Cinema: The Year in Films

Movies in 1954 turned out to be considerably better in quality than they have been for a number of years—but most of the good ones were not made in Hollywood. The economic strain of the early '503 burst at last the giant pod of cinema talent in Southern California. Able, creative people—producers, directors, actors, cameramen—were scattered to the four winds. Some drifted into television, but quite a few went off to the film capitals of Europe, where they stirred new life in the local talent.

In Italy, not far from the sacred groves of...