1956
by Baceseras | created - 07 Sep 2013 | updated - 01 Mar 2017 | PublicA list-in-progress of some favorite movies of 1956, of varying quality. Not a ranked list, the order is mainly alphabetical, with a few exceptions.
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1. Alexander the Great (1956)
Not Rated | 141 min | Biography, Drama, History
The life and military conquests of Alexander III of Macedon (July 20/21, 356 - June 10/11, 323 B.C.), commonly known as Alexander the Great.
Director: Robert Rossen | Stars: Richard Burton, Fredric March, Claire Bloom, Barry Jones
Votes: 4,115
2. Aparajito (1956)
Not Rated | 110 min | Drama
Following his father's death, a boy leaves home to study in Calcutta, while his mother must face a life alone.
Director: Satyajit Ray | Stars: Pinaki Sengupta, Smaran Ghosal, Kamala Adhikari, Rani Bala
Votes: 15,973 | Gross: $0.17M
3. Baby Doll (1956)
Approved | 114 min | Comedy, Drama
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: 8,291
4. Bob the Gambler (1956)
PG | 98 min | Crime, Drama, Thriller
After losing big, an aging gambler decides to assemble a team to rob a casino.
Director: Jean-Pierre Melville | Stars: Roger Duchesne, Isabelle Corey, Daniel Cauchy, Guy Decomble
Votes: 13,351 | Gross: $0.02M
5. Bridge of Japan (1956)
112 min | Drama, Romance
For his 1st color film, Ichikawa did an Edo era story of two geishas scheming against each other for control of the Nihonbashi bridge area, and vying for the affections of a young doctor.
Director: Kon Ichikawa | Stars: Chikage Awashima, Fujiko Yamamoto, Ayako Wakao, Ryûji Shinagawa
Votes: 104
6. The Burmese Harp (1956)
Not Rated | 116 min | Drama, Music, War
A conscience-driven Japanese soldier traumatized by the events of WWII adopts the lifestyle of a Buddhist monk.
Director: Kon Ichikawa | Stars: Rentarô Mikuni, Shôji Yasui, Tatsuya Mihashi, Jun Hamamura
Votes: 6,459
7. Carnival Night (1956)
Not Rated | 78 min | Comedy, Drama, Musical
A new chief of a "Culture House" is planning to hold a terribly boring New Year concert. A group of young amateur actors are doing their best to liven up the concert.
Director: Eldar Ryazanov | Stars: Igor Ilyinsky, Lyudmila Gurchenko, Yuri Belov, Georgiy Kulikov
Votes: 3,093
8. A Cat and Two Women (1956)
106 min | Comedy, Drama, Family
A timid and aimless man's love for his cat is his only solace in a life dominated by his mother and the two women she chooses for him to marry.
Director: Shirô Toyoda | Stars: Hisaya Morishige, Isuzu Yamada, Kyôko Kagawa, Yuko Minami
Votes: 155
9. A Man Escaped (1956)
Not Rated | 101 min | Drama, Thriller, War
A captured French Resistance fighter during World War II engineers a daunting escape from a German prison in France.
Director: Robert Bresson | Stars: François Leterrier, Charles Le Clainche, Maurice Beerblock, Roland Monod
Votes: 24,969
10. Early Spring (1956)
145 min | Drama
A young man and his wife struggle within the confines of their passionless relationship while he has an extramarital romance.
Director: Yasujirô Ozu | Stars: Chikage Awashima, Ryô Ikebe, Teiji Takahashi, Keiko Kishi
Votes: 3,712
11. Elena and Her Men (1956)
Not Rated | 98 min | Comedy, Drama, Romance
Polish countess Elena falls in love with a French radical party's candidate - a general - in pre-World War I Paris, but another officer pines for her. Starring Ingrid Bergman, with Mel ... See full summary »
Director: Jean Renoir | Stars: Ingrid Bergman, Jean Marais, Mel Ferrer, Jean Richard
Votes: 2,159
12. Des gens sans importance (1956)
101 min | Drama
Mid-aged married truck driver falls in love with a young waitress he meets while making a break on a long trip. They try to make it work, but she can't get a decent job or place to stay in ... See full summary »
Director: Henri Verneuil | Stars: Jean Gabin, Françoise Arnoul, Pierre Mondy, Yvette Etiévant
Votes: 633
13. Gervaise (1956)
116 min | Drama
A poor laundrywoman tries to cope with a depressing burden of society.
Director: René Clément | Stars: Maria Schell, François Périer, Jany Holt, Mathilde Casadesus
Votes: 1,644
14. The Green Man (1956)
Not Rated | 80 min | Comedy, Crime
An assassin is annoyed by a vacuum cleaner salesman determined to stop him.
