Best Picture 1953
Films I've seen fron best to worst
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- DirectorMax OphülsStarsCharles BoyerDanielle DarrieuxVittorio De SicaWhen an aristocratic woman known only as "Madame de . . ." sells a pair of earrings given to her by her husband in order to pay some debts, she sets off a chain reaction of financial and carnal consequences that can end only in despair.
- DirectorYasujirô OzuStarsChishû RyûChieko HigashiyamaSô YamamuraAn old couple visit their children and grandchildren in the city, but receive little attention.
- DirectorSamuel FullerStarsRichard WidmarkJean PetersThelma RitterA pickpocket unwittingly lifts a message destined for enemy agents and becomes a target for a Communist spy ring.
- DirectorFritz LangStarsGlenn FordGloria GrahameJocelyn BrandoTough cop Dave Bannion takes on a politically powerful crime syndicate.
- DirectorHenri-Georges ClouzotStarsYves MontandCharles VanelPeter van EyckIn a decrepit South American village, four men are hired to transport an urgent nitroglycerine shipment without the equipment that would make it safe.
- DirectorVincente MinnelliStarsFred AstaireCyd CharisseOscar LevantA pretentiously artistic director is hired for a new Broadway musical and changes it beyond recognition.
- DirectorFred ZinnemannStarsBurt LancasterMontgomery CliftDeborah KerrAt a U.S. Army base in 1941 Hawaii, a private is cruelly punished for not boxing on his unit's team, while his commanding officer's wife and top aide begin a tentative affair.
- DirectorIngmar BergmanStarsHarriet AnderssonLars EkborgDagmar EbbesenA pair of teenagers meet one summer day, start a reckless affair and abandon their families to be with one another.
- DirectorIngmar BergmanStarsÅke GrönbergHarriet AnderssonHasse EkmanThe complicated relationships between a circus ringmaster, his estranged wife and his lover.
- 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.
- DirectorManuel Mur OtiStarsAurora BautistaCarlos LemosJosé SuárezAurelia is a Mancha's peasant who can barely keep up her husband's estate while he's in prison for murder. When Juan enters her service as a farmhand, the land begins to regain its former glory--and the boy feels increasingly attracted to his mistress. Although nobody in the village wants to work in the lands of "the damned"--Until one day José regains freedom and returns home, and a fierce rivalry begins between the two men as they vie for Aurelia's heart.
- DirectorKenji MizoguchiStarsMichiyo KogureAyako WakaoSeizaburô KawazuA seasoned geisha and her apprentice maiko are forced to give in to their clients' sexual advances to survive.
- DirectorKeisuke KinoshitaStarsYûko MochizukiYôko KatsuragiMasami TauraAlternating in time, between the end of World War II and 1953, Haruko, a widow, does what she can to keep her daughter Utako and son Seiichi safe, fed, and sheltered. By 1953, it's clear that the children, as they enter adulthood, want little to do with their mother. They have a different view of their childhood and her sacrifices: in their eyes, she abandoned them to live a life of pleasure. The self-pitying Haruko is sure her life was one of pain and humiliation, for her children. As Seiichi, now a medical student, announces his plans to let a wealthy man adopt him, and as Utako considers the offer to go away with a married man who is her English teacher, what is left for Haruko?
- DirectorMikio NaruseStarsMachiko KyôMasayuki MoriYoshiko KugaIn Older Brother, Younger Sister, director Mikio Naruse's adaptation of an oft-filmed popular novel by Saisei Murô, the eldest daughter (Machiko Kyô) of a rural family comes home pregnant, testing some already tenuous family bonds. Naruse shows his considerable skill at portraying household dynamics, filming Kyô in relaxed and/or reclining positions (indicative of her character's exhaustively maintained independence) that are then intruded upon by her ill-tempered older brother (Masayuki Mori), whose initially comic, brute-force presence grows increasingly menacing and treacherous as the film progresses.
- DirectorKinuyo TanakaStarsMasayuki MoriYoshiko KugaJûkichi UnoExplores the wounds of war, the limits of love and the need to forgive. A sad and troubled man, Reikichi Mayumi finds a new job five years after the end of WWII, where he writes love letters for other people.
