The Best of 1959
by riverman211179 | created - 11 Dec 2010 | updated - 2 months ago | Public- Instant Watch Options
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1. Hiroshima Mon Amour (1959)
Not Rated | 90 min | Drama, Romance
A French actress filming an anti-war film in Hiroshima has an affair with a married Japanese architect as they share their differing perspectives on war.
Director: Alain Resnais | Stars: Emmanuelle Riva, Eiji Okada, Stella Dassas, Pierre Barbaud
Votes: 35,909 | Gross: $0.09M
2. Suddenly, Last Summer (1959)
Approved | 114 min | Drama, Mystery, Thriller
A surgeon is assigned the case of a young woman whose aunt wants her lobotomized to cover up a family secret.
Director: Joseph L. Mankiewicz | Stars: Elizabeth Taylor, Katharine Hepburn, Montgomery Clift, Albert Dekker
Votes: 17,222 | Gross: $13.90M
3. The Young Philadelphians (1959)
Approved | 136 min | Drama
A promising lawyer tries to handle his social and professional problems while climbing the ranks in Philadelphia.
Director: Vincent Sherman | Stars: Paul Newman, Barbara Rush, Alexis Smith, Brian Keith
Votes: 4,275
4. Rio Bravo (1959)
Passed | 141 min | Western
A small-town sheriff in the American West enlists the help of a disabled man, a drunk, and a young gunfighter in his efforts to hold in jail the brother of the local bad guy.
Director: Howard Hawks | Stars: John Wayne, Dean Martin, Ricky Nelson, Angie Dickinson
Votes: 68,102 | Gross: $12.54M
5. North by Northwest (1959)
Approved | 136 min | Action, Adventure, Mystery
A New York City advertising executive goes on the run after being mistaken for a government agent by a group of foreign spies, and falls for a woman whose loyalties he begins to doubt.
Director: Alfred Hitchcock | Stars: Cary Grant, Eva Marie Saint, James Mason, Jessie Royce Landis
Votes: 346,336 | Gross: $13.28M
6. Some Like It Hot (1959)
Passed | 121 min | Comedy, Music, Romance
After two male musicians witness a mob hit, they flee the state in an all-female band disguised as women, but further complications set in.
Director: Billy Wilder | Stars: Marilyn Monroe, Tony Curtis, Jack Lemmon, George Raft
Votes: 283,689 | Gross: $25.00M
7. Anatomy of a Murder (1959)
Not Rated | 161 min | Drama, Mystery
An upstate Michigan lawyer defends a soldier who claims he killed an innkeeper due to temporary insanity after the victim raped his wife. What is the truth, and will he win his case?
Director: Otto Preminger | Stars: James Stewart, Lee Remick, Ben Gazzara, Arthur O'Connell
Votes: 71,381 | Gross: $11.90M
8. The 400 Blows (1959)
Not Rated | 99 min | Crime, Drama
A young boy, left without attention, delves into a life of petty crime.
Director: François Truffaut | Stars: Jean-Pierre Léaud, Albert Rémy, Claire Maurier, Guy Decomble
Votes: 128,125
9. Ben-Hur (1959)
G | 212 min | Adventure, Drama
After a Jewish prince is betrayed and sent into slavery by a Roman friend in 1st-century Jerusalem, he regains his freedom and comes back for revenge.
Director: William Wyler | Stars: Charlton Heston, Jack Hawkins, Stephen Boyd, Haya Harareet
Votes: 253,795 | Gross: $74.70M
10. The Hanging Tree (1959)
Approved | 107 min | Western
Unusual western about a doctor with a dark past, whose life is complicated and ultimately redeemed by a young thief, and a pretty Swiss immigrant whom he nurses back to health.
Directors: Delmer Daves, Karl Malden, Vincent Sherman | Stars: Gary Cooper, Maria Schell, Karl Malden, George C. Scott
Votes: 4,756
11. They Came to Cordura (1959)
Approved | 123 min | Adventure, Drama, History
An army major, himself guilty of cowardice, is asked to recommend soldiers for the Congressional Medal of Honor during the Mexican Border Incursion of 1916.
Director: Robert Rossen | Stars: Gary Cooper, Rita Hayworth, Van Heflin, Tab Hunter
Votes: 2,458
12. Pickpocket (1959)
Not Rated | 76 min | Crime, Drama
Michel passes the time by picking pockets, careful to never be caught despite being watched by the police. His friend Jacques may suspect, while both men may have their eyes on Jeanne, the pretty neighbor of Michel's ailing mother.
