Favourite 50s movies
by jpnunes | created - 21 Mar 2017 | updated - 01 Dec 2022 | PublicMy favourite movies from the 50s, beginning with number 1.
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1. We're No Angels (1955)
Not Rated | 106 min | Comedy, Crime, Romance
Three Devil's Island escapees hide out in the house of a kindly merchant and repay his kindness by helping him and his family out of several crises.
Director: Michael Curtiz | Stars: Humphrey Bogart, Peter Ustinov, Aldo Ray, Joan Bennett
Votes: 10,775
My second christmas favourite movie (first being "It's a Wonderful Life") 10/10
2. 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: 68,087 | Gross: $12.54M
10/10
3. The Last Wagon (1956)
Approved | 99 min | Drama, Western
Wagon train survivors of an Apache attack entrust the sheriff's prisoner, scout Comanche Todd, with their lives despite his wanted-for-murder status.
Director: Delmer Daves | Stars: Richard Widmark, Felicia Farr, Susan Kohner, Tommy Rettig
Votes: 3,675
10/10
4. The Searchers (1956)
Passed | 119 min | Adventure, Drama, Western
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: 96,328
10/10
5. 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: 253,716 | Gross: $74.70M
10/10
6. Gunman's Walk (1958)
Approved | 97 min | Western
A powerful rancher always protects his wild adult son by paying for damages and bribing witnesses, until his crimes become too serious to rectify.
Director: Phil Karlson | Stars: Van Heflin, Tab Hunter, Kathryn Grant, James Darren
Votes: 2,127
9/10
7. 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: 9,838
9/10
8. All About Eve (1950)
Passed | 138 min | Drama
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: 138,798 | Gross: $0.01M
9/10
9. All That Heaven Allows (1955)
Passed | 89 min | Drama, Romance
An upper-class widow falls in love with a much younger, down-to-earth nurseryman, much to the disapproval of her children and criticism of her country club peers.
Director: Douglas Sirk | Stars: Jane Wyman, Rock Hudson, Agnes Moorehead, Conrad Nagel
Votes: 16,637
8/10
10. How to Marry a Millionaire (1953)
Approved | 95 min | Comedy, Drama, Romance
Three women set out to find eligible millionaires to marry, but find true love in the process.
Director: Jean Negulesco | Stars: Marilyn Monroe, Betty Grable, Lauren Bacall, David Wayne
Votes: 24,892
8/10
11. Broken Lance (1954)
Approved | 96 min | Adventure, Drama, Western
The saga of the Devereaux rancher family, set in 1880's Arizona.
Director: Edward Dmytryk | Stars: Spencer Tracy, Robert Wagner, Jean Peters, Richard Widmark
Votes: 4,307 | Gross: $8.28M
8/10
12. Quo Vadis (1951)
Not Rated | 171 min | Biography, Drama, Romance
After fierce Roman commander Marcus Vinicius becomes infatuated with beautiful Christian hostage Lygia, he begins to question the tyrannical leadership of the despotic emperor Nero.
Directors: Mervyn LeRoy, Anthony Mann | Stars: Robert Taylor, Deborah Kerr, Leo Genn, Peter Ustinov
Votes: 16,747 | Gross: $24.29M
8/10
13. Winchester '73 (1950)
Passed | 92 min | Action, Drama, Western
A cowboy's obsession with a stolen rifle leads to a bullet-ridden odyssey through the American West.
Director: Anthony Mann | Stars: James Stewart, Shelley Winters, Dan Duryea, Stephen McNally
Votes: 21,987
8/10
14. Mogambo (1953)
Passed | 116 min | Adventure, Drama, Romance
On a Kenyan safari, white hunter Victor Marswell has a love triangle with seductive American socialite Eloise Kelly and anthropologist Donald Nordley's cheating wife Linda.
Director: John Ford | Stars: Clark Gable, Grace Kelly, Ava Gardner, Donald Sinden
Votes: 9,175
8/10
15. Strangers on a Train (1951)
PG | 101 min | Crime, Drama, Film-Noir
A psychopathic man tries to forcibly persuade a tennis star to agree to his theory that two strangers can get away with murder by submitting to his plan to kill the other's most-hated person.
Director: Alfred Hitchcock | Stars: Farley Granger, Robert Walker, Ruth Roman, Leo G. Carroll
Votes: 141,048 | Gross: $7.63M
8/10
16. High Noon (1952)
PG | 85 min | Drama, Thriller, Western
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: 110,206 | Gross: $9.45M
8/10
17. Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (1958)
Not Rated | 108 min | Drama
Brick is an alcoholic ex-football player who drinks his days away and resists the affections of his wife. A reunion with his terminal father jogs a host of memories and revelations for both father and son.
Director: Richard Brooks | Stars: Elizabeth Taylor, Paul Newman, Burl Ives, Jack Carson
Votes: 53,434 | Gross: $17.57M
8/10
18. Ace in the Hole (1951)
Approved | 111 min | Drama, Film-Noir
A frustrated former big-city journalist now stuck working for an Albuquerque newspaper exploits a story about a man trapped in a cave to rekindle his career, but the situation quickly escalates into an out-of-control circus.
