94 articles
12 Angry Men (1957 film)
12 Angry Men (1957) is Sidney Lumet's feature debut, a black-and-white courtroom drama adapted by Reginald Rose from his 1954 Studio One teleplay, starring Henry Fonda as the lone dissenter juror; a box-office failure that became a classic.
A Face in the Crowd (film)
A Face in the Crowd: 1957 Elia Kazan satire, Budd Schulberg screenplay, Andy Griffith's debut as demagogue Lonesome Rhodes; a 1957 flop later added to the National Film Registry.
A Geisha (祇園囃子)
A Geisha (祇園囃子, Gion Bayashi; Story of Two Geisha Girls) is Kenji Mizoguchi's 1953 Daiei drama, scripted by Yoshikata Yoda from Matsutaro Kawaguchi, about geisha Miyoharu and apprentice Eiko in Kyoto's Gion.
All About Eve
All About Eve (1950), Joseph L. Mankiewicz's drama starring Bette Davis and Anne Baxter, adapted from Mary Orr's story "The Wisdom of Eve"; record 14 Oscar nominations, six wins including Best Picture.
Anastasia (1956 film)
Anastasia (1956) is a Twentieth Century-Fox historical drama directed by Anatole Litvak, starring Ingrid Bergman as the woman claiming to be Grand Duchess Anastasia opposite Yul Brynner; Bergman won the 1957 Academy Award for Best Actress in her Hollywood comeback.
Anatomy of a Murder
Anatomy of a Murder is Otto Preminger's 1959 courtroom drama starring James Stewart, Lee Remick, Ben Gazzara, and George C. Scott, based on John D. Voelker's novel about a real 1952 Michigan murder case; it earned seven Oscar nominations.
Aventurera
Aventurera ("Adventuress") is a 1950 Mexican cabaretera musical melodrama directed by Alberto Gout, starring Ninón Sevilla as Elena Tejero, a drugged, prostituted woman who becomes a cabaret star and takes revenge; hailed in France by Cahiers du Cinéma and later ranked among Mexico's best films.
Blackboard Jungle
Blackboard Jungle (1955) is Richard Brooks's MGM drama, adapted from Evan Hunter's novel, starring Glenn Ford and Sidney Poitier as teacher and student in a violent New York vocational school; first film to feature rock 'n' roll via "Rock Around the Clock."
Cairo Station
Cairo Station (Bab el-Hadid, باب الحديد) is Youssef Chahine's 1958 Egyptian black-and-white crime drama, set in Cairo's central railway station, starring Chahine as the obsessed news vendor Qinawi; a box-office failure on release, later ranked the greatest Arab film.
Cela s'appelle l'Aurore
Cela s'appelle l'Aurore (This Is Called Dawn) is Luis Buñuel's 1956 France–Italy drama, adapted from Emmanuel Roblès's novel, starring Georges Marchal and Lucia Bosè, shot in Corsica, released 9 May 1956, and later restored in 4K by Tamasa.
Conflagration (炎上)
Conflagration (炎上, Enjo) is Kon Ichikawa's 1958 Daiei film adapting Yukio Mishima's novel The Temple of the Golden Pavilion, about a stuttering acolyte who burns Kyoto's temple; Raizo Ichikawa's first contemporary role, 99 minutes, black and white.
Davy Crockett, King of the Wild Frontier
Davy Crockett, King of the Wild Frontier is Disney's 1955 feature film, directed by Norman Foster and starring Fess Parker and Buddy Ebsen, edited from the first three Disneyland TV episodes covering the Creek War, Congress, and the Alamo.
Death in the Garden
Death in the Garden (La Mort en ce jardin, 1956) is a Luis Buñuel French-Mexican jungle adventure-drama starring Simone Signoret, Charles Vanel, Georges Marchal, and Michel Piccoli, about fugitives from a South American diamond-miners' uprising.
Early Summer (麦秋)
Early Summer (麦秋, Bakushū) is Yasujiro Ozu's 1951 Shochiku drama, released October 3, 1951, 124 minutes, starring Setsuko Hara as Noriko; the middle film of the Noriko trilogy with Late Spring and Tokyo Story, and a 1952 Kinema Junpo Best Film winner.
Él
Él (This Strange Passion) is Luis Buñuel's 1953 Mexican melodrama, written with Luis Alcoriza from Mercedes Pinto's autobiographical novel, starring Arturo de Córdova as a pathologically jealous husband and Delia Garcés as his wife Gloria.
