The Films Of The Fifties by Douglas Brode

by Jimmy_the_Gent4 | created - 19 Oct 2012 | updated - 19 Oct 2012 | Public

These are the films complied by Douglas Brode for his book The Films Of The Fifties

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1. Sunset Blvd. (1950)

Passed | 110 min | Drama, Film-Noir

94 Metascore

A screenwriter develops a dangerous relationship with a faded film star determined to make a triumphant return.

Director: Billy Wilder | Stars: William Holden, Gloria Swanson, Erich von Stroheim, Nancy Olson

Votes: 236,575

2. All About Eve (1950)

Passed | 138 min | Drama

98 Metascore

A seemingly timid but secretly ruthless ingénue insinuates herself into the lives of an aging Broadway star and her circle of theater friends.

Director: Joseph L. Mankiewicz | Stars: Bette Davis, Anne Baxter, George Sanders, Celeste Holm

Votes: 138,824 | Gross: $0.01M

3. Father of the Bride (1950)

Not Rated | 92 min | Comedy, Drama, Romance

76 Metascore

The father of a young woman deals with the emotional pain of her getting married, along with the financial and organizational trouble of arranging the wedding.

Director: Vincente Minnelli | Stars: Spencer Tracy, Joan Bennett, Elizabeth Taylor, Don Taylor

Votes: 12,541 | Gross: $8.84M

4. In a Lonely Place (1950)

Not Rated | 94 min | Drama, Film-Noir, Mystery

A potentially violent screenwriter is a murder suspect until his lovely neighbor clears him. However, she soon starts to have her doubts.

Director: Nicholas Ray | Stars: Humphrey Bogart, Gloria Grahame, Frank Lovejoy, Carl Benton Reid

Votes: 35,292

5. Broken Arrow (1950)

Approved | 93 min | Drama, Romance, Western

Tom Jeffords tries to make peace between settlers and Apaches in Arizona territory.

Director: Delmer Daves | Stars: James Stewart, Jeff Chandler, Debra Paget, Basil Ruysdael

Votes: 9,687

6. The Gunfighter (1950)

Approved | 85 min | Western

94 Metascore

Notorious gunfighter Jimmy Ringo rides into town to find his true love, who doesn't want to see him. He hasn't come looking for trouble, but trouble finds him around every corner.

Director: Henry King | Stars: Gregory Peck, Helen Westcott, Millard Mitchell, Jean Parker

Votes: 12,533

7. The Asphalt Jungle (1950)

Passed | 112 min | Crime, Drama, Film-Noir

85 Metascore

A major heist goes off as planned, but then double crosses, bad luck and solid police work cause everything to unravel.

Director: John Huston | Stars: Sterling Hayden, Louis Calhern, Jean Hagen, James Whitmore

Votes: 29,987

8. The Thing from Another World (1951)

Approved | 87 min | Horror, Sci-Fi

Scientists and American Air Force officials fend off a bloodthirsty alien organism while at a remote arctic outpost.

Directors: Christian Nyby, Howard Hawks | Stars: Kenneth Tobey, Margaret Sheridan, James Arness, Robert Cornthwaite

Votes: 33,400

9. The Steel Helmet (1951)

Approved | 85 min | Action, Drama, War

A ragtag group of American stragglers battles against superior Communist troops in an abandoned Buddhist temple during the Korean War.

Director: Samuel Fuller | Stars: Gene Evans, Robert Hutton, Steve Brodie, James Edwards

Votes: 4,737

10. Callaway Went Thataway (1951)

Approved | 81 min | Comedy, Western

Two marketing professionals hire a lookalike of classic Western actor Smoky Callaway to impersonate the actor and make new films, but things go awry when the real Callaway, thought long missing, returns.

Directors: Melvin Frank, Norman Panama | Stars: Fred MacMurray, Dorothy McGuire, Howard Keel, Jesse White

Votes: 759

11. The Day the Earth Stood Still (1951)

G | 92 min | Drama, Sci-Fi

83 Metascore

An alien lands in Washington, D.C. and tells the people of Earth that they must live peacefully or be destroyed as a danger to other planets.

