+50 completely forgotten movies from the 1950's and 60's with an A-list cast and director.
by pete36 | created - 20 Jan 2018 | updated - 25 Dec 2019 | PublicWhile scrolling through the lists of credits of known stars and directors from the 50-60 area I frequently encounter movies I have never heard of or seen. I consider myself quite a classic filmbuff but it always surprises me how many films from that era I will likely never see. Here is list of what I digged up.
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1. High Flight (1957)
Approved | 89 min | Drama, War
The Commanding Officer of an RAF Training School must deal with a difficult cadet, but the cadet reminds the C.O. of himself when young.
Director: John Gilling | Stars: Ray Milland, Bernard Lee, Kenneth Haigh, Anthony Newley
Votes: 289
2. Pickup Alley (1957)
Approved | 92 min | Action, Crime, Drama
International narcotics smuggler Frank McNally is trailed through various European countries by U.S. drug enforcement agent Charles Sturgis.
Director: John Gilling | Stars: Victor Mature, Anita Ekberg, Trevor Howard, Bonar Colleano
Votes: 641
3. Town on Trial (1957)
Not Rated | 96 min | Crime, Mystery, Thriller
At a local tennis club in a posh London suburb, an attractive but flirty young woman is murdered, prompting a Scotland Yard investigation.
Director: John Guillermin | Stars: John Mills, Charles Coburn, Barbara Bates, Derek Farr
Votes: 849
4. The Long Haul (1957)
Approved | 100 min | Crime, Drama, Film-Noir
After leaving his U.S. Army job in Germany, a trucker takes a long-haul driver job in Britain where he runs into an organized-crime syndicate that controls the trucking industry.
Director: Ken Hughes | Stars: Victor Mature, Diana Dors, Patrick Allen, Gene Anderson
Votes: 991
5. SOS Pacific (1959)
92 min | Adventure, Drama, Thriller
Due to an accident, a seaplane operated by a small airline company ditches off an island in the Pacific and the surviving passengers must find a way to be rescued.
Director: Guy Green | Stars: Richard Attenborough, Pier Angeli, John Gregson, Eva Bartok
Votes: 439
6. Beloved Infidel (1959)
Not Rated | 123 min | Biography, Drama, Romance
Toward the end of his life, F. Scott Fitzgerald is writing for Hollywood studios to be able to afford the cost of an asylum for his wife. He is also struggling against alcoholism. Into his life comes the famous gossip columnist.
Director: Henry King | Stars: Gregory Peck, Deborah Kerr, Eddie Albert, Philip Ober
Votes: 1,184
7. Alias Jesse James (1959)
Approved | 92 min | Comedy, Western
Outlaw T.J. "Jesse" James tries to kill insurance agent Milford Farnsworth, who has been mistaken for him in order to collect on a big policy.
Director: Norman Z. McLeod | Stars: Bob Hope, Rhonda Fleming, Wendell Corey, Gloria Talbott
Votes: 1,600
8. Three Murderesses (1959)
Approved | 95 min | Comedy
Julien turns up at one of his former girlfriends' wedding; she is marrying an "old man" (32). But the newly wed Agathe does not want to give the hunk up.
Director: Michel Boisrond | Stars: Alain Delon, Mylène Demongeot, Pascale Petit, Jacqueline Sassard
Votes: 283
9. But Not for Me (1959)
Approved | 111 min | Comedy, Romance
Without a new play and money, a 55 y.o. Broadway theater producer retires. But when fired, his 22 y.o. secretary says, she loves him. He decides to make that a scene in a new play and her to write it and play the role.
Director: Walter Lang | Stars: Clark Gable, Carroll Baker, Lilli Palmer, Lee J. Cobb
Votes: 586
10. Vice and Virtue (1963)
Not Rated | 108 min | Drama, War
Set against the backdrop of the Nazi occupation of France, VICE AND VIRTURE is a stylized retelling of the Marquis de Sade's Justine, as envisioned by one of cinema's most provocative filmmakers Roger Vadim.
Director: Roger Vadim | Stars: Annie Girardot, Robert Hossein, Catherine Deneuve, O.E. Hasse
Votes: 426
11. Pillars of the Sky (1956)
Approved | 95 min | Action, Western
In 1868 Oregon, after the Army violates the treaty by building a road across the reservation, several tribal chiefs decide to unite their forces against the trespassing whites.
Director: George Marshall | Stars: Jeff Chandler, Dorothy Malone, Ward Bond, Keith Andes
Votes: 771
12. Bedtime Story (1964)
Not Rated | 99 min | Comedy
Two scam artists preying on women for their money clash in a Mediterranean hot spot. Will the cultured, high-class con artist come out on top, or will the rough small-change scammer rise to win the wager?
