Best films of the 1950s
Film as art, rather than as entertainment or commerce.
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- DirectorCharles LaughtonStarsRobert MitchumShelley WintersLillian GishA self-proclaimed preacher marries a gullible widow whose young children are reluctant to tell him where their real dad hid the $10,000 he'd stolen in a robbery.
- DirectorLuis BuñuelStarsAlfonso MejíaRoberto CoboEstela IndaA 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.
- DirectorAlfred HitchcockStarsJames StewartKim NovakBarbara Bel GeddesA 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.
- DirectorElia KazanStarsVivien LeighMarlon BrandoKim HunterDisturbed Blanche DuBois moves in with her sister in New Orleans and is tormented by her brutish brother-in-law while her reality crumbles around her.
- DirectorFrançois TruffautStarsJean-Pierre LéaudAlbert RémyClaire MaurierA young boy, left without attention, delves into a life of petty crime.
- DirectorElia KazanStarsMarlon BrandoKarl MaldenLee J. CobbAn ex-prize fighter turned New Jersey longshoreman struggles to stand up to his corrupt union bosses, including his older brother, as he starts to connect with the grieving sister of one of the syndicate's victims.
- DirectorSatyajit RayStarsKanu BannerjeeKaruna BannerjeeSubir BanerjeeImpoverished priest Harihar Ray, dreaming of a better life for himself and his family, leaves his rural Bengal village in search of work.
- DirectorJohn FordStarsJohn WayneJeffrey HunterVera MilesAn American Civil War veteran embarks on a years-long journey to rescue his niece from the Comanches after the rest of his brother's family is massacred in a raid on their Texas farm.
- DirectorIngmar BergmanStarsMax von SydowGunnar BjörnstrandBengt EkerotA knight returning to Sweden after the Crusades seeks answers about life, death, and the existence of God as he plays chess against the Grim Reaper during the Black Plague.
- DirectorJoseph L. MankiewiczStarsBette DavisAnne BaxterGeorge SandersA seemingly timid but secretly ruthless ingénue insinuates herself into the lives of an aging Broadway star and her circle of theater friends.
- DirectorBilly WilderStarsMarilyn MonroeTony CurtisJack LemmonAfter two male musicians witness a mob hit, they flee the state in an all-female band disguised as women, but further complications set in.
- DirectorMikhail KalatozovStarsTatyana SamoylovaAleksey BatalovVasiliy MerkurevVeronica plans a rendezvous with her lover, Boris, at the bank of river, only for him to be drafted into World War II shortly thereafter.
- DirectorJean GenetStarsBravoJean GenetJavaTwo prisoners in complete isolation, separated by the thick brick walls, and desperately in need of human contact, devise a most unusual kind of communication.
- DirectorKeisuke KinoshitaStarsKinuyo TanakaTeiji TakahashiYûko MochizukiA kabuki theatre-inflected story about a poor village whose people have to be carried to a nearby mountain to die once they get old.
- DirectorKenji MizoguchiStarsMasayuki MoriMachiko KyôKinuyo TanakaA tale of ambition, family, love, and war set in the midst of the Japanese Civil Wars of the sixteenth century.
- DirectorLuis BuñuelStarsArturo de CórdovaDelia GarcésAurora WalkerA husband's suave exterior unravels after his marriage, and he unleashes his paranoid and volatile temper on his wife, which escalates to more dangerous and unpredictable tantrums.
- DirectorKarel ZemanStarsLubor TokosArnost NavrátilMiroslav HolubAn evil millionaire named Artigas plans to use a super-explosive device to conquer the world from his headquarters inside an enormous volcano.
- DirectorVittorio De SicaStarsEmma GramaticaFrancesco GolisanoPaolo StoppaAn open-hearted, unrelentingly energetic orphan struggles to make the best of his life on the streets of Milan.
- DirectorGeorge StevensStarsElizabeth TaylorRock HudsonJames DeanSprawling epic covering the life of a Texas cattle rancher and his family and associates.
- DirectorYasujirô OzuStarsChishû RyûChieko HigashiyamaSô YamamuraAn old couple visit their children and grandchildren in the city, but receive little attention.
- DirectorRoy RowlandStarsPeter Lind HayesMary HealyHans ConriedA young boy dreams that he is in an imaginary world where, assisted by his family's plumber, he must save other piano-playing kids like himself from the dungeons of his dictatorial piano teacher who also mind-controls his mother.
- DirectorAlfred HitchcockStarsJames StewartGrace KellyWendell CoreyA 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.
- DirectorJohn HustonStarsHumphrey BogartKatharine HepburnRobert MorleyIn WWI East Africa, a gin-swilling Canadian riverboat captain is persuaded by a strait-laced English missionary to undertake a trip up a treacherous river and use his boat to attack a German gunship.
- DirectorAndrzej WajdaStarsTadeusz LomnickiUrszula ModrzynskaTadeusz JanczarStory of youth during the German occupation of Poland in World War II who come to adulthood through love and adversity.