Director: Robert Wise | Stars: Michael Rennie, Patricia Neal, Hugh Marlowe, Sam Jaffe

Votes: 85,799

12. He Ran All the Way (1951)

Passed | 77 min | Crime, Drama, Film-Noir

Nick and his partner Al stage a payroll holdup. Al is shot, and Nick kills a policeman. Nick hides out at a public pool, where he meets Peg Dobbs. They go back to her apartment, and he forces her family to hide him from the police manhunt.

Director: John Berry | Stars: John Garfield, Shelley Winters, Wallace Ford, Selena Royle

Votes: 3,021

13. A Place in the Sun (1951)

Passed | 122 min | Drama, Romance

76 Metascore

A poor boy gets a job working for his rich uncle and ends up falling in love with two women.

Director: George Stevens | Stars: Montgomery Clift, Elizabeth Taylor, Shelley Winters, Anne Revere

Votes: 24,802

14. The African Queen (1951)

PG | 105 min | Adventure, Drama, Romance

91 Metascore

In 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.

Director: John Huston | Stars: Humphrey Bogart, Katharine Hepburn, Robert Morley, Peter Bull

Votes: 84,345 | Gross: $0.54M

15. I Was a Communist for the F.B.I. (1951)

Not Rated | 83 min | Crime, Drama, Film-Noir

In Pittsburgh, PA, an F.B.I. agent works to undermine the Communist party, but his brothers and his teenage son think he's a real Red.

Director: Gordon Douglas | Stars: Frank Lovejoy, Dorothy Hart, Philip Carey, James Millican

Votes: 968

16. My Son John (1952)

Approved | 122 min | Drama

The Jeffersons are the ideal picture-perfect all-American family in a small town, but their eldest son John returns home after a long absence spouting views that cause them to worry he may be a Communist.

Director: Leo McCarey | Stars: Robert Walker, Helen Hayes, Van Heflin, Dean Jagger

Votes: 707

17. High Noon (1952)

PG | 85 min | Drama, Thriller, Western

89 Metascore

A town Marshal, despite the disagreements of his newlywed bride and the townspeople around him, must face a gang of deadly killers alone at "high noon" when the gang leader, an outlaw he "sent up" years ago, arrives on the noon train.

Director: Fred Zinnemann | Stars: Gary Cooper, Grace Kelly, Thomas Mitchell, Lloyd Bridges

Votes: 110,235 | Gross: $9.45M

18. Singin' in the Rain (1952)

G | 103 min | Comedy, Musical, Romance

99 Metascore

A silent film star falls for a chorus girl just as he and his delusionally jealous screen partner are trying to make the difficult transition to talking pictures in 1920s Hollywood.

Directors: Stanley Donen, Gene Kelly | Stars: Gene Kelly, Donald O'Connor, Debbie Reynolds, Jean Hagen

Votes: 260,819 | Gross: $8.82M

19. The Bad and the Beautiful (1952)

Passed | 118 min | Drama, Romance

86 Metascore

An unscrupulous movie producer uses an actress, a director and a writer to achieve success.

Director: Vincente Minnelli | Stars: Lana Turner, Kirk Douglas, Walter Pidgeon, Dick Powell

Votes: 16,466

20. The Greatest Show on Earth (1952)

Passed | 152 min | Drama, Family, Romance

76 Metascore

The dramatic lives of trapeze artists, a clown, and an elephant trainer are told against a background of circus spectacle.

Director: Cecil B. DeMille | Stars: James Stewart, Charlton Heston, Betty Hutton, Cornel Wilde

Votes: 16,063 | Gross: $36.00M

21. This Is Cinerama (1952)

G | 115 min | Documentary

On the evening of September 30, 1952, the shape and sound of movies changed forever with the introduction of Cinerama.

Directors: Merian C. Cooper, Gunther von Fritsch, Ernest B. Schoedsack, Michael Todd Jr. | Stars: Lowell Thomas, Kathy Darlyn, Toni Valk

Votes: 558 | Gross: $41.60M

22. The Crimson Pirate (1952)

Not Rated | 105 min | Action, Adventure, Comedy

During the 1700s, pirate Captain Vallo seizes a British warship and gets involved in various money-making schemes involving Caribbean rebels led by El Libre, British envoy Baron Jose Gruda, and a beautiful courtesan named Consuelo.