Director: Billy Wilder | Stars: Kirk Douglas, Jan Sterling, Robert Arthur, Porter Hall
Votes: 39,128 | Gross: $3.97M
8/10
19. Roman Holiday (1953)
Passed | 118 min | Comedy, Romance
A bored and sheltered princess escapes her guardians and falls in love with an American newsman in Rome.
Director: William Wyler | Stars: Gregory Peck, Audrey Hepburn, Eddie Albert, Hartley Power
Votes: 147,677
8/10
20. Three Violent People (1956)
Approved | 100 min | Western
When Confederate officer Colt Saunders returns to his Texas ranch after the war he finds his lands wanted by carpetbaggers and by corrupt provisional government commissioners Harrison and Cable.
Director: Rudolph Maté | Stars: Charlton Heston, Anne Baxter, Gilbert Roland, Tom Tryon
Votes: 1,581
8/10
21. 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: 77,895 | Gross: $93.74M
8/10
22. The Big Country (1958)
Passed | 166 min | Drama, Romance, Western
A New England sea captain in the 1880s arrives at his fiancée's sprawling Texas ranch, where he becomes embroiled in a feud between two families over a valuable patch of land.
Director: William Wyler | Stars: Gregory Peck, Jean Simmons, Carroll Baker, Charlton Heston
Votes: 21,131
8/10
23. Elephant Walk (1954)
Approved | 103 min | Adventure, Drama
The young bride of a rich planter finds herself the only white woman at Elephant Walk tea plantation, British Ceylon.
Director: William Dieterle | Stars: Elizabeth Taylor, Dana Andrews, Peter Finch, Abraham Sofaer
Votes: 2,731
8/10
24. To Catch a Thief (1955)
PG | 106 min | Mystery, Romance, Thriller
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: 79,781 | Gross: $8.75M
8/10
25. The Man from Laramie (1955)
Not Rated | 103 min | Drama, Western
Newcomer Will Lockhart defies the local cattle baron and his sadistic son by working for one of his oldest rivals.
Director: Anthony Mann | Stars: James Stewart, Arthur Kennedy, Donald Crisp, Cathy O'Donnell
Votes: 12,011
8/10
26. The Bad Seed (1956)
Approved | 129 min | Drama, Horror, Thriller
Rhoda Penmark seems like your average, sweet eight-year-old girl. After her rival at school dies in mysterious circumstances at the school picnic, her mother starts to suspect that Rhoda was responsible.
Director: Mervyn LeRoy | Stars: Nancy Kelly, Patty McCormack, Gage Clarke, Jesse White
Votes: 15,779
8/10
27. The Court Jester (1955)
Approved | 101 min | Adventure, Comedy, Family
A hapless carnival performer masquerades as the court jester as part of a plot against an evil ruler who has overthrown the rightful King.
Directors: Melvin Frank, Norman Panama | Stars: Danny Kaye, Glynis Johns, Basil Rathbone, Angela Lansbury
Votes: 13,953 | Gross: $0.02M
8/10
28. Lady and the Tramp (1955)
G | 76 min | Animation, Adventure, Comedy
The romantic tale of a sheltered uptown Cocker Spaniel dog and a streetwise downtown Mutt.
Directors: Clyde Geronimi, Wilfred Jackson, Hamilton Luske, Jack Cutting | Stars: Barbara Luddy, Larry Roberts, Peggy Lee, Bill Thompson
Votes: 148,513 | Gross: $93.60M
9/10
29. 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: 346,275 | Gross: $13.28M
8/10
30. 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: 35,274
8/10
31. The Great Manhunt (1950)
Passed | 97 min | Drama, Romance, Thriller
In post-WW2 Europe, when the dictator of a small police state dies during surgery, the operating surgeon, who's a visiting American doctor, is held captive in order to preserve the terrible state secret.
Director: Sidney Gilliat | Stars: Douglas Fairbanks Jr., Glynis Johns, Jack Hawkins, Walter Rilla
Votes: 821
8/10
32. The Greatest Show on Earth (1952)
Passed | 152 min | Drama, Family, Romance
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
8/10
33. Jubal (1956)
Passed | 100 min | Drama, Romance, Western
A new foreman rejects the sexual advances of a frustrated rancher's wife, which leads to conflicts that could get him killed.
Director: Delmer Daves | Stars: Glenn Ford, Ernest Borgnine, Rod Steiger, Valerie French
Votes: 4,395
8/10
34. Footsteps in the Fog (1955)
Approved | 90 min | Crime, Drama, Thriller
In early-1900s England, a maid tries to blackmail her master into romancing her when she discovers that he murdered his wife.
Director: Arthur Lubin | Stars: Stewart Granger, Jean Simmons, Bill Travers, Belinda Lee
Votes: 2,205
8/10
35. East of Eden (1955)
PG | 118 min | Drama
Two brothers in 1910s California struggle to maintain their strict, Bible-toting father's favor as an old secret about their long-absent mother comes to light.
Director: Elia Kazan | Stars: James Dean, Raymond Massey, Julie Harris, Burl Ives
Votes: 48,828
8/10
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