Directors: Robert Day, Basil Dearden | Stars: Alastair Sim, George Cole, Terry-Thomas, Jill Adams
Votes: 2,322
15. The Captain from Köpenick (1956)
93 min | Comedy, Drama
A young shoemaker is arrested for stealing a small amount of money, and is released after being jailed for 15 years. He wants to have a pass to get a job and start anew, but without a job ... See full summary »
Director: Helmut Käutner | Stars: Heinz Rühmann, Martin Held, Hannelore Schroth, Willy A. Kleinau
Votes: 1,906
16. The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1956)
PG | 104 min | Drama, Fantasy
The timeless tale of the seductive gypsy Esmeralda and the tortured hunchback Quasimodo.
Director: Jean Delannoy | Stars: Gina Lollobrigida, Anthony Quinn, Jean Danet, Alain Cuny
Votes: 3,163
17. Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956)
Approved | 80 min | Drama, Horror, Sci-Fi
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: 54,716
18. The Killing (1956)
Approved | 84 min | Crime, Drama, Film-Noir
Crook Johnny Clay assembles a five-man team to plan and execute a daring racetrack robbery.
Director: Stanley Kubrick | Stars: Sterling Hayden, Coleen Gray, Vince Edwards, Jay C. Flippen
Votes: 97,425
19. The Man Who Never Was (1956)
Approved | 103 min | Drama, War
In order to fool the Germans into thinking the Allied invasion of Sicily will take place elsewhere, British Military Intelligence comes up with a cunning ruse.
Director: Ronald Neame | Stars: Clifton Webb, Gloria Grahame, Robert Flemyng, Josephine Griffin
Votes: 5,786
20. Moby Dick (1956)
Not Rated | 116 min | Adventure, Drama
The sole survivor of a lost whaling ship relates the tale of his captain's self-destructive obsession to hunt the white whale, Moby Dick.
Director: John Huston | Stars: Gregory Peck, Richard Basehart, Leo Genn, James Robertson Justice
Votes: 21,868 | Gross: $10.40M
21. O Pintor e a Cidade (1956)
26 min | Documentary, Short
A painter wanders around the city of Oporto painting what he sees: old and modern buildings, people arriving and leaving work in the factories, children playing.
Director: Manoel de Oliveira | Star: António Cruz
Votes: 248
22. The Red Balloon (1956)
Not Rated | 34 min | Short, Comedy, Drama
A red balloon with a mind of its own follows a little boy around the streets of Paris.
Director: Albert Lamorisse | Stars: Pascal Lamorisse, Sabine Lamorisse, Georges Sellier, Vladimir Popov
Votes: 20,111
23. Samurai III: Duel at Ganryu Island (1956)
TV-PG | 105 min | Action, Adventure, Drama
Musashi Miyamoto is challenged to a duel by a confident swordsman Sasaki Kojiro. He agrees to fight him in a year's time.
Director: Hiroshi Inagaki | Stars: Toshirô Mifune, Mariko Okada, Kôji Tsuruta, Kaoru Yachigusa
Votes: 6,697
24. If All the Guys in the World... (1956)
95 min | Adventure, Drama, Thriller
Crew members of a French fishing ship in the North Sea fall ill one by one, poisoned by rotten meat. They can only survive by getting serum within the following hours. Joint actions of rescuers from different countries commence.
Director: Christian-Jaque | Stars: André Valmy, Jean Gaven, Marc Cassot, Georges Poujouly
Votes: 216
25. Street of Shame (1956)
Not Rated | 86 min | Drama
The personal tales of various prostitutes who occupy a brothel.
Director: Kenji Mizoguchi | Stars: Machiko Kyô, Aiko Mimasu, Ayako Wakao, Michiyo Kogure
Votes: 4,862
26. 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: 5,221
27. The Crossing of Paris (1956)
80 min | Comedy, Drama
Two men carry at night four suitcases of contraband meat across German-occupied Paris during WWII. Their opposite personalities and strange encounters provoke different adventures - until they are arrested by the police.
Director: Claude Autant-Lara | Stars: Jean Gabin, Bourvil, Louis de Funès, Jeannette Batti
Votes: 4,318 | Gross: $0.02M
28. Deadlier Than the Male (1956)
113 min | Crime, Drama, Thriller
André Chatelin is a restaurant owner in Les Halles in Paris. One morning, a girl named Catherine asks to see him. She happens to be the daughter of his estranged wife, Gabrielle, that André... See full summary »
Director: Julien Duvivier | Stars: Jean Gabin, Danièle Delorme, Robert Arnoux, Liliane Bert
Votes: 1,692
29. X the Unknown (1956)
Approved | 81 min | Horror, Sci-Fi
A radioactive, mud-like creature terrorizes a Scottish village.
Directors: Leslie Norman, Joseph Losey | Stars: Dean Jagger, Edward Chapman, Leo McKern, Anthony Newley
Votes: 3,262
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