Director: Robert Siodmak | Stars: Burt Lancaster, Nick Cravat, Eva Bartok, Torin Thatcher

Votes: 6,993

23. The Wild One (1953)

Approved | 79 min | Crime, Drama, Romance

67 Metascore

Two rival motorcycle gangs terrorize a small town after one of their leaders is thrown in jail.

Director: Laslo Benedek | Stars: Marlon Brando, Mary Murphy, Robert Keith, Lee Marvin

Votes: 17,605

24. The Big Heat (1953)

Passed | 89 min | Crime, Film-Noir, Thriller

Tough cop Dave Bannion takes on a politically powerful crime syndicate.

Director: Fritz Lang | Stars: Glenn Ford, Gloria Grahame, Jocelyn Brando, Alexander Scourby

Votes: 29,198

25. The Robe (1953)

Approved | 135 min | Drama, History, Romance

In 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.

Director: Henry Koster | Stars: Richard Burton, Jean Simmons, Victor Mature, Michael Rennie

Votes: 11,756 | Gross: $36.00M

26. House of Wax (1953)

GP | 88 min | Horror

68 Metascore

An associate burns down a wax museum with the owner inside, but he survives only to become vengeful and murderous.

Director: André De Toth | Stars: Vincent Price, Frank Lovejoy, Phyllis Kirk, Carolyn Jones

Votes: 20,269 | Gross: $23.75M

27. Little Fugitive (1953)

Not Rated | 75 min | Drama, Family

91 Metascore

A 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.

Directors: Ray Ashley, Morris Engel, Ruth Orkin | Stars: Richard Brewster, Winifred Cushing, Jay Williams, Will Lee

Votes: 3,035 | Gross: $0.03M

28. From Here to Eternity (1953)

Passed | 118 min | Drama, Romance, War

85 Metascore

At 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.

Director: Fred Zinnemann | Stars: Burt Lancaster, Montgomery Clift, Deborah Kerr, Donna Reed

Votes: 50,844 | Gross: $30.50M

29. Shane (1953)

Not Rated | 118 min | Drama, Western

85 Metascore

A 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.

Director: George Stevens | Stars: Alan Ladd, Jean Arthur, Van Heflin, Brandon De Wilde

Votes: 44,166 | Gross: $20.00M

30. Them! (1954)

Not Rated | 94 min | Horror, Sci-Fi

74 Metascore

The earliest atomic tests in New Mexico cause common ants to mutate into giant man-eating monsters that threaten civilization.

Director: Gordon Douglas | Stars: James Whitmore, Edmund Gwenn, Joan Weldon, James Arness

Votes: 24,205

31. Creature from the Black Lagoon (1954)

G | 79 min | Horror, Sci-Fi

68 Metascore

A strange prehistoric beast lurks in the depths of the Amazonian jungle. A group of scientists try to capture the animal and bring it back to civilization for study.

Director: Jack Arnold | Stars: Richard Carlson, Julie Adams, Richard Denning, Antonio Moreno

Votes: 34,457 | Gross: $1.30M

32. Hell and High Water (1954)

Approved | 103 min | Action, Adventure, Drama

During the Cold War, a scientific team refits a Japanese submarine and hires an ex-Navy officer to find a secret Chinese atomic island base and prevent a Communist plot against America that could trigger WW3.

Director: Samuel Fuller | Stars: Richard Widmark, Bella Darvi, Victor Francen, Cameron Mitchell

Votes: 2,236

33. Go Man Go (1954)

82 min | Drama, Sport

The story of Abe Saperstein and the creation of the Harlem Globetrotters.

Director: James Wong Howe | Stars: Dane Clark, Patricia Breslin, Sidney Poitier, Anatol Winogradoff

Votes: 181

34. On the Waterfront (1954)

Approved | 108 min | Crime, Drama, Thriller

91 Metascore

An 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.

Director: Elia Kazan | Stars: Marlon Brando, Karl Malden, Lee J. Cobb, Rod Steiger

Votes: 165,023 | Gross: $9.60M

35. A Star Is Born (1954)

Passed | 154 min | Drama, Musical, Romance

89 Metascore

A film star helps a young singer and actress find fame, even as age and alcoholism send his own career on a downward spiral.

