35 articles
An Inspector Calls (1954 film)
An Inspector Calls (1954 film), directed by Guy Hamilton, adapts J. B. Priestley's 1945 play. Alastair Sim stars as Inspector Poole investigating a young woman's death; British Lion, black and white, 1h 20m.
Big Deal on Madonna Street
Big Deal on Madonna Street (I soliti ignoti) is Mario Monicelli's 1958 Italian heist comedy about bungling Roman burglars robbing a pawnshop; it founded commedia all'italiana, was Oscar-nominated, and spawned remakes and a Fosse musical.
Blind Date (1959 film)
Blind Date (1959 film), released as Chance Meeting, is a British black-and-white crime thriller directed by Joseph Losey. Hardy Krüger plays a painter accused of killing a diplomat's mistress.
Casque d'Or
Casque d'Or (1952) is Jacques Becker's Belle Époque French drama starring Simone Signoret as Marie, named for her golden hair, and Serge Reggiani; a French box-office failure later ranked among France's greatest films.
Compulsion (1959 film)
Compulsion (1959) is Richard Fleischer's black-and-white courtroom drama, adapted from Meyer Levin's 1956 novel about the 1924 Leopold-Loeb murder, starring Orson Welles, Dean Stockwell, and Bradford Dillman, who shared Cannes Best Actor.
Crime in the Streets
Crime in the Streets is a 1956 American juvenile-delinquency drama directed by Don Siegel from Reginald Rose's teleplay, starring John Cassavetes as gang leader Frankie Dane, with James Whitmore, Sal Mineo, and Mark Rydell.
Death of a Cyclist
Death of a Cyclist (Muerte de un ciclista) is Juan Antonio Bardem's 1955 Spanish-Italian drama starring Lucía Bosé and Alberto Closas, about adulterous lovers who kill a cyclist and flee; it won Cannes FIPRESCI 1955 and defied Francoist censorship.
Detective Story (1951 film)
Detective Story is William Wyler's 1951 Paramount crime drama, also called Sidney Kingsley's Detective Story, adapted from Kingsley's 1949 Broadway play. Kirk Douglas plays rigid Detective Jim McLeod; four Oscar nominations, no wins; Lee Grant's screen debut.
Dial M for Murder
Dial M for Murder (1954) is Alfred Hitchcock's thriller adapted by Frederick Knott from his stage play, starring Ray Milland, Grace Kelly, and Robert Cummings; shot in 3-D, released mostly flat, grossing $6.1 million.
In a Lonely Place
In a Lonely Place is a 1950 film noir directed by Nicholas Ray, starring Humphrey Bogart as murder-suspect screenwriter Dixon Steele and Gloria Grahame as his alibi and lover Laurel Gray, adapted from Dorothy B. Hughes's 1947 novel.
Kiss Me Deadly
Kiss Me Deadly (1955) is Robert Aldrich's film noir adaptation of Mickey Spillane's Mike Hammer novel, starring Ralph Meeker, with a famous atomic ending restored in 1997 after decades of circulation in a shortened cut.
Odds Against Tomorrow
Odds Against Tomorrow (1959) is a Robert Wise film noir heist drama starring Harry Belafonte, Robert Ryan, and Ed Begley, written by blacklisted Abraham Polonsky, scored by John Lewis, and centered on racism destroying a bank robbery.
On the Waterfront
On the Waterfront, 1954 Elia Kazan drama starring Marlon Brando as Terry Malloy, a Hoboken dockworker testifying against corrupt union boss Johnny Friendly; won eight Oscars including Best Picture.
Our Man in Havana
Our Man in Havana is a 1959 Carol Reed comedy spy film, also known as Nuestro hombre en La Habana, adapted by Graham Greene from his 1958 novel, starring Alec Guinness as vacuum salesman turned fake spy in pre-revolutionary Cuba.
Rear Window
Rear Window (1954) is Alfred Hitchcock's mystery thriller starring James Stewart and Grace Kelly, adapted from Cornell Woolrich's "It Had to Be Murder"; shot on one Paramount set, four Oscar nominations, re-released 1983 after rights litigation.
Rififi
Rififi (Du rififi chez les hommes) is Jules Dassin's 1955 French heist film noir, made in exile after his Hollywood blacklisting, starring Jean Servais, famous for its half-hour silent burglary sequence and Cannes best director prize.
