“The greatest decade in American moviemaking” is how a Brooklyn College professor of film, Foster Hirsch, describes the 1950s. That Mr. Hirsch has a new book on the market titled, take a deep breath, “Hollywood and the Movies of the Fifties: The Collapse of the Studio, the Thrill of Cinerama, and the Invasion of the Ultimate Bodysnatcher—Television” might give pause to the cynical among us as to the author’s critical objectivity. 

The real clue regarding Mr. Hirsch’s enthusiasm may be found in his brief for “50 From the 50s,” a four-week run of pictures at Film Forum starting this Friday: “I saw all of the films in the series when they were first released.”