MY TOP 30+ MOVIES FOR 1959 (in list order)
by DukeEman | created - 20 Jul 2012 | updated - 16 Nov 2020 | PublicTwo comic geniuses star in the horror of war; Harvey and Signoret get naughty at the end of the conservative decade, and Marilyn drives them all crazy.
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1. The Great War (1959)
Approved | 137 min | Comedy, Drama, War
The Italian Army fought against the Austrians during World War I.
Director: Mario Monicelli | Stars: Alberto Sordi, Vittorio Gassman, Bernard Blier, Folco Lulli
Votes: 4,610
A very underrated anti-war film that packs a punch...
2. Room at the Top (1958)
Not Rated | 115 min | Drama, Romance
An ambitious young accountant plots to wed a wealthy factory owner's daughter despite falling in love with a married older woman.
Director: Jack Clayton | Stars: Laurence Harvey, Simone Signoret, Heather Sears, Donald Wolfit
Votes: 7,333
Harvey is perfect, and Clayton gets the essence of the story right...
3. General Della Rovere (1959)
Not Rated | 129 min | Drama, War
Bardone, a petty con man, is arrested by the Gestapo and coerced into impersonating a partisan leader in order to expose another resistance organizer.
Director: Roberto Rossellini | Stars: Vittorio De Sica, Hannes Messemer, Sandra Milo, Giovanna Ralli
Votes: 3,689
De Sica is surprisingly amazing under Rossellini's master direction...
4. The Bridge (1959)
Not Rated | 103 min | Drama, History, War
In 1945, Germany is being overrun, and nobody is left to fight but teenagers.
Director: Bernhard Wicki | Stars: Volker Bohnet, Fritz Wepper, Michael Hinz, Frank Glaubrecht
Votes: 8,661
Teenagers forced to hold the frontline in a suicide battle was handled well by the young cast...
5. Some Like It Hot (1959)
Passed | 121 min | Comedy, Music, Romance
After two male musicians witness a mob hit, they flee the state in an all-female band disguised as women, but further complications set in.
Director: Billy Wilder | Stars: Marilyn Monroe, Tony Curtis, Jack Lemmon, George Raft
Votes: 283,711 | Gross: $25.00M
Fun all the way...
6. Anatomy of a Murder (1959)
Not Rated | 161 min | Drama, Mystery
An upstate Michigan lawyer defends a soldier who claims he killed an innkeeper due to temporary insanity after the victim raped his wife. What is the truth, and will he win his case?
Director: Otto Preminger | Stars: James Stewart, Lee Remick, Ben Gazzara, Arthur O'Connell
Votes: 71,393 | Gross: $11.90M
Preminger pulls it off with a top cast...
7. North by Northwest (1959)
Approved | 136 min | Action, Adventure, Mystery
A New York City advertising executive goes on the run after being mistaken for a government agent by a group of foreign spies, and falls for a woman whose loyalties he begins to doubt.
Director: Alfred Hitchcock | Stars: Cary Grant, Eva Marie Saint, James Mason, Jessie Royce Landis
Votes: 346,361 | Gross: $13.28M
The Hitchcock magic...
8. The 400 Blows (1959)
Not Rated | 99 min | Crime, Drama
A young boy, left without attention, delves into a life of petty crime.
Director: François Truffaut | Stars: Jean-Pierre Léaud, Albert Rémy, Claire Maurier, Guy Decomble
Votes: 128,135
Truffaut touches down...
9. Compulsion (1959)
Approved | 103 min | Biography, Crime, Drama
Two wealthy law-school students go on trial for murder in this version of the Leopold-Loeb case.
Director: Richard Fleischer | Stars: Orson Welles, Dean Stockwell, Diane Varsi, Bradford Dillman
Votes: 7,508
Fascinating look into a cynical murder...
10. Rio Bravo (1959)
Passed | 141 min | Western
A small-town sheriff in the American West enlists the help of a disabled man, a drunk, and a young gunfighter in his efforts to hold in jail the brother of the local bad guy.
Director: Howard Hawks | Stars: John Wayne, Dean Martin, Ricky Nelson, Angie Dickinson
Votes: 68,107 | Gross: $12.54M
Howard gets a peculiar cast together for a Western, and it works...
11. The Law (1959)
Not Rated | 114 min | Comedy, Crime, Drama
Illicit passions pervade an Italian town, where men gather nightly for the cynical "game of the law."
