Ten Best Films of the 1950's

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Post by criddic3 »

1. Singin' in the Rain (1952)
2. Rear Window (1954)
3. On the Waterfront (1954)
4. Seven Samurai (1954)
5. Some Like It Hot (1959)
6. Night of the Hunter (1955)
7. Mister Roberts (1955)
8. Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956)
9. Rebel without a Cause (1955)
10. From Here to Eternity (1953)

Also have affection for many others, including The Glenn Miller Story, Throne of Blood, Love Me or Leave Me and The Man with the Golden Arm.
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Post by Precious Doll »

Top Ten 1950

1. All About Eve (Joseph L Mankiewicz)
2. Diary of a Country Priest (Robert Bresson)
3. The Furies (Anthony Mann)
4. Un Chant d’amour (Jean Genet)
5. Harvey (Henry Koster)
6. Sunset Boulevard (Billy Wilder)
7. Caged (John Cromwell)
8. Harriet Craig (Vincent Sherman)
9. Champagne for Caesar (Richard Whorf)
10. Last Holiday (Henry Cass)

Top Ten 1951

1. A Place in the Sun (George Stevens)
2. Strangers on a Train (Alfred Hitchcock)
3. Forbidden Games (Rene Clement)
4. Early Summer (Yasujiro Ozu)
5. Pandora and the Flying Dutchman (Albert Lewin)
6. Westward the Women (William Wellman)
7. Bellisima (Luchino Visconti)
8. The River (Jean Reinor)
9. A Streetcar Named Desire (Elia Kazan)
10.Across the Great Divide (Raoul Walsh)

Top Ten 1952

1. Member of the Wedding (Fred Zinnemann)
2. The Life of Oharu (Keni Mizoguchi)
3. Umberto D (Vittorio De Sica)
4. Five Fingers (Joseph L Mankiewicz)
5. The Advenutres of Robinson Crusoe (Luis Bunuel)
6. The Quiet Man (John Ford)
7. Has Anybody Seen My Gal (Douglas Sirk)
8. Moulin Rouge (John Huston)
9. Sudden Fear (David Miller)
10.Rancho Notorious (Fritz Lang)

Top Ten 1953

1. Hondo (John Farrow)
2. Tokyo Story (Yasjiro Ozu)
3. Pickup on South Street (Samuel Fuller0
4. The Big Heat (Fritz Lang)
5. From Here to Eternity (Fred Zinnemann)
6. Ugetsu Monogatari (Kenji Mizoguchi)
7. My Hulot’s Holiday (Jacques Tati)
8. Roman Holiday (William Wyler)
9. I Confess (Alfred Hitchcock)
10.The Little Kidnappers (Philip Leacock)

Top Ten 1954

1. The Magnificent Obsession (Douglas Sirk)
2. Sansho the Baliff (Kenji Mizoguchi)
3. Salt of the Earth (Herbert Biberman)
4. Moonfleet (Fritz Lang)
5. Sabrina (Billy Wilder)
6. Johnny Guitar (Nicolas Ray)
7. Beat the Devil (John Huston)
8. The Private Life of a Cat (Alexander Hammind)
9. A Star is Born (George Cukor)
10. La Strada (Federico Fellini)

Top Ten 1955

1. Night of the Hunter (Charles Laughton)
2. East of Eden (Elia Kazan)
3. All That Heaven Allows (Douglas Sirk)
4. Kiss Me Deadly (Robert Aldrich)
5. Ordet (Carl Dreyer)
6. Rebel Without a Cause (Nicholas Ray)
7. Animal Farm (John Halas & Jay Batchelor)
8. Land of the Pharaohs (Howard Hawks)
9. The Ladykillers (Alexander Mackendrick)
10.Oaklahoma (Fred Zinnemann)

Top Ten 1956

1. A Man Escaped (Robert Bresson)
2. Written on the Wind (Douglas Sirk)
3. Bigger Then Life (Nicholas Ray)
4. Kanal (Andrezej Wajda)
5. The Seventh Seal (Ingmar Bergman)
6. Tea and Sympathy (Vincente Minnelli)
7. The Bad Seed (Mervyn LeRoy)
8. The Harder They Fall (Mark Robson)
9. Baby Doll (Elia Kazan)
10.The Searchers (John Ford)

