Favourite Films: 1950-1959 Edition

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gk_891

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What are your favourite films from this decade?

There are so many classics from this decade I haven't seen yet but my list in random order is:

Rashomon
Los Olvidados
Rear Window
The Seventh Seal
A Streetcar Named Desire
La Strada
High Noon
The 400 Blows
Throne of Blood
The Hidden Fortress
The Apu Trilogy: Pather Panchali, Aparajito, Apur Sansar
Ben Hur
The Seven Samurai
The Searchers
Summer with Monika
Vertigo
Ashes and Diamonds
Floating Weeds
 
Ben Hur. One of my all time favorites, solidly in my top ten for life.
There is a remake coming out this summer and I am just so unsure if this is a good thing or a bad thing....
 
Most of my faves are already listed.

Adding The Ten Commandments (1956)
 
TCM and Fathom Events did a big screen showing of the Ten Commandments recently. OMG the costumes and the sets; do they ever pop on the big screen.

Anne Baxter isn't the only one going "Moses, Moses"; Yul Brynner gets to toss off a few of those too. I really enjoyed Brynner's performance, much more so than when I've seen the movie on TV.

This was the full on experience: DeMille coming out before the curtain to speak, the overture, the intermission, etc. - all the stuff that gets cut during TV showings.

I love this movie.
 
quartz said:
Ben Hur. One of my all time favorites, solidly in my top ten for life.
There is a remake coming out this summer and I am just so unsure if this is a good thing or a bad thing....
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The 1959 version is itself a remake of the first version made in the 1920's by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer.

I had not heard that a second remake is on its way. :confused: Unfortunately, the biggest part of its action sequences will probably be CGI, and the whole movie will look like a damn video game instead of a FILM. :angryfire
 
Oh, i have a lot!

Billy Wilder: Some Like It Hot, Witness for the Prosecution
Hitchcock: Stage Fright, North by Northwest, Vertigo
Kenji Mizoguchi: Sansho the Bailiff, The Life of Oharu (with Kinuyo Tanaka)
Yasujiro Ozu: Tokyo Story, Equinox Flower
Anthony Mann: The Furies (with Barbara Stanwyck)
Fritz Lang: Clash by Night (also with Stanwyck)
Vittorio De Sica: Umberto D.
Youssef Chahine: Cairo Station
Jean Renoir: The River, The Golden Coach (with Anna Magnani)
 
VALuvsMKwan said:
The 1959 version is itself a remake of the first version made in the 1920's by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer.

I had not heard that a second remake is on its way. :confused: Unfortunately, the biggest part of its action sequences will probably be CGI, and the whole movie will look like a damn video game instead of a FILM. :angryfire
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I have not seen the 1920's version, have you? How does it compare to the 59 version?
 
Room For One More
White Christmas
Rear Window
On The Waterfront
All About Eve
High Noon
The Quiet Man
A Face In The Crowd
Picnic
The Pajama Game
The Devil's Disciple
The Blob
 
The only ones I have watched are the three James Dean movies and a few Hitchcock films- Psycho (can't say it's my favorite), Dial M for Murder and The man who knew too much.

I see Roman a Holiday listed that was a good movie.

Was Ben Hur from this era? It was a really good movie.
 
Cachoo said:
I'm impressed with the depth of gk's movie knowledge. Clearly there are so many films, especially foreign films that I've never seen.
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Aww, thank you. I used to be an avid movie watcher when I was a teenager and I remember seeking out as many obscure movies as possible back when video/dvd stores were still around. But my attention span has shrunk over the years and it's actually become challenging for me to even get through opening credits of films these days. :(
 
Adding to my list:

Born Yesterday with the great Judy Holliday, one of the best comedies ever
The Lemon Drop Kid with Bob Hope, a rather cynical Christmas comedy introducing the now famous song "Silver Bells." Who would know that it was originally sung as background for a gang of crooks dressed up as Santa Clauses, ringing bells to collect donations for a phony charity?
Sunset Boulevard - one of Billy Wilder's greatest, with Gloria ("I'm ready for my closeup") Swanson.
 
quartz said:
I have not seen the 1920's version, have you? How does it compare to the 59 version?
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Look for it on "Turner Classic Movies".
A classic of its" time; particularly for the special effects.

One of the things that I respect about the 1959 film, is that the acting is wonderful.
It never becomes "camp" at all.
 
Hans Christian Andersen (with Danny Kaye)
Singin' in the Rain
Ben Hur
The 10 Commandments
Exodus
South Pacific
Oklahoma
The King & I
Alice in Wonderland
Sleeping Beauty
 
Two of my favourite movie musicals of all time were made in the 50s: High Society and Kiss Me Kate. In my view, both are better than the "bigger" musicals of that decade, South Pacific and Oklahoma (though I do like those too, esp. South Pacific). Of course it helps that I absolutely love every single note of music Cole Porter ever wrote, but there's so much more to these movies than that. Especially Kiss Me Kate -- the early 3D work, the wit, the costumes, and the spectacular ballet scene with a very young Bob Fosse.

And speaking of musicals, I can't believe no one else has mentioned An American In Paris. Not actually on my top-ten list, but the music is spectacular, and it was groundbreaking in terms of dance.

It really was a great decade for musicals!
 
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