shelley Winters
• Here Comes the Groom, directed by Frank Capra, starring Bing Crosby
• His Kind of Woman, starring Robert Mitchum and Jane Russell
• The House on Telegraph Hill
• I Can Get It for You Wholesale, starring Susan Hayward
• The Idiot, directed by Akira Kurosawa - (Japan)
• Juliette, or Key of Dreams (Juliette ou La clef des songes), directed by Marcel Carné - (France)

K-L

• Kind Lady, starring Ethel Barrymore
• Lambert the Sheepish Lion
• Laughter in Paradise, starring Alastair Sim - (U.K.)
• The Lavender Hill Mob, directed by Charles Crichton, starring Alec Guinness, Stanley Holloway, Sid James - (U.K.)
• The Lemon Drop Kid, starring Bob Hope
• Let's Go Crazy - (U.K.)
• Leva på 'Hoppet', starring Ingrid Thulin - (Sweden)
• Lost Continent, starring Cesar Romero

M

• The Magic Box, starring Robert Donat, a biopic of William Friese-Greene - (U.K.)
• The Man in the White Suit, directed by Alexander Mackendrick, starring Alec Guinness and Joan Greenwood - (U.K.)
• The Mating Season, starring Gene Tierney, John Lund, Miriam Hopkins, Thelma Ritter
• Miracle in Milan (Miracolo a Milano), directed by Vittorio De Sica - (Italy)
• Miss Julie (Fröken Julie), directed by Alf Sjöberg - (Sweden)
• The Model and the Marriage Broker
• Mr. Imperium, starring Lana Turner
• Murder, Inc. (aka The Enforcer (1951 film)), starring Humphrey Bogart

N-O

• No Highway in the Sky, starring James Stewart, Glynis Johns and Marlene Dietrich - (U.K.)
• Olivia, directed by Jacqueline Audry - (France)
• On Moonlight Bay, starring Doris Day and Gordon MacRae
• On the Riviera, starring Danny Kaye

P-Q

• Pandora and the Flying Dutchman, starring Ava Gardner and James Mason - (U.K.)
• Payment on Demand, starring Bette Davis and Barry Sullivan
• Penny Points to Paradise, starring Harry Secombe, Peter Sellers and Spike Milligan - (U.K.)
• People Will Talk, starring Cary Grant
• A Place in the Sun, starring Montgomery Clift, Elizabeth Taylor, Shelley Winters
• Pool of London - (U.K.)
• The Prowler, directed by Joseph Losey
• Quo Vadis, starring Robert Taylor and Deborah Kerr

R

• The Racket, starring Robert Mitchum
• Rawhide, starring Tyrone Power
• The Red Badge of Courage, directed by John Huston
• Repast (Meshi), directed by Mikio Naruse, written by the novelist Yasunari Kawabata - (Japan)
• Rich, Young and Pretty
• The River (Le Fleuve), directed by Jean Renoir - (France/India/U.S.A.)
• Royal Wedding, starring Fred Astaire

S

• ...Sans laisser d'adresse - (France)
• Santa Fe, starring Randolph Scott
• Scrooge (aka A Christmas Carol), starring Alastair Sim - (U.K.)
• Show Boat, a musical starring Kathryn Grayson and Ava Gardner with songs by Oscar Hammerstein and Jerome Kern
• Starlift
• The Steel Helmet, directed by Samuel Fuller
• Storm Warning, starring Ginger Rogers and Doris Day
• Strangers on a Train, directed by Alfred Hitchcock, starring Farley Granger and Robert Walker
• A Streetcar Named Desire, directed by Elia Kazan, starring Vivien Leigh (Oscar for best actress) and Marlon Brando
• Summer Interlude (Sommarlek), directed by Ingmar Bergman - (Sweden)
• Superman and the Mole Men, starring George Reeves
• Susana (aka The Devil and the Flesh), directed by Luis Buñuel - (Mexico)

