13 Movies From the 1950s Everyone Should See At Least Once

Within the fashionable period, extra individuals are watching movies at residence. That makes this a good time to compensate for important cinema classics in your house theater, with timeless, esteemed movies available throughout digital platforms and apps. Most of the biggest worldwide and Hollywood movies in historical past are from the Fifties decade.

The Fifties noticed the peak of the golden age of Hollywood and the studio system. Progressive filmmaking and industrial hits intersected. A number of of the last decade’s most interesting maintain up as very important leisure for movie buffs in addition to extra informal audiences. These are must-see genre-defining motion pictures that proceed to be influential within the {industry} at the moment.

13 ‘Vertigo’ (1958)

Directed by Alfred Hitchcock

After a Greatest Image win for Rebecca within the Nineteen Forties, Alfred Hitchcock‘s profession flourished in Hollywood. The ’50s noticed the discharge of a lot of his biggest and hottest works, together with Strangers on a Prepare, Rear Window and North by Northwest.

Initially a crucial and industrial disappointment, the thematically darkish and artistically vibrant Vertigo stars Jimmy Stewart towards kind as a poisonous non-public eye in a spiraling, damaging internet of obsession with a mysterious blonde (Kim Novak). It is now thought to be Hitchcock’s most interesting, beating Citizen Kane for the distinction of finest movie ever made in Sight & Sound’s 2012 critics’ ballot.

12 ’12 Offended Males’ (1957)

Directed by Sidney Lumet

Henry Fonda performs heroic Juror 8 in Sidney Lumet‘s life-affirming authorized drama, 12 Offended Males, which is a masterpiece centered on the trial of an inner-city teen suspected of homicide. Juror 8’s compassion casts doubts upon a beforehand apathetic trial, and a chaotic but thought-provoking debate ensues among the many well-written characters.

The legacy and accomplishment of 12 Offended Males is difficult to overstate. Restricted virtually completely to a single set with astounding performances and revolutionary digital camera work that makes it relentlessly compelling, the image is common in its understanding of various personalities struggling to seek out frequent floor and get alongside.

11 ‘Some Like It Sizzling’ (1959)

Directed by Billy Wilder

Billy Wilder‘s irreverent intercourse comedy stars Tony Curtis and Jack Lemmon as struggling musicians who cross-dress in hiding after witnessing against the law. Some Prefer it Sizzling co-stars an entertaining and hilarious Marilyn Monroe because the lovesick singer and ukulele strummer Sugar Kane.

A large hit with critics and on the field workplace, Some Like It Sizzling basically served a dying blow to previous Hollywood’s code of censorship, with uncommonly frank depictions of taboo subjects. Often cited as the best comedy ever made, Some Prefer it Sizzling is a reference level for Wilder’s mastery throughout nearly all genres.

10 ‘The Searchers’ (1956)

Directed by John Ford

A powerful contender for finest American Western ever made, John Ford‘s epic stars John Wayne as a Civil Conflict vet who returns residence solely to quickly discover that somebody has kidnapped members of his brother’s household. The revered Western follows his seek for his kidnapped niece (Natalie Wooden), which quickly leads him deep into Comanche territory.

Along with vibrant shade filmmaking and widescreen vistas that also pop, The Searchers is an ever-timely, ahead-of-its-time take a look at bigotry, and the load of retribution. It needs to be thought-about important viewing for any fan of Westerns.

9 ‘Sundown Boulevard’ (1950)

Directed by Billy Wilder

Arguably Hollywood’s best-ever film about itself, Billy Wilder’s esteemed noir stars Gloria Swanson as a washed-up silent movie star who attracts a struggling screenwriter (William Holden) into her world of insanity as she plots a return to the display screen. The younger screenwriter believes he can use her for his personal objectives, however quickly finds himself entangled in a messy and harmful state of affairs.

One of many comparatively few movies with the excellence of being nominated in all 4 appearing Oscar classes, Sundown Boulevard is an entertaining, artistically adroit black comedy whose truths in regards to the leisure {industry} nonetheless maintain relevance.

8 ‘All About Eve’ (1950)

Directed by Joseph L. Mankiewicz

Bette Davis‘ all-time most memorable flip is in Joseph L. Mankiewicz‘s backstage dramedy, winner of six Oscars together with Greatest Image. The display screen legend stars as stage veteran Margo Channing, who’s navigating a midlife disaster as a hungry, ruthless youthful star (Anne Baxter) works her approach up the totem pole.

Based mostly on the 1946 brief story “The Knowledge of Eve” by Mary Orr, All About Eve is such a potent work of appearing and filmmaking craft that it is unlikely to ever age. It is a really flawless film with a script that finally ends up on each roundup of the best screenplays, which is one thing that may doubtless by no means change.

7 ‘Insurgent With no Trigger’ (1955)

Directed by Nicholas Ray

A basic account of youthful unrest, Nicholas Ray‘s widescreen drama is one in all three footage that outlined James Dean’s legendary, tragically brief profession (together with Large and East of Eden). Insurgent With no Trigger hit theaters almost a month after Dean’s deadly auto crash in September 1955.