- DirectorD.A. PennebakerSet to a classic Duke Ellington recording of "Daybreak Expresa" this is a five-minute short on the soon-to-be-demolished Third Avenue elevated train line in Manhattan, New York City.
- DirectorFederico FelliniStarsAlberto SordiFranco FabriziFranco InterlenghiA character study of five young men at crucial turning points in their lives in a small town in Italy.
- DirectorOtto PremingerStarsRobert MitchumJean SimmonsMona FreemanAmbulance driver Frank Jessup is ensnared in the schemes of the sensuous but dangerous Diane Tremayne.
- DirectorMarcel CarnéStarsSimone SignoretRaf ValloneJacques DubyA truck driver kills the husband of the woman he loves, and becomes the object of blackmail.
- 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.
- DirectorClyde GeronimiWilfred JacksonHamilton LuskeStarsBobby DriscollKathryn BeaumontHans ConriedWendy and her brothers are whisked away to the magical world of Neverland with the hero of their stories, Peter Pan.
- DirectorGeorge StevensStarsAlan LaddJean ArthurVan HeflinA weary gunfighter in 1880s Wyoming begins to envision a quieter life after befriending a homestead family with a young son who idolizes him, but a smoldering range war forces him to act.
- DirectorWilliam WylerStarsGregory PeckAudrey HepburnEddie AlbertA bored and sheltered princess escapes her guardians and falls in love with an American newsman in Rome.
- DirectorLászló KardosStarsJane PowellFarley GrangerAnn MillerA judge's daughter keeps an eye on a playboy who gets 30 days in jail for speeding.
- DirectorLuis BuñuelStarsPedro ArmendárizKaty JuradoRosita ArenasA tough young man, who helps to kick poor people out of their houses, falls in love with a girl. She lives with her father in the building about to be demolished.
- DirectorHeinosuke GoshoStarsKinuyo TanakaKen UeharaHideko TakamineWhere Chimneys Are Seen focuses primarily on the interconnected lives of two couples in a lower-middle-class neighborhood in Senju, a poor industrial section of Tokyo.
- DirectorAndré De TothStarsVincent PriceFrank LovejoyPhyllis KirkAn associate burns down a wax museum with the owner inside, but he survives only to become vengeful and murderous.
- DirectorHoward HawksStarsJane RussellMarilyn MonroeCharles CoburnShowgirls Lorelei Lee and Dorothy Shaw travel to Paris, pursued by a private detective hired by the suspicious father of Lorelei's fiancé, as well as a rich, enamored old man and many other doting admirers.
- DirectorGösta WernerStarsGunnar SjöbergMarie-Anne CondéKarl-Erik ForsgårdhDepicting minutes before and after a child is killed by a car.
- DirectorMasaki KobayashiStarsKeiko AwajiMotoji FujiwaraChieko HigashiyamaA young student (Akira Inshihama) falls into a hopeless romantic attraction to an invalid girl (Keiko Awaji) whom he can only see from afar.
- DirectorWalter LangStarsEthel MermanDonald O'ConnorVera-EllenWashington hostess Sally Adams becomes a Truman-era US ambassador to a European grand duchy.
- DirectorYves AllégretRafael E. PortasStarsMichèle MorganGérard PhilipeVíctor Manuel MendozaLife in a small Mexican village where joy and misery, hope and pain, passion and guilt, love and decay, life and death are mixed in the peasants life and two French citizens who end up stranded in there, during a typhoid epidemic.
- DirectorFritz LangStarsAnne BaxterRichard ConteAnn SothernA telephone operator ends up drunk and at the mercy of a cad in his apartment. The next morning she wakes up with a hangover and the terrible fear she may have committed murder.
- DirectorJoseph L. MankiewiczStarsLouis CalhernMarlon BrandoJames MasonThe growing ambition of Julius Caesar is a source of major concern to his close friend Brutus. Cassius persuades him to participate in his plot to assassinate Caesar but they have both sorely underestimated Mark Antony.
- DirectorHenry HathawayStarsMarilyn MonroeJoseph CottenJean PetersAs two couples are visiting Niagara Falls, tensions between one wife and her husband reach the level of murder.