Sapphire (1959 film)
Sapphire (1959) is a British police procedural by Basil Dearden and Michael Relph, written by Janet Green, in which the Hampstead Heath murder of Sapphire Robbins, a light-skinned black woman passing as white, exposes London racism; it won the 1959 BAFTA for Best Film.
Suddenly (1954 film)
Suddenly (1954) is a Lewis Allen film noir thriller starring Frank Sinatra as assassin John Baron, who takes a California family hostage to shoot the President; based on Richard Sale's story "Active Duty," later withdrawn after the JFK assassination.
Suddenly, Last Summer (film)
Suddenly, Last Summer is a 1959 Columbia Pictures drama directed by Joseph L. Mankiewicz, starring Elizabeth Taylor, Katharine Hepburn, and Montgomery Clift, adapted by Gore Vidal from Tennessee Williams's one-act play about a lobotomy plot concealing a cousin's cannibalistic death.
The Asphalt Jungle
The Asphalt Jungle (1950) is John Huston's MGM heist film noir, adapted from W.R. Burnett's novel, starring Sterling Hayden, Sam Jaffe, and Marilyn Monroe in her first major credit; it set the template for later heist films.
The Bad Seed (1956 film)
The Bad Seed (1956) is a Warner Bros. melodrama directed by Mervyn LeRoy, adapted from William March's novel and Maxwell Anderson's play, starring Nancy Kelly and Patty McCormack as mother and murderous daughter Rhoda, with a censored lightning-bolt ending and curtain-call epilogue.
The Blue Lamp
The Blue Lamp (1950) is a Basil Dearden Ealing Studios police drama starring Jack Warner as PC George Dixon, Dirk Bogarde as Tom Riley, and Jimmy Hanley; top British film of 1950, BAFTA Best British Film, basis for Dixon of Dock Green.
The Desperate Hours
The Desperate Hours: 1955 William Wyler Paramount crime drama starring Humphrey Bogart and Fredric March, from Joseph Hayes's 1954 novel and Tony-winning play, based on the 1952 Hill family hostage case; remade unsuccessfully in 1990.
The Great St. Louis Bank Robbery
The Great St. Louis Bank Robbery (onscreen title The St. Louis Bank Robbery) is a 1959 black-and-white American crime drama directed by Charles Guggenheim and John Stix, starring Steve McQueen as a getaway driver, based on the real 1953 Southwest Bank robbery and shot on location in St. Louis.
The Killing (film)
The Killing is Stanley Kubrick's 1956 film noir heist film, his third feature and first mature work, adapted from Lionel White's Clean Break, starring Sterling Hayden, with a non-chronological racetrack-robbery narrative that influenced Reservoir Dogs.
The Ladykillers (1955 film)
The Ladykillers (1955) is an Ealing Studios British black comedy directed by Alexander Mackendrick, written by William Rose, starring Alec Guinness, Peter Sellers, and Katie Johnson; thieves posing as a string quintet rob a bank van via King's Cross and are undone by their landlady.
The Lavender Hill Mob
The Lavender Hill Mob is a 1951 Ealing Studios comedy directed by Charles Crichton, written by T.E.B. Clarke, starring Alec Guinness as bank clerk Henry Holland, who steals gold bullion and smuggles it as Eiffel Tower paperweights; it won the 1953 Oscar for Best Story and Screenplay.
The Man Who Knew Too Much (1956 film)
The Man Who Knew Too Much (1956) is Alfred Hitchcock's only remake, of his 1934 thriller: James Stewart and Doris Day in Morocco and London, with the Oscar-winning song Que Sera, Sera and Herrmann's Albert Hall sequence.
The Wild One
The Wild One (1953) is László Benedek's outlaw biker drama starring Marlon Brando as Johnny Strabler, based on Frank Rooney's Harper's story about the 1947 Hollister, California motorcycle incident, banned for years in the UK.
The Wreck of the Mary Deare
The Wreck of the Mary Deare is a 1959 MGM sea-adventure drama directed by Michael Anderson, starring Gary Cooper and Charlton Heston, adapted by Eric Ambler from Hammond Innes's 1956 novel about a scuttled freighter and a court of inquiry.