Top Films of the Decade -- The 1950's

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lazarus

lazarus

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You know the drill. If you can't get to 15, then list 10!

Here's some list-making suggestions I jotted down in the 60's thread:

1. Pull up the Academy Awards from 1950 and work your way forward (easiest way to get there is search for All About Eve, click on Awards, then click on the year next to the list of noms & wins). This doesn't necessarily represent all the best of the decade, but does contain many top films, and is a great starting point.

2. Also search for these directors and scroll through their filmographies to see if there's anything you recognize:

John Ford
Vincente Minnelli
Alfred Hitchcock
John Huston
Fritz Lang
Samuel Fuller
Anthony Mann
Stanley Kubrick
David Lean
Joseph Mankiewicz
Orson Welles
Billy Wilder
Stanley Donen

3. And of course there are a handful of Disney films from the decade that are worth considering.
 
Monkeyskin's list (rank, year, and director added by moi):

1. Rear Window (Hitchcock, '54)
2. Ikiru (Kurosawa, '52)
3. The Searchers (Ford, '56)
4. The 400 Blows (Truffaut, '59)
5. 12 Angry Men (Lumet, '57)
6. Wild Strawberries (Bergman '57)
7. Touch of Evil (Welles, '58)
8. Some Like It Hot (Wilder '59)
9. Umberto D (De Sica '52)
10. The Bridge on the River Kwai (Lean '57)
11. Les Diaboliques (Clouzout, '55)
12. All About Eve (Mankiewicz, '50)
13. Rio Bravo (Hawks, '59)
14. The Night of the Hunter (Laughton, '55)
15. Paths of Glory (Kubrick '57)

MS, did you have a similar problem choosing between Clouzot's Diaboliqe and The Wages of Fear? I didn't include either but I heavily considered both.
 
lazarus said:
MS, did you have a similar problem choosing between Clouzot's Diaboliqe and The Wages of Fear? I didn't include either but I heavily considered both.
Click to expand...

*slaps forehead* I can't believe I forgot that. I'm very tempted to change those two around as Wages of Fear is an excellent character study with oodles of suspense.

Ah to Hell with it, I'm changing. Thanks for the extra info to my list btw.

1. Rear Window (Hitchcock, '54)
2. Ikiru (Kurosawa, '52)
3. The Searchers (Ford, '56)
4. The 400 Blows (Truffaut, '59)
5. 12 Angry Men (Lumet, '57)
6. Wild Strawberries (Bergman '57)
7. Touch of Evil (Welles, '58)
8. Some Like It Hot (Wilder '59)
9. Umberto D (De Sica '52)
10. The Bridge on the River Kwai (Lean '57)
11. The Wages of Fear (Clouzout, '53)
12. All About Eve (Mankiewicz, '50)
13. Rio Bravo (Hawks, '59)
14. The Night of the Hunter (Laughton, '55)
15. Paths of Glory (Kubrick '57)
 
Laz, I thought Vertigo was one of your favorite movies ever? Or do you feel Rear Window is better?
 
Nah, he was just reposting my list for but I've since tweaked it since he reminded of one I overlooked.
 
Oh, I just can't read then. :wink:

Sweet list. I have quite a few of them on the queue (12 Angry Men, Paths of Glory, Wild Strawberries), I've gotta get through a few to get to them.
 
I'm really weak on the foreign films, though I generally like the ones I've seen. So, even though I love Throne of Blood, I'm guessing it's not Kurosawa's best. But I'll put Throne of Blood on my list because I don't want to pretend I've seen the others enough to warrant inclusion. Well, it is supposed to be a list of favorites and those considered classics, so that's how I approach it.

And it seems the McCarthy era cast quite a cloud over US cinema for a few years. Probably helps explain the strength of foreign films through late 50's and early 60's. But, I could be wrong :)

I should have a list done soon.

Liked the research suggestions Lazarus.
 
Time for me to cough it up:

1. Vertigo (Hitchcock, '58)
2. Touch of Evil (ORSON FUCKING WELLES, '58)
3. The Searchers (Ford, '56)
4. Rear Window (Hitchcock, '54)
5. Sunset Blvd (Wilder, '50)
6. Some Came Running (Minnelli, '58)
7. Park Row (Fuller, '52)
8. The River (Monsieur Jean Renoir, '51)
9. Singin' in the Rain (Donen/Kelly, '52)
10. A Face in the Crowd (Kazan, '57)
11. The Night of the Hunter (Laughton, '55)
12. The Big Heat (Lang, '53)
13. The Bridge on the River Kwai (Lean, '57)
14. All About Eve (Mankiewicz, '50)
15. Paths of Glory (Kubrick, '57)

BTW, thanks for reminding me of Night of the Hunter, MS, as I had let someone borrow my DVD and originally forgot to include on my list. I can't recommend that film highly enough, one of the creepiest and magical films I've ever seen. Unfortunately, I had to boot Disney's Sleeping Beauty off the list, one of the great artistic achievements in animation, and visually the best thing ever to come out of that studio.

Also, we had 6 films in common. Consensus!
 
