Films of the 1950s: The Results

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BleuPanda
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Films of the 1950s: The Results

Post by BleuPanda »

Hello and welcome to AMF’s top 100 Films of the 1950s!

As usual, avoid posting spoilers. Please comment about your wishes for the list, as well as your anger at the community for ranking certain films so low, but avoid guessing what will place where. It will all be revealed in due time.

Each film will have a set of information provided along with it. I have included:
overall rank
the title of the film in English and its original language
the director
the overall score (minus the lowest points possible)
the amount of voters
the fans (top 20s) and the haters (bottom 10%)
the rank in the yearly topics in addition to their final rank for that year
the decade ranking on They Shoot Pictures
I shall also scrounge the internet for comments.

Here are our lovely contributors for this poll, as well as the amount of films they voted for:
JimmyJazz (97)
Michel (97)
Greg (95)
BleuPanda (91)
bonnielaurel (77)
Petri (77)
Charlie Driggs (76)
Harold (70)
Gillingham (64)
Jirin (56)
antonius (55)
Miguel (53)
Henrik (47)
Stephan (42)
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Re: Films of the 1950s: The Results

Post by BleuPanda »

100. The Day the Earth Stood Still (1951)
Image
Director: Robert Wise
Points: 95.8 (432.0 raw)
Initial Year Rank: 9
Final Year Rank: 10
50s TSPDT Rank: 131
Voters: 10
Fans: n/a
Haters: Petri 76/77, Gillingham 63/64, BleuPanda 86/91, Greg 87/95

Comments:
Time hasn't been friendly with this film, it doesn't age well. (Gillingham)

The driving message is the type of blind optimism that can only be found in 1950s cinema. An otherwise good sci-fi film is pulled down by an ideology that never fully considers the purpose of violence in an oppressive society. (BleuPanda)

The Day the Earth Stood Still may at first look like goofy, outdated science fiction, but its timeless warnings about violence, nuclear confrontation and the difficulties of policing the planet have made it an enduring cultural classic. (Michael Booth, Denver Post)

99. The Wrong Man (1956)
Image
Director: Alfred Hitchcock
Points: 102.6 (438.8 raw)
Initial Year Rank: 7
Final Year Rank: 10
50s TSPDT Rank: unranked
Voters: 11
Fans: n/a
Haters: BleuPanda 88/91, antonius 51/55

Comments:
To me, it’s a case where there are so many great Hitchcock films that I can’t bring myself to care about those that are simply better than average. (BleuPanda)

Boasting an iconic performance from Henry Fonda in the titular role, this is Hitchcock's most somber film and one of of the bleakest works in film history, which may account for its commercial failure and underappreciated status. (Emmanuel Levy, EmmanuelLevy.com)

98. The Thing From Another World (1951)
Image
Director: Christian Nyby and Howard Hawks
Points: 138.2 (474.4 raw)
Initial Year Rank: 10
Final Year Rank: 9
50s TSPDT Rank: 119
Voters: 8
Fans: n/a
Haters: Petri 72/77, Michel 88/97

Comments:
It’s another 1950s sci-fi film obsessed with foreign invaders. The theme gets tiring, though its script is of a fairly high quality. (BleuPanda)

The film has more frissons than most of today's mega-budget productions, simply because it has the grace to construct a meaningful situation and coherent characters. (Dave Kehr, Chicago Reader)

97. The African Queen (1951)
Image
Director: John Huston
Points: 139.0 (475.2 raw)
Initial Year Rank: 6
Final Year Rank: 8
50s TSPDT Rank: 82
Voters: 11
Fans: antonius 16/55
Haters: Greg 95/95, Henrik 47/47, Gillingham 62/64, Michel 90/97

Comments:
The first film of the list I haven’t seen, but just want to note that 3 of the bottom 4 have been from 1951. Must have been a slow year. (BleuPanda)

The direction is often questionable, but the screenplay (by James Agee, John Collier, Huston, and Peter Viertel from C.S. Forester's novel) is a model of tight construction. (Don Druker, Chicago Reader)

96. I Confess (1953)
Image
Director: Alfred Hitchcock
Points: 141.8 (478.0 raw)
Initial Year Rank: 9
Final Year Rank: 10
50s TSPDT Rank: unranked
Voters: 8
Fans: Henrik 16/47
Haters: BleuPanda 90/91, Michel 93/97, JimmyJazz 88/97

Comments:
Had a tense opening premise that never met its promises. The situation is too easily solved. (BleuPanda)

While Hitchcock short-changes on the expected round of suspense for which he is noted, he does bring out a number of topflight performances and gives the picture an interesting polish that is documentary at times. (Variety)
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Re: Films of the 1950s: The Results

Post by Henrik »

Fantastic presentation, BleuPanda!

