Films of 1959
by christopherpip | created - 09 Jul 2013 | updated - 6 months ago | PublicThese are the films I have seen from the year 1959.
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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: 71,277 | 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: 253,437 | Gross: $74.70M
3. The Best of Everything (1959)
Approved | 121 min | Drama, Romance
An expose of the lives and loves of Madison Avenue working girls and their higher ups.
Director: Jean Negulesco | Stars: Hope Lange, Stephen Boyd, Suzy Parker, Martha Hyer
Votes: 2,351
4. 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: 12,237
5. 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
6. 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: 7,488
7. 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: 9,358
8. 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: 13,682 | Gross: $5.01M
9. Farewell to Spring (1959)
102 min | Drama
Longtime friends reunite only to find out that their bonds are not as strong as they thought they were.
Director: Keisuke Kinoshita | Stars: Keiji Sada, Ineko Arima, Masahiko Tsugawa, Akira Ishihama
Votes: 144
10. 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: 127,983
11. The Fugitive Kind (1960)
Not Rated | 119 min | Drama, Romance
Valentine "Snakeskin" Xavier, a trouble-prone drifter trying to go straight, wanders into a small Mississippi town looking for a simple and honest life but finds himself embroiled with problem-filled women.
Director: Sidney Lumet | Stars: Marlon Brando, Joanne Woodward, Anna Magnani, Maureen Stapleton
Votes: 7,129
12. The Ghost of Yotsuya (1959)
76 min | Horror
The ghost of a samurai's wife takes revenge on her husband.
Director: Nobuo Nakagawa | Stars: Shigeru Amachi, Noriko Kitazawa, Katsuko Wakasugi, Shuntarô Emi
Votes: 1,815
13. 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: 3,820
14. Green Mansions (1959)
Not Rated | 104 min | Adventure, Drama, Romance
A young man in the jungles of Venezuela meets a strange girl of the forest and falls in love with her.
Director: Mel Ferrer | Stars: Audrey Hepburn, Anthony Perkins, Lee J. Cobb, Sessue Hayakawa
Votes: 2,580
15. I'm All Right Jack (1959)
Not Rated | 105 min | Comedy
A naive aristocrat in search of a career becomes caught up in the struggles between his profit-minded uncle and an aggressive labor union.
Director: John Boulting | Stars: Ian Carmichael, Terry-Thomas, Peter Sellers, Richard Attenborough
Votes: 4,362
16. 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: 18,207 | Gross: $13.99M
17. It Happened to Jane (1959)
Approved | 97 min | Comedy, Romance
Jane Osgood runs a lobster business, which supports her two young children. Railroad staff inattention ruins her shipment, so with her lawyer George, Jane sues Harry Foster Malone, director of the line and the "meanest man in the world".
Director: Richard Quine | Stars: Doris Day, Jack Lemmon, Ernie Kovacs, Steve Forrest
Votes: 3,093
18. 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
19. Li'l Abner (1959)
Approved | 114 min | Comedy, Musical, Family
As Sadie Hawkins Day approaches, Daisy Mae hopes to win the hand of Li'l Abner by catching him in the traditional race.
Director: Melvin Frank | Stars: Leslie Parrish, Stubby Kaye, Peter Palmer, Howard St. John
Votes: 1,491
20. Look Back in Anger (1959)
Approved | 98 min | Drama
A disillusioned, angry university graduate comes to terms with his grudge against middle-class life and values.
Director: Tony Richardson | Stars: Richard Burton, Claire Bloom, Mary Ure, Edith Evans
Votes: 4,363
21. 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: 345,804 | Gross: $13.28M
22. 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: 11,687 | Gross: $12.80M
23. 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: 19,160 | Gross: $18.75M
24. 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: 7,306
25. Santa Claus (1959)
G | 94 min | Comedy, Family, Fantasy
With Merlin's aid, Santa Claus must defeat the evil machinations of the devil Pitch to ruin Christmas.
Director: René Cardona | Stars: José Elías Moreno, Cesáreo Quezadas 'Pulgarcito', José Luis Aguirre 'Trotsky', Armando Arriola
Votes: 5,161
26. Say One for Me (1959)
120 min | Comedy, Drama, Musical
Father Conroy (Crosby) has a parish which serves the acting and performance community. When one of his parishoners gets too sick to work, his daughter Holly (Reynolds) finds a job working ... See full summary »
Director: Frank Tashlin | Stars: Debbie Reynolds, Bing Crosby, Robert Wagner, Ray Walston
Votes: 350
27. 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: 160,732 | Gross: $51.60M
28. 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: 283,301 | Gross: $25.00M
29. 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
30. The Story on Page One (1959)
Approved | 123 min | Drama
Courtroom drama about an adulterous pair who is charged with murdering the outraged husband of the cheating woman.
Director: Clifford Odets | Stars: Rita Hayworth, Anthony Franciosa, Gig Young, Mildred Dunnock
Votes: 630
31. A Stranger in My Arms (1959)
Approved | 88 min | Drama, Romance, War
After the Korean War, an Air Force pilot meets the family of his KIA navigator and recalls, in flashbacks, the circumstances of their ordeal after being shot down.
Director: Helmut Käutner | Stars: June Allyson, Jeff Chandler, Sandra Dee, Charles Coburn
Votes: 237
32. Suddenly, Last Summer (1959)
Approved | 114 min | Drama, Mystery, Thriller
A surgeon is assigned the case of a young woman whose aunt wants her lobotomized to cover up a family secret.
Director: Joseph L. Mankiewicz | Stars: Elizabeth Taylor, Katharine Hepburn, Montgomery Clift, Albert Dekker
Votes: 17,190 | Gross: $13.90M
33. 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: 3,846
34. Tiger Bay (1959)
Not Rated | 105 min | Crime, Drama, Thriller
A twelve-year-old tomboy witnesses the murder of a woman by her Polish merchant marine boyfriend, but bonds with him and thwarts the police in their investigation.
Director: J. Lee Thompson | Stars: Hayley Mills, Horst Buchholz, John Mills, Yvonne Mitchell
Votes: 3,161
35. The World of Apu (1959)
Not Rated | 105 min | Drama
This final installment in Satyajit Ray's Apu Trilogy follows Apu's life as an orphaned adult aspiring to be a writer.
Director: Satyajit Ray | Stars: Soumitra Chatterjee, Sharmila Tagore, Alok Chakravarty, Swapan Mukherjee
Votes: 16,729 | Gross: $0.02M
36. 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: 4,270
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