Best 50s Movies

by melvyn-z | created - 12 Oct 2014 | updated - 15 Dec 2017 | Public
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1. 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: 16,769 | Gross: $0.02M

2. Rashomon (1950)

Not Rated | 88 min | Crime, Drama, Mystery

98 Metascore

The rape of a bride and the murder of her samurai husband are recalled from the perspectives of a bandit, the bride, the samurai's ghost and a woodcutter.

Director: Akira Kurosawa | Stars: Toshirô Mifune, Machiko Kyô, Masayuki Mori, Takashi Shimura

Votes: 180,614 | Gross: $0.10M

3. Summer Interlude (1951)

Not Rated | 96 min | Drama, Romance

A lonely woman recalls her first love thirteen years prior during a brief summer vacation.

Director: Ingmar Bergman | Stars: Maj-Britt Nilsson, Birger Malmsten, Alf Kjellin, Annalisa Ericson

Votes: 6,666

4. Rear Window (1954)

PG | 112 min | Mystery, Thriller

100 Metascore

A wheelchair-bound photographer spies on his neighbors from his Greenwich Village courtyard apartment window and, despite the skepticism of his fashion-model girlfriend, becomes convinced one of them has committed murder.

Director: Alfred Hitchcock | Stars: James Stewart, Grace Kelly, Wendell Corey, Thelma Ritter

Votes: 522,471 | Gross: $36.76M

5. 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: 427,270 | Gross: $3.20M

6. Tokyo Story (1953)

Not Rated | 136 min | Drama

100 Metascore

An old couple visit their children and grandchildren in the city, but receive little attention.

Director: Yasujirô Ozu | Stars: Chishû Ryû, Chieko Higashiyama, Sô Yamamura, Setsuko Hara

Votes: 68,685

7. 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: 233,444 | Gross: $44.91M

8. The Cranes Are Flying (1957)

Not Rated | 95 min | Drama, Romance, War

Veronica plans a rendezvous with her lover, Boris, at the bank of river, only for him to be drafted into World War II shortly thereafter.

Director: Mikhail Kalatozov | Stars: Tatyana Samoylova, Aleksey Batalov, Vasiliy Merkurev, Aleksandr Shvorin

Votes: 19,791 | Gross: $0.02M

9. Pather Panchali (1955)

Not Rated | 125 min | Drama

Impoverished priest Harihar Ray, dreaming of a better life for himself and his family, leaves his rural Bengal village in search of work.

Director: Satyajit Ray | Stars: Kanu Bannerjee, Karuna Bannerjee, Subir Banerjee, Chunibala Devi

Votes: 38,579 | Gross: $0.54M

10. 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: 97,438 | Gross: $0.65M

11. 12 Angry Men (1957)

Approved | 96 min | Crime, Drama

97 Metascore

The jury in a New York City murder trial is frustrated by a single member whose skeptical caution forces them to more carefully consider the evidence before jumping to a hasty verdict.

Director: Sidney Lumet | Stars: Henry Fonda, Lee J. Cobb, Martin Balsam, John Fiedler

Votes: 866,025 | Gross: $4.36M

12. Ashes and Diamonds (1958)

Not Rated | 103 min | Drama, Romance, War

As World War II and the German occupation ends, the Polish resistance and the Soviet forces turn on each other in an attempt to take over leadership in Communist Poland.

Director: Andrzej Wajda | Stars: Zbigniew Cybulski, Ewa Krzyzewska, Waclaw Zastrzezynski, Adam Pawlikowski

Votes: 13,478

13. 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: 17,150

14. 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: 212,450

15. The Seventh Seal (1957)

Not Rated | 96 min | Drama, Fantasy

88 Metascore

A knight returning to Sweden after the Crusades seeks answers about life, death, and the existence of God as he plays chess against the Grim Reaper during the Black Plague.

Director: Ingmar Bergman | Stars: Max von Sydow, Gunnar Björnstrand, Bengt Ekerot, Nils Poppe

Votes: 198,616

16. The Hidden Fortress (1958)

Not Rated | 126 min | Action, Adventure, Drama

89 Metascore

Lured by gold, two greedy peasants unknowingly escort a princess and her general across enemy lines.