Director: Ralph Levy | Stars: Marlon Brando, David Niven, Shirley Jones, Dody Goodman
Votes: 2,356 | Gross: $6.54M
13. The 7th Dawn (1964)
Not Rated | 123 min | Adventure, Drama, War
Political and personal intrigues surround a group of characters in Malaya, after the close of the Second World War.
Director: Lewis Gilbert | Stars: William Holden, Susannah York, Capucine, Tetsurô Tanba
Votes: 1,141
14. Behold a Pale Horse (1964)
Approved | 118 min | Drama, War
Famous Spanish bandit Artiguez returns to his native Spanish village after 20 years in French exile, but Spanish cop Vinolas sets a trap for him.
Director: Fred Zinnemann | Stars: Gregory Peck, Anthony Quinn, Omar Sharif, Raymond Pellegrin
Votes: 2,249 | Gross: $3.00M
15. The Sea Chase (1955)
Approved | 117 min | Action, Drama, War
As World War II begins, German freighter Captain Karl Ehrlich tries to get his ship back to Germany through a gauntlet of Allied warships.
Director: John Farrow | Stars: John Wayne, Lana Turner, David Farrar, Lyle Bettger
Votes: 3,419
16. Penelope (1966)
Approved | 97 min | Comedy, Crime
Comedy about a flighty, bored, kleptomaniac wife of a banker who robs her husband's bank of $60,000.
Director: Arthur Hiller | Stars: Natalie Wood, Ian Bannen, Dick Shawn, Peter Falk
Votes: 2,128
17. Mister Buddwing (1966)
Approved | 100 min | Drama
An amnesiac (James Garner) wanders the streets of Manhattan trying to figure out who he is.
Director: Delbert Mann | Stars: James Garner, Jean Simmons, Suzanne Pleshette, Katharine Ross
Votes: 1,444
18. The Chairman (1969)
M/PG | 93 min | Action, Drama, Thriller
During the Chinese Cultural Revolution, the US government sends a scientist to China to steal the formula for a new agricultural enzyme developed by the Chinese.
Director: J. Lee Thompson | Stars: Gregory Peck, Anne Heywood, Arthur Hill, Alan Dobie
Votes: 1,414
19. House of Cards (1968)
G | 105 min | Crime, Drama, Mystery
In 1960s Paris, an American boxer stumbles upon an international fascist conspiracy that aims to create a new world order.
Director: John Guillermin | Stars: George Peppard, Inger Stevens, Orson Welles, Keith Michell
Votes: 771
20. I Aim at the Stars (1960)
Approved | 107 min | Biography, Drama
The story of rocket scientist Dr. Werner von Braun's career, from the 1920s until the late 1950s.
Director: J. Lee Thompson | Stars: Curd Jürgens, Victoria Shaw, Herbert Lom, Gia Scala
Votes: 251
21. Der Kongreß amüsiert sich (1966)
PG | 96 min | Comedy, Romance
Vienna 1965. While visiting the Wax Museum a group of tourists stop in front of the figure of Prince Metternich. All of a sudden they find themselves brought back 150 years earlier during ... See full summary »
Director: Géza von Radványi | Stars: Lilli Palmer, Curd Jürgens, Paul Meurisse, Philippe March
Votes: 90
22. A Flea in Her Ear (1968)
M/PG | 94 min | Comedy
A Frenchwoman, suspecting her lawyer husband of having an affair, plots to catch him in the act.
Director: Jacques Charon | Stars: Rex Harrison, Rosemary Harris, Louis Jourdan, Rachel Roberts
Votes: 256
23. The 25th Hour (1967)
Not Rated | 130 min | Drama, War
In World War II, a Romanian gentile peasant is denounced by the village gendarme and sent to a concentration camp for Jews where, due to an error, he's drafted into the S.S.
Director: Henri Verneuil | Stars: Anthony Quinn, Virna Lisi, Grégoire Aslan, Michael Redgrave
Votes: 2,181
24. Montparnasse 19 (1958)
Not Rated | 108 min | Biography, Drama, Romance
About the last years of the life of the great artist Modigliani. A poor Italian artist suffering from alcoholism and opium addiction falls in love with Jeanne, a girl from a wealthy family whose parents are categorically against it.
Director: Jacques Becker | Stars: Gérard Philipe, Lilli Palmer, Anouk Aimée, Lila Kedrova
Votes: 1,678
25. Mister Moses (1965)
115 min | Adventure, Romance
In 1960s Kenya, American snake-oil salesman and diamond smuggler Joe Moses is chased out of many villages and pursued by the authorities until fate entrusts him with helping a native tribe that believes he is a holy man.
