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Looking Back

October 1957

Step back in time to see what area movie theaters were presenting in October 1957. Film titles are linked to the Internet Movie Database.

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

"Presenting a Harvest of Hollywood's Newest and Finest Productions!" announced the Butterfield movie theater display ad in the Oct. 5, 1957 Ann Arbor News. The Michigan was showing The Pride and the Passion (Cary Grant, Frank Sinatra, Sophia Loren), while the State screened Jet Pilot (John Wayne, Janet Leigh) and the Campus presented John Ford's The Rising of the Moon.

Sinatra movies seemed to be everywhere. The Redford also showed The Pride and the Passion. Sinatra starred with Mitzi Gaynor in The Joker is Wild, which opened at the Michigan in Detroit. And newspaper ads promoted the upcoming release of Pal Joey, with Sinatra, Rita Hayworth and Kim Novak.

"Here's a Double Rendezvous with Romance!" read an ad for a Michigan (Ann Arbor) double bill of Roman Holiday (1953) and Sabrina (1954), which were Valentine's Day movies at the Michigan in 2006 (RH) and 2007 (S). Other highlights of the Michigan month included Man of a Thousand Faces (James Cagney, Dorothy Malone) and Stopover Tokyo (Robert Wagner, Joan Collins). Future The Odd Couple television star Tony Randall appeared in Will Success Spoil Rock Hunter? and No Down Payment (which helped launch Joanne Woodward's career).

"He was the inventor of the movie star system," read an article about the Oct. 29 death of Louis B. Mayer, co-founder of the powerful Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer film studio (The Ann Arbor News, Oct. 29, 1957). Mayer's successors at M-G-M this month provided movies for the Redford (Man on Fire, Silk Stockings) and the Adams in Detroit (Elvis Presley's latest, Jailhouse Rock).

The big shows at the Redford this month were Band of Angels (Clark Gable, Yvonne DeCarlo) and An Affair to Remember (Cary Grant, Deborah Kerr). Also showing was Bambi (1942), The Curse of Frankenstein (Peter Cushing), and dancer Vera-Ellen's last film, Let's Be Happy (with Tony Martin).

The Ten Commandments opened at several Detroit neighborhood theaters, after a long run at the downtown Madison. The Three Faces of Eve (Joanne Woodward, David Wayne, Lee J. Cobb) opened at the Fox. And the Broadway Capitol livened up Halloween with The Giant Claw and The Night the World Exploded (also at the State in Ann Arbor).

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