Best of 1959
by micdub2000 | created - 20 Jul 2018 | updated - 20 Jul 2018 | Public- Instant Watch Options
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1. 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: 71,296 | Gross: $11.90M
2. 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: 253,561 | Gross: $74.70M
3. The Diary of Anne Frank (1959)
Approved | 180 min | Biography, Drama, Family
During World War II, a teenage Jewish girl named Anne Frank and her family are forced into hiding in the Nazi-occupied Netherlands.
Director: George Stevens | Stars: Millie Perkins, Shelley Winters, Joseph Schildkraut, Richard Beymer
Votes: 13,684 | Gross: $5.01M
4. The Nun's Story (1959)
Approved | 149 min | Drama
After leaving a wealthy Belgian family to become a nun, Sister Luke struggles with her devotion to her vows during crisis, disappointment, and World War II.
Director: Fred Zinnemann | Stars: Audrey Hepburn, Peter Finch, Edith Evans, Peggy Ashcroft
Votes: 11,692 | Gross: $12.80M
5. Pillow Talk (1959)
Passed | 102 min | Comedy, Romance
An interior decorator and a playboy songwriter share a telephone party line and size each other up.
Director: Michael Gordon | Stars: Rock Hudson, Doris Day, Tony Randall, Thelma Ritter
Votes: 19,161 | Gross: $18.75M
6. 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: 346,001 | Gross: $13.28M
7. 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: 7,313
8. 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: 283,426 | Gross: $25.00M
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: 7,492
10. A Hole in the Head (1959)
Approved | 120 min | Comedy, Drama
Widower Tony is trying to keep a small Miami hotel afloat while raising a 12-year-old son. He's forced to ask his harried brother Mario for help, but he'll only bail Tony out if he quits his bohemian lifestyle and marries a sensible woman.
Director: Frank Capra | Stars: Frank Sinatra, Edward G. Robinson, Eleanor Parker, Carolyn Jones
Votes: 2,847 | Gross: $11.00M
11. The FBI Story (1959)
Approved | 149 min | Crime, Drama, History
A dedicated FBI agent recalls the agency's battles against the Klan, organized crime and Communist spies.
Director: Mervyn LeRoy | Stars: James Stewart, Vera Miles, Murray Hamilton, Larry Pennell
Votes: 3,877
12. The Big Fisherman (1959)
Approved | 180 min | Drama, History
Exploring the life of Peter, from being a successful fisherman to becoming a follower of Jesus Christ and being dependent on Jesus Christ.
Director: Frank Borzage | Stars: Howard Keel, John Saxon, Susan Kohner, Martha Hyer
Votes: 455
13. Bell Book and Candle (1958)
Approved | 106 min | Comedy, Fantasy, Romance
A modern-day witch likes her neighbor but despises his fiancée, so she enchants him to love her instead.
Director: Richard Quine | Stars: James Stewart, Kim Novak, Jack Lemmon, Ernie Kovacs
Votes: 13,110
14. Middle of the Night (1959)
Approved | 118 min | Drama
A widowed businessman becomes obsessed with one of his employees, the divorcée Betty Preisser.
Director: Delbert Mann | Stars: Kim Novak, Glenda Farrell, Jan Norris, Lee Grant
Votes: 1,504
15. 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: 18,210 | Gross: $13.99M
16. The Shaggy Dog (1959)
Approved | 104 min | Comedy, Family, Fantasy
A teenage boy is cursed with periodically turning into a sheepdog.
Director: Charles Barton | Stars: Fred MacMurray, Jean Hagen, Tommy Kirk, Annette Funicello
Votes: 5,568 | Gross: $0.10M
17. The Sound and the Fury (1959)
Approved | 110 min | Drama
Drama focusing on a family of Southern aristocrats who are trying to deal with the dissolution of their clan and the loss of its reputation, faith, fortunes, and respect.
Director: Martin Ritt | Stars: Yul Brynner, Joanne Woodward, Margaret Leighton, Stuart Whitman
Votes: 1,024
18. 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
19. Rio Bravo (1959)
Passed | 141 min | Drama, 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: 68,029 | Gross: $12.54M
20. 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: 4,752
21. Career (1959)
Not Rated | 105 min | Drama
More than anything in the world, Sam Lawson wants to be a successful actor. Is he willing to sacrifice his wife, happiness and personal reputation to achieve his goal?
Director: Joseph Anthony | Stars: Dean Martin, Anthony Franciosa, Shirley MacLaine, Carolyn Jones
Votes: 708
22. This Earth Is Mine (1959)
Approved | 124 min | Drama, Romance
During Prohibition, Englishwoman Elizabeth Rambeau joins her winemaking California family, but while some see her as an unwanted "poor relation," others covet her affections, including her troublemaker playboy cousin John Rambeau.