Equinox Flower (彼岸花)
Equinox Flower (彼岸花, Higanbana) is Yasujiro Ozu's 1958 Shochiku comedy-drama, his first color film, shot in Agfacolor, about a father opposing his daughter's love marriage; 118 minutes, from Ton Satomi's novel.
Floating Clouds (浮雲)
Floating Clouds (浮雲, Ukigumo) is Mikio Naruse's 1955 Toho drama adapted from Fumiko Hayashi's final novel, starring Hideko Takamine and Masayuki Mori as lovers unable to part in postwar Japan; it topped the 1955 Kinema Junpo critics' poll.
Floating Weeds (浮草)
Floating Weeds (浮草, Ukigusa) is Yasujiro Ozu's 1959 Daiei color drama, a self-remake of his 1934 silent A Story of Floating Weeds, shot by Kazuo Miyagawa with Nakamura Ganjirō II, Machiko Kyō, and Ayako Wakao.
Fourteen Hours
Fourteen Hours (1951) is a Henry Hathaway drama for 20th Century-Fox, starring Paul Douglas and Richard Basehart, adapted from Joel Sayre's New Yorker story about John William Warde's 1938 hotel-ledge suicide.
Garden of Eden (1954 film)
Garden of Eden (1954) is Max Nosseck's American nudist-camp drama with Jamie O'Hara and Mickey Knox, the first nudist film in color, filmed at Lake Como Club near Tampa, and the subject of the 1957 New York Court of Appeals censorship ruling Excelsior Pictures Corp. v. Regents.
Gate of Hell (地獄門)
Gate of Hell (地獄門, Jigokumon) is a 1953 Daiei color period drama by Teinosuke Kinugasa, adapted from Kan Kikuchi, starring Kazuo Hasegawa and Machiko Kyo; it won the 1954 Cannes Grand Prix and two Academy Awards.
Gion Bayashi
Gion Bayashi (祇園囃子, A Geisha) is Kenji Mizoguchi's 1953 black-and-white Daiei drama about a Kyoto geisha, Miyoharu, training the orphan Eiko as a maiko, a postwar reworking of his 1936 Sisters of the Gion.
Glen or Glenda
Glen or Glenda (1953), also released as I Led Two Lives and I Changed My Sex, is Ed Wood's directorial debut: a low-budget exploitation drama about cross-dressing and sex-change surgery, starring Wood as Glen/Glenda with Bela Lugosi, later a cult trans-representation milestone.
Gone to Earth (1950 film)
Gone to Earth (1950) is Powell and Pressburger's Technicolor melodrama of Mary Webb's novel, starring Jennifer Jones as Hazel Woodus; Selznick recut it as The Wild Heart (1952), and a 4K restoration premiered in 2026.
I Live in Fear (生きものの記録)
I Live in Fear (生きものの記録, Record of a Living Being) is Akira Kurosawa's 1955 Toho drama in which Toshiro Mifune's foundry owner, terrified of nuclear war, tries to move his family to Brazil; a box-office failure, later Cannes-nominated.
Ikiru (生きる)
Ikiru (生きる, To Live) is Akira Kurosawa's 1952 Toho drama, 143 minutes, starring Takashi Shimura as dying bureaucrat Kanji Watanabe; Kinema Junpo Best Ten first place, 1954 Berlin festival award, remade as Living (2022).
Imitation of Life (1959 film)
Imitation of Life (1959) is Douglas Sirk's final Hollywood melodrama for Universal, a remake of the 1934 film of Fannie Hurst's novel, starring Lana Turner and Juanita Moore, about racial passing; a major hit, National Film Registry 2015.
La Strada
La Strada (1954) is Federico Fellini's Italian neorealist fable starring Giulietta Masina as Gelsomina, sold to strongman Zampanò (Anthony Quinn); first Oscar winner for Best Foreign-Language Film.
Les Cousins
Les Cousins (The Cousins) is Claude Chabrol's 1959 French New Wave drama, Golden Bear winner at Berlin, in which provincial law student Charles (Gérard Blain) loses Florence (Juliette Mayniel) to his cousin Paul (Jean-Claude Brialy) and dies by Paul's hand.
Limelight (1952 film)
Limelight (1952) is Charlie Chaplin's American comedy-drama, also called Rampenlicht, about washed-up clown Calvero rescuing ballerina Terry; his last US film, with Buster Keaton, and a belated 1972 Oscar for its score.