The 32 best '50s movies

2024-01-30

EntertainmentMoviesThe 32 best ’50s moviesWhen you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission.Here’s how it works.

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(Image credit: MGM)

Gene Kelly sings in the rain, in Singin' in the Rain

In the first decade after the fallout of World War II, the global movie industry hadn’t missed a step. But which of them are actually the greatest?

Throughout the middle of the 20th century, the art of filmmaking evolved through the refinement of the commercial studio style. At the same time, progressive experimentations, like electronic music scoring to widespread adoption of Technicolor and widescreen panorama, took the medium to the next level. While all ofthatwas happening, movie stars grew more accustomed to being the sole reasons why the public went to see movies in the first place.

The arena of cinema expanded throughout the 1950s, too. While American-made Hollywood pictures enjoyed cultural and commercial dominance, movies from other parts of the world – Japan, Sweden, Italy, France, and elsewhere – began entering the conversation.

While the prevailing image of the 1950s may be of wholesome American values, the greatest movies to come out of those years were anything but. Amid Communist witch hunts, the beginning of the Cold War, and the atrocities committed and endured during World War II, the best movies of the 1950s are steeped in paranoia, psychological obsession, and foolish bravery against insurmountable odds. But there was singing and dancing, too.

To prove just how atmospherically diverse the 1950s actually were, here are 32 of the best movies of the decade.

32. The Ten Commandments (1956)

(Image credit: Paramount)

Charlton Heston as Moses holds a cane in front of thunderstorm clouds in The Ten Commandments

Cecil B. DeMille’s final film is arguably his masterpiece, a Hollywood blockbuster of literally biblical proportions. Based on multiple source texts including Doroth Clarke Wilson’s Prince of Egypt, J. H. Ingraham’s Pillar of Fire, not to mention the Bible, The Ten Commandments follows Moses (Chartlon Heston) from his birth and adoption in Egypt to his acceptance of God’s rules atop Mount Sinai. More than just a lavishly designed epic biopic, The Ten Commandments also tells of Moses’ riveting sibling rivalry with Ramses II (Yul Brynner). Whatever your beliefs, you cannot deny its spectacular majesty. Even now, The Ten Commandments is still what all mega-expensive Hollywood blockbusters should strive to emulate.

31. Cinderella (1950)

(Image credit: Disney)

Cinderella wears her iconic white dress

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30. Forbidden Planet (1956)

(Image credit: MGM)

Inside a sci-fi spaceship in the movie Forbidden Planet

Forbidden Planet$4.99at Amazon$11.99at Amazon

Forbidden Planet

$4.99at Amazon$11.99at Amazon

$4.99at Amazon

$11.99at Amazon

29. The Seventh Seal (1957)

(Image credit: SF Studios)

A knight and Death play chess in a remote beach in The Seventh Seal

28. Sunset Boulevard (1950)

(Image credit: Paramount)

Gloria Swanson, in makeup and dress, walking in front of police cameras in Sunset Boulevard

27. Les Diaboliques (1955)

(Image credit: Cinédis)

A woman drowns her husband in the bathtub in the horror thriller Les Diaboliques

26. Roman Holiday (1953)

(Image credit: Paramount)

Audrey Hepburn rides a scooter in Roman Holiday

25. Shane (1953)

(Image credit: Paramount)

Alan Ladd, wearing a cowboy hat, in the movie Shane

24. Some Like It Hot (1959)

(Image credit: United Artists)

Marilyn Monroe and Tony Curtis escape on a boat in Some Like It Hot

23. Singin’ in the Rain (1952)

(Image credit: MGM)

The cast of Singin' in the Rain perform “Good Morning” in a kitchen

22. Gojira (1954)

(Image credit: Toho)

The original Godzilla approaches electric wires in Gojira

Over ten years after Japan was on the receiving end of the nuclear bombardment that ended World War II, an unholy monster emerged from the sea to remind mankind of its imminent annihilation. Known to the western world as Godzilla, the original Japanese incarnation Gojira from Ishiro Honda is a towering masterpiece of monster horror where the atrocities of man and beast are indistinguishable. While “Godzilla” has since become a comic hero on both sides of the Pacific, remakes and reboots throughout the 21st century have sought to restore the Big G’s original shades as a Lovecraft-esque nightmare. Some have succeeded. But when they fail, there is still Gojira.