Director: George Cukor | Stars: Judy Garland, James Mason, Jack Carson, Charles Bickford

Votes: 19,686 | Gross: $14.93M

36. Executive Suite (1954)

Passed | 104 min | Drama, Romance

When the head of a large manufacturing firm dies suddenly from a stroke, his vice presidents vie to see who will replace him.

Director: Robert Wise | Stars: William Holden, Barbara Stanwyck, June Allyson, Fredric March

Votes: 4,587

37. Woman's World (1954)

Approved | 94 min | Drama, Romance

An executive plans to fill a high-ranking position by interviewing the candidates' wives.

Director: Jean Negulesco | Stars: Van Heflin, Lauren Bacall, Cornel Wilde, Clifton Webb

Votes: 1,210

38. Johnny Guitar (1954)

Not Rated | 110 min | Drama, Western

83 Metascore

After helping a wounded gang member, a strong-willed female saloon owner is wrongly suspected of murder and bank robbery by a lynch mob.

Director: Nicholas Ray | Stars: Joan Crawford, Sterling Hayden, Mercedes McCambridge, Scott Brady

Votes: 19,754

39. Three Coins in the Fountain (1954)

Approved | 102 min | Drama, Romance

Three American women working in Rome, Italy share a spacious apartment and the desire to find love and marriage. Each one experiences a few bumps in her journey to romance.

Director: Jean Negulesco | Stars: Clifton Webb, Dorothy McGuire, Jean Peters, Louis Jourdan

Votes: 3,765

40. Davy Crockett: King of the Wild Frontier (1955)

Approved | 93 min | Adventure, Drama, Family

American frontiersman Davy Crockett fights in the Creek Indian War, is elected to the U.S. Congress and fights for Texas at the Alamo.

Director: Norman Foster | Stars: Fess Parker, Buddy Ebsen, Basil Ruysdael, Hans Conried

Votes: 4,890

41. The Seven Year Itch (1955)

Not Rated | 105 min | Comedy, Romance

When his family goes away for the summer, a hitherto faithful husband with an overactive imagination is tempted by a beautiful neighbor.

Director: Billy Wilder | Stars: Marilyn Monroe, Tom Ewell, Evelyn Keyes, Sonny Tufts

Votes: 42,497 | Gross: $12.00M

42. To Catch a Thief (1955)

PG | 106 min | Mystery, Romance, Thriller

82 Metascore

A retired jewel thief sets out to prove his innocence after being suspected of returning to his former occupation.

Director: Alfred Hitchcock | Stars: Cary Grant, Grace Kelly, Jessie Royce Landis, John Williams

Votes: 79,806 | Gross: $8.75M

43. Artists and Models (1955)

Approved | 109 min | Comedy, Musical, Romance

Rick Todd uses the dreams of his roommate Eugene as the basis for a successful comic book.

Director: Frank Tashlin | Stars: Dean Martin, Jerry Lewis, Shirley MacLaine, Dorothy Malone

Votes: 4,386 | Gross: $9.35M

44. The Night of the Hunter (1955)

Not Rated | 92 min | Crime, Drama, Film-Noir

97 Metascore

A 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.

Director: Charles Laughton | Stars: Robert Mitchum, Shelley Winters, Lillian Gish, James Gleason

Votes: 97,418 | Gross: $0.65M

45. To Hell and Back (1955)

Approved | 106 min | Action, Biography, Drama

The true WWII story of Audie Murphy, the most decorated soldier in U.S. history. Based on the autobiography of Audie Murphy who stars as himself in the film.

Director: Jesse Hibbs | Stars: Audie Murphy, Marshall Thompson, Charles Drake, Jack Kelly

Votes: 5,968

46. Mister Roberts (1955)

Passed | 123 min | Comedy, Drama, War

72 Metascore

In the waning days of World War II, the cargo officer of a Navy supply ship chafes at its role far from the action in the Pacific's backwater areas, his frustration rising when its captain denies the crew liberty over petty irritations.

Directors: John Ford, Mervyn LeRoy, Joshua Logan | Stars: Henry Fonda, James Cagney, William Powell, Jack Lemmon

Votes: 18,249 | Gross: $21.20M

47. It's Always Fair Weather (1955)

Passed | 101 min | Comedy, Drama, Musical

Three soldiers meet ten years after their last meeting in New York, and find out that they have little in common now.

