best films of the 50's

by denfu | created - 01 Oct 2011 | updated - 20 Jul 2019 | Public
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1. Strangers on a Train (1951)

PG | 101 min | Crime, Drama, Film-Noir

88 Metascore

A psychopathic man tries to forcibly persuade a tennis star to agree to his theory that two strangers can get away with murder by submitting to his plan to kill the other's most-hated person.

Director: Alfred Hitchcock | Stars: Farley Granger, Robert Walker, Ruth Roman, Leo G. Carroll

Votes: 141,059 | Gross: $7.63M

2. People Will Talk (1951)

Approved | 110 min | Comedy, Drama, Romance

Dr. Noah Praetorius falls in love with Deborah, a student who discovers that she is pregnant by her old boyfriend.

Director: Joseph L. Mankiewicz | Stars: Cary Grant, Jeanne Crain, Finlay Currie, Hume Cronyn

Votes: 7,102

3. Deadline - U.S.A. (1952)

Passed | 87 min | Crime, Drama, Film-Noir

With his newspaper about to be sold, crusading editor Ed Hutcheson tries to complete an exposé on gangster Rienzi.

Director: Richard Brooks | Stars: Humphrey Bogart, Ethel Barrymore, Kim Hunter, Ed Begley

Votes: 4,104

4. The Young and the Damned (1950)

Not Rated | 80 min | Crime, Drama

A group of juvenile delinquents live a violent and crime-filled life in the festering slums of Mexico City, as the morals of young Pedro are gradually corrupted and destroyed by the others.

Director: Luis Buñuel | Stars: Alfonso Mejía, Roberto Cobo, Estela Inda, Miguel Inclán

Votes: 22,011

5. Singin' in the Rain (1952)

G | 103 min | Comedy, Musical, Romance

99 Metascore

A silent film star falls for a chorus girl just as he and his delusionally jealous screen partner are trying to make the difficult transition to talking pictures in 1920s Hollywood.

Directors: Stanley Donen, Gene Kelly | Stars: Gene Kelly, Donald O'Connor, Debbie Reynolds, Jean Hagen

Votes: 260,769 | Gross: $8.82M

6. Casque d'Or (1952)

Not Rated | 94 min | Crime, Drama, Romance

Three gangsters and an ex-con carpenter all fall for the same beautiful golden-haired woman in Belle Époque France.

Director: Jacques Becker | Stars: Simone Signoret, Serge Reggiani, Claude Dauphin, Raymond Bussières

Votes: 6,220

7. Limelight (1952)

G | 137 min | Drama, Music, Romance

84 Metascore

A fading comedian and a suicidally despondent ballet dancer must look to each other to find purpose and hope in their lives.

Director: Charles Chaplin | Stars: Charles Chaplin, Claire Bloom, Nigel Bruce, Buster Keaton

Votes: 22,143 | Gross: $1.00M

8. Angel Face (1952)

Approved | 91 min | Crime, Drama, Film-Noir

Ambulance driver Frank Jessup is ensnared in the schemes of the sensuous but dangerous Diane Tremayne.

Director: Otto Preminger | Stars: Robert Mitchum, Jean Simmons, Mona Freeman, Herbert Marshall

Votes: 9,033

9. Dial M for Murder (1954)

PG | 105 min | Crime, Thriller

75 Metascore

A former tennis star arranges the murder of his adulterous wife.

Director: Alfred Hitchcock | Stars: Ray Milland, Grace Kelly, Robert Cummings, John Williams

Votes: 188,880 | Gross: $0.01M

10. Rear Window (1954)

PG | 112 min | Mystery, Thriller

100 Metascore

A wheelchair-bound photographer spies on his neighbors from his Greenwich Village courtyard apartment window and, despite the skepticism of his fashion-model girlfriend, becomes convinced one of them has committed murder.

Director: Alfred Hitchcock | Stars: James Stewart, Grace Kelly, Wendell Corey, Thelma Ritter

Votes: 522,283 | Gross: $36.76M

11. Human Desire (1954)

Not Rated | 91 min | Drama, Film-Noir, Romance

A Korean War vet returns to his job as a railroad engineer and becomes involved in an affair with a co-worker's wife following a murder on a train where they meet.

Director: Fritz Lang | Stars: Glenn Ford, Gloria Grahame, Broderick Crawford, Edgar Buchanan

Votes: 6,354

12. East of Eden (1955)

PG | 118 min | Drama

72 Metascore

Two brothers in 1910s California struggle to maintain their strict, Bible-toting father's favor as an old secret about their long-absent mother comes to light.

Director: Elia Kazan | Stars: James Dean, Raymond Massey, Julie Harris, Burl Ives

Votes: 48,831

13. Blackboard Jungle (1955)

Approved | 101 min | Crime, Drama

67 Metascore

A new English teacher at a violent, unruly inner-city school is determined to do his job, despite resistance from both students and faculty.

Director: Richard Brooks | Stars: Glenn Ford, Anne Francis, Louis Calhern, Margaret Hayes

Votes: 9,885

14. The Trouble with Harry (1955)

PG | 99 min | Comedy, Mystery

74 Metascore

Harry's dead and, while no one really minds, everyone feels responsible. After Harry's body is found in the woods, several locals must determine not only how and why he was killed but what to do with the body.

Director: Alfred Hitchcock | Stars: John Forsythe, Shirley MacLaine, Edmund Gwenn, Mildred Natwick

Votes: 41,281

15. The Last Hunt (1956)

Not Rated | 108 min | Drama, Western

In 1883 South Dakota, two buffalo hunters start a personal feud over a captured squaw and a stand-off with a Dakota raiding party over some stolen horses.

Director: Richard Brooks | Stars: Robert Taylor, Stewart Granger, Lloyd Nolan, Debra Paget

Votes: 1,808

16. Rififi (1955)

Not Rated | 118 min | Crime, Drama, Thriller

97 Metascore

Four men plan a technically perfect crime, but the human element intervenes...

Director: Jules Dassin | Stars: Jean Servais, Carl Möhner, Robert Manuel, Janine Darcey

Votes: 36,850 | Gross: $0.06M

17. Vertigo (1958)

PG | 128 min | Mystery, Romance, Thriller

100 Metascore

A former San Francisco police detective juggles wrestling with his personal demons and becoming obsessed with the hauntingly beautiful woman he has been hired to trail, who may be deeply disturbed.

Director: Alfred Hitchcock | Stars: James Stewart, Kim Novak, Barbara Bel Geddes, Tom Helmore

Votes: 427,113 | Gross: $3.20M

18. High Noon (1952)

PG | 85 min | Drama, Thriller, Western

89 Metascore

A town Marshal, despite the disagreements of his newlywed bride and the townspeople around him, must face a gang of deadly killers alone at "high noon" when the gang leader, an outlaw he "sent up" years ago, arrives on the noon train.

Director: Fred Zinnemann | Stars: Gary Cooper, Grace Kelly, Thomas Mitchell, Lloyd Bridges

Votes: 110,217 | Gross: $9.45M

19. Rebel Without a Cause (1955)

PG-13 | 111 min | Drama

89 Metascore

A rebellious young man with a troubled past comes to a new town, finding friends and enemies.

Director: Nicholas Ray | Stars: James Dean, Natalie Wood, Sal Mineo, Jim Backus

Votes: 97,983



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