Director: Jules Dassin | Stars: Gina Lollobrigida, Pierre Brasseur, Marcello Mastroianni, Melina Mercouri
Votes: 893 | Gross: $0.02M
Dassin gets the best out of Lollobrigida, with cheeky Marcello backing up...
12. Imitation of Life (1959)
Not Rated | 125 min | Drama
An aspiring white actress takes in an African American widow whose mixed-race daughter is desperate to be seen as white.
Director: Douglas Sirk | Stars: Lana Turner, John Gavin, Sandra Dee, Susan Kohner
Votes: 18,227 | Gross: $13.99M
Sirk sure knows how to make a sweeping melodrama...
13. Time Stood Still (1959)
83 min | Drama
Two workers at an isolated Alpine dam grow closer when an avalanche traps them in their hut without power or contact.
Director: Ermanno Olmi | Stars: Natale Rossi, Roberto Seveso, Paolo Quadrubbi
Votes: 483
Olmi always creates magic from a basic premise...
14. Black Orpheus (1959)
PG | 100 min | Drama, Musical, Romance
A retelling of the Orpheus and Eurydice myth, set during the time of the Carnaval in Rio de Janeiro.
Director: Marcel Camus | Stars: Breno Mello, Marpessa Dawn, Lourdes de Oliveira, Léa Garcia
Votes: 12,268
Beautiful carnival of love...
15. The World, the Flesh and the Devil (1959)
Approved | 95 min | Drama, Romance, Sci-Fi
A miner trapped in a cave-in resurfaces, and upon discovering mankind has been wiped out in a nuclear holocaust, sets out to find other survivors.
Director: Ranald MacDougall | Stars: Harry Belafonte, Inger Stevens, Mel Ferrer
Votes: 3,552
Belafonte can do more than just sing...
16. Morte di un amico (1960)
95 min | Drama
Two young people trickle and steal and exploit prostitutes.
Director: Franco Rossi | Stars: Gianni Garko, Spyros Fokas, Didi Perego, Angela Luce
Votes: 65
An interesting piece with an unknown cast...
17. The Hanging Tree (1959)
Approved | 107 min | Western
Unusual western about a doctor with a dark past, whose life is complicated and ultimately redeemed by a young thief, and a pretty Swiss immigrant whom he nurses back to health.
Directors: Delmer Daves, Karl Malden, Vincent Sherman | Stars: Gary Cooper, Maria Schell, Karl Malden, George C. Scott
Votes: 4,756
Sloppy at times but still an interesting melodrama western...
18. Ferry to Hong Kong (1959)
Approved | 112 min | Action, Adventure, Drama
Mark Conrad, a habitual drunk and troublemaker with a shady past, is expelled by Hong Kong police after one too many bar fights. He's sent to Macao on the Fa Tsan, a ferry owned by Captain ... See full summary »
Director: Lewis Gilbert | Stars: Curd Jürgens, Orson Welles, Sylvia Syms, Jeremy Spenser
Votes: 513
One of my trashy favourite films as a child...
19. Ride Lonesome (1959)
Approved | 73 min | Western
A bounty hunter (Randolph Scott) escorts a killer (James Best) to be tried for murder, but allows the man's outlaw brother (Lee Van Cleef) to catch up with them to have a showdown over a previous shocking murder.
Director: Budd Boetticher | Stars: Randolph Scott, Karen Steele, Pernell Roberts, James Best
Votes: 6,607
Great story, but lacked imagination in the overabundance of dialogue...
20. The Five Pennies (1959)
Approved | 117 min | Biography, Drama, Music
Danny Kaye cuts loose with his trademark musical clowning. Louis "Satchmo" Armstrong plays his horn and croons in that famed gargling-granite voice. Big Band icons Bob Crosby, Ray Anthony and Shelly Manne join the fun.
Director: Melville Shavelson | Stars: Danny Kaye, Barbara Bel Geddes, Louis Armstrong, Harry Guardino
Votes: 2,119
Just great seeing Danny and Louis together...
21. The Mouse That Roared (1959)
Approved | 83 min | Comedy
An impoverished backward nation declares a war on the United States of America, hoping to lose, but things don't go according to plan.
Director: Jack Arnold | Stars: Peter Sellers, Jean Seberg, William Hartnell, David Kossoff
Votes: 9,464
Quiet funny in a silly way...
22. Pickpocket (1959)
Not Rated | 76 min | Crime, Drama
Michel passes the time by picking pockets, careful to never be caught despite being watched by the police. His friend Jacques may suspect, while both men may have their eyes on Jeanne, the pretty neighbor of Michel's ailing mother.