Director: Akira Kurosawa | Stars: Toshirô Mifune, Misa Uehara, Minoru Chiaki, Kamatari Fujiwara

Votes: 42,283

17. East of Eden (1955)

PG | 118 min | Drama

72 Metascore

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: 48,838

18. 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: 16,648

19. Equinox Flower (1958)

118 min | Comedy, Drama

83 Metascore

A businessman clashes with his elder daughter over her choice of a husband.

Director: Yasujirô Ozu | Stars: Shin Saburi, Kinuyo Tanaka, Ineko Arima, Yoshiko Kuga

Votes: 4,859

20. The Human Condition I: No Greater Love (I) (1959)

Not Rated | 208 min | Drama, History, War

A Japanese pacifist, unable to face the dire consequences of conscientious objection, is transformed by his attempts to compromise with the demands of war-time Japan.

Director: Masaki Kobayashi | Stars: Tatsuya Nakadai, Michiyo Aratama, Chikage Awashima, Ineko Arima

Votes: 9,366

21. Throne of Blood (1957)

Not Rated | 110 min | Drama

A war-hardened general, egged on by his ambitious wife, works to fulfill a prophecy that he would become lord of Spider's Web Castle.

Director: Akira Kurosawa | Stars: Toshirô Mifune, Minoru Chiaki, Isuzu Yamada, Takashi Shimura

Votes: 56,003

22. Rififi (1955)

Not Rated | 118 min | Crime, Drama, Thriller

97 Metascore

Four men plan a technically perfect crime, but the human element intervenes...

Director: Jules Dassin | Stars: Jean Servais, Carl Möhner, Robert Manuel, Janine Darcey

Votes: 36,858 | Gross: $0.06M

23. Bob the Gambler (1956)

PG | 98 min | Crime, Drama, Thriller

80 Metascore

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: 13,368 | Gross: $0.02M

24. The Terrible Children (1950)

Not Rated | 105 min | Drama

The dangerously obsessive relationship between a psychologically manipulative brother and sister who isolate themselves and draw others into their mind games.

Director: Jean-Pierre Melville | Stars: Nicole Stéphane, Edouard Dermithe, Renée Cosima, Jacques Bernard

Votes: 4,331

25. The Young and the Damned (1950)

Not Rated | 80 min | Crime, Drama

A group of juvenile delinquents live a violent and crime-filled life in the festering slums of Mexico City, as the morals of young Pedro are gradually corrupted and destroyed by the others.

Director: Luis Buñuel | Stars: Alfonso Mejía, Roberto Cobo, Estela Inda, Miguel Inclán

Votes: 22,013

26. Wild Strawberries (1957)

Not Rated | 91 min | Drama, Romance

88 Metascore

After living a life marked by coldness, an aging professor is forced to confront the emptiness of his existence.

Director: Ingmar Bergman | Stars: Victor Sjöström, Bibi Andersson, Ingrid Thulin, Gunnar Björnstrand

Votes: 115,067

27. Early Summer (1951)

Not Rated | 125 min | Drama, Romance

94 Metascore

A family chooses a match for their daughter Noriko, but she, surprisingly, has her own plans.

Director: Yasujirô Ozu | Stars: Setsuko Hara, Chishû Ryû, Chikage Awashima, Kuniko Miyake

Votes: 9,690

28. Ugetsu (1953)

Not Rated | 96 min | Drama, Fantasy, War

A tale of ambition, family, love, and war set in the midst of the Japanese Civil Wars of the sixteenth century.