Dean’s most iconic movie co-stars Natalie Wooden and Sal Mineo. They play a trio of emotionally confused middle-class teenagers in Los Angeles. After the troublemaker, Jim Stark (Dean), arrives in a brand new city, he desires to begin contemporary. This noble objective is sophisticated by a friendship that develops between him and his classmate Plato (Mineo) and by a crush he varieties on Judy (Wooden), who’s already in a relationship.

6 ‘Godzilla’ (1954)

Directed by Ishirō Honda

Particularly in gentle of the latest impressed excesses of box-office hits like 2014’s reboot, Godzilla vs. Kong, Godzilla vs. Kong: The New Empire, and even the wonderful if comparatively low-fi innovation and pleasure of final 12 months’s Godzilla Minus One), it is putting how quiet and somber a movie began all of it.

In Ishirō Honda‘s unique Gojira, bomb testing awakens an historical beast that then units its sights (and its fireplace breath) on terrorizing Japan. The handmade really feel of Gojira is extra appealingly retro than dated, and it is nonetheless a strikingly related movie fueled by the aftershock of the Second World Conflict and rising worldwide paranoia. It is a basic monster movie; it is much more than that, too.

5 ‘The Night time of the Hunter’ (1955)

Directed by Charles Laughton

One of many strangest movies you are doubtless ever to see, and completely among the finest. A German Expressionism-accented story of a small-town serial killer, The Night time of the Hunter‘s singularity and lurid content material repulsed audiences. Charles Laughton‘s filmmaking profession unsurprisingly ended abruptly.

For many years now, The Night time of the Hunter has been re-assessed as a daunting masterpiece.Robert Mitchum‘s false prophet Harry Powell is among the many most unsettling villains in movie historical past. Reverend Powell is a non secular fanatic by and thru, who additionally occurs to be a ruthless serial killer who stalks girls earlier than utilizing their sexuality to lure in males.

4 ‘Ben-Hur’ (1959)

Directed by William Wyler

From the e-book Ben-Hur: A Story of the Christ, William Wyler‘s massively budgeted epic tells the story of a wrongfully accused Jewish noble whose life parallels the lifetime of Jesus and occasions of the New Testomony. That is star Charlton Heston‘s finest and most iconic efficiency, and Ben-Hur, well-known for its breathtaking climactic chariot race, set an all-time document for Oscar wins solely matched by Titanic and The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King (11 in whole).

This is not the one model of Ben-Hur on display screen. Along with a brief movie from the silent period, a quite magnificent 1925 characteristic may be readily discovered on-line. A half-hearted 2016 remake is, sadly, hilarious. It bombed.

3 ‘Singin’ within the Rain’ (1952)

Directed by Stanley Donen

Whereas Singin’ within the Rain was thought-about a modest success in its day, StanleyDonen‘s splashy Technicolor musical comedy is now oft-cited because the excessive level of its style. Most of the finest musical numbers ever on movie are right here, together with the title monitor, Donald O’Connor‘s epically comedian “Make ‘Em Chuckle,” and the prolonged “Broadway Melody.”

Within the famend movie, Gene Kelly stars as a silent movie star adjusting to the industry-shaking daybreak of the talkies. Kelly performs Don Lockwood, who is commonly solid alongside Lina Lamont (Jean Hagen) as a romantic couple. When their most up-to-date film is become a musical, Lina struggles to seek out her voice and is pissed off that the studio has determined to rent aspiring actor Kathy Selden (Debbie Reynolds) to document over her voice.

2 ‘Seven Samurai’ (1954)

Directed by Akira Kurosawa

Arguably the best and most influential motion film of all time, Akira Kurosawa‘s legendary masterpiece chronicles the plight of farmers in feudal Japan, who look to samurai for protection from bandits as harvest attracts close to. This is likely one of the most completely composed movement footage in historical past, as well-known for its lighting and immaculate digital camera work as it’s for its sharply drawn characters and uniformly wonderful, timeless performances.

The mark of Seven Samurai is obvious in too many movies that adopted to depend. The movie’s likeness to an American Western was famous by critics from the soar, so it solely is sensible that essentially the most well-known of those movies is John Sturges‘ iconic 1960 Western The Magnificent Seven.

1 ‘Roman Vacation’ (1953)

Directed by William Wyler

It is laborious to think about a extra excellent movie for Valentine’s Day than William Wyler’s bittersweet rom-com starring Audrey Hepburn and Gregory Peck, as a princess and the journalist she has a fling with. It begins when Princess Ann escapes her European tour for an evening whereas in Rome the place an initially unlucky occasion quickly turns right into a meet-cute when American reporter Joe Bradley (Peck) finds her handed out on a park bench.

Co-written by blacklisted screenwriter Donald Trumbo (his identify was faraway from the credit till latest years), Roman Vacation was a breakthrough for Hepburn, who received the Oscar for Greatest Actress. It is maybe the crown jewel of Hepburn’s storied Hollywood legacy. It is not possible to discover a extra endearing rom-com than Roman Vacation.