- DirectorLuis García BerlangaStarsLolita SevillaManolo MoránJosé IsbertAfter finding out that North American people are visiting the Spanish villages, the citizens of Villar del Río start preparing themselves to welcome them when they arrive.
- DirectorIda LupinoStarsJoan FontaineIda LupinoEdmund GwennA man secretly married to two women feels the pressure of his deceit.
- DirectorJacques TatiStarsJacques TatiNathalie PascaudMicheline RollaMonsieur Hulot comes to a beachside hotel for a vacation and accidentally, but good-naturedly, causes havoc.
- DirectorJohn FordStarsClark GableGrace KellyAva GardnerOn a Kenyan safari, white hunter Victor Marswell has a love triangle with seductive American socialite Eloise Kelly and anthropologist Donald Nordley's cheating wife Linda.
- DirectorJacques BeckerStarsDaniel GélinLouis JourdanAnne VernonWhile Henri Laurent speeds along on the racing circuits, his pretty wife Françoise goes from luxury boutique to luxury boutique with her best friend Denise. One day, Denise lets her know that Henri has a lover. Outraged, Françoise moves out of marital home and rents a maids' room in Rue de l'Estrapade. Henri tries to get his wife back but Françoise does not listen. She even looks for a job in a prêt-à-porter shop and lets herself be courted by Robert, her neighbor across the landing...
- DirectorHilton EdwardsStarsMichael LaurenceShelah RichardsHelena HughesOrson Welles, on break from filming Othello, relates a tale he heard one spooky Irish midnight not so long ago when, driving through the countryside, he picked up a man with car trouble who told of a strange encounter with two hitchhikers.
- DirectorIda LupinoStarsEdmond O'BrienFrank LovejoyWilliam TalmanTwo fishermen pick up a psychopathic escaped convict who tells them that he intends to murder them when the ride is over.
- DirectorTeinosuke KinugasaStarsMachiko KyôKazuo HasegawaIsao YamagataA samurai pursues a married lady-in-waiting.
- DirectorOtto PremingerStarsWilliam HoldenDavid NivenMaggie McNamaraTwo aging playboys are both after the same attractive young woman, but she fends them off by claiming that she plans to remain a virgin until her wedding night. Both men determine to find a way around her objections.
- DirectorBilly WilderStarsWilliam HoldenDon TaylorOtto PremingerAfter two Americans are killed while escaping from a German P.O.W. camp in World War II, the barracks black marketeer, J.J. Sefton, is suspected of being an informer.
- DirectorTed ParmeleeStarsJames MasonJack MatherA madman tells his tale of murder, and how a strange beating sound haunted him afterward.
- DirectorChuck JonesStarsMel BlancThe short-tempered Daffy Duck must improvise madly as the backgrounds, his costumes, the soundtrack, even his physical form, shifts and changes at the whim of the animator.
- DirectorWilliam Cameron MenziesStarsHelena CarterArthur FranzJimmy HuntA young boy learns that space aliens are taking over the minds of earthlings.
- DirectorWard KimballCharles NicholsStarsThe Mellowmen QuartetLoulie Jean NormanCharlie ParlotaA crash course on the history of Western musical instruments.
- DirectorJohn FarrowStarsJohn WayneGeraldine PageWard BondArmy dispatch rider Hondo Lane discovers a woman and young son living in the midst of warring Apaches and becomes their protector.
- DirectorJohn HustonStarsHumphrey BogartJennifer JonesGina LollobrigidaOn their way to Africa are a group of rogues who hope to get rich there, and a seemingly innocent British couple. They meet and things happen...
- DirectorJean NegulescoStarsMarilyn MonroeBetty GrableLauren BacallThree women set out to find eligible millionaires to marry, but find true love in the process.
- DirectorDouglas SirkStarsBarbara StanwyckRichard CarlsonLyle BettgerIn 1910, a wayward mother re-visits the family she deserted.
- DirectorAnthony MannStarsJames StewartJanet LeighRobert RyanA bounty hunter trying to bring a murderer to justice is forced to accept the help of two less-than-trustworthy strangers.