Director: Kenji Mizoguchi | Stars: Masayuki Mori, Machiko Kyô, Kinuyo Tanaka, Mitsuko Mito

Votes: 25,838 | Gross: $0.01M

29. 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: 16,004 | Gross: $0.17M

30. North by Northwest (1959)

Approved | 136 min | Action, Adventure, Mystery

98 Metascore

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: 346,369 | Gross: $13.28M

31. The Killing (1956)

Approved | 84 min | Crime, Drama, Film-Noir

91 Metascore

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: 97,593

32. Confidential Report (1955)

Not Rated | 93 min | Crime, Drama, Film-Noir

An elusive billionaire hires an American smuggler to investigate his past, leading to a dizzying descent into a cold-war European landscape.

Director: Orson Welles | Stars: Orson Welles, Peter van Eyck, Michael Redgrave, Patricia Medina

Votes: 9,246

33. Diabolique (1955)

Not Rated | 117 min | Crime, Drama, Horror

The wife and mistress of a loathed school principal plan to murder him with what they believe is the perfect alibi.

Director: Henri-Georges Clouzot | Stars: Simone Signoret, Véra Clouzot, Paul Meurisse, Charles Vanel

Votes: 69,431 | Gross: $1.09M

34. Kanal (1957)

Not Rated | 91 min | Drama, War

In 1944, during the Warsaw uprising against the Nazis, Polish Lieutenant Zadra and his resistance fighters use Warsaw's sewer system to escape the German encirclement.

Director: Andrzej Wajda | Stars: Teresa Izewska, Tadeusz Janczar, Wienczyslaw Glinski, Tadeusz Gwiazdowski

Votes: 8,043

35. 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: 29,209

36. 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: 260,860 | Gross: $8.82M

37. Sansho the Bailiff (1954)

Not Rated | 124 min | Drama

96 Metascore

In medieval Japan, a compassionate governor is sent into exile. His wife and children try to join him, but are separated, and the children grow up amid suffering and oppression.

Director: Kenji Mizoguchi | Stars: Kinuyo Tanaka, Yoshiaki Hanayagi, Kyôko Kagawa, Eitarô Shindô

Votes: 18,241

38. The Human Condition II: Road to Eternity (II) (1959)

Not Rated | 181 min | Drama, History, War

As a conscript in war-time Japan's military, a pacifist struggles to maintain his determination to keep his ideals.

Director: Masaki Kobayashi | Stars: Tatsuya Nakadai, Michiyo Aratama, Kokinji Katsura, Jun Tatara

Votes: 7,510

39. 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: 96,372

40. El (1953)

Approved | 82 min | Drama, Romance

A husband's suave exterior unravels after his marriage, and he unleashes his paranoid and volatile temper on his wife, which escalates to more dangerous and unpredictable tantrums.

Director: Luis Buñuel | Stars: Arturo de Córdova, Delia Garcés, Aurora Walker, Carlos Martínez Baena

Votes: 6,576

41. 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: 35,301

42. 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: 16,469

43. 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: 283,719 | Gross: $25.00M

44. 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: 253,818 | Gross: $74.70M

45. 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: 42,272

46. The Wages of Fear (1953)

Not Rated | 131 min | Adventure, Drama, Thriller

85 Metascore

In a decrepit South American village, four men are hired to transport an urgent nitroglycerine shipment without the equipment that would make it safe.

Director: Henri-Georges Clouzot | Stars: Yves Montand, Charles Vanel, Peter van Eyck, Folco Lulli

Votes: 66,633

47. Touch of Evil (1958)

PG-13 | 95 min | Crime, Drama, Film-Noir

99 Metascore

A stark, perverse story of murder, kidnapping and police corruption in a Mexican border town.

Director: Orson Welles | Stars: Charlton Heston, Orson Welles, Janet Leigh, Joseph Calleia

Votes: 109,852 | Gross: $2.24M

48. Seven Samurai (1954)

Not Rated | 207 min | Action, Drama

98 Metascore

Farmers from a village exploited by bandits hire a veteran samurai for protection, who gathers six other samurai to join him.

Director: Akira Kurosawa | Stars: Toshirô Mifune, Takashi Shimura, Keiko Tsushima, Yukiko Shimazaki

Votes: 367,060 | Gross: $0.27M

49. Orpheus (1950)

Not Rated | 112 min | Drama, Fantasy, Romance

A poet in love with Death follows his unhappy wife into the underworld.