Directors: Stanley Donen, Gene Kelly | Stars: Gene Kelly, Dan Dailey, Cyd Charisse, Dolores Gray

Votes: 3,986

48. Bad Day at Black Rock (1955)

Passed | 81 min | Crime, Drama, Mystery

A one-armed stranger comes to a tiny town possessing a terrible past they want to keep secret, by violent means if necessary.

Director: John Sturges | Stars: Spencer Tracy, Robert Ryan, Anne Francis, Dean Jagger

Votes: 24,268

49. Violent Saturday (1955)

Not Rated | 90 min | Crime, Drama, Film-Noir

Three hoodlums carefully case a small town while planning to rob the bank on the upcoming Saturday. On Saturday, things turn violent and deadly.

Director: Richard Fleischer | Stars: Victor Mature, Richard Egan, Stephen McNally, Virginia Leith

Votes: 2,872

50. The Bridges at Toko-Ri (1954)

Approved | 102 min | Drama, Romance, War

Set during the Korean War, a Navy fighter pilot must come to terms with with his own ambivalence towards the war and the fear of having to bomb a set of highly defended bridges. The ending of this grim war drama is all tension.

Director: Mark Robson | Stars: William Holden, Grace Kelly, Fredric March, Mickey Rooney

Votes: 6,336

51. Blackboard Jungle (1955)

Approved | 101 min | Crime, Drama

67 Metascore

A new English teacher at a violent, unruly inner-city school is determined to do his job, despite resistance from both students and faculty.

Director: Richard Brooks | Stars: Glenn Ford, Anne Francis, Louis Calhern, Margaret Hayes

Votes: 9,888

52. Rebel Without a Cause (1955)

PG-13 | 111 min | Drama

89 Metascore

A rebellious young man with a troubled past comes to a new town, finding friends and enemies.

Director: Nicholas Ray | Stars: James Dean, Natalie Wood, Sal Mineo, Jim Backus

Votes: 97,996

53. Marty (1955)

Not Rated | 90 min | Drama, Romance

82 Metascore

A middle-aged butcher and a school teacher who have given up on the idea of love meet at a dance and fall for each other.

Director: Delbert Mann | Stars: Ernest Borgnine, Betsy Blair, Esther Minciotti, Augusta Ciolli

Votes: 27,043

54. Sincerely Yours (1955)

Unrated | 115 min | Drama, Musical, Mystery

Tony Warrin has it all: a popular pianist who plays any style, he has money, great clothes, a penthouse overlooking Central Park, a rich blond fiancée, a loyal brunette secretary secretly ... See full summary »

Director: Gordon Douglas | Stars: Liberace, Joanne Dru, Dorothy Malone, Alex Nicol

Votes: 460

55. Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956)

Approved | 80 min | Drama, Horror, Sci-Fi

92 Metascore

A small-town doctor learns that the population of his community is being replaced by emotionless alien duplicates.

Director: Don Siegel | Stars: Kevin McCarthy, Dana Wynter, Larry Gates, King Donovan

Votes: 54,795

56. Picnic (1955)

Approved | 115 min | Drama, Romance

Emotions are ignited among the complacent townsfolk when a handsome drifter arrives in a small Kansas community on the morning of the Labor Day picnic.

Director: Joshua Logan | Stars: William Holden, Kim Novak, Betty Field, Susan Strasberg

Votes: 9,845

57. The Man in the Gray Flannel Suit (1956)

Approved | 153 min | Drama, Romance, War

An ex-soldier faces ethical questions as he tries to earn enough to support his wife and children well.

Director: Nunnally Johnson | Stars: Gregory Peck, Jennifer Jones, Fredric March, Marisa Pavan

Votes: 4,106 | Gross: $10.88M

58. The Searchers (1956)

Passed | 119 min | Adventure, Drama, Western

94 Metascore

An 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.

Director: John Ford | Stars: John Wayne, Jeffrey Hunter, Vera Miles, Ward Bond

Votes: 96,355

59. Forbidden Planet (1956)

G | 98 min | Adventure, Sci-Fi

80 Metascore

A starship crew in the 23rd century goes to investigate the silence of a distant planet's colony, only to find just two survivors, a powerful robot, and the deadly secret of a lost civilization.