Director: Robert Bresson | Stars: Martin LaSalle, Marika Green, Jean Pélégri, Dolly Scal
Votes: 25,372
13. Warlock (1959)
Passed | 121 min | Western
A famous gunman becomes the marshal of Warlock to end a gang's rampages, but is met with some opposition by a former gang member turned deputy sheriff who wants to follow only legal methods.
Director: Edward Dmytryk | Stars: Richard Widmark, Henry Fonda, Anthony Quinn, Dorothy Malone
Votes: 7,054 | Gross: $3.71M
14. Day of the Outlaw (1959)
Not Rated | 92 min | Drama, Western
Blaise Starrett is a rancher at odds with homesteaders when outlaws hold up the small town. The outlaws are held in check only by their notorious leader, but he is diagnosed with a fatal wound and the town is a powder keg waiting to blow.
Director: André De Toth | Stars: Robert Ryan, Burl Ives, Tina Louise, Alan Marshal
Votes: 4,424
15. Le Bossu (1959)
105 min | Action, Adventure
Prince Philippe de Gonzague decides to get rid of his cousin Duke de Nevers, having wished for long his properties and wealth.
Director: André Hunebelle | Stars: Jean Marais, Bourvil, Sabine Sesselmann, Jean Le Poulain
Votes: 1,502
16. The Devil's Disciple (1959)
Approved | 83 min | Comedy, History, Romance
The black sheep of a family and the local minister discover their true vocations during the Revolutionary War.
Directors: Guy Hamilton, Alexander Mackendrick | Stars: Burt Lancaster, Kirk Douglas, Laurence Olivier, Janette Scott
Votes: 2,877
17. House on Haunted Hill (1959)
Approved | 75 min | Crime, Horror, Mystery
A millionaire offers $10,000 to five people who agree to be locked in a large, spooky, rented house overnight with him and his wife.
Director: William Castle | Stars: Vincent Price, Carol Ohmart, Richard Long, Alan Marshal
Votes: 30,850
18. The Horse Soldiers (1959)
Approved | 120 min | Adventure, Drama, Romance
In 1863, a Union outfit is sent behind Confederate lines in Mississippi to destroy enemy railroads but a captive southern belle and the unit's doctor cause frictions within ranks.
Director: John Ford | Stars: John Wayne, William Holden, Constance Towers, Judson Pratt
Votes: 11,660 | Gross: $1.75M
19. The Hound of the Baskervilles (1959)
Not Rated | 87 min | Horror, Mystery
When a nobleman is threatened by a family curse on his newly inherited estate, detective Sherlock Holmes is hired to investigate.
Director: Terence Fisher | Stars: Peter Cushing, André Morell, Christopher Lee, Marla Landi
Votes: 12,387
20. The Angry Hills (1959)
Approved | 105 min | Drama, War, Thriller
In 1941, the Greek resistance entrusts an American journalist with a secret Greek double-agent list that must reach London and not fall into German hands.
Director: Robert Aldrich | Stars: Robert Mitchum, Stanley Baker, Elisabeth Müller, Gia Scala
Votes: 1,152
21. Imitation of Life (1959)
Not Rated | 125 min | Drama
An aspiring white actress takes in an African American widow whose mixed-race daughter is desperate to be seen as white.
Director: Douglas Sirk | Stars: Lana Turner, John Gavin, Sandra Dee, Susan Kohner
Votes: 18,227 | Gross: $13.99M
22. Pork Chop Hill (1959)
Approved | 97 min | Drama, War
During the Korean War peace talks, U.S. troops fight to retake a hill from the Communist Chinese forces.
Director: Lewis Milestone | Stars: Gregory Peck, Harry Guardino, Rip Torn, George Peppard
Votes: 5,279 | Gross: $4.02M
23. Last Train from Gun Hill (1959)
Passed | 95 min | Western
A marshal tries to bring the son of an old friend, an autocratic cattle baron, to justice for his role in the rape and murder of the marshal's Native American wife.
Director: John Sturges | Stars: Kirk Douglas, Anthony Quinn, Carolyn Jones, Earl Holliman
Votes: 8,812 | Gross: $2.50M
24. That Kind of Woman (1959)
92 min | Drama, Romance, War
In 1944, on a Miami to New York train, two paratroopers on furlough meet and fall in love with two 'kept women' who are on their way to meet their 'sugar-daddies'.