Director: Ronald Neame | Stars: Robert Mitchum, Carroll Baker, Ian Bannen, Alexander Knox
Votes: 333
26. Battle Hell (1957)
Approved | 113 min | Drama, History, War
In 1949, during the Chinese Civil War, British warship H.M.S. Amethyst sails up the Yangtse river but on the return trip, finds its way blocked by a barrage of fire from the Communist Chinese shore batteries.
Director: Michael Anderson | Stars: Richard Todd, William Hartnell, Akim Tamiroff, Donald Houston
Votes: 778
27. Me and the Colonel (1958)
Approved | 109 min | Comedy, War
Jacobowsky (Danny Kaye), a Jewish refugee, flees from the Germans with Colonel Prokoszny (Curt Jurgens), an aristocratic, anti-Semitic Polish officer trying to get papers to England. ... See full summary »
Director: Peter Glenville | Stars: Danny Kaye, Curd Jürgens, Nicole Maurey, Françoise Rosay
Votes: 733
28. The Naked Edge (1961)
Approved | 97 min | Crime, Mystery, Thriller
Five years after George Radcliffe was the chief witness in a high profile murder case, his wife receives a blackmailing letter accusing him of the crime.
Director: Michael Anderson | Stars: Gary Cooper, Deborah Kerr, Eric Portman, Diane Cilento
Votes: 1,478
29. The Mountain Road (1960)
102 min | Drama, War
A US Army Major stationed in East China in 1944 is ordered to blow up military installations in order to slow down the advancing Japanese Army.
Director: Daniel Mann | Stars: James Stewart, Lisa Lu, Glenn Corbett, Harry Morgan
Votes: 1,074
30. Legend of the Lost (1957)
Approved | 109 min | Adventure, Drama
American ne'er-do-well Joe January is hired to take Paul Bonnard on an expedition into the desert in search of treasure.
Director: Henry Hathaway | Stars: John Wayne, Sophia Loren, Rossano Brazzi, Kurt Kasznar
Votes: 3,750
31. Stowaway Girl (1957)
87 min | Drama
A middle-aged steamboat Captain who believes in a rigorous self-control when it comes to needs, desires and emotions, slowly falls for a pretty female stowaway.
Director: Guy Hamilton | Stars: Trevor Howard, Pedro Armendáriz, Elsa Martinelli, Donald Pleasence
Votes: 183
32. The Night Fighters (1960)
Not Rated | 90 min | Action, Drama, Romance
In 1941, the IRA plans a campaign to coincide with the planned German invasion of England. Dermot O'Neill finds it easy to get into the IRA, but can he get out?
Director: Tay Garnett | Stars: Robert Mitchum, Richard Harris, Anne Heywood, Dan O'Herlihy
Votes: 369
33. The Winston Affair (1964)
Approved | 94 min | Drama, War
In WW2, a US lieutenant stationed in India shoots dead a British NCO and admits his crime but his reason for the murder is so bizarre that it puzzles his defense counsel.
Director: Guy Hamilton | Stars: Robert Mitchum, France Nuyen, Barry Sullivan, Trevor Howard
Votes: 837
34. The Rising of the Moon (1957)
Not Rated | 81 min | Comedy, Drama
Three vignettes of old Irish country life, based on a series of short stories.
Director: John Ford | Stars: Tyrone Power, Noel Purcell, Cyril Cusack, Jack MacGowran
Votes: 1,145
35. The Scarlet Coat (1955)
Approved | 101 min | Adventure, Drama, History
During the Revolutionary War, American Major John Boulton feigns desertion in order to uncover a British plot to seize the stronghold of West Point.
Director: John Sturges | Stars: Cornel Wilde, Michael Wilding, George Sanders, Anne Francis
Votes: 770
36. Until They Sail (1957)
Approved | 94 min | Drama, Romance, War
During WWII, unmarried New Zealand women meet and marry American soldiers who are fighting in the Pacific theater.
Director: Robert Wise | Stars: Jean Simmons, Paul Newman, Joan Fontaine, Piper Laurie
Votes: 1,534
37. The Sound Barrier (1952)
Approved | 109 min | Adventure, Drama, Romance
Fictionalized story of British aerospace engineers solving the problem of supersonic flight.