21. The Quiet Man (1952)

(Image credit: Republic Pictures)

John Wayne and Maureen O’Hara walk in a lush green Irish countryside in 1920s clothing in The Quiet Man

Though John Wayne was best known as a hero of Hollywood Westerns, director John Ford gives audiences a different flavor of the icon in his lush rom-com The Quiet Man, based on a Saturday Evening Post short story. Set in the Irish countryside in the 1920s, John Wayne plays Trooper Thorn, an Irish-born American boxer looking to buy his family’s old farm when he falls in love with fiery local Mary Kate (Maureen O’Hara). Filmed in vivid Technicolor, Ford’s picture truly feels alive in its breathtaking snapshots of rural Ireland, not to mention O’Hara’s beautiful red hair that pops against the abundant greenery. While its depiction of gender roles feels wildly outdated, you can’t help but bask in the scenery that Ford captures.

20. Rebel Without a Cause (1955)

(Image credit: Warner Bros.)

James Dean in his iconic red jacket in Rebel Without a Cause

19. Night and the City (1950)

(Image credit: 20th Century Studios)

Two noir figures make a deal in a bar in Night and the City

Fearing his own blacklisting amid McCarthyism, filmmaker Jules Dassin escaped to London and made a movie steeped in suspicion, despair, and mistrust. In Night and the City, Richard Widmark plays Harry Fabian, a self-destructive American con-man who gets himself in on the action of London’s professional wrestling circuit. While often overlooked compared to other noir classics, Night and the City hits like a body slam as a seedy thriller that epitomizes British pulp fiction, its back alleys and bar rooms teeming with amoral characters whose only loyalties are to themselves. While two different versions of the movie exist with contrasting endings – one for British audiences, another for Americans – Dassin insists the cynical American cut hews closer to his vision.

18. Tokyo Story (1953)

(Image credit: Shochiku)

Two Japanese elders enjoy tea in their home in Tokyo Story

Akira Kurosawa emerged in the 1950s as one of Japan’s most celebrated auteurs. But among his greatest contemporaries was Yasujiro Ozu, whose modernist, minimalistic style contrasts heavily from Kurosawa’s sweeping operatics. In 1953, Ozu helmed what is widely considered one of his masterpieces: Tokyo Story, about a retired couple traveling to Tokyo to visit their four living adult children. Ozu’s movie, which maintains a slow pace and a camera that almost never moves, explores the Western world’s immediate influence over Japan in the years after World War II and the universal alienation of parents from their growing offspring. While not a comedy, its gentle sense of humor reveals the resplendent beauty found in the everyday lives of the lower middle class.

17. Horror of Dracula (1958)

(Image credit: Universal)

Christopher Lee as Dracula in Horror of Dracula

16. From Here to Eternity (1953)

(Image credit: Columbia)

Montgomery Clift and Donna Reed talk in a crowded bar in From Here to Eternity

In Fred Zinnemann’s 1953 romantic and somber epic, American soldiers stationed in Hawaii meet their fates in the days leading up to the attacks on Pearl Harbour. While its star-studded cast include Frank Sinatra, Burt Lancaster, Deborah Kerr, and Donna Reed, it’s Montgomery Clift who anchors the movie as Private Robert E. Lee “Prew” Prewitt, a dedicated soldier and talented bugle player who refuses to entertain his captain’s wishes to land him boxing championships. Everyone present, all of them icons from the last stretch of Hollywood’s Golden Age, are in top form as doomed people on the march to when their lives change forever. Montgomery Clift was famously resistant to playing many roles, but From Here to Eternity is easily among his finest.

15. Throne of Blood (1957)

(Image credit: Toho)

Two samurai wander a scary forest in Throne of Blood

Akira Kurosawa’s enthralling retelling of Shakespeare’s Macbeth stars the indelible Toshiro Mifune, in the role of a samurai analog to Macbeth who learns from an evil forest spirit his imminent future as a castle lord. A cultural fusion of Shakespearean motifs with Japanese Noh theater stagecraft, Throne of Blood is bewitching as a fog-filled nightmare where power comes easy but the strength to hold onto it comes at a great cost. Part political thriller, part horror-fantasy, Throne of Blood is all awe-inspiring that earns immortality in a hailstorm of arrows.

14. 12 Angry Men (1954)

(Image credit: United Artists)

Jurors in a courtroom deliberate in 12 Angry Men

13. Ben-Hur (1959)

(Image credit: MGM)

Charlton Heston looks into the eyes of Jesus Christ in Ben-Hur

12. A Streetcar Named Desire (1951)

(Image credit: Warner Bros.)

