Cineliteracy: What You Need to Know about 1959 as Movie Year
My Oscar Book:
Top-Grossing films (U.S.)
Rank Title Studio Box-office gross rental
1 Ben-Hur Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer $36,000,000
2 The Shaggy Dog Walt Disney/Buena Vista Distribution $9,600,000
3 Operation Petticoat Universal Pictures $9,321,555
4 Some Like It Hot United Artists/The Mirisch Company $8,127,835
5 Pillow Talk Universal Pictures $7,669,713
6 Imitation of Life $6,417,807
7 Suddenly, Last Summer Columbia Pictures $6,375,000
8 Rio Bravo and The Nun’s Story Warner Bros. each $5,750,000
9 North by Northwest Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer $5,740,000
10 Anatomy of a Murder Columbia Pictures $5,500,000
Events
January 23 –
Republic Pictures releases its last production, Plunderers of Painted Flats.
January 29 –
Disney’s Sleeping Beauty premieres, their most expensive film to date and the first animation to be shot in Super Technirama 70. It initially loses money due to high cost. However, eventually it gained cult following; it’s now considered one of Disney’s classics.
April 30 –
François Truffaut’s The 400 Blows opens the 1959 Cannes Film Fest bringing international attention to the French New Wave.
June 4 –
The Three Stooges release their 190th and last short film, Sappy Bull Fighters.
June 7 –
A contract between Paramount and Jerry Lewis stipulates payment of $10 million plus 60% of the profits for 14 films over a seven-year period. This contract made Lewis the highest paid talent and was unprecedented in that he had unlimited creative control, including final cut, and the return of film rights after 30 years.
July 1 –
Herbert J. Yates, founder of Republic Pictures, sells controlling stake in company.
July –
Les Cousins, another film of the French New Wave, wins the Golden Bear at the 9th Berlin Film Fest
July 22 –
Joseph E. Levine promotes the release of Hercules, starring Steve Reeves which popularizes the sword and sandals genre.
August 4 –
The Big Fisherman is the first film in Super Panavision 70.
September 30 –
The film of Mise Éire, made by George Morrison for Gael Linn, is premiered to close the Cork Film Festival, the first feature Irish language film.
October 7 – Rock Hudson, voted top in the Top Ten Money Making Stars Poll for the year, appears in Pillow Talk alongside Doris Day for the first time.
October 14 –
Australian-born star Errol Flynn dies of heart attack in Vancouver, at age 50.
November 18 – William Wyler’s film Ben-Hur, the most expensive film made ($15,175,000) premieres at Loew’s State Theater in NYC. It won a record 11 Academy Awards.
December 2 –
The battle of the smellies starts with the release of the docu Behind the Great Wall in AromaRama, with scents pumped during the screening.
Awards
32nd Academy Awards, April 4, 1960
Best Film Ben-Hur
Best Director William Wyler, Ben-Hur
Best Actor Charlton Heston, Ben-Hur
Best Actress Simone Signoret Room at the Top
Best Supp. Actor: Hugh Griffith, Ben-Hur
Best Supporting Actress: Shelley Winters,
Best Screenplay, Adapted Room at the Top, Neil Paterson
Best Screenplay, Original Pillow Talk, Russell Rouse, Clarence Greene, Stanley Shapiro, and Maurice Richlin
Festival Awards:
Palme d’Or (Cannes Film Fest): Black Orpheus (Orfeu Negro), Marcel Camus, France
Golden Lion (Venice Film Fest): Il Generale della Rovere (General della Rovere), Roberto Rossellini, Italy / France
La grande guerra (The Great War), directed by Mario Monicelli, Italy / France
Golden Bear (Berlin Film Festival): Les Cousins (The Cousins), Chabrol, France
