The 1950's Had Great Movies

It Was A Great Time To Be Alive; Before Foul Language, Sex, and Filth Took Over Hollywood!

Movies Of The 1950's

We had great stars/actors; not like most of Hollywood  of today.

Films of the 1950s were of a wide variety. As a result of television, the studios and companies sought to put audiences back in theaters. They used more techniques in presenting their films through widescreen and big-approach methods, such as Cinemascope, VistaVision, and Cinerama as well as gimmicks like 3-D film. Big production and spectacle films perfect for this gained popularity with the many historic and fantasy epics like The Robe, The Story of Robin Hood and His Merrie Men, The Ten Commandments (1956), The Seventh Voyage of Sinbad, and Ben-Hur (1959). Other big-scoped films thrived internationally, too, such as Russian fantasy director Aleksandr Ptushko's mythological epics Sadko, Ilya Muromets, and Sampo, and Japanese director Akira Kurosawa's historic Seven Samurai, Throne of Blood and The Hidden Fortress. Toshirō Mifune, who starred in those Kurosawa films, also starred in the color spectacle Samurai Trilogy.

This spectacle approach, coupled with Cold War paranoia, a renewed interest in science from the atomic bomb, as well as increased interest in the mysteries of outer space and other forteana, lent itself well to what this film decade is most well known for, science fiction. The science fiction genre began its golden age during this decade with such notable films as The Day the Earth Stood Still, The Thing from Another World, The War of the Worlds, It Came from Outer Space, Creature from the Black Lagoon, Them!, This Island Earth, Earth vs. the Flying Saucers, and Forbidden Planet (1956). There were also Earth-based subjects, such as 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea (1954) and When Worlds Collide (1951). Companies such as American International Pictures, Japan's Toho, and Britain's Hammer Film Productions were created to solely produce films of the fantastique genres.

The decade was equally adept at both character and realistic films. The highly noted actors James Stewart, John Wayne, and Marlon Brando were at the peak of their popularity. Stewart starring in Winchester '73 and Wayne starring in John Ford's Cavalry Trilogy and The Searchers revitalized the western. Brando mastered versatile roles in films such as A Streetcar Named Desire, The Wild One, Julius Caesar, On the Waterfront, Guys and Dolls, The Teahouse of the August Moon, and Sayonara.

Director Alfred Hitchcock was at the peak of his craft with films such as Strangers on a Train, Dial M for Murder, Rear Window, To Catch a Thief, The Man Who Knew Too Much (1956), Vertigo (1958), and North by Northwest (1959) with Jimmy Stewart and Grace Kelly starring in three each. Director Satyajit Ray, who began his career in the 1950s, was also at the peak of his career during this decade, with films such as The Apu Trilogy (1955–1959), Jalsaghar (1958) and Parash Pathar (1958). The Apu Trilogy in particular are considered the defining films in the 'Parallel Cinema' movement of Bengali cinema and are among the greatest films of all time. Akira Kurosawa's films Rashomon (1950) and Seven Samurai (1954) are also among the greatest films of all time.

 

Rank
Rating
Title
Votes
1
8.9 12 Angry Men (1957) 188,543
2
8.8 Seven Samurai (1954) 129,376
3
8.7 Rear Window (1954) 164,427
4
8.7 Sunset Blvd. (1950) 75,184
5
8.6 North by Northwest (1959) 122,683
6
8.5 Paths of Glory (1957) 61,640
7
8.5 Vertigo (1958) 123,965
8
8.5 The Human Condition I: No Greater Love (1959/I) 1,787
9
8.4 The Human Condition II: Road to Eternity (1959/II) 1,337
10
8.4 All About Eve (1950) 46,045
11
8.4 Rashomon (1950) 54,239
12
8.4 Witness for the Prosecution (1957) 26,280
13
8.4 Singin' in the Rain (1952) 75,990
14
8.4 Some Like It Hot (1959) 92,668
15
8.4 The Bridge on the River Kwai (1957) 80,465
16
8.4 Ikiru (1952) 22,234
17
8.3 The Wages of Fear (1953) 19,864
18
8.3 Sansho the Bailiff (1954) 5,535
19
8.3 Wild Strawberries (1957) 31,291
20
8.3 The Seventh Seal (1957) 56,127
21
8.3 On the Waterfront (1954) 54,906
22
8.3 Touch of Evil (1958) 42,771
23
8.3 Diabolique (1955) 21,604
24
8.3 Umberto D. (1952) 10,279
25
8.3 Tokyo Story (1953) 12,667
26
8.2 The Young and the Damned (1950) 7,883
27
8.2 Rififi (1955) 11,203
28
8.2 Strangers on a Train (1951) 48,422
29
8.2 High Noon (1952) 45,250
30
8.2 Ace in the Hole (1951) 10,214
31
8.2 A Man Escaped (1956) 6,032
32
8.2 Nights of Cabiria (1957) 16,358
33
8.2 Ugetsu (1953) 7,996
34
8.2 Tokyo Twilight (1957) 1,020
35
8.2 Throne of Blood (1957) 16,145
36
8.2 The Night of the Hunter (1955) 34,843
37
8.2 The 400 Blows (1959) 34,575
38
8.2 La Strada (1954) 24,906
39
8.2 The Great War (1959) 1,354
40
8.1 Ballad of a Soldier (1959) 4,443
41
8.1 The Cranes are Flying (1957) 5,631
42
8.1 Ben-Hur (1959) 81,821
43
8.1 The Killing (1956) 34,625
44
8.1 Sweet Smell of Success (1957) 11,922
45
8.1 Stalag 17 (1953) 26,733
46
8.1 Dial M for Murder (1954) 46,100
47
8.1 Anatomy of a Murder (1959) 23,569
48
8.1 Pather Panchali (1955) 6,853
49
8.1 The Life of Oharu (1952) 1,910
50
8.1 Fires on the Plain (1959) 2,044