Director: Sidney Lumet | Stars: Sophia Loren, Tab Hunter, Jack Warden, Barbara Nichols
Votes: 713
25. No Name on the Bullet (1959)
Passed | 77 min | Western
When hired killer John Gant rides into Lordsburg, the town's folk become paranoid as each leading citizen has enemies capable of using the services of a professional killer for personal revenge.
Director: Jack Arnold | Stars: Audie Murphy, Charles Drake, Joan Evans, Virginia Grey
Votes: 3,063
26. Operation Petticoat (1959)
Approved | 124 min | Comedy, Romance, War
During World War II, a commander finds himself stuck with a decrepit (and pink) submarine, a con man executive officer, and a group of army nurses.
Director: Blake Edwards | Stars: Cary Grant, Tony Curtis, Joan O'Brien, Dina Merrill
Votes: 15,884 | Gross: $23.30M
27. Fever Mounts at El Pao (1959)
97 min | Drama
Aroused citizens assassinate an unpopular Caribbean despot, then two men vie for his gorgeous widow Ines. Ojeda is a steamy, isolated island, the penal colony for an oppressive dictatorship... See full summary »
Director: Luis Buñuel | Stars: Gérard Philipe, María Félix, Jean Servais, Miguel Ángel Ferriz
Votes: 1,375
28. On the Beach (1959)
Approved | 134 min | Drama, Romance, Sci-Fi
After a global nuclear war, the residents of Australia must come to terms with the fact that all life will be destroyed in a matter of months.
Director: Stanley Kramer | Stars: Gregory Peck, Ava Gardner, Fred Astaire, Anthony Perkins
Votes: 14,425 | Gross: $11.00M
29. Tiger Bay (1959)
Not Rated | 105 min | Crime, Drama, Thriller
A twelve-year-old tomboy witnesses the murder of a woman by her Polish merchant marine boyfriend, but bonds with him and thwarts the police in their investigation.
Director: J. Lee Thompson | Stars: Hayley Mills, Horst Buchholz, John Mills, Yvonne Mitchell
Votes: 3,165
30. Odds Against Tomorrow (1959)
Approved | 96 min | Crime, Drama, Thriller
In need of quick money, a fallen former cop recruits a hard-bitten ex-con and a debt-ridden nightclub singer to pull off a bank job. But as the animosity between them boils over, the entire plan threatens to implode.
Director: Robert Wise | Stars: Harry Belafonte, Robert Ryan, Gloria Grahame, Shelley Winters
Votes: 5,567
31. The Trap (1959)
Not Rated | 84 min | Action, Crime, Drama
In a remote Californian desert town, a lawyer arranges for a wanted mobster to skip the country via a small airstrip but the local sheriff and his deputy could pose a problem.
Director: Norman Panama | Stars: Richard Widmark, Lee J. Cobb, Tina Louise, Earl Holliman
Votes: 692
32. The Human Condition I: No Greater Love (I) (1959)
Not Rated | 208 min | Drama, History, War
A Japanese pacifist, unable to face the dire consequences of conscientious objection, is transformed by his attempts to compromise with the demands of war-time Japan.
Director: Masaki Kobayashi | Stars: Tatsuya Nakadai, Michiyo Aratama, Chikage Awashima, Ineko Arima
Votes: 9,364
33. The Human Condition II: Road to Eternity (II) (1959)
Not Rated | 181 min | Drama, History, War
As a conscript in war-time Japan's military, a pacifist struggles to maintain his determination to keep his ideals.
Director: Masaki Kobayashi | Stars: Tatsuya Nakadai, Michiyo Aratama, Kokinji Katsura, Jun Tatara
Votes: 7,509
34. Our Man in Havana (1959)
Not Rated | 111 min | Comedy, Crime, Drama
Jim Wormold, who is a vacuum cleaner salesman, participates as an Agent in the British Secret Service. But he soon realizes that his plans by lying are going to get him into trouble.
Director: Carol Reed | Stars: Alec Guinness, Maureen O'Hara, Burl Ives, Ernie Kovacs
Votes: 6,104
35. Black Orpheus (1959)
PG | 100 min | Drama, Musical, Romance
A retelling of the Orpheus and Eurydice myth, set during the time of the Carnaval in Rio de Janeiro.