Director: David Lean | Stars: Ralph Richardson, Ann Todd, Nigel Patrick, John Justin
Votes: 2,326
38. Oh... Rosalinda!! (1955)
101 min | Musical
Pseudonym Dr. Falke pursues his wife through disguises and deceptions in postwar Vienna, an operetta adaptation involving occupying powers' protagonists, not a staged production but a cinematic reimagining.
Directors: Michael Powell, Emeric Pressburger | Stars: Anthony Quayle, Anton Walbrook, Dennis Price, Ludmilla Tchérina
Votes: 468
39. Crack in the Mirror (1960)
97 min | Crime, Drama
Three performers for six roles: this is the game of the film. A melodrama about two love triangles. In the first, Hagalin is killed by his mistress and her lover. In the second, attorney ... See full summary »
Director: Richard Fleischer | Stars: Orson Welles, Juliette Gréco, Bradford Dillman, Alexander Knox
Votes: 247
40. The Golden Head (1964)
102 min | Adventure, Comedy, Crime
British youngsters in Budapest attempt to catch the thieves of the golden bust of Saint László.
Directors: Richard Thorpe, James Hill | Stars: George Sanders, Buddy Hackett, Jess Conrad, Lorraine Power
Votes: 92
41. The Swinger (1966)
Not Rated | 81 min | Comedy
An authoress writes a steaming sex-novel and proceeds to live out her heroine's adventures.
Director: George Sidney | Stars: Ann-Margret, Anthony Franciosa, Robert Coote, Yvonne Romain
Votes: 568
42. Kiss Them for Me (1957)
Approved | 105 min | Comedy, Romance
In 1944, three Navy pilots stationed in Hawaii and a P.R. officer go on a 4-day leave to San Francisco where they party with a good crowd in the executive suite of a busy hotel.
Director: Stanley Donen | Stars: Cary Grant, Jayne Mansfield, Leif Erickson, Suzy Parker
Votes: 2,178
43. Heavens Above! (1963)
Not Rated | 105 min | Comedy
A minister is accidentally appointed to a snobbish parish.
Directors: John Boulting, Roy Boulting | Stars: Peter Sellers, Cecil Parker, Isabel Jeans, Ian Carmichael
Votes: 1,673
44. Oscar Wilde (1960)
Not Rated | 96 min | Biography, Drama, History
Playwright Oscar Wilde's homosexuality is exposed when he brings a libel action against his lover's father, leading to his own prosecution.
Director: Gregory Ratoff | Stars: Robert Morley, Phyllis Calvert, Ralph Richardson, John Neville
Votes: 630
45. Flight from Ashiya (1964)
Not Rated | 100 min | Adventure, Romance, Drama
A flight crew tries to save the survivors of a shipwreck off the coast of Japan during a raging typhoon.
Director: Michael Anderson | Stars: Yul Brynner, Richard Widmark, George Chakiris, Suzy Parker
Votes: 716
46. Wild and Wonderful (1964)
Approved | 88 min | Comedy
Cognac, a pampered poodle and popular star on French television, creates marital problems for his pretty owner Giselle when he becomes jealous of her new husband.
Director: Michael Anderson | Stars: Tony Curtis, Christine Kaufmann, Larry Storch, Pierre Olaf
Votes: 362
47. Sebastian (1968)
Approved | 100 min | Drama, Romance, Thriller
During the Cold War, the chief of a British intelligence code-breaking section falls in love with a new employee and shields an old co-worker accused of Communist affiliations from the wrath of the security branch.
Director: David Greene | Stars: Dirk Bogarde, Susannah York, Lilli Palmer, John Gielgud
Votes: 702
48. The Strange Affair (1968)
R | 106 min | Crime, Drama
When rookie P.C. Strange falls for an under aged girl, he is unknowingly compromised by a pair of pornographers. Meanwhile, seasoned Det. Pierce is out to catch mob boss Quince and soon both plots intertwine.
Director: David Greene | Stars: Michael York, Jeremy Kemp, George A. Cooper, George Selway
Votes: 193
49. A Gathering of Eagles (1963)
Approved | 115 min | Drama, Romance, War
During the Cold War, Air Force Colonel Jim Caldwell shapes up his Strategic Air Command B-52 wing to pass a nuclear war readiness test.
Director: Delbert Mann | Stars: Rock Hudson, Rod Taylor, Mary Peach, Barry Sullivan
Votes: 1,104
50. Lost Command (1966)
Approved | 129 min | Action, Drama, War
French Army Colonel Raspeguy leads his paratroopers in battle against the Communist Viet Minh in Indochina and against Algerian guerrilla during the Algerian War.
Director: Mark Robson | Stars: Anthony Quinn, Alain Delon, George Segal, Michèle Morgan
Votes: 2,277
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