- DirectorAnthony KimminsStarsAlec GuinnessPeter BullCharles GoldnerThe captain of a ferry boat between the restricted British colony in Gibraltar and Spanish Morocco has a woman of differing appeal and temperament in each port.
- DirectorHarry HornerStarsJeanne CrainJean PetersElliott ReidThe untimely murder of a New York glamor-girl sparks an investigation with an emotionally driven detective at the helm.
- DirectorRay AshleyMorris EngelRuth OrkinStarsRichard BrewsterWinifred CushingJay WilliamsA young boy fears that he shot his older brother, who is only faking. He then runs away to Coney Island, a crowded beach area, and gets money by returning soda bottles for their deposits.
- DirectorChuck JonesStarsMel BlancDuck Dodgers and Marvin Martian wage war over Planet X.
- DirectorJohn SturgesStarsBarbara StanwyckBarry SullivanRalph MeekerA family vacationing on the coast of Mexico have to cope with multiple threats to their safety.
- DirectorGeorge SidneyStarsKathryn GraysonHoward KeelAnn MillerAn ex-husband and wife team star in a musical version of 'The Taming of the Shrew'; off-stage, the production is troublesome with ex-lovers' quarrels and two gangsters looking for some money owed to them.
- DirectorRay HarryhausenStarsDel MooreA greedy King Midas is visited one day by a mysterious visitor who grants him the ability to turn all things he touches to gold. He learns his lesson when the food he tries to eat and his own daughter are turned to gold as well. The visitor reappears and offers him the opportunity to return to his old self, which he gladly does.
- DirectorElia KazanStarsFredric MarchTerry MooreGloria GrahameA Czech circus owner/clown and his entire troupe employ a daring stratagem in order to escape en masse from behind the iron curtain.
- DirectorGeorge SidneyStarsJean SimmonsStewart GrangerDeborah KerrThe early life of Elizabeth I, from her childhood until her accession to the throne of England in 1558.
- DirectorAlfred HitchcockStarsMontgomery CliftAnne BaxterKarl MaldenA priest, who comes under suspicion for murder, cannot clear his name without breaking the seal of the confessional.
- DirectorAndré De TothStarsGene NelsonSterling HaydenPhyllis KirkReformed parolee Steve Lacey is caught in the middle when a wounded former cellmate seeks him out for shelter.
- DirectorKenneth AngerStarsCarmilla SalvatorelliA woman dressed in an elegant period dress wanders through the water gardens at the Villa d'Este.
- DirectorVittorio CottafaviStarsBarbara LaageArmando FrancioliEduardo De FilippoUpdated version of the Camille melodrama: An engineer has a romance with the mistress of a rich banker but she sacrifices herself,returning to the rich man, for the best interests of the lover and his family.
- DirectorRomán Viñoly BarretoStarsOlga ZubarryRoberto EscaladaNelly PanizzaThis "feminist" reworking of Fritz Lang's classic M focuses on the mothers of children stalked by a deranged pedophile.
- DirectorTex AveryStarsJune ForayDaws ButlerColleen CollinsJohn and Mary are a married couple of airplanes. John currently is out of work because jet planes now are favored over his prop design. When Junior comes along, they are in for a surprise.
- DirectorGeorge CukorStarsSpencer TracyJean SimmonsTeresa WrightThis is an account of the real life experience of actress/playwright Ruth Gordon.
- DirectorVittorio De SicaStarsJennifer JonesMontgomery CliftGino CerviPrior to leaving by train for Paris, a married American woman tries to break off her affair with a young Italian in Rome's Stazione Termini.
- DirectorHugo FregoneseStarsGary CooperBarbara StanwyckRuth RomanIn South America, after Jeff Dawson and Dutch Peterson's oil rigs are dynamited by local bandits, the two partners resort to risky transportation of nitroglycerin to raise money.
- DirectorJohn SturgesStarsWilliam HoldenEleanor ParkerJohn ForsytheDuring the Civil War, a group of Confederates escapes from the Union POW camp at Fort Bravo but has to contend with the desert, the Mescalero Apaches and the pursuing Union troops.