T-V

• A Tale of Five Cities - (Italy/U.K.)
• The Tale of Genji - (Japan)
• The Tales of Hoffmann, a cinematic opera directed by Powell and Pressburger and starring Moira Shearer - (U.K.)
• The Tall Target
• That's My Boy, starring Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis
• The Thing from Another World, directed by Howard Hawks
• Tom Brown's Schooldays - (U.K.)
• Tomahawk
• Vengeance Valley, starring Burt Lancaster and Joanne Dru
• Victimas del Pecado (Victims of Sin) - (Mexico)

W-Z

• The Well
• Westward the Women, starring Robert Taylor
• When Worlds Collide
• Young Wives' Tale - (U.K.)
• You're in the Navy Now, starring Gary Cooper

Serials

• Captain Video: Master of the Stratosphere, starring Judd Holdren
• Don Daredevil Rides Again, starring Ken Curtis and Aline Towne
• Government Agents vs Phantom Legion, starring Walter Reed
• Mysterious Island, starring Richard Crane
• Roar of the Iron Horse, starring Buster Crabbe

Short film series

• Mickey Mouse (1928–1956)
• Looney Tunes (1930–1969)
• Merrie Melodies (1931–1969)
• Popeye (1933–1957)
• The Three Stooges (1934–1959)
• Donald Duck (1936–1956)
• Pluto (1937-1951)
• Goofy (1939–1953)
• Tom and Jerry (1940–1958)
• Bugs Bunny (1940–1962)
• Mighty Mouse (1942–1955)
• Chip and Dale (1943–1956)
• Yosemite Sam (1945–1963)

Births

• January 8 - John McTiernan, American director
• January 12 - Kirstie Alley, American actress
• February 13 - David Naughton, American actor & singer
• February 15 - Jane Seymour, English actress
• February 16 - William Katt, American actor
• March 13 - Charo, Spanish-American singer & actress
• March 17 - Kurt Russell, American actor
• April 10 - Steven Seagal, American actor & martial artist
• April 17 - Olivia Hussey, Argentine-born English actress
• April 21 - Tony Danza, actor
• May 30 - Stephen Tobolowsky, American actor
• July 6 - Geoffrey Rush, Australian actor
• July 8 - Anjelica Huston, American actress
• July 9 - Chris Cooper, American actor
• July 21 - Robin Williams, American actor & comedian
• July 24 - Lynda Carter, American actress & singer
• August 6 - Catherine Hicks, American actress
• August 14 - Carl Lumbly, American actor
• September 5 - Michael Keaton, American actor
• September 12 - Joe Pantoliano, American actor
• September 17 - Cassandra Peterson, American actress
• September 25 - Pedro Almodóvar, Spanish director
  • Mark Hamill, American actor
• November 27 - Kathryn Bigelow, American director
• December 1 - Treat Williams, American actor

Deaths

• January 11 – Charles W. Goddard, American playwright & screenwriter (b. 1879)
• March 6 - Ivor Novello, British actor, singer & composer (b. 1893)
• March 25 - Oscar Micheaux, African American pioneer filmmaker & author (b. 1884)
• April 4 - Al Christie, Canadian-born early Hollywood director/producer (b. 1881)
• June 6 - Olive Tell, American actress (b. 1894)
• June 9 - Mayo Methot, American actress (b. 1904)
• July 23 - Robert J. Flaherty, American pioneer documentary filmmaker (b. 1884)
• August 28 - Robert Walker, American actor (b. 1918)
• August 30 - Konstantin Märska, Estonian cinematographer (b. 1896)
• September 7 - Maria Montez, Dominican-born actress (b. 1912)

Film Debuts

• Carroll Baker
• Leslie Caron
• Lee Grant
• Audrey Hepburn
• Grace Kelly
• Leonard Nimoy
• Irene Pappas
• Peter Sellers
• William Shatner
• Rod Steiger