Home

DFT

Michigan

Redford

Lobby

Detroit Movie Palaces

The Film Programs of the Detroit Film Theatre, Michigan Theater, and Redford Theatre

Your Guide to Classic Movie Theater Filmgoing!

Home

Upcoming Films

Detroit Film Theatre

Michigan Theater

Redford Theatre

Lobby

Looking Back

December 1956

Step back in time to see what area movie theaters were presenting in December 1956. Film titles are linked to the Internet Movie Database.

For more information about these theaters, see Cinema Treasures or Water Winter Wonderland.

"The waning days of 1956 witness the greatest array of first-run attractions ever presented to Detroit movie goers in a holiday season," wrote Al Weitschat in the December 23 Detroit News. Christmas Day openings included The Teahouse of the August Moon, with Marlon Brando (at the Adams); Elia Kazan's controversial Baby Doll (Palms); and the last Dean Martin/Jerry Lewis movie, Hollywood or Bust (Michigan). On December 27, the United Artists Theatre hosted the Detroit premiere of Michael Todd's Around the World in 80 Days.

The Redford joined in the fun with a rare first run showing of a major film—Friendly Persuasion, with Gary Cooper, which also opened on December 25. "Certainly this is the most appropriate picture for the Christmas season, because it deals with kind hearts and gentle people and strong faith and abiding love," wrote Weitschat in the December 25 News. "It is a far cry from the spectacular stuff filling the large screens."

Judy Holliday rode in The Solid Gold Cadillac to Detroit area neighborhood theaters, where it enjoyed a week-long run at the Redford on double bills with Raw Edge (Rory Calhoun) and Run for the Sun (Richard Widmark). Also popular at the Redford was the musical The Best Things in Life are Free, which continued the success Gordon MacRae had with his last two movies (Oklahoma! and Carousel). Jack Palance starred in the war movie Attack, on a twin bill with Dana Andrews in Fritz Lang's Beyond a Reasonable Doubt.

Friendly Persuasion also brightened Christmas in Ann Arbor, where it played for eight days at the Michigan. Earlier in the month, the 1940 Alfred Hitchcock film Rebecca played for six days. Hitchock's latest, The Wrong Man (with Henry Fonda), helped Michigan visitors "Celebrate the Big Nite at Our Gay...Happy New Year's Eve Midnite Show". Ann Arbor businesses sold tickets to the Merchants Christmas Show at the Michigan, which on Friday, December 21 featured John Wayne in the 1949 John Ford western She Wore a Yellow Ribbon.

The Motion Picture Association of America loosened the movie morals code. "The major changes lift completely the code's prohibition against subjects having to do with illicit narcotics practices, illegal operation, kidnaping and prostitution," wrote Al Weitschat in the December 12 Detroit News. Weitschat noted that "this is the first liberalization of the code since it was adopted in 1930."

Back to Top

Looking Back Main Page

Home

Site Map

Disclaimer

Comments