Overview
Volume 7, written by Peter Lev of Towson University, covers the tumultuous period of the 1950s. The volume explores the divorce of movie studios from their theatre chains; the panic of the blacklist era; the explosive emergence of science fiction as the dominant genre (The Thing, The Day The Earth Stood Still, Forbidden Planet, War Of The Worlds, etc.); the rise of television and Hollywood's response in widescreen spectacles (The Robe, The Ten Commandments, Ben-Hur, etc.) and mature Westerns ( High Noon, Shane, The Searchers , etc.); and more.