Who is the Sci-Fi fan who voted for 1951 but not in the final...?
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Re: Films of the 1950s: The Results

Post by JimmyJazz »

Interesting results so far! Great presentation too BleuPanda. Choice of quotes is excellent so far.

Two comments:

The Thing from Another World: I agree that the film's themes of foreign invaders can be tiresome from today's eyes, but it (and The Day the Earth Stood Still to an extent), are sci-fi classics that, I would argue, could be viewed from either side of the spectrum on issues of xenophobia. More importantly for this film, I simply enjoy it for its classical Hawksian themes, and, as per usual, great script overall. I also enjoy famous Hawks fan John Carpenter's take on the story as well.

I Confess: My problems with the film are the same as yours Bleu. The film always feels like a great Hitchcock film wants to reach from its depths, but it simply goes nowhere. I feel part of this problem was Hitchcock's clashes with Clift, whose method acting was virtually foreign to his aesthetic.
Conversely, I do quite enjoy The Wrong Man in its own way. There are moments in the film that come close to those of Dreyer and Bresson, not something seen Hollywood films, then or now, exactly.
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Re: Films of the 1950s: The Results

Post by JimmyJazz »

Henrik wrote:Fantastic presentation, BleuPanda!

Who is the Sci-Fi fan who voted for 1951 but not in the final...?
Going back to that poll, I would have to say the closest comes SuperFurry, who had Day at #3 for that year, which, if I do recall from my tallying back then, was the only ballot that helped to propel that film specifically into the Final 100.
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Re: Films of the 1950s: The Results

Post by BleuPanda »

95. The Quiet Man (1952)
Image
Director: John Ford
Points: 142.0 (478.2 raw)
Initial Year Rank: 6
Final Year Rank: 10
50s TSPDT Rank: 42
Voters: 7
Fans:
Haters: Greg 93/95, Michel 92/97, Jirin 51/56

Comments:
John Ford's 1952 Oscar winner is a tribute to an Ireland that exists only in the imaginations of songwriters and poets like Ford. (Don Druker, Chicago Reader)

94. Mon oncle (1958)
Image
Director: Jacques Tati
Points: 142.1 (478.3 raw)
Initial Year Rank: 5
Final Year Rank: 10
50s TSPDT Rank: 81
Voters: 11
Fans: Miguel 18/53
Haters: bonnielaurel 74/77, Charlie Driggs 73/76, Greg 91/95

Comments:
An interesting display of visual humor. Finely orchestrated images, but not much else to get invested in. (BleuPanda)

Jacques Tati is the great philosophical tinkerer of comedy, taking meticulous care to arrange his films so that they unfold in a series of revelations and effortless delights. (Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times)

93. The Big Heat (1953)
Image
Director: Fritz Lang
Points: 142.2 (478.4 raw)
Initial Year Rank: 8
Final Year Rank: 9
50s TSPDT Rank: 71
Voters: 12
Fans:
Haters: antonius 54/55, Miguel 51/53, BleuPanda 82/91

Comments:
Not really sure what I expected, but nothing stuck out to me. I expect more from Fritz Lang. (BleuPanda)

That's the beauty of Lang's moral ambidexterity. He tells the story of a heroic cop, while using it to mask another story, so much darker, beneath. (Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times)

92. Roman Holiday (1953)
Image
Director: William Wyler
Points: 147.2 (483.4 raw)
Initial Year Rank: 5
Final Year Rank: 8
50s TSPDT Rank: 116
Voters: 10
Fans: Henrik 11/47, bonnielaurel 20/77
Haters: Michel 97/97, Gillingham 64/64, Harold 69/70

Comments:
The film itself is a classic of romantic wish fulfillment, exactly the sort of beautiful lie that Hollywood specialized in. (Ty Burr, Boston Globe)

91. The River/Le Fleuve (1951)
Image
Director: Jean Renoir
Points: 152.8 (489.0 raw)
Initial Year Rank: 5
Final Year Rank: 7
50s TSPDT Rank: 32
Voters: 8
Fans:
Haters: Michel 96/97, Greg 94/95, Charlie Driggs 75/76, Harold 66/70

Comments:
A beautiful film visually, but doesn’t do much to hook me narratively. (BleuPanda)

Renoir fashioned what might be his sweetest movie about family and one of the post-war years' most serene cinematic statements. (Michael Atkinson, Village Voice)
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Re: Films of the 1950s: The Results

Post by Henrik »

JimmyJazz wrote:
Henrik wrote:Fantastic presentation, BleuPanda!