Director: Marcel Camus | Stars: Breno Mello, Marpessa Dawn, Lourdes de Oliveira, Léa Garcia
Votes: 12,268
36. The World of Apu (1959)
Not Rated | 105 min | Drama
This final installment in Satyajit Ray's Apu Trilogy follows Apu's life as an orphaned adult aspiring to be a writer.
Director: Satyajit Ray | Stars: Soumitra Chatterjee, Sharmila Tagore, Alok Chakravarty, Swapan Mukherjee
Votes: 16,766 | Gross: $0.02M
37. Ballad of a Soldier (1959)
Not Rated | 88 min | Drama, Romance, War
Young Russian soldier Alyosha earns a medal, but asks to visit his mother instead. His journey recounts various kinds of love during wartime.
Director: Grigoriy Chukhray | Stars: Vladimir Ivashov, Zhanna Prokhorenko, Antonina Maksimova, Nikolay Kryuchkov
Votes: 11,292
38. The Cousins (1959)
Not Rated | 112 min | Drama
A pair of cousins share a flat, but animosity begins to build between the two when a woman gets involved.
Director: Claude Chabrol | Stars: Gérard Blain, Jean-Claude Brialy, Juliette Mayniel, Guy Decomble
Votes: 3,248
39. Sleeping Beauty (1959)
G | 75 min | Animation, Adventure, Family
After being snubbed by the royal family, a malevolent fairy places a curse on a princess which only a prince can break, along with the help of three good fairies.
Directors: Les Clark, Clyde Geronimi, Eric Larson, Wolfgang Reitherman, Hamilton Luske | Stars: Mary Costa, Bill Shirley, Eleanor Audley, Verna Felton
Votes: 160,969 | Gross: $51.60M
40. Look Back in Anger (1959)
Approved | 98 min | Drama
A disillusioned, angry university graduate comes to terms with his grudge against middle-class life and values.
Director: Tony Richardson | Stars: Richard Burton, Claire Bloom, Mary Ure, Edith Evans
Votes: 4,370
41. Web of Passion (1959)
Not Rated | 110 min | Crime, Drama
A wealthy wine grower has trouble with his wife, his children, his best friend, and his mistress across the way, who is murdered.
Director: Claude Chabrol | Stars: Madeleine Robinson, Antonella Lualdi, Jean-Paul Belmondo, Jacques Dacqmine
Votes: 1,415
42. The Tiger of Eschnapur (1959)
101 min | Adventure, Drama, Romance
In Eschnapur, a local Maharajah and a German architect fall in-love with the same temple dancer.
Director: Fritz Lang | Stars: Debra Paget, Paul Hubschmid, Walther Reyer, Claus Holm
Votes: 3,221
43. The Indian Tomb (1959)
102 min | Adventure, Drama, Romance
A German architect runs away with the maharajah of Eschnapur's fiancee but is caught and thrown in the dungeon, while his relatives arrive from Europe looking for him and the maharajah's brother is scheming to usurp the throne.
Director: Fritz Lang | Stars: Debra Paget, Paul Hubschmid, Walther Reyer, Claus Holm
Votes: 2,942
44. Dangerous Liaisons (1959)
106 min | Drama, Romance
Juliette Merteuil and Valmont is a sophisticated couple, always looking for fun and excitement. Both have sexual affairs with others and share their experiences with one another. But there ... See full summary »
Director: Roger Vadim | Stars: Jeanne Moreau, Gérard Philipe, Annette Stroyberg, Madeleine Lambert
Votes: 1,529
45. Separate Tables (1958)
Approved | 100 min | Drama, Romance
The stories of several people are told as they stay at a seaside hotel in Bournemouth which features dining at "Separate Tables."
Director: Delbert Mann | Stars: Rita Hayworth, Deborah Kerr, David Niven, Burt Lancaster
Votes: 8,602 | Gross: $7.40M
46. Journey to the Center of the Earth (1959)
Approved | 129 min | Adventure, Family, Fantasy
An Edinburgh professor and assorted colleagues follow an explorer's trail down an extinct Icelandic volcano to the earth's center.
Director: Henry Levin | Stars: James Mason, Pat Boone, Arlene Dahl, Diane Baker
Votes: 19,580 | Gross: $10.00M
47. The Ghost of Yotsuya (1959)
76 min | Horror
The ghost of a samurai's wife takes revenge on her husband.
Director: Nobuo Nakagawa | Stars: Shigeru Amachi, Noriko Kitazawa, Katsuko Wakasugi, Shuntarô Emi
Votes: 1,819
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