We are now up to 1955 and I’m eleven years old and seeing about four movies every weekend (Remember the double bill).  The deal with my mother was that I got her Friday night tips for my allowance and movie money for Saturday and Sunday.

The Musical & Cartoon genres were represented by Lady & The Tramp, Guys & Dolls, Oklahoma, It’s Always Fair Weather, and Love Me Or Leave Me.

There was lots of comedy and romance with The Seven Year Itch, To Catch a Thief, The Trouble With Harry, The Court Jester, The Tender Trap, and Artists and Models.

The real heavy hitters were the dramas.  There are great ones that remain classics to this day.  For the first time movie goers saw James Dean in major movies with Rebel Without A Cause and East of Eden.  His death in September made him a legend.  In addition, you get Marty (Borgnine’s well deserved Oscar), The Man With The Golden Arm, Picnic, and Mr. Rogers are just a few in a truly hard hitting year.

This was also my first introduction to foreign films and subtitles with Ingemar Bergman’s Smiles of A Summer Night that eventually became the a musical with Sondheim’s A Little Night Music.

With so many musicals and theme songs to choose from, it’s hard pick, so I’ll go with two both of which come from dramas not musicals:  The Theme From Picnic and Doris Day in one of her best dramatic/musical roles as Ruth Etting in Love Me or Leave me with Ten Cents A Dance.

Vocal version by the McGuire Sisters