Director: Fred M. Wilcox | Stars: Walter Pidgeon, Anne Francis, Leslie Nielsen, Warren Stevens

Votes: 53,252 | Gross: $3.00M

60. The Rack (1956)

Passed | 100 min | Drama, War

A decorated Korean War hero inexplicably collaborates with the enemy while interred in a POW camp and is court-martialed.

Director: Arnold Laven | Stars: Paul Newman, Wendell Corey, Walter Pidgeon, Edmond O'Brien

Votes: 1,656

61. Around the World in 80 Days (1956)

G | 175 min | Adventure, Comedy, Family

69 Metascore

A Victorian Englishman bets that with the new steamships and railways he can circumnavigate the globe in eighty days.

Directors: Michael Anderson, John Farrow | Stars: David Niven, Cantinflas, Finlay Currie, Robert Morley

Votes: 29,717 | Gross: $42.00M

62. The Ten Commandments (1956)

G | 220 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. DeMille | Stars: Charlton Heston, Yul Brynner, Anne Baxter, Edward G. Robinson

Votes: 77,921 | Gross: $93.74M

63. Giant (1956)

G | 201 min | Drama, Western

84 Metascore

Sprawling epic covering the life of a Texas cattle rancher and his family and associates.

Director: George Stevens | Stars: Elizabeth Taylor, Rock Hudson, James Dean, Carroll Baker

Votes: 42,268

64. The Road (1954)

Not Rated | 108 min | Drama

A care-free girl is sold to a traveling entertainer, consequently enduring physical and emotional pain along the way.

Director: Federico Fellini | Stars: Anthony Quinn, Giulietta Masina, Richard Basehart, Aldo Silvani

Votes: 66,614

65. Trapeze (1956)

Approved | 105 min | Drama, Romance

A crippled circus acrobat is torn emotionally between two ambitious young trapeze artists, one a talented young American and a less-gifted but beautiful Italian.

Director: Carol Reed | Stars: Burt Lancaster, Tony Curtis, Gina Lollobrigida, Katy Jurado

Votes: 5,229

66. Baby Doll (1956)

Approved | 114 min | Comedy, Drama

83 Metascore

An immature, naive teenage bride holds her anxious husband at bay while flirting with an amorous Sicilian farmer.

Director: Elia Kazan | Stars: Karl Malden, Carroll Baker, Eli Wallach, Mildred Dunnock

Votes: 8,296

67. Tammy and the Bachelor (1957)

Approved | 89 min | Comedy, Romance

An unsophisticated young woman from the Mississippi swamps falls in love with an unconventional southern gentleman.

Director: Joseph Pevney | Stars: Debbie Reynolds, Walter Brennan, Leslie Nielsen, Mala Powers

Votes: 2,726

68. The Incredible Shrinking Man (1957)

Approved | 81 min | Horror, Sci-Fi

73 Metascore

After Scott Carey begins to shrink because of exposure to a combination of radiation and insecticide, medical science is powerless to help him.

Director: Jack Arnold | Stars: Grant Williams, Randy Stuart, April Kent, Paul Langton

Votes: 19,979

69. The Delicate Delinquent (1957)

Approved | 101 min | Comedy

Sidney Pythias is a bumbling janitor picked up by cop Mike Damon as a teenage gang member worth saving from delinquency. With Damon's help, Sidney works his way through the Police Academy to become a cop too.

Director: Don McGuire | Stars: Jerry Lewis, Martha Hyer, Darren McGavin, Robert Ivers

Votes: 1,552 | Gross: $7.00M

70. Paths of Glory (1957)

Approved | 88 min | Drama, War

90 Metascore

After a failed attack on a German position, a general orders three soldiers, chosen at random, court-martialed for cowardice and their commanding officer must defend them.

Director: Stanley Kubrick | Stars: Kirk Douglas, Ralph Meeker, Adolphe Menjou, George Macready

Votes: 212,414

71. Peyton Place (1957)

Approved | 157 min | Crime, Drama, Mystery

63 Metascore

A peaceful New England town hides secrets and scandals.

Director: Mark Robson | Stars: Lana Turner, Lee Philips, Lloyd Nolan, Arthur Kennedy

Votes: 6,617 | Gross: $25.60M

72. No Down Payment (1957)

Approved | 105 min | Drama

In California, four couples who have bought houses near one another face problems, alcoholism, racism, promiscuity, and discrimination against lack of education, until a tragic event forces them to reassess their lives.