Marlon Brando yells for “Stella” in A Streetcar Named Desire

Based on Tennesee Williams’ Pulitzer-winning play that dramatizes toxic relationships, Elia Kazan’s adaptation stars Vivien Leigh, Kim Hunter, and of course, Marlon Brando. Southern belle Blanche (Vivian Leigh) travels from Mississippi to live with her sister in a crumbling New Orleans apartment. While it helps that the material it’s based on is itself a revered classic in which the best actors can sink their teeth, Kazan’s film version is a true powerhouse in how it captures some of the greatest actors Hollywood has ever seen at their very best.

11. Paths of Glory (1957)

(Image credit: United Artists)

Kirk Douglas as a World War I colonel stands over his desk in Paths of Glory

In the conversation about Stanley Kubrick, his 1957 war film Paths to Glory often gets overlooked; his other masterworks like 2001: A Space Odyssey, A Clockwork Orange, The Shining, Full Metal Jacket, and Eyes Wide Shut usually dominate people’s attention. But Kubrick exhibited his unusual but incisive skills as a visual master in his fourth movie. Set in World War I in France, Paths of Glory stars Kirk Douglas as a commanding officer who refuses to push forward on what is essentially a suicidal attack and subsequently challenges charges of cowardice against them in a court-martial. Kubrick was just 29 years of age when he helmed Paths of Glory, and the buzz around his impeccable direction followed him for years after, even after his death in 1999.

10. Hiroshima mon amour (1959)

(Image credit: Rialto Pictures)

A French woman and Japanese man caress in Hiroshima mon amour

9. War of the Worlds (1953)

(Image credit: Paramount)

Soldiers hide from alien fire in War of the Worlds

8. High Noon (1952)

(Image credit: United Artists)

Gary Cooper stands in a frontier town in High Noon

7. On the Waterfront (1954)

(Image credit: Columbia)

Marlon Brando and Eva Marie Saint stand in the chilly outdoors in On the Waterfront

6. Seven Samurai (1954)

(Image credit: Toho)

A group of samurai and a village bury one of their own in Seven Samurai

(Image credit: MGM)

Cary Grant runs from a plane in the iconic scene from North by Northwest

4. Rear Window (1954)

(Image credit: Paramount)

Grace Kelly stands alone in an apartment in Rear Window

In this gripping urban mystery, a photographer healing from a broken leg (James Stewart) suspects his neighbor across the street might have murdered someone. With the help of his restless socialite girlfriend (Grace Kelly) and his nurse (Thelma Ritter), Stewart’s character Jeff seeks justice without losing his mind. Even in modern times, when our social feeds make full use of POV filmmaking and our smartphone cameras have made us all amateur photographers, Hitchcock’s movie shows the dramatic power in a limited perspective.

3. Umberto D. (1952)

(Image credit: Rialto Pictures)

Carlo Battisi holds his dog on the streets of Italy in Umberto D.

2. Kiss Me Deadly (1955)

(Image credit: United Artists)

A woman approaches a man in a convertible car in Kiss Me Deadly

Lest anyone think the 1950s was buttoned-up, well-mannered, and full of wholesome values, behold the darkness of Kiss Me Deadly. Robert Aldrich’s film adaptation of Mickey Sillane’s novel tells of a detective, Mike Hammer (Ralph Meeker) who picks up a hitchhiking woman (Maxine Cooper), kicking off one awful, unforgettable night. Hailed as a precursor to the French New Wave and understood as a metaphor for the Cold War, Kiss Me Deadly has influenced the most revered giants of cinema including Francois Truffaut, Jean-Luc Godard, and Quentin Tarantino. It’s simply a towering work.

1. Vertigo

(Image credit: Paramount)

James Stewart’s body falls in a dream in Vertigo

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32. The Ten Commandments (1956)

31. Cinderella (1950)

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30. Forbidden Planet (1956)

29. The Seventh Seal (1957)

28. Sunset Boulevard (1950)

27. Les Diaboliques (1955)

26. Roman Holiday (1953)

25. Shane (1953)

24. Some Like It Hot (1959)

23. Singin’ in the Rain (1952)

22. Gojira (1954)

21. The Quiet Man (1952)

20. Rebel Without a Cause (1955)

19. Night and the City (1950)

18. Tokyo Story (1953)

17. Horror of Dracula (1958)

16. From Here to Eternity (1953)

15. Throne of Blood (1957)

14. 12 Angry Men (1954)

13. Ben-Hur (1959)

12. A Streetcar Named Desire (1951)

11. Paths of Glory (1957)

10. Hiroshima mon amour (1959)

9. War of the Worlds (1953)

8. High Noon (1952)

7. On the Waterfront (1954)

6. Seven Samurai (1954)

4. Rear Window (1954)

3. Umberto D. (1952)

2. Kiss Me Deadly (1955)

1. Vertigo

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