Top Ten 1957

1. Wild Strawberries (Ingmar Bergman)
2. Paths of Glory (Stanley Kubrick)
3. Peyton Place (Mark Robson)
4. Sweet Smell of Success (Alexander Mackendrick)
5. 12 Angry Men (Sidney Lumet)
6. Il Grido (Michelangelo Antionioni)
7. Nights of Cabiria (Federico Fellini)
8. 3:10 to Yuma (Delmar Daves)
9. The Devil Strikes at Night (Robert Siodmak)
10.Tokyo Twilight (Yasujiro Ozu)

Top Ten 1958

1. Vertigo (Alfred Hitchcock)
2. The Tarnished Angels (Douglas Sirk)
3. I Want to Live (Robert Wise)
4. Touch of Evil (Orson Welles)
5. The Music Room (Satyajit Ray)
6. Some Came Running (Vincente Minnelli)
7. A Time to Live and a Time to Die (Douglas Sirk)
8. Equinox Flower (Yasujiro Ozu)
9. Man of the West (Anthony Mann)
10.Me and the Colonel (Peter Glenville)

Top Ten 1959

1. Hiroshima Mon Amour (Alain Renais)
2. Imitation of Life (Douglas Sirk)
3. Good Morning (Yasujiro Ozu)
4. Pickpocket (Robert Bresson)
5. Breathless (Jean-Luc Godard)
6. Anatomy of a Murder (Otto Preminger)
7. Some Like it Hot (Billy Wilder)
8. Room at the Top (Jack Clayton)
9. Compulsion (Richard Fleischer)
10.The Magician (Ingmar Bergman)
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Post by 99-1100896887 »

My own choices as the twenty most memorable( for me) films of the fifties( in no particular order):

Rear Window
All About Eve
Rebel Without A Cause
Some Like It Hot
High Noon
Will Success Spoil Rock Hunter?
East Of Eden
Born Yesterday
The Man In The White Suit
The Titfield Thunderbolt
The Bad And The Beautiful
The Lavender Hill Mob
Stalag 17
On The Waterfront
The Caine Mutiny
Sweet Smell Of Success
The Bridge On The River Kwai
Auntie Mame
Singin' In The Rain

and as I mentioned, I saw them all first-run, some two or three times. There I was in the Varsity Theatre in Point Grey in Vancouver, with my popcorn. Following the film, and if it was a date, we went for Cherry or Lime Cokes, then to neck in the car at Spanish Banks.
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Post by rudeboy »

--cam wrote:Alright, but where are the Ealing Comedies of the late 40s-early 50s in your lists? No one lists The Titfield Thurnderbolt, The Man In The White Suit, Lavender Hill Mob, Kind Hearts and Coronets etc.

Cam, Passport to Pimlico and The Man in the White Suit are near misses on my list. Kind Hearts and Coronets, in my opinion Ealing's crowning glory, appears on my 1940s list.

1. Some Like It Hot (1959) Billy Wilder
2. The Seven Samurai (1953) Akira Kurosawa
3. Wild Strawberries (1957) Ingmar Bergman
4. Los olvidados (1950) Luis Bunuel
5. The Seventh Seal (1957) Ingmar Bergman
6. Tokyo Story (1953) Yasujiro Ozu
7. 12 Angry Men (1957) Sidney Lumet
8. All About Eve (1950) Joseph L Manciewicz
9. North By Northwest (1959) Alfred Hitchcock
10. Paths of Glory (1957) Stanley Kubrick
11. The Wages of Fear (1953) Henri-Georges Clouzot
12. The 400 Blows (1959) Francois Truffaut
13. Shane (1953) George Stevens
14. Throne of Blood (1957) Akira Kurosawa
15. From Here to Eternity (1953) Fred Zinnemann
16. Sunset Blvd. (1950) Billy Wilder
17. Beat the Devil (1953) John Huston
18. Rebel Without a Cause (1955) Nicholas Ray
19. A Night to Remember (1958) Roy Ward Baker
20. Rashômon (1950) Akira Kurosawa
21. Sweet Smell of Success (1957) Alexander MacKendrick
22. The Searchers (1956) John Ford
23. A Place in the Sun (1951) George Stevens
24. The Night of the Hunter (1955) Charles Laughton
25. The Day the Earth Stood Still (1951) Robert Wise