Director: Jean Cocteau | Stars: Jean Marais, François Périer, María Casares, Marie Déa

Votes: 13,420

50. 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: 128,138

51. 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: 25,024

52. Hiroshima Mon Amour (1959)

Not Rated | 90 min | Drama, Romance

A French actress filming an anti-war film in Hiroshima has an affair with a married Japanese architect as they share their differing perspectives on war.

Director: Alain Resnais | Stars: Emmanuelle Riva, Eiji Okada, Stella Dassas, Pierre Barbaud

Votes: 35,916 | Gross: $0.09M

53. Ordet (1955)

Not Rated | 126 min | Drama

Follows the lives of the Borgen family, as they deal with inner conflict, as well as religious conflict with each other, and the rest of the town.

Director: Carl Theodor Dreyer | Stars: Henrik Malberg, Emil Hass Christensen, Preben Lerdorff Rye, Hanne Aagesen

Votes: 17,419

54. Summer with Monika (1953)

R | 96 min | Drama, Romance

A pair of teenagers meet one summer day, start a reckless affair and abandon their families to be with one another.

Director: Ingmar Bergman | Stars: Harriet Andersson, Lars Ekborg, Dagmar Ebbesen, Åke Fridell

Votes: 16,188

55. 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: 138,836 | Gross: $0.01M

56. Elevator to the Gallows (1958)

Not Rated | 91 min | Crime, Drama, Thriller

94 Metascore

A self-assured businessman murders his employer, the husband of his mistress, which unintentionally provokes an ill-fated chain of events.

Director: Louis Malle | Stars: Jeanne Moreau, Maurice Ronet, Georges Poujouly, Yori Bertin

Votes: 28,664 | Gross: $0.11M

57. 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: 79,815 | Gross: $8.75M

58. 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: 98,010

59. Witness for the Prosecution (1957)

Approved | 116 min | Crime, Drama, Mystery

76 Metascore

A veteran British barrister must defend his client in a murder trial that has surprise after surprise.

Director: Billy Wilder | Stars: Tyrone Power, Marlene Dietrich, Charles Laughton, Elsa Lanchester

Votes: 137,979 | Gross: $8.18M

60. The Big Country (1958)

Passed | 166 min | Drama, Romance, Western

61 Metascore

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: 21,138

61. The Criminal Life of Archibaldo de la Cruz (1955)

Not Rated | 89 min | Comedy, Crime, Drama

The delirious journey of a mentally disordered man, who is obsessed with committing the perfect crime.

Director: Luis Buñuel | Stars: Ernesto Alonso, Miroslava, Rita Macedo, Ariadne Welter

Votes: 5,895

62. Touchez pas au grisbi (1954)

Not Rated | 96 min | Crime, Drama

85 Metascore

An aging, world-weary gangster is double-crossed and forced out of retirement when his best friend is kidnapped and their stash of eight stolen gold bars demanded as ransom.

Director: Jacques Becker | Stars: Jean Gabin, René Dary, Dora Doll, Vittorio Sanipoli

Votes: 8,550 | Gross: $0.13M

63. La Ronde (1950)

Not Rated | 93 min | Drama, Romance

75 Metascore

Soldiers, chambermaids, poets, prostitutes, aristocrats-all are on equal footing in this multi-character merry-go-round of love and infidelity.

Director: Max Ophüls | Stars: Anton Walbrook, Simone Signoret, Serge Reggiani, Simone Simon

Votes: 5,961

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: 66,617

65. 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: 29,993

66. Stalag 17 (1953)

Not Rated | 120 min | Comedy, Drama, War

84 Metascore

After two Americans are killed while escaping from a German P.O.W. camp in World War II, the barracks black marketeer, J.J. Sefton, is suspected of being an informer.

Director: Billy Wilder | Stars: William Holden, Don Taylor, Otto Preminger, Robert Strauss

Votes: 58,832

67. 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: 35,727

68. Casque d'Or (1952)

Not Rated | 94 min | Crime, Drama, Romance

Three gangsters and an ex-con carpenter all fall for the same beautiful golden-haired woman in Belle Époque France.

