Best movies of the 1950s

Approved 96 min Crime, Drama.

The s was an incredible decade in cinema history. For the U. As such, plenty of amazing, genuinely classic Hollywood films were released in the s. Elsewhere in the world, it proved to be a decade where films in languages other than English found international success, most notably those from places like Japan, France, and Sweden. It's impossible to rank every single great movie that was released during this decade, but it is possible to give a rundown of some of the very best.

Best movies of the 1950s

Not Rated 96 min Drama, Fantasy. A 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. Votes: , Not Rated 99 min Crime, Drama. Not Rated 91 min Drama, Romance. After living a life marked by coldness, an aging professor is forced to confront the emptiness of his existence. Not Rated min Action, Drama. Farmers from a village exploited by bandits hire a veteran samurai for protection, who gathers six other samurai to join him. PG min Mystery, Romance, Thriller. 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. Not Rated min Drama.

He plays a talented wax sculptor who is maimed in a fire before setting off on a course of revenge against the world.

But which of them are actually the greatest? Throughout the middle of the 20th century, the art of filmmaking evolved through the refinement of the commercial studio style. At the same time, progressive experimentations, like electronic music scoring to widespread adoption of Technicolor and widescreen panorama, took the medium to the next level. While all of that was happening, movie stars grew more accustomed to being the sole reasons why the public went to see movies in the first place. The arena of cinema expanded throughout the s, too. While American-made Hollywood pictures enjoyed cultural and commercial dominance, movies from other parts of the world — Japan, Sweden, Italy, France, and elsewhere — began entering the conversation. While the prevailing image of the s may be of wholesome American values, the greatest movies to come out of those years were anything but.

We still see the profound influence of WWII, we still see film noir and Westerns and the development of European neorealism. We also see the proliferation of color technology. There is also an emphasis on teen culture, perhaps best represented by the brief but meteoric career of James Dean. Television became mainstream, and Hollywood found itself with some stiff competition from the networks. The French New Wave was in full flow, with directors such as Jean-Luc Godard and Francois Truffaut defining what would come to be known as auteur theory.

Best movies of the 1950s

G min Adventure, Drama, Family. Moses, raised as a prince of Egypt in the Pharaoh's household, learns of his true heritage as a Hebrew and his divine mission as the deliverer of his people from slavery. Director: Cecil B. Passed min Drama, Family, Romance. The dramatic lives of trapeze artists, a clown, and an elephant trainer are told against a background of circus spectacle. G 76 min Animation, Adventure, Comedy. The romantic tale of a sheltered uptown Cocker Spaniel dog and a streetwise downtown Mutt.

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But the confusion and strange terror down there, in the foul winding tunnels of an underground maze of waste, make them a pitiful few last hours. Image via Daiei Film. Brooding and obsessive, the film is a meditation on boundaries and confinement, curiosity and specifically the tipping point where the human hunger for knowledge and understanding meets the appeasement of boredom or flows past that into something prurient and debasing. Despite receiving mixed reviews upon its release, it has now come to be recognized as one of the best films of all time by fans and critics alike. Error: please try again. Regardless, the film found release and is today, even at only 31 minutes, an eviscerating account of life in the camps: their origins, their architecture and their inner-workings. At its core, the movie resonates profoundly as a story of true camaraderie, moral duty and what it takes to stand up to wrongdoing when the odds are against you. Pickpocket Not Rated 76 min Crime, Drama 7. I defy you to watch this and not feel ridiculously happy. If an erotic dream could be a movie, it would look like Hiroshima mon amour. Often described as a romantic comedy, Sabrina has far more dramatic chops than giggles, and the year-old Hepburn more than holds her own against heavyweights Holden and Bogart, taking the Cinderella archetype to new levels. However, stark realism and an emphasis on teen culture also got their momentum. And yet, Ford, more often than not, disarms criticism by sheer virtue of his lyrical sensibility, reserves of deep feeling, and humane attention to character detail.

The s was an incredible decade in cinema history. For the U.

Imagine four teenaged boys bawling their eyes out at the end of that great but three-hanky weeper. With a star-studded cast featuring Oscar-nominated performances from Charles Laughton and Elsa Lanchester , as well as one of Marlene Dietrich 's best-known roles, it's a must-see for movie lovers. In this neorealist classic from Italian filmmaker Vittorio De Sica, a poor elderly man in Rome does everything he can to survive with his dog. Shane and Ryker, along with their cohorts, are relics of the past, ultimately doomed to extinction once the wives and children move in. Sugar Kane is, in a nutshell, the kind of character Marilyn struggled so hard to avoid playing for the bulk of her career: a ditzy blonde, a pure sex symbol, someone who exists in the context of the movie just to tickle the male gaze, whether within the story or without. The main character is mistaken for someone he isn't, and that leads to all sorts of entertaining sequences, with some being action-packed, some being suspenseful, and others being darkly funny. Depicts the end days of a decadent zamindar landlord in Bengal, and his efforts to uphold his family prestige even when faced with economic adversity. Why is Rebel Without a Cause among the best movies of the s? It's an expertly made slow-burn thriller, centering on James Stewart 's character, and the spiral of paranoia he falls into when he starts believing one of his neighbors may have committed a murder. It's also widely loved for featuring perhaps the best performance of Marilyn Monroe 's tragically brief acting career, with co-stars Tony Curtis and Jack Lemmon also proving tremendously entertaining.