Edited By Big Magilla on 1244126643
99-1100896887

Post by 99-1100896887 »

Alright, but where are the Ealing Comedies of the late 40s-early 50s in your lists? No one lists The Titfield Thurnderbolt, The Man In The White Suit, Lavender Hill Mob, Kind Hearts and Coronets etc. Perhaps I may have missed them. I learned more about theatre and acting from those films, than I ever did with any drama of the 50's.
Thus my lists from the time, would be from a teenage theatre student. So there would never be Giant, say, on it.
I saw and remember many of the films you all mention, but surely most of you--if not all--would not have been alive then, so much of what you have chosen were just not available in a theatre in my large city, and at that age, would not have chosen them if any were( I think La Ronde was) , and would have no driving desire to see the films of most of the 50s. I do not doubt, however, that many of you are more than cinephiles, and some art students of great films or work in the field. I admire you greatly, which is why I lurk here.

I agree with Magilla's choices of 1955's films, and I see, Peter, you have had the grace NOT to include the wretched Written On The Wind from 1956.

I guess maybe I should compile a list then,as I may be the only one who has ever seen them in first-run.
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Post by Penelope »

1. The Band Wagon (1953; Vincente Minnelli)
2. Written on the Wind (1956; Douglas Sirk)
3. Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956; Don Siegel)
4. Shane (1953; George Stevens)
5. Sunset Blvd. (1950; Billy Wilder)
6. Winchester '73 (1950; Anthony Mann)
7. Some Like it Hot (1959; Billy Wilder)
8. Ballad of a Soldier (1959; Grigori Chukhrai)
9. Strangers on a Train (1951; Alfred Hitchcock)
10. In a Lonely Place (1950; Nicholas Ray)
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Post by JJ Gittes »

1. Vertigo (Hitchcock)
2. Ugetsu Monogatari (Mizoguchi)
3. Wild Strawberries (Bergman)
4. All That Heaven Allows (Sirk)
5. Tokyo Story (Ozu)
6. Kiss Me Deadly (Aldrich)
7. Umberto D (De Sica)
8. Knife in the Water (Polanski)
9. The Night of the Hunter (Laughton)
10. Sweet Smell of Success (Mackendrick)
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Post by Svengali »

1. Rear Window
2. Vertigo
3. Sunset Blvd.
4. Ben Hur
5. 12 Angry Men
6. All About Eve
7. North by Northwest
8. Invasion of the Body Snatchers
9. High Noon
10. Some Like it Hot
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Post by Johnny Guitar »

Two dozen greats not yet mentioned:

WINCHESTER '73 (Anthony Mann, 1950)
IN A LONELY PLACE (Nicholas Ray, 1950)
STARS IN MY CROWN (Jacques Tourneur, 1950)
THE FLOWERS OF ST. FRANCIS (Roberto Rossellini, 1950)
ON DANGEROUS GROUND (Nicholas Ray, 1951)
ANGEL FACE (Otto Preminger, 1952)
THE NAKED SPUR (Anthony Mann, 1953)
SANSHO DAYU (Kenji Mizoguchi, 1954)
THE TENDER TRAP (Charles Walters, 1955)
MR. ARKADIN (Orson Welles, 1955)
THE BURMESE HARP (Kon Ichikawa, 1956)
ILL MET BY MOONLIGHT (Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger, 1957)
3:10 TO YUMA (Delmer Daves, 1957)
FUNNY FACE (Stanley Donen, 1957)
LA SEINE A RECONTRE PARIS (Joris Ivens, 1957)
WILL SUCCESS SPOIL ROCK HUNTER? (Frank Tashlin, 1957)
BUCHANAN RIDES ALONE (Budd Boetticher, 1958)
WIND ACROSS THE EVERGLADES (Nicholas Ray, 1958)
MOI, UN NOIR (Jean Rouch, 1958)
FLOATING WEEDS (Yasujiro Ozu, 1959)
EYES WITHOUT A FACE (Georges Franju, 1959)
PICKPOCKET (Robert Bresson, 1959)
SHADOWS (John Cassavetes, 1959)
OPERATION PETTICOAT (Blake Edwards, 1959)

