MGM Centennial: Post-Golden Age, 1960-1973

As film buffs everywhere, led by TCM, celebrate the 100th anniversary of the merger that formed Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer on April 17, 1924, and recite the litany of great films from the Golden Age of that studio from the 1920s to the early ’50s and the roster declaring “more stars than there are in heaven,” I thought it might be useful to recall some of the films that came later in the studio’s history, particularly in the troubled days of the 1960s and ’70s when turbulence in the executive suites led to the studio’s decline and the destruction of its fabled backlot. I experienced this period in real time, particularly from 1969 on, and remember reading trade paper accounts of the controversial actions of new studio owner Kirk Kerkorian and production head James T. Aubrey, who was there a short time (1969-1973), but managed to burn a lot of bridges during his tenure. Yet I continued to see MGM releases during this period, including a few of my favorite films from the studio, most of which marked quite a contrast with the Golden Age MGM classics which remain beloved by millions today (including me). I’ll start with the earliest MGM films I saw as a young moviegoer. This won’t be a comprehensive account of this era of MGM’s history, just the highlights, including some I saw in theaters and some I discovered years later, usually on TCM.

From 1960-69, I saw 25 MGM films in theaters, including such big-ticket items as BEN-HUR, THE ADVENTURES OF HUCKLEBERRY FINN, THE TIME MACHINE, MUTINY ON THE BOUNTY, HOW THE WEST WAS WON, DR. ZHIVAGO, 2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY, and a highly-touted re-release of GONE WITH THE WIND. (BEN-HUR, HUCKLEBERRY FINN and MUTINY were actually remakes of much earlier MGM films.) Usually it took these films a while to reach neighborhood theaters after their initial Broadway showings, at least two years in the case of BEN-HUR (1959). I was lucky enough to see HOW THE WEST WAS WON (1962) in Cinerama at a Broadway theater on a 4th Grade class trip. I remember looking up and checking out the three projection booths employed for the Cinerama process. Our teacher purchased the program book for the film and placed it in the class library and I devoured it during recess hours, learning the names of all the actors in it.

Double Feature Memories, Part 1: The 1960s

Turner Classic Movies has an eight-minute interstitial called “Two for One: The Tradition of the Double Feature,” and features Martin Scorsese and Steven Spielberg recalling the great double features they saw in theaters as kids in the 1940s (Scorsese) and 1950s (both of them), with Bruce Goldstein, programmer for New York’s Film Forum, providing historical context. It’s a great piece, superbly edited, with beautiful film clips. I was especially wowed by the color clips from the previously unfamiliar THE LADY WANTS MINK (1953), seen by Scorsese on a double bill with SHANE, and INVADERS FROM MARS, seen by Spielberg on a double bill with THE DAY THE EARTH STOOD STILL. Bruce Goldstein recalls how Federico Fellini’s LA STRADA was shown in the U.S. on a mind-boggling double bill in 1957 with the cavalry western, TROOPER HOOK, starring Joel McCrea and Barbara Stanwyck. My own double-feature movie attendance began in a later era than theirs, but I experienced many unusual co-feature juxtapositions as well, which I’ll recount here.

Here’s a link to the TCM short:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lvg_d1ixLU8

Double features could be two related films, e.g. HERCULES and its sequel HERCULES UNCHAINED, or two James Bond films:

I actually attended this re-release in 1974, having missed the two films when they originally played in 1959 and 1960.