- DirectorJean NegulescoStarsClifton WebbBarbara StanwyckRobert WagnerAn unhappily married couple struggle to deal with their problems while on board the luxurious, ill-fated RMS Titanic.
- DirectorCharles WaltersStarsLeslie CaronMel FerrerJean-Pierre AumontAn orphaned young woman becomes part of a puppet act and forms a relationship with the anti-social puppeteer.
- DirectorByron HaskinStarsGene BarryAnn RobinsonLes TremayneA small town in California is attacked by Martians, beginning a worldwide invasion.
- DirectorJoseph M. NewmanStarsJeanne CrainMichael RennieMax ShowalterWhen a beautiful bride boards an ocean liner with her new husband, he goes into hiding, and she becomes the target of a murder conspiracy.
- DirectorLars-Eric KjellgrenStarsEva HenningSonja WigertHjördis PettersonLora is driving away from her life. At the same time her husband is found dead in their villa.
- DirectorRobert CannonStarsMarvin MillerMarian RichmanThrough drawings, an illustrator tells his dog the story of a boy named Christopher Crumpet. Christopher can at will change himself from a little boy into a chicken. He threatens to do so if his father, Marvin, won't buy him a rocket ship. Marvin doesn't want a chicken for a son, so he does whatever he can to appease Christopher. But time after time as Marvin fails to come through with the real new rocket ship that Christopher wants, Christopher turns himself into a chicken. Bilgewater, Marvin's co-worker, upon seeing Christopher change himself from a boy to a chicken, thinks he can take advantage of the situation. But Marvin does whatever he possibly can to thwart Bilgewater's plans if only because he wants a human boy as a son instead of a chicken. The illustrator has a specific reason for telling his dog Christopher's story.
- DirectorCharles Marquis WarrenStarsJoan FontaineJack PalanceCorinne CalvetDuring the Cold War, a mysterious plane carrying $3 million arrives at Tangier airport, and various interested parties try to grab the cash.
- DirectorCharles WaltersStarsJoan CrawfordMichael WildingGig YoungA tough but unhappy Broadway star re-evaluates her life when she crosses paths with a blind pianist.
- 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.
- DirectorJack ArnoldStarsRichard CarlsonBarbara RushCharles DrakeA spaceship from another world crashes in the Arizona desert and only an amateur stargazer and a schoolteacher suspect alien influence when the local townsfolk begin to act strangely.
- DirectorRaoul WalshStarsRock HudsonDonna ReedPhilip CareyIn Arizona, Frank Slayton's gang robs a stagecoach and kidnaps Ben Warren's fiancée, prompting Warren to pursue Slayton.
- DirectorAndrew L. StoneStarsJoseph CottenJean PetersGary MerrillWhitney Cameron suspects his sister-in-law has poisoned his brother and niece, but without proof how does he prevent the murder of his nephew?
- DirectorRobert D. WebbStarsRobert WagnerTerry MooreGilbert RolandFierce competition among sponge fishermen forces a Greek-American family to fish in the dangerous 12-mile reef area off the western coast of Florida.
- DirectorHenry KosterStarsRichard BurtonJean SimmonsVictor MatureIn the Roman province of Judea during the 1st century, Roman tribune Marcellus Gallio is ordered to crucify Jesus of Nazareth but is tormented by his guilty conscience afterwards.
- DirectorJoseph H. LewisStarsVittorio GassmanBarry SullivanPolly BergenA fugitive is pursued by a lawman who is obsessed with his capture.
- DirectorRichard ThorpeStarsRobert TaylorStewart GrangerAnn BlythIn the South Pacific islands, two brothers, one good and one bad, fight over the same girl and over a bag of pearls.
- DirectorRichard ThorpeStarsRobert TaylorAva GardnerMel FerrerKing Arthur's rule is threatened by the adulterous love between Sir Lancelot and Queen Guinevere, a relationship the king's enemies hope to exploit.
- DirectorLloyd BaconStarsRobert MitchumJean SimmonsArthur HunnicuttA wealthy heiress returns to a small Arkansas town to furtively reward the townsfolk who helped to save her life when she was a young girl.