Director: Jacques Becker | Stars: Simone Signoret, Serge Reggiani, Claude Dauphin, Raymond Bussières

Votes: 6,224

69. 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: 24,805

70. 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: 85,805

71. The Trouble with Harry (1955)

PG | 99 min | Comedy, Mystery

74 Metascore

Harry's dead and, while no one really minds, everyone feels responsible. After Harry's body is found in the woods, several locals must determine not only how and why he was killed but what to do with the body.

Director: Alfred Hitchcock | Stars: John Forsythe, Shirley MacLaine, Edmund Gwenn, Mildred Natwick

Votes: 41,291

72. 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: 68,109 | Gross: $12.54M

73. Nights of Cabiria (1957)

Not Rated | 110 min | Drama

A waifish prostitute wanders the streets of Rome looking for true love but finds only heartbreak.

Director: Federico Fellini | Stars: Giulietta Masina, François Périer, Franca Marzi, Dorian Gray

Votes: 51,976 | Gross: $0.75M

74. Gentlemen Prefer Blondes (1953)

Approved | 91 min | Comedy, Musical, Romance

Showgirls Lorelei Lee and Dorothy Shaw travel to Paris, pursued by a private detective hired by the suspicious father of Lorelei's fiancé, as well as a rich, enamored old man and many other doting admirers.

Director: Howard Hawks | Stars: Jane Russell, Marilyn Monroe, Charles Coburn, Elliott Reid

Votes: 43,049 | Gross: $12.00M

75. Strangers on a Train (1951)

PG | 101 min | Crime, Drama, Film-Noir

88 Metascore

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: 141,092 | Gross: $7.63M

76. Le Plaisir (1952)

Not Rated | 97 min | Comedy, Drama, Romance

Three separate stories about the same thing: le plaisir (pleasure).

Director: Max Ophüls | Stars: Jean Gabin, Danielle Darrieux, Simone Simon, Claude Dauphin

Votes: 5,381

77. Night and the City (1950)

Not Rated | 96 min | Crime, Film-Noir, Mystery

A small-time grifter and nightclub tout takes advantage of some fortuitous circumstances and tries to become a big-time player as a wrestling promoter.

Director: Jules Dassin | Stars: Richard Widmark, Gene Tierney, Googie Withers, Hugh Marlowe

Votes: 15,294 | Gross: $3.60M

78. Smiles of a Summer Night (1955)

Not Rated | 109 min | Comedy, Romance

In Sweden at the turn of the century, members of the upper class and their servants find themselves in a romantic tangle that they try to work out amidst jealousy and heartbreak.

Director: Ingmar Bergman | Stars: Ulla Jacobsson, Eva Dahlbeck, Harriet Andersson, Margit Carlqvist

Votes: 14,687

79. 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: 4,872

80. The Earrings of Madame De... (1953)

Not Rated | 105 min | Drama, Romance

When an aristocratic woman known only as "Madame de . . ." sells a pair of earrings given to her by her husband in order to pay some debts, she sets off a chain reaction of financial and carnal consequences that can end only in despair.

Director: Max Ophüls | Stars: Charles Boyer, Danielle Darrieux, Vittorio De Sica, Jean Debucourt

Votes: 11,115

81. White Nights (1957)

Not Rated | 97 min | Drama, Romance

A humble clerk courts a woman who awaits her lover's return night after night.

Director: Luchino Visconti | Stars: Maria Schell, Marcello Mastroianni, Jean Marais, Marcella Rovena

Votes: 9,013

82. Ace in the Hole (1951)

Approved | 111 min | Drama, Film-Noir

72 Metascore

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: 39,166 | Gross: $3.97M

83. French Cancan (1955)

Not Rated | 102 min | Comedy, Drama, Musical

This comedy drama from Jean Renoir chronicles the revival of Paris' most notorious dance as it tells the story of a theater producer who turns a humble washerwoman into a star at the Moulin Rouge.

