Movie Classics: Pre-1950

The Pre-1950’s was the “Golden Age of Hollywood” & stars such as Humphrey Bogart, Clark Gable, Fay Wray, Tyrone Power, Vivien Leigh, Johnny Weissmuller, Victor Mature, Abbott & Costello, Ingrid Bergman, Errol Flynn, Gary Cooper, Hedy Lamarr, Mickey Rooney & Maureen O’Sullivan graced the silver screen in a wide variety of film genres including, romance, jungle adventures, swashbucklers, crime thrillers & dramas.

Movies Of The 1950’s

The 1950’s saw the birth of Teen Movies (Rebel Without A Cause), JD Films (Blackboard Jungle) , Hot Rod Flicks (Dragstrip Girl), Rock n Roll Musicals (Rock Around The Clock) & the beginning of the Elvis Presley phenomenon (Love Me Tender). Historical Epics (Ben-Hur), Gun Smokin’ Westerns (Gunfight At The OK Corral) & Campy B-Movie Sci-Fi’s (The Blob) were also the rage during this fabulous movie decade.

Movies Of The 1960’s

The 1960’s was the decade of Beach Movies (Beach Party, Gidget Goes Hawaiian), Creature Features (Gorgo, King Kong vs. Godzilla), Spy Films (Dr. No, Our Man Flint) & Elvis Presley (Blue Hawaii, Viva Las Vegas).  This decade also saw the emergence of Italian cinema, most notably, the sword & sandal peplums (Hercules And The Captive Woman) & the spaghetti westerns (The Good, The Bad And The Ugly).

Movies Of The 1970’s

In the 1970’s cinema audiences were introduced to film fads such as Disco (Saturday Night Fever), Boxing (Rocky), Black-Exploitation Films (Shaft), Disaster Epics (Earthquake) & Kung Fu flicks (Enter The Dragon). Also,  big budget gangster films (The Godfather), hard-boiled cop thrillers (The French Connection, Dirty Harry) & Special Effects Fantasy Epics such as Star Wars, Superman & Star Trek The Motion Picture.

Movies Of The 1980’s

The 1980’s saw a rebirth in the Teen Movie genre with the John Hughes classics, 16 Candles, The Breakfast Club & Pretty In Pink. Also, movie franchises reached a peak with, The Porky’s Trilogy, The Rambo Trilogy, The Indiana Jones Trilogy, The Karate Kid Trilogy, The Back To The Future Trilogy, The Police Academy Series & of course Star Wars, Superman, Star Trek & Rocky sequels continued on into the 1980’s.

Movies Of The 1990’s

The 1990’s proved to be a mixed bag of cinema, old franchises such as Batman, The Naked Gun & James Bond continued, popular TV Shows such as The Brady Bunch, The Beverly Hillbillies & Mission Impossible were adapted for the big screen, Creature Features returned with Jurassic Park, Godzilla & Mighty Joe Young, while teen movies & teen slasher flicks were revived yet again with Clueless & The Scream Trilogy.

Movies Of The 2000’s

In the new millennium “Event Films” & CGI Special Effects Blockbusters have become all the rage. Epics such as the Star Wars sequels, The Lord Of The Rings Trilogy, The Matrix sequels & Terminator 3 flooded the multiplexes. Even 2001’s Oscar winner, Gladiator, took audiences back to ancient Rome via Computer Generated Imagery. Asian cinema reached Hollywood with “Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon” & stars such as Jackie Chan & Jet Li filtered into American films. Also, the super heroes of Marvel Comic Books returned in a big way with Spider-Man, Daredevil & The Hulk.