Director: Martin Ritt | Stars: Joanne Woodward, Sheree North, Tony Randall, Jeffrey Hunter

Votes: 1,202

73. Funny Face (1957)

Not Rated | 103 min | Comedy, Musical, Romance

75 Metascore

An impromptu fashion shoot at a book store brings about a new fashion model discovery in the shop clerk.

Director: Stanley Donen | Stars: Audrey Hepburn, Fred Astaire, Kay Thompson, Michel Auclair

Votes: 33,040

74. Gunfight at the O.K. Corral (1957)

Passed | 122 min | Biography, Drama, Western

56 Metascore

Lawman Wyatt Earp and outlaw Doc Holliday form an unlikely alliance which culminates in their participation in the legendary Gunfight at the O.K. Corral.

Director: John Sturges | Stars: Burt Lancaster, Kirk Douglas, Rhonda Fleming, Jo Van Fleet

Votes: 17,452 | Gross: $11.75M

75. The Great Man (1956)

Approved | 92 min | Drama

Joe Harris, preparing a eulogy for popular radio commentator Herb Fuller, finds that nobody has a good word to say about him.

Director: José Ferrer | Stars: José Ferrer, Dean Jagger, Keenan Wynn, Julie London

Votes: 475

76. A Face in the Crowd (1957)

Approved | 126 min | Drama, Music

72 Metascore

A female radio reporter turns a folk-singing drifter into a powerful media star.

Director: Elia Kazan | Stars: Andy Griffith, Patricia Neal, Anthony Franciosa, Walter Matthau

Votes: 17,109

77. The Bridge on the River Kwai (1957)

PG | 161 min | Adventure, Drama, War

88 Metascore

British POWs are forced to build a railway bridge across the river Kwai for their Japanese captors in occupied Burma, not knowing that the allied forces are planning a daring commando raid through the jungle to destroy it.

Director: David Lean | Stars: William Holden, Alec Guinness, Jack Hawkins, Sessue Hayakawa

Votes: 233,416 | Gross: $44.91M

78. Sweet Smell of Success (1957)

Approved | 96 min | Drama, Film-Noir

100 Metascore

Powerful but unethical Broadway columnist J.J. Hunsecker coerces unscrupulous press agent Sidney Falco into breaking up his sister's romance with a jazz musician.

Director: Alexander Mackendrick | Stars: Burt Lancaster, Tony Curtis, Susan Harrison, Martin Milner

Votes: 35,726

79. Boy on a Dolphin (1957)

Not Rated | 111 min | Adventure, Drama, Romance

A woman who finds a treasure is torn between two men: one who wants to sell it, and one who wants to donate it to Greece.

Director: Jean Negulesco | Stars: Alan Ladd, Clifton Webb, Sophia Loren, Alexis Minotis

Votes: 1,905

80. ...And God Created Woman (1956)

Approved | 90 min | Drama, Romance

In sunny St. Tropez, a young woman loves one brother but marries the other.

Director: Roger Vadim | Stars: Brigitte Bardot, Curd Jürgens, Jean-Louis Trintignant, Jane Marken

Votes: 9,383 | Gross: $2.00M

81. Jailhouse Rock (1957)

Not Rated | 96 min | Drama, Music, Musical

68 Metascore

After serving time for manslaughter, young Vince Everett becomes a teenage rock star.

Director: Richard Thorpe | Stars: Elvis Presley, Judy Tyler, Mickey Shaughnessy, Vaughn Taylor

Votes: 9,833 | Gross: $4.00M

82. Bernardine (1957)

Approved | 95 min | Comedy, Music, Romance

High school students enter a fictional woman's name (Bernardine Mudd) in a contest. The contestant wins and hilarity ensues.

Director: Henry Levin | Stars: Pat Boone, Terry Moore, Janet Gaynor, Dean Jagger

Votes: 272

83. The Girl Can't Help It (1956)

Approved | 98 min | Comedy, Music

A gangster hires a down-and-out press agent to make his airheaded girlfriend a singing star.

