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Early in the year, motion picture production was disrupted by strikes by the Writers Guild of America and the Screen Actors Guild, with one of the prime issues being residual payments from the television income of post-1948 pictures. The actors agreed, on April 8, to a three-year contract that provided for salary increases, a pension plan, a health and welfare fund, and residual payments for pictures produced after January 31, 1960. The writers, after a strike of five months, accepted comparable terms.

Opening of West Germany's first drive-in theater, at Frankfurt am Main, on March 31, 1960. Only the second drive-in in all of western Europe, the theater was designed for a capacity of 1,100 cars.

Academy Awards
presented on April 4 for films released in 1959

Best Production -- Ben-Hur (Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer)
Actor -- Charlton Heston (Ben-Hur)
Actress -- Simone Signoret (Room at the Top)
Supporting Actor -- Hugh Griffith (Ben-Hur)
Supporting Actress -- Shelley Winters (The Diary of Anne Frank)
Direction -- William Wyler (Ben-Hur)
Cinematography, Black and White -- William C. Mellor (The Diary of Anne Frank)
Cinematography, Color -- Robert L. Surtees (Ben-Hur)
Writing, Screenplay from Another Medium -- Neil Paterson (Room at the Top)
Writing, Original Story and Screenplay -- Russel Rouse and Clarence Greene (story) and Stanley Shapiro and Maurice Richlin (screenplay) (Pillow Talk)
Music, Best Scoring of a Musical -- André Previn and Ken Darby (Porgy and Bess)
Music, Best Scoring of a Drama or Comedy -- Miklos Rozsa (Ben-Hur)
Music, Best Song First Used in a Motion Picture -- "High Hopes" (A Hole in the Head), music, James Van Heusen, lyrics, Sammy Cahn

Top Grossing U.S. Films of 1960
(in order of release date)

Please Don't Eat the Daisies (March 31)
The Apartment (June 15)
Psycho (June 16)
From the Terrace (July 15)
Ocean's 11 (August 10)
Spartacus (October 6)
The Alamo (October 24)
BUtterfield 8 (November 4)
Exodus (December 16)
Swiss Family Robinson (December 21)

Ingmar Bergman, whose films received considerable attention from U.S. critics in 1960 and were being shown in many cities. He also received a citation at the 1960 Cannes Festival for his film The Virgin Spring.

Rehearsing a scene from Sunrise at Campobello, director Vincent Donehue (left) instructs Greer Garson and Ralph Bellamy in a point of interpretation. Adapted from a Broadway play, the motion picture portrays the struggle of Franklin Delano Roosevelt when he was first crippled by poliomyelitis. The film was released in 1960.

Foreign Films

Among the foreign feature films released in the United States during 1960 were:
Black Orpheus (France)
Hiroshima Mon Amour (France)
The 400 Blows (France)
The Would-Be Gentleman (France)
The Lovers (France)
The Mouse That Roared (Great Britain)
Our Man In Havana (Great Britain)
I'm All Right, Jack (Great Britain)
The Royal Ballet (Great Britain)
Sink the Bismarck (Great Britain)
Carry on Nurse (Great Britain)
Man In A Cocked Hat (Great Britain)
Expresso Bongo (Great Britain)
Never On Sunday (Greece)
Ikiru (Japan)
Rosemary (Germany)
The Virgin Spring (Sweden)
The Magician (Sweden)
The World of Apu (India)
And Quiet Flows the Don (Soviet Union)
Othello (Soviet Union)
Swan Lake (Soviet Union)

Released on January 12, Michael Todd's Scent of Mystery, was the first to be presented using "Smell-O-Vision." Despite much pre- and post-release hype, neither the movie nor its unique olfactory touches caught on with the general movie-going public.
(Left) Advertisement for Scent of Mystery.
(Right) Peter Lorre ponders the sweeter things of life in a scene from the movie.

Simone Signoret

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