94 articles
Lola Montès
Lola Montès (1955) is Max Ophuls's final film, a French-West German CinemaScope melodrama starring Martine Carol as the courtesan Lola Montès, told in circus-framed flashbacks; a famous flop later restored and hailed as a masterpiece.
Los Olvidados
Los Olvidados (The Young and the Damned) is Luis Buñuel's 1950 Mexican film about street children in Mexico City; rejected at home, it won Best Director at Cannes 1951 and UNESCO Memory of the World status.
Love Is a Many-Splendored Thing (film)
Love Is a Many-Splendored Thing, 1955 Henry King film from Han Suyin's novel, starring Jennifer Jones and William Holden in 1949 Hong Kong; won three Oscars including Best Song.
Madame Freedom (자유부인)
Madame Freedom (자유부인, 自由夫人) is a 1956 South Korean melodrama by Han Hyung-mo, adapted from Jeong Bi-seok's serialized novel; a professor's wife enters Seoul's dance-hall world. It was 1956's top box-office hit and a registered cultural heritage.
Madeleine (1950 film)
Madeleine (1950) is David Lean's British courtroom drama starring Ann Todd as Madeleine Smith, tried in 1857 for poisoning her lover Emile L'Angelier; a 'not proven' verdict, an unsuccessful release, and later critical reassessment.
Main Street (1956 film)
Main Street (Calle Mayor) is Juan Antonio Bardem's 1956 Spanish-French black-and-white drama, adapted from Carlos Arniches, about a cruel courtship prank on a 35-year-old spinster; it won the FIPRESCI Prize at Venice 1956.
Marty (film)
Marty (1955 film), Delbert Mann's adaptation of Paddy Chayefsky's teleplay, stars Ernest Borgnine as a lonely Bronx butcher who meets Betsy Blair's schoolteacher; it won the first Palme d'Or and four Oscars including Best Picture.
Merry-Go-Round (1956 film)
Merry-Go-Round (Körhinta) is a 1956 Hungarian black-and-white drama by Zoltán Fábri, based on Imre Sarkadi, starring Mari Törőcsik; a Cannes 1956 competition entry and Budapest 12 classic.
Miss Oyu (お遊さま)
Miss Oyu (お遊さま, Oyu-sama) is Kenji Mizoguchi's 1951 Daiei drama, his first film for Daiei and first with cinematographer Kazuo Miyagawa, adapting Tanizaki's The Reed Cutter about a widow, her sister, and a sham marriage.
Mister Roberts (1955 film)
Mister Roberts (1955) is a Warner Bros. comedy-drama directed by John Ford and Mervyn LeRoy, starring Henry Fonda, James Cagney, William Powell, and Oscar winner Jack Lemmon, based on Heggen's novel and Broadway play.
Miyamoto Musashi (1954 film)
Miyamoto Musashi (宮本武蔵, US title Samurai) is Hiroshi Inagaki's 1954 Toho Eastmancolor film starring Toshiro Mifune, first of the Samurai trilogy adapted from Eiji Yoshikawa's novel, winner of an Academy Honorary Award.
Moulin Rouge (1952 film)
Moulin Rouge (1952) is John Huston's Technicolor biopic of Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, starring José Ferrer, based on Pierre La Mure's novel; it won two of seven Oscars for its Lautrec-style color design.
Nazarín
Nazarín (1959) is Luis Buñuel's Mexican black-and-white drama adapted from Benito Pérez Galdós's 1895 novel, starring Francisco Rabal as a quixotic priest; it won the International Prize at Cannes 1959 and appears on the 1995 Vatican film list.
Nights of Cabiria
Nights of Cabiria (Le notti di Cabiria), Fellini's 1957 black-and-white drama starring Giulietta Masina as a Rome prostitute, won the 1958 Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film and Cannes Best Actress.
Old Yeller (film)
Old Yeller (1957) is Walt Disney's live-action drama directed by Robert Stevenson, adapted from Fred Gipson's Newbery Honor novel about a Texas frontier boy (Tommy Kirk) and his loyal dog Spike; it grossed over $8 million, holds a 100% Tomatometer, and is in the National Film Registry.
Peyton Place (film)
Peyton Place (1957 film), also known as Jerry Wald's Production of Peyton Place, is a Mark Robson melodrama starring Lana Turner, adapted from Grace Metalious's novel, filmed in Camden, Maine, with nine Oscar nominations.