Director: Frank Tashlin | Stars: Tom Ewell, Jayne Mansfield, Edmond O'Brien, Julie London

Votes: 3,922

84. A King in New York (1957)

G | 105 min | Comedy, Drama

A recently-deposed European monarch seeks shelter in New York City, where he becomes an accidental television celebrity and is later wrongly accused of being a Communist.

Director: Charles Chaplin | Stars: Charles Chaplin, Maxine Audley, Jerry Desmonde, Oliver Johnston

Votes: 8,883

85. Vertigo (1958)

PG | 128 min | Mystery, Romance, Thriller

100 Metascore

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.

Director: Alfred Hitchcock | Stars: James Stewart, Kim Novak, Barbara Bel Geddes, Tom Helmore

Votes: 427,203 | Gross: $3.20M

86. The Defiant Ones (1958)

Approved | 96 min | Crime, Drama

69 Metascore

Two chained-together escaped convicts, White and Black, must learn to get along in order to elude capture.

Director: Stanley Kramer | Stars: Tony Curtis, Sidney Poitier, Cara Williams, Theodore Bikel

Votes: 17,862

87. Horror of Dracula (1958)

Not Rated | 82 min | Drama, Horror

67 Metascore

When Jonathan Harker rouses the ire of Count Dracula for accepting a job at the vampire's castle under false pretenses, his friend Dr. Van Helsing pursues the predatory villain.

Director: Terence Fisher | Stars: Peter Cushing, Christopher Lee, Michael Gough, Melissa Stribling

Votes: 27,990

88. High School Confidential! (1958)

Approved | 85 min | Crime, Drama

A tough kid comes to a new high school and begins muscling his way into the drug scene. This is a typical morality play of the era, filled with a naive view of drugs, nihilistic beat poetry, and some incredible '50s slang.

Director: Jack Arnold | Stars: Russ Tamblyn, Jan Sterling, John Drew Barrymore, Mamie Van Doren

Votes: 1,172

89. 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

90. Blue Denim (1959)

Passed | 89 min | Drama, Romance

Fairly-typical 1950s teenagers Arthur Bartley and Janet Willard find their lives turned upside-down when Janet becomes pregnant. Arthur is desperate to tell his parents of the predicament ... See full summary »

Director: Philip Dunne | Stars: Carol Lynley, Brandon De Wilde, Macdonald Carey, Marsha Hunt

Votes: 669

91. Strangers When We Meet (1960)

Approved | 117 min | Drama, Romance

A suburban architect loves his wife but is bored with his marriage and with his work, so he takes up with the neglected, married beauty who lives down the street.

Director: Richard Quine | Stars: Kirk Douglas, Kim Novak, Ernie Kovacs, Barbara Rush

Votes: 2,636

92. 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: 3,825

93. Ben-Hur (1959)

G | 212 min | Adventure, Drama

90 Metascore

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: 253,795 | Gross: $74.70M

94. Pillow Talk (1959)

Passed | 102 min | Comedy, Romance

73 Metascore

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: 19,186 | Gross: $18.75M

95. A Summer Place (1959)

Approved | 130 min | Drama, Romance

A self-made businessman rekindles a romance with a former flame while their two teenage children begin a romance of their own with drastic consequences for both couples.

Director: Delmer Daves | Stars: Richard Egan, Dorothy McGuire, Sandra Dee, Arthur Kennedy

Votes: 3,854

96. Hercules (1958)

G | 107 min | Adventure, Fantasy, History

The muscular Hercules performs his Labors, sails with the Argonauts, and romances the fair Iole.

Director: Pietro Francisci | Stars: Steve Reeves, Sylva Koscina, Fabrizio Mioni, Ivo Garrani

Votes: 2,336 | Gross: $10.90M

97. Some Came Running (1958)

Approved | 137 min | Drama, Romance

68 Metascore

A veteran returns home to deal with family secrets and small-town scandals.

Director: Vincente Minnelli | Stars: Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, Shirley MacLaine, Martha Hyer

Votes: 7,381

98. Rio Bravo (1959)

Passed | 141 min | Western

93 Metascore

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: 68,102 | Gross: $12.54M

99. Some Like It Hot (1959)

Passed | 121 min | Comedy, Music, Romance

98 Metascore

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: 283,689 | Gross: $25.00M

100. On the Beach (1959)

Approved | 134 min | Drama, Romance, Sci-Fi

55 Metascore

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



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