Cineliteracy: What You Need to Know about 1952 as a Movie Year?
Best Picture Oscar Nominees
The Greatest Show on Earth
High Noon
Ivanhoe
Moulin Rouge
The Quiet Man
N.Y. Film Critics Circle: High Noon
British Awards: The Sound Barrier
Cannes Festival: Tie
Othello (US)
Two Cents Worth of Hope (Italy)
Venice Festival: Forbidden Games (France)
Box-Office Hits
Rank Title Distributor(s) Domestic rentals
1 The Greatest Show on Earth Paramount $12,800,000
2 This Is Cinerama Cinerama Releasing $12,500,000
3 The Snows of Kilimanjaro 20th Century Fox $6,500,000
4 Hans Christian Andersen RKO $6,000,000
5 Ivanhoe MGM $5,810,000
6 Sailor Beware Paramount $4,300,000
7 Moulin Rouge United Artists $4,252,000
8 Jumping Jacks Paramount $4,000,000
9 The Quiet Man Republic $3,800,000
10 High Noon United Artists $3,750,000
Top Box-Office Stars
Gender: 8 males. 2 females
Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis
Gary Cooper
John Wayne
Bing Crosby
Bob Hope
James Stewart
Doris Day
Gregory Peck
Susan Hayward
Randolph Scott
International
France Little World of Don Camillo Julien Duvivier Cineriz, Francinex 12,791,168 admissions
India Aan Mehboob Khan Mehboob Productions $5,880,000 [b]
Italy Little World of Don Camillo Julien Duvivier Cineriz, Francinex 13,215,653 admissions
Japan Himeyuri no Tō Tadashi Imai Toei Company ¥176,590,000
Soviet Union Tarzan the Ape Man W. S. Van Dyke Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer 42,900,000 admissions
United Kingdom, The Greatest Show on Earth, DeMille, Paramount, 13,000,000 admissions
Movie Events
January 10 – DeMille’s circus epic, The Greatest Show on Earth, premières at Radio City Music Hall in New York City.
March 27 – MGM musical Singin’ in the Rain premieres at Radio City Music Hall in New York City.
May 26 –
Decision reached in Joseph Burstyn, Inc. v. Wilson determining that certain provisions of the New York Education Law allowing a censor to forbid the commercial showing of any non-licensed film, or revoke or deny the license of a film deemed to be “sacrilegious,” was a “restraint on freedom of speech” and thereby a violation of the First Amendment to the Constitution.
September 19 – While Chaplin is at sea on his way to the U.K., the U.S. Attorney-General, James P. McGranery, announces a review his right to return to the US.
September 30 – The Cinerama multiple-projection widescreen, invented by Fred Waller, makes its début in New York with the film This Is Cinerama.
November 27 –
Bwana Devil, the first American feature, color 3-D film, is released, leading to new demand for 3-D films that lasts for the next two years.
Best Actress Oscar
Oscar: Shirley Booth, Come Back, Little Sheba
N.Y. Film Critics Circle: Shirley Booth
National Board of Review: Shirley Booth
Cannes Film Festival: Lee Grant, Detective Story
Venice Film Festival: Not Awarded
British: Tie–Vivien Leigh, A Streetcar Named desire; Simone Signoret, Casque dÓr
Best Actor:
Oscar: Gary Cooper, High Noon
N.Y. Film Critics Circle: Ralph Richardson, Breaking the Sound Barriers
National Board of Review: Ralph Richardson, Breaking the Sound Barriers
Cannes Film Festival: Marlon Brando, Viva Zapata
Venice Film Festival: Fredric March, Death of a Salesman
British: Ralph Richardson, Breaking the Sound Barriers; foreign actor: Marlon Brando, Viva Zapata
Cannes Film Fest 1952
The fifth Cannes Film Festival was held from April 23 to May 10, 1952.
Films In Competition: 43
Out of Competition: 1
Short Films: 51
As in the previous three festivals, the entire jury of this festival was made up of French persons, with Maurice Genevoix as the Jury President.
The Grand Prix of the Festival went to Two Cents Worth of Hope by Renato Castellani and Othello by Orson Welles.
The festival opened with Minnelli’s musical, An American in Paris, which had already won the Best Picture Oscar.