(Sorry if I overlooked a title that was already mentioned on a list. These are meant to be extra recommendations for people perusing this thread.)
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Ten Best Films of the 1950s

Post by Big Magilla »

Ten Best Films of 1950

All About Eve (Joseph L. Mankiewicz)
Sunset Boulevard (Billy Wilder)
The Third Man (Carol Reed)
The Asphalt Jungle (John Huston)
The Rules of the Game (Jean Renoir)
Kind Hearts and Coronets (Robert Hamer)
Harvey (Henry Koster)
Rio Grande (John Ford)
In a Lonely Place (Nicholas Ray)
The Men (Fred Zinnemann)

Ten Best Films of 1951

A Streetcar Named Desire (Elia Kazan)
A Place in the Sun (George Stevens)
The African Queen (John Huston)
An American in Paris (Vincente Minnelli)
Rashomon (Akira Kurosawa)
Strangers on a Train (Alfred Hitchcock)
The Day the Earth Stood Still (Robert Wise)
Detective Story (William Wyler)
La Ronde (Max Ophuls)
A Christmas Carol (Brian Desmond Hurst)

Ten Best Films of 1952

High Noon (Fred Zinnemann)
The Quiet Man (John Ford)
Singin' in the Rain (Gene Kelly, Stanley Donen)
The Importance of Being Earnest (Anthony Asquith)
Forbidden Games (René Clément)
Moulin Rouge (John Huston)
The Bad and the Beautiful (Vincene Minnelli)
Pat and Mike (George Cukor)
With a Song in My Heart (Walter Lang)
Viva Zapata! (Elia Kazan)

Ten Best Films of 1953

From Here to Eternity (Fred Zinnemann)
Shane (George Stevens)
The Big Heat (Fritz Lang)
Pickup on South Street (Samuel Fuller)
The Naked Spur (Anthony Mann0
Roman Holiday (William Wyler)
The Band Wagon (Vincente Minnelli)
Lili (Charles Walters)
Calamity Jane (David Butler)
Stalag 17 (Billy Wilder)

Ten Best Films of 1954

On the Waterfront (Elia Kazan)
The Caine Mutiny (Edward Dmytryk)
Rear Window (Alfred Hitchcock)
Seven Brides for Seven Brothers (Stanley Donen)
A Star Is Born (George Cukor)
The Country Girl (George Seaton)
Executive Suite (Robert Wise)
Sabrina (Billy Wilder)
The High and the Mighty (William A. Wellman)
20,000 Leagues Under the Sea (Richard Fleischer)

Ten Best Films of 1955

East of Eden (Elia Kazan)
Summertime (David Lean)
Marty (Delbert Mann)
Picnic (Joshua Logan)
All That Heaven Allows (Douglas Sirk)
The Night of the Hunter (Charles Laughton)
The Man from Laramie (Anthony Mann)
Bad Day at Black Rock (John Sturges)
Diabolique (Henri-Georges Clouzot)
Umberto D. (Vittorio De Sica)

Ten Best Films of 1956

The Searchers (John Ford)
Invasion of the Body Snatchers (Don Siegel)
Giant (George Stevens)
The King and I (Walter Lang)
Tea and Sympathy (Vincente Minnelli)
Lust for Life (Vincente Minnelli)
La Strada (Federico Fellini)
Anastasia (Anatole Litvak)
Friendly Persuasion (William Wyler)
The Ten Commandments (Cecil B. DeMille)