Director: Robert Bresson | Stars: Martin LaSalle, Marika Green, Jean Pélégri, Dolly Scal
Votes: 25,373
Some claim this is Bresson's best...
23. Hiroshima Mon Amour (1959)
Not Rated | 90 min | Drama, Romance
A French actress filming an anti-war film in Hiroshima has an affair with a married Japanese architect as they share their differing perspectives on war.
Director: Alain Resnais | Stars: Emmanuelle Riva, Eiji Okada, Stella Dassas, Pierre Barbaud
Votes: 35,914 | Gross: $0.09M
Amazing to look at...
24. Nazarin (1959)
Not Rated | 94 min | Drama
A priest in a poor community lives a charitable life in accordance with his religious principles, but many others do not return the favor.
Director: Luis Buñuel | Stars: Francisco Rabal, Marga López, Rita Macedo, Ignacio López Tarso
Votes: 6,457
Bunuel begins to come out of his restricted shell in a subtle way...
25. On the Beach (1959)
Approved | 134 min | Drama, Romance, Sci-Fi
After a global nuclear war, the residents of Australia must come to terms with the fact that all life will be destroyed in a matter of months.
Director: Stanley Kramer | Stars: Gregory Peck, Ava Gardner, Fred Astaire, Anthony Perkins
Votes: 14,425 | Gross: $11.00M
Interesting premises, but I still think I need another viewing...
26. The Young Philadelphians (1959)
Approved | 136 min | Drama
A promising lawyer tries to handle his social and professional problems while climbing the ranks in Philadelphia.
Director: Vincent Sherman | Stars: Paul Newman, Barbara Rush, Alexis Smith, Brian Keith
Votes: 4,274
The young Newman giving it his all...
27. Ben-Hur (1959)
G | 212 min | Adventure, Drama
After a Jewish prince is betrayed and sent into slavery by a Roman friend in 1st-century Jerusalem, he regains his freedom and comes back for revenge.
Director: William Wyler | Stars: Charlton Heston, Jack Hawkins, Stephen Boyd, Haya Harareet
Votes: 253,812 | Gross: $74.70M
Epic campness on Heston's behalf...
28. Sleeping Beauty (1959)
G | 75 min | Animation, Adventure, Family
After being snubbed by the royal family, a malevolent fairy places a curse on a princess which only a prince can break, along with the help of three good fairies.
Directors: Les Clark, Clyde Geronimi, Eric Larson, Wolfgang Reitherman, Hamilton Luske | Stars: Mary Costa, Bill Shirley, Eleanor Audley, Verna Felton
Votes: 160,980 | Gross: $51.60M
The classic done right...
29. The Devil's Disciple (1959)
Approved | 83 min | Comedy, History, Romance
The black sheep of a family and the local minister discover their true vocations during the Revolutionary War.
Directors: Guy Hamilton, Alexander Mackendrick | Stars: Burt Lancaster, Kirk Douglas, Laurence Olivier, Janette Scott
Votes: 2,877
Messy direction, but the corny script had some good moments, but worth it for Lancaster and Douglas...
30. The Moralist (1959)
120 min | Comedy
Augustino works as the General Secretary of Social Morality Union and takes fight to all kinds of mundane vices - striptease, nudity in movies and commercials. He is incorrupt and ... See full summary »
Director: Giorgio Bianchi | Stars: Alberto Sordi, Vittorio De Sica, Franco Fabrizi, Christiane Nielsen
Votes: 416
Sordi and De Sica have fun with the moral crusaders of the time...
31. Last Train from Gun Hill (1959)
Passed | 95 min | Western
A marshal tries to bring the son of an old friend, an autocratic cattle baron, to justice for his role in the rape and murder of the marshal's Native American wife.
Director: John Sturges | Stars: Kirk Douglas, Anthony Quinn, Carolyn Jones, Earl Holliman
Votes: 8,810 | Gross: $2.50M
Sturges does his best with a fine cast...
32. Plan 9 from Outer Space (1957)
Not Rated | 79 min | Horror, Sci-Fi
Evil aliens attack Earth and set their terrible "Plan 9" into action. As the aliens resurrect the dead of the Earth, the lives of the living are in danger.
Director: Edward D. Wood Jr. | Stars: Gregory Walcott, Tom Keene, Mona McKinnon, Duke Moore
Votes: 40,457
The mother of all things trashy...
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