Director: Jean Renoir | Stars: Jean Gabin, Françoise Arnoul, María Félix, Anna Amendola

Votes: 4,456

84. 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: 19,757

85. The Magician (1958)

Not Rated | 101 min | Comedy, Drama

86 Metascore

A traveling magician and his assistants are persecuted by authorities in Sweden of the 19th century. Their capture, however, didn't bring victory to those in power.

Director: Ingmar Bergman | Stars: Max von Sydow, Ingrid Thulin, Gunnar Björnstrand, Naima Wifstrand

Votes: 10,956

86. Dial M for Murder (1954)

PG | 105 min | Crime, Thriller

75 Metascore

A former tennis star arranges the murder of his adulterous wife.

Director: Alfred Hitchcock | Stars: Ray Milland, Grace Kelly, Robert Cummings, John Williams

Votes: 188,951 | Gross: $0.01M

87. Early Spring (1956)

145 min | Drama

84 Metascore

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: 3,730

88. An American in Paris (1951)

Passed | 114 min | Drama, Musical, Romance

83 Metascore

Three friends struggle to find work in Paris. Things become more complicated when two of them fall in love with the same woman.

Director: Vincente Minnelli | Stars: Gene Kelly, Leslie Caron, Oscar Levant, Georges Guétary

Votes: 36,908 | Gross: $4.50M

89. 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: 54,809

90. Roman Holiday (1953)

Passed | 118 min | Comedy, Romance

78 Metascore

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: 147,749

91. Diary of a Country Priest (1951)

Not Rated | 95 min | Drama

A young priest taking over the parish at Ambricourt tries to fulfill his duties even as he fights a mysterious stomach ailment.

Director: Robert Bresson | Stars: Claude Laydu, Nicole Ladmiral, Jean Riveyre, Adrien Borel

Votes: 12,727

92. 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: 77,933 | Gross: $93.74M

93. The Bullocks (1953)

Not Rated | 104 min | Comedy, Drama

87 Metascore

A character study of five young men at crucial turning points in their lives in a small town in Italy.

Director: Federico Fellini | Stars: Alberto Sordi, Franco Fabrizi, Franco Interlenghi, Leopoldo Trieste

Votes: 19,921 | Gross: $0.10M

94. 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: 44,170 | Gross: $20.00M

95. Othello (1951)

Approved | 90 min | Drama, Romance

The Moorish General Othello is manipulated into thinking that his new wife Desdemona has been carrying on an affair with his Lieutenant Michael Cassio when in reality, it is all part of the scheme of a bitter Ensign named Iago.

Director: Orson Welles | Stars: Orson Welles, Micheál MacLiammóir, Robert Coote, Suzanne Cloutier

Votes: 9,458

96. Anatomy of a Murder (1959)

Not Rated | 161 min | Drama, Mystery

95 Metascore

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: 71,397 | Gross: $11.90M

97. Umberto D. (1952)

Not Rated | 89 min | Drama

92 Metascore

An elderly man and his dog struggle to survive on his government pension in Rome.

Director: Vittorio De Sica | Stars: Carlo Battisti, Maria Pia Casilio, Lina Gennari, Ileana Simova

Votes: 28,226 | Gross: $0.07M

98. The Quiet Man (1952)

Passed | 129 min | Comedy, Drama, Romance

85 Metascore

A retired American boxer returns to the village of his birth in 1920s Ireland, where he falls for a spirited redhead whose brother is contemptuous of their union.

Director: John Ford | Stars: John Wayne, Maureen O'Hara, Barry Fitzgerald, Ward Bond

Votes: 42,421 | Gross: $10.55M

99. The Narrow Margin (1952)

Approved | 71 min | Crime, Drama, Film-Noir

A woman planning to testify against the mob must be protected against potential assassins on the train trip from Chicago to Los Angeles.

Directors: Richard Fleischer, William Cameron Menzies | Stars: Charles McGraw, Marie Windsor, Jacqueline White, Gordon Gebert

Votes: 8,660

100. 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: 17,865



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