Ten Best Films of 1957

The Bridge on the River Kwai (David Lean)
Witness for the Prosecution (Billy Wilder)
12 Angry Men (Sidney Lumet)
Paths of Glory (Stanley Kubrick)
Sweet Smell of Success (Alexander Mackendrick)
A Face in the Crowd (Elia Kazan)
The Nights of Cabiria (Federico Fellini)
An Affair to Remember (Leo McCarey)
Peyton Place (Mark Robson)
Funny Face (Stanley Donen)

Ten Best Films of 1958

Vertigo (Alfred Hitchcock)
Auntie Mame (Morton DaCosta)
The Last Hurrah (John Ford)
Gigi (Vincente Minnelli)
Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (Richard Brooks)
Separate Tables (Delbert Mann)
South Pacific (Joshua Logan)
The Big Country (William Wyler)
I Want to Live! (Robert Wise)
The Defiant Ones (Stanley Kramer)

Ten Best Films of 1959

Some Like It Hot (Billy Wilder)
The Nun's Story (Fred Zinnemann)
Ben-Hur (William Wyler)
Anatomy of a Murder (Otto Preminger)
North by Northwest (Alfred Hitchcock)
The Diary of Anne Frank (George Stevens)
Compulsion (Richard Flesicher)
Suddenly, Last Summer (Joseph L. Mankiewicz)
Imitation of Life (Douglas Sirk)
Room at the Top (Jack Clayton)
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Post by Reza »

In order of year of release:

1. All About Eve (Joseph L. Mankiewicx, 50)
2. Sunset Boulevard (Billy Wilder, 50)
3. The Band Wagon (Vincente Minnelli, 53)
4. Seven Samurai (Akira Kurosawa, 55)
5. All That Heaven Allows (Douglas Sirk, 55)
6. Pather Panchali (Satyajit Ray, 55)
7. The Searchers (John Ford, 56)
8. Paths of Glory (Stanley Kubrick, 57)
9. Vertigo (Alfred Hitchc ock, 58)
10. Some Like It Hot (Billy Wilder, 59)
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Post by Heksagon »

1. A Man Escaped (Bresson)
2. The Word/Ordet (Dreyer)
3. A Place in the Sun (Stevens)
4. On the Waterfront (Kazan)
5. Mon oncle (Tati)
6. Paths of Glory (Kubrick)
7. The Seven Samurai (Kurosawa)
8. All About Eve (Mankiewicz)
9. Madame de... (Ophüls)
10. Singin' in the Rain (Donen & Kelly)
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Post by Precious Doll »

1. Hiroshima Mon Amour (Alain Resnais)
2. Imitation of Life (Douglas Sirk)
3. Night of the Hunter (Charles Laughton)
4. Vertigo (Alfred Hitch####)
5. Wild Stawberries (Ingmar Bergman)
6. East of Eden (Elia Kazan)
7. Good Morning (Yasujiro Ozu)
8. Member of the Wedding (Fred Zinnemann)
9. The Magnificent Obsession (Douglas Sirk)
10. Written on the Wind (Douglas Sirk)
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Post by Larry79 »

1. Vertigo (d: Alfred Hitchcock)
2. Tokyo Story (d: Yasujiro Ozu)
3. Sunset Boulevard (d: Billy Wilder)
4. All About Eve (d: Joseph L. Mankiewicz)
5. A Streetcar Named Desire (d: Elia Kazan)
6. Touch of Evil (d: Orson Welles)
7. The Seventh Seal (d: Ingmar Bergman)
8. Bridge of the River Kwai (d: David Lean)
9. On the Waterfront (d: Elia Kazan)
10. 400 Blows (d: Francois Traffaut)
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Post by Eric »

1. All That Heaven Allows (Douglas Sirk, 55)
2. Duck Amuck (Chuck Jones, 53)
3. Gentlemen Prefer Blondes (Howard Hawks, 53)
4. Bonjour Tristesse (Otto Preminger, 58)
5. Ordet (Carl Theodor Dreyer, 55)
6. The Night of the Hunter (Charles Laughton, 55)
7. Kiss Me Deadly (Robert Aldrich, 55)
8. Johnny Guitar (Nicholas Ray, 54)
9. Tokyo Story (Yasujiro Ozu, 53)
10. The Wrong Man (Alfred Hitchcock, 56)
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