1952 was one of the most eventful years in world history, but also more specifically in the life of Marilyn Monroe. On the cusp of fame, she was cast in her first film as a leading lady, Don’t Bother to Knock.

In 1951, radio legend Arch Oboler directed a low-budget sci-fi flick called FIVE. It was the first attempt to show the aftermath of a nuclear war on film— a terrifying notion for many Americans struggling to deal with the reality of the USSR having successfully built their own atomic weapon.

Joseph L. Mankiewicz’s No Way Out starred Sidney Poitier as the sole black physician at a white hospital, tasked with tending to a wounded, racist criminal. Not a major achievement financially— if the name of the game was to confront the ugliest side of postwar American society by ruffling some feathers in the South— it certainly successful.

Walter Wanger’s A Reckless Moment (1949), starred Joan Bennett as a suburban housewife attempting to protect her family from vicious criminals. Tragically, the on-screen drama doesn’t hold a candle to the unexpected crisis that erupted off-screen shortly after its release.

In 1948, actress Olivia de Havilland was at the height of her career. Her only film that year, The Snake Pit, was yet another triumph— but why were audiences so shocked by it?

Crossfire (1947) was a thriller from director Edward Dmytryk about a soldier who kills a jewish man. Brutally stark and firmly anti-prejudice, the film is mostly remembered today as the calm before the storm— the storm being the HUAC hearings of the late 1940s and 1950s.

Released from prison, an aging criminal mastermind (Sam Jaffe) gathers a team of small-timers, including “hooligan” Dix Handley (Sterling Hayden), a safecracker (Anthony Caruso) and a crooked lawyer (Louis Calhern). The heist goes off without a hitch until someone catches a stray bullet and the gang finds themselves entangled in a web of deceit and murder…