Going with the ones I grew up with & have liked a long time :)


Damn Yankees
Godzilla
Mr. Roberts
The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms
Rear Window
War of the Worlds
The Brave One
Heaven Knows, Mr. Allison
Rio Bravo
Some Like It Hot
Them
The Bad Seed
Invaders from Mars
The House on Haunted Hill
The Big Carnival


Like these also: Harvey, Bridge on River Kwai, Ben Hur, Touch of Evil, Hitchcock, John Agar, lots of B sci fi, Singin in the Rain, African Queen, Searchers, 12 Angry Men, The Fly, War & Peace,A Streetcar Named Desire, When World's Collide, The Stooge & other Martin/Lewis, 20 Million Miles to Earth

I use to watch a program in the 60's every Saturday afternoon called Chiller. They would show a sci fi or horror film. :up:
 
1. 12 Angry Men
2. Ben Hur
3. On The Waterfront
4. Rear Window
5. The Bridge On The River Kwai
6. The Searchers
7. Touch Of Evil
8. Paths Of Glory
9. North By Northwest
10. Rebel Without A Cause
11. Some Like It Hot
12. Vertigo
13. The Day The Earth Stood Still
14. Sleeping Beauty
15. Invasion Of The Body Snatchers
 
I love these lists in every thread. There's loads posted that I haven't seen that I'm keen to now.

lazarus said:
BTW, thanks for reminding me of Night of the Hunter, MS, as I had let someone borrow my DVD and originally forgot to include on my list. I can't recommend that film highly enough, one of the creepiest and magical films I've ever seen. Unfortunately, I had to boot Disney's Sleeping Beauty off the list, one of the great artistic achievements in animation, and visually the best thing ever to come out of that studio.

Also, we had 6 films in common. Consensus!
Click to expand...

Oh you know it baby.

I was completely absorbed in Night of the Hunter until Bob Mitchum did his Looney Tunes impression right at the end. But it's a great film and such a shame that Charles Laughton chose never to follow it up.

hardyharhar said:
The Big Carnival
Click to expand...

SO JEALOUS! It's not out on DVD here and never comes on TV. It's the last Wilder that I'm dying to see.
 
Big Carnival a.k.a Ace in the Hole is one of the darkest films I've ever seen. Brutal.

It's amazing how many great films Kirk Douglas has been in, yet he rarely gets mentioned in any list of great actors. I'm not saying he was, but he sure had the best taste in material and director than any other star I can think of. Look at this list of collaborations between his debut in '46 and 1970.

The Bad & the Beautiful (Minnelli)
Two Weeks in Another Town (Minnelli)
Lust for Life (Minnelli)
Young Man With a Horn (Curtiz)
Last Train from Gun Hill (Sturges)
Seven Days in May (Frankenheimer)
The List of Adrian Messenger (Huston)
Heroes of Telemark (Mann)
The Arrangement (Kazan)
Out of the Past (Tourneur)
Spartacus (Kubrick)
Paths of Glory (Kubrick)
Big Carnival (Wilder)
In Harm's Way (Preminger)
Lonely are the Brave
Detective Story (Wyler)
The Big Sky (Hawks)
The Strange Love of Martha Ivers (Milestone)
A Letter to Three Wives (Mankiewicz)
Champion (Robson)
 
I think my list for the 1950s would be almost all Hitchcock, plus The Day The Earth Stood Still. Rear Window is one of my favorite movies of all time. So skillfully done. I hope you can include my list even if it's short.

1. Rear Window
2. North by Northwest
3. Vertigo
4. The Man Who Knew Too Much
5. The Day The Earth Stood Still
 
Love The Man Who Knew Too Much also SV. Even with Doris Day, and her belting out Que Sera Sera :huh: :wink:


The Big Carnival made a big impression on me when I first saw it. I couldn't believe Kirk Douglas would let it go so far, what a heartless jerk he was. I was pretty young and it wasn't the type of film that was shown a lot on tv. But I did catch it every so often, and saw it again not too long ago. Monkeyskin, if you had an all systems player could you buy it here and still be able to watch it? Or I could record it next time it's on here and send it off to you.

And Kirk Douglas is under-appreciated, I agree. He's played so many different roles and been in a lot of great films. And he even sings a pretty good song in The Big Sky, if I recall correctly :)
 
hardyharhar said:
Monkeyskin, if you had an all systems player could you buy it here and still be able to watch it? Or I could record it next time it's on here and send it off to you.
Click to expand...

Thanks very much for the offer but I can't seem to unlock my DVD player to play all regions. With the new Criterion edition out in the US I'm hoping it'll get a release over here before long.
 
Good luck, MS. Yeah, I meant all regions :huh:



Indy, I prefer Ed Wood now to actually viewing Plan 9 :shrug:

But I will mention the first two Creature from the Black Lagoon films :up:

:)
 
phanan said:
Funny how we did these lists, and then the other night, both Vertigo and Rear Window were shown back to back on the AMC channel.
Click to expand...


And I'm sure that AMC failed to show them in letterbox, and managed to pepper a whole lot of commercials during the broadcast.

A shame, as the network used to air films uninterrupted.

TCM FTW.

Anyone got their 40's list ready yet? I imagine the few people who were going to submit 50's lists have done so already...

Although with the public domain download site I mentioned in the other thread, maybe we can give people some extra time to fill in a few blanks. At least it might help Rashomon.

BTW, I'm about halfway through Stray Dog right now, though I don't think it's cracking my 40's Top 15.
 
I'm ready to go whenever with the 40s list, expect a good amount of noir to feature.

As for Stray Dog, it's a good film but nowhere near making my top 15 for the 40s or my favourite Kurosawa.
 
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