Portrait of Madame Yuki (雪夫人絵図)
Portrait of Madame Yuki (雪夫人絵図, Yuki Fujin Ezu), also released as Tragedy of Madame Snow, is Kenji Mizoguchi's 1950 Shin-Toho drama adapted from Funahashi Seiichi's novel, starring Michiyo Kogure as an aristocrat destroyed by her marriage.
Rashomon (羅生門)
Rashomon (羅生門) is Akira Kurosawa's 1950 Daiei black-and-white film, based on Akutagawa's "In a Grove", in which four witnesses give contradictory accounts of a rape and murder; it won the 1951 Venice Golden Lion and an Academy Honorary Award.
Repast (めし)
Repast (めし, Meshi) is Mikio Naruse's 1951 Toho drama starring Setsuko Hara and Ken Uehara as a couple in a five-year marriage rut in Osaka, adapted from Fumiko Hayashi's unfinished final serial, with a contested added happy ending and Blue Ribbon and Mainichi awards.
Room at the Top
Room at the Top (1958) is Jack Clayton's British drama, adapted from John Braine's 1957 novel, starring Laurence Harvey and Oscar-winning Simone Signoret; it launched the British New Wave kitchen-sink cycle and won two Academy Awards.
Sansho the Bailiff (山椒大夫)
Sansho the Bailiff (山椒大夫, Sansho Dayu) is Kenji Mizoguchi's 1954 Daiei film adapted from Mori Ogai's novel about enslaved siblings Zushio and Anju; it won the 1954 Venice Silver Lion.
Sawdust and Tinsel
Sawdust and Tinsel (Gycklarnas afton, aka The Naked Night) is Ingmar Bergman's 1953 Swedish circus drama about humiliation, his first Sandrews production and first collaboration with cinematographer Sven Nykvist.
Sayonara
Sayonara (サヨナラ) is Joshua Logan's 1957 Warner Bros. romantic drama, adapted by Paul Osborn from James A. Michener's 1954 novel, starring Marlon Brando as an Air Force major in Korea-era Japan who falls for performer Miiko Taka; it won four Oscars from ten nominations.
Scandal (醜聞) (1950 film)
Scandal (醜聞, Shūbun/Sukyandaru) is Akira Kurosawa's 1950 Shochiku drama in which painter Ichiro Aoye (Toshiro Mifune) and singer Miyako Saijo (Yoshiko Yamaguchi) sue a tabloid over a fabricated affair, with Takashi Shimura as the bribed lawyer Hiruta.
Sissi (film)
Sissi (1955) is an Austrian historical romance film by Ernst Marischka, the first of the Sissi trilogy, starring Romy Schneider as Empress Elisabeth and Karlheinz Böhm as Franz Joseph; a record postwar Austrian box-office hit and German Christmas TV tradition.
Some Came Running
Some Came Running is Vincente Minnelli's 1958 MGM drama from James Jones's novel, starring Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, and Shirley MacLaine, about a veteran novelist returning to his Indiana hometown; it earned five Oscar nominations and marked the Rat Pack's first joint screen appearance.
Street of Shame (赤線地帯)
Street of Shame (赤線地帯, Akasen chitai) is Kenji Mizoguchi's 1956 Daiei ensemble drama about women in a Yoshiwara brothel facing the Prostitution Prevention Law; his final film, released March 18, 1956, 85 minutes, starring Machiko Kyō and Ayako Wakao.
Susana
Susana (Susana: Demonio y carne, The Devil and the Flesh) is Luis Buñuel's 1951 Mexican black-and-white melodrama: a reformatory escapee destabilizes a wealthy ranch family. Shot in 20 days at Churubusco, premiered 11 April 1951; distinct from the 2000 Malayalam Susanna and the 1980 Blaustein documentary.
The Bad and the Beautiful
The Bad and the Beautiful (1952) is a Vincente Minnelli MGM melodrama starring Kirk Douglas as ruthless producer Jonathan Shields, with Lana Turner and Gloria Grahame; it won five Oscars and entered the National Film Registry in 2002.
The Ballad of Narayama (楢山節考) (1958 film)
The Ballad of Narayama (楢山節考, Narayama bushikō) is Keisuke Kinoshita's 1958 Shochiku film, first adaptation of Fukazawa's novel about ubasute, staged with kabuki artifice; Kinema Junpo's 1958 No. 1.