Director: Henry King | Stars: Rock Hudson, Jean Simmons, Claude Rains, Dorothy McGuire
Votes: 519
23. Darby O'Gill and the Little People (1959)
G | 93 min | Adventure, Family, Fantasy
A wily old codger matches wits with the King of the Leprechauns and helps play matchmaker for his daughter and the strapping lad who has replaced him as caretaker.
Director: Robert Stevenson | Stars: Albert Sharpe, Janet Munro, Sean Connery, Jimmy O'Dea
Votes: 9,363
24. 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: 2,872
25. Sapphire (1959)
Not Rated | 92 min | Crime, Drama, Mystery
The murder of a young woman in London exposes deep racial tensions and prejudices inherent in the area.
Director: Basil Dearden | Stars: Nigel Patrick, Yvonne Mitchell, Michael Craig, Paul Massie
Votes: 2,306
26. It Started with a Kiss (1959)
Unrated | 104 min | Comedy, Romance
A U.S. sergeant serving in Spain creates envy among his Air Force superiors and the Spanish locals when his brand new futuristic sports car and pretty wife arrive at the base.
Director: George Marshall | Stars: Glenn Ford, Debbie Reynolds, Eva Gabor, Gustavo Rojo
Votes: 1,072
27. Third Man on the Mountain (1959)
Approved | 107 min | Adventure, Drama, Family
A boy attempts to realize his father's dream of climbing an alpine peak known as the Citadel.
Director: Ken Annakin | Stars: Michael Rennie, James MacArthur, Janet Munro, James Donald
Votes: 1,246
28. The Horse Soldiers (1959)
Approved | 120 min | Adventure, Drama, Romance
In 1863, a Union outfit is sent behind Confederate lines in Mississippi to destroy enemy railroads but a captive southern belle and the unit's doctor cause frictions within ranks.
Director: John Ford | Stars: John Wayne, William Holden, Constance Towers, Judson Pratt
Votes: 11,649 | Gross: $1.75M
29. Jungle Cat (1960)
Approved | 69 min | Documentary, Family
This documentary chronicles the life of a female spotted jaguar in the South American jungle.
Director: James Algar | Star: Winston Hibler
Votes: 417
30. 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: 160,825 | Gross: $51.60M
31. Ask Any Girl (1959)
98 min | Comedy, Romance
A salesgirl falls for the younger of two brothers who run a company. The elder falls for her but plans to help her get his brother because he doesn't know he's in love.
Director: Charles Walters | Stars: David Niven, Shirley MacLaine, Gig Young, Rod Taylor
Votes: 918
32. The Big Circus (1959)
Approved | 109 min | Drama, Romance
A circus owner tries to keep his financially troubled circus on the road, despite the efforts of a murderous saboteur who has decided that the show must not go on.
Director: Joseph M. Newman | Stars: Victor Mature, Red Buttons, Rhonda Fleming, Kathryn Grant
Votes: 852
33. Al Capone (1959)
Approved | 104 min | Biography, Crime, Drama
A chronicle of the rise and fall of Chicago crime boss Al Capone during the Prohibition era.
Director: Richard Wilson | Stars: Rod Steiger, Martin Balsam, Fay Spain, James Gregory
Votes: 1,907
34. The Roof (1956)
91 min | Comedy, Drama
A married couple learns that it is possible to build an illegal house in the outskirts of Rome, as long as it is erected in one single night and has a roof.
Director: Vittorio De Sica | Stars: Gabriella Pallotta, Giorgio Listuzzi, Gastone Renzelli, Angelo Bigioni
Votes: 1,380
35. Gidget (1959)
Not Rated | 95 min | Comedy, Drama, Romance
A young girl discovers surfing and love (in that order) during one transitive summer.
Director: Paul Wendkos | Stars: Sandra Dee, James Darren, Cliff Robertson, Arthur O'Connell
Votes: 3,823
36. The Perfect Furlough (1958)
Approved | 93 min | Comedy, Romance
An Army psychologist oversees her creation: an arctic serviceman sent to Paris with a movie star.
Director: Blake Edwards | Stars: Tony Curtis, Janet Leigh, Keenan Wynn, Linda Cristal
Votes: 1,137
37. The Last Angry Man (1959)
Approved | 100 min | Drama
An aspiring journalist's story of his aged uncle doctor leads to the uncle's life being profiled on TV.
Director: Daniel Mann | Stars: Paul Muni, David Wayne, Betsy Palmer, Luther Adler
Votes: 1,026
38. 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: 14,404 | Gross: $11.00M
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