Who is the Sci-Fi fan who voted for 1951 but not in the final...?
Going back to that poll, I would have to say the closest comes SuperFurry, who had Day at #3 for that year, which, if I do recall from my tallying back then, was the only ballot that helped to propel that film specifically into the Final 100.
Yes, interestingly "The Thing From Another World" reached the final without any top 5 votes (but several 6th places and 7 votes in total). In this final, a 6th place or lower possibly meant the lower half of each voter's list, which put it in the bottom.
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Re: Films of the 1950s: The Results

Post by JimmyJazz »

Boo at the low placements of The Quiet Man and The River! :angry-nono:

Anyways, as for your comments on The Big Heat, I can see where your coming from, but the film feels so classically Lang that I find it hard not to appreciate it, at least somewhat. I do feel that some of Lang's other American noirs are superior to it, however.
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Re: Films of the 1950s: The Results

Post by Petri »

Great presentation BleuPanda. No surprises in the bottom 5. Two movies from my bottom 10% and the rest were neither high on my list.
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Re: Films of the 1950s: The Results

Post by BleuPanda »

90. Orpheus/Orphée (1950)
Image
Director: Jean Cocteua
Points: 155.6 (491.8 raw)
Initial Year Rank: 9
Final Year Rank: 10
50s TSPDT Rank: 50
Voters: 7
Fans:
Haters: Charlie Driggs 71/76

Comments:
The first low placement to really surprise me. Orpheus is currently ranked in my top 250 films of all time, yet even I only ranked it at #38 of my 91, which is a testament to the strength of 1950s cinema in my eyes. Overall, it’s a visually stunning film with an awesome atmosphere. (BleuPanda)

Seeing Orpheus today is like glimpsing a cinematic realm that has passed completely from the scene. (Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times)

Its tight cross-lacing of paranoid dreaming and poetic realism grips like a bondage corset. (Time Out)

89. Winchester ‘73 (1950)
Image
Director: Anthony Mann
Points: 160.3 (496.5 raw)
Initial Year Rank: 7
Final Year Rank: 9
50s TSPDT Rank: 145
Voters: 9
Fans:
Haters: Michel 91/97
Comments:
A standard Western in visual presentation, but it truly stands out due to its unique take on narrative focalization. (BleuPanda)

The final shoot-out remains a classic study in mise-en-scene, as Mann transforms a jagged landscape into a highly charged psychological battleground. (Dave Kehr, Chicago Reader)

88. Bob le flambeur (1956)
Image
Director: Jean-Pierre Melville
Points: 160.7 (496.9 raw)
Initial Year Rank: 9
Final Year Rank: 9
50s TSPDT Rank: 129
Voters: 6
Fans:
Haters:

Comments:
Bob le Flambeur (1955) has a good claim to be the first film of the French New Wave. (Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times)

87. Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (1958)
Image
Director: Richard Brooks
Points: 162.5 (498.7 raw)
Initial Year Rank: 3
Final Year Rank: 9
50s TSPDT Rank: unranked
Voters: 11
Fans:
Haters: JimmyJazz 96/97, Harold 64/70

Comments:
While based on a great play, the film never does anything particularly cinematic. The performances are strong, but that’s not enough to carry an entire movie. (BleuPanda)

A formaldehyded tabby that sits static while layer after layer of its skin is peeled off, life after life of its nine lives unsentimentally destroyed. (Time Magazine)

86. Miracle in Milan/Miracolo a Milano (1951)
Image
Director: Vittorio De Sica
Points: 167.7 (503.9 raw)
Initial Year Rank: 8
Final Year Rank: 6
50s TSPDT Rank: 75
Voters: 6
Fans:
Haters: Michel 95/97

Comments:
A quintessential work of Italian neo-realism, De Sica's post-WWII fable displays his humanistic ideology through the tale of an orphan granted magical powers. (Emanuel Levy, EmanuelLevy.com)
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Re: Films of the 1950s: The Results

Post by JimmyJazz »

I genuinely regret that the only Mann western that was included was Winchester 73. For me, The Naked Spur and Man of the West are both vastly superior films, in both mise en scene and narratively.
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Re: Films of the 1950s: The Results

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85. The Seven Year Itch (1955)
Image
Director: Billy Wilder
Points: 167.7 (503.9 raw)
Initial Year Rank: 9
Final Year Rank: 10
50s TSPDT Rank: unranked
Voters: 11
Fans: bonnielaurel 5/77
Haters: Harold 70/70, Miguel 53/53, antonius 50/55, JimmyJazz 91/97, BleuPanda 85/91, Petri 71/77

Comments:
The film with the most haters, saved by one really big fan. I had fun watching it, but it’s a fairly good comedy among some of the greatest films ever. (BleuPanda)

What counts is that laughs come thick and fast, that the general entertainment is light and gay. (Variety)

84. Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956)
Image
Director: Don Siegel
Points: 168.9 (505.1 raw)
Initial Year Rank: 5
Final Year Rank: 8
50s TSPDT Rank: 94
Voters: 11
Fans: Miguel 16/53
Haters:

Comments:
Felt about the same toward this as The Thing From Another World, though Invasion captures a better atmosphere. (BleuPanda)

This modest, sci-fi-inflected 1956 horror movie may come to be seen as the defining metaphorical work of the twentieth century. (Tom Huddleston, Time Out)

83. Harvey (1950)
Image
Director: Henry Koster
Points: 170.4 (506.6 raw)
Initial Year Rank: 10
Final Year Rank: 8
50s TSPDT Rank: unranked
Voters: 5
Fans:
Haters:

Comments:
I always thought this was some big classic, but the amount of votes has proven me wrong. James Stewart is as lovable as ever and it’s a pretty feel-good film, but it never does much more. (BleuPanda)

If you're for warm and gentle whimsey, for a charmingly fanciful farce and for a little touch of pathos anent the fateful evanescence of man's dreams, then the movie version of Harvey is definitely for you. (Bosley Crowther, New York Times)

82. I vitelloni (1953)
Image
Director: Federico Fellini
Points: 172.5 (508.7 raw)
Initial Year Rank: 10
Final Year Rank: 7
50s TSPDT Rank: 80
Voters: 8
Fans:
Haters: antonius 53/55

Comments:
Has everything you expect out of Fellini’s later works, but doesn’t reach the same highs. It’s a shame Nights of Cabiria didn’t make the final 100. (BleuPanda)

It was this ineffably poignant semiautobiographical reverie that unleashed fully Fellini's shimmering, flowing poetic style. (Kevin Thomas, Los Angeles Times)

81. The Bad and the Beautiful (1952)
Image
Director: Vincente Minnelli
Points: 173.9 (510.1 raw)
Initial Year Rank: 9
Final Year Rank: 9
50s TSPDT Rank: 136
Voters: 8
Fans:
Haters: Charlie Driggs 70/76

Comments:
A gripping Hollywood drama with some fine performances, though it’s divided into three parts with distinctly different levels of quality. (BleuPanda)

Under Minnelli's direction it becomes a fascinating study of a man destroyed by the 50s success ethic, left broke, alone, and slightly insane in the end. (Dave Kehr, Chicago Reader)
Last edited by BleuPanda on Sun Nov 02, 2014 10:35 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: Films of the 1950s: The Results

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80. Othello (1952)
Image
Director: Orson Welles
Points: 175.0 (511.2 raw)
Initial Year Rank: 8
Final Year Rank: 8
50s TSPDT Rank: 97
Voters: 6
Fans:
Haters: BleuPanda 87/91, Harold 65/70

Comments:
For all the liberties taken with the play, Orson Welles's 1952 independent feature may well be the greatest Shakespeare film. (Jonathan Rosenbaum, Chicago Reader)

79. High Noon (1952)
Image
Director: Fred Zinneman
Points: 181.9 (518.1 raw)
Initial Year Rank: 2
Final Year Rank: 7
50s TSPDT Rank: 68
Voters: 13
Fans:
Haters: JimmyJazz 97/97, BleuPanda 89/91

Comments:
Apparently one of the biggest Westerns, but I simply don’t see anything special in it. It hits all the necessary notes and nothing more. (BleuPanda)

Meaningful in its implications, as well as loaded with interest and suspense, High Noon is a western to challenge Stagecoach for the all-time championship. (Bosley Crowther, New York Times)

78. Dial M for Murder (1954)
Image
Director: Alfred Hitchcock
Points: 183.4 (519.6 raw)
Initial Year Rank: 6
Final Year Rank: 10
50s TSPDT Rank: unranked
Voters: 11
Fans: bonnielaurel 10/77
Haters: JimmyJazz 93/97

Comments:
Another one of those classic plays adapted to film without doing anything notably cinematic. (BleuPanda)

Dial M is less a filmed play than a highly cinematic investigation of theatricality. (B. Kite, Village Voice)

77. Mr. Hulot’s Holiday/Les Vacances de M. Hulot (1953)
Image
Director: Jacques Tati
Points: 189.2 (525.4 raw)
Initial Year Rank: 6
Final Year Rank: 6
50s TSPDT Rank: 55
Voters: 12
Fans: Michel 3/97, Miguel 12/53
Haters: Greg 92/95

Comments:
Tati is heir to the great comics of the silent era, Chaplin and Keaton and Lloyd. (Jonathan F. Richards, Film.com)

76. Gun Crazy (1950)
Image
Director: Joseph H. Lewis
Points: 192.2 (528.4 raw)
Initial Year Rank: 8
Final Year Rank: 7
50s TSPDT Rank: 105
Voters: 7
Fans:
Haters:

Comments:
One of the most distinguished works of art to emerge from the B movie swamp. (Dave Kehr, Chicago Reader)
Last edited by BleuPanda on Sun Nov 02, 2014 2:03 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: Films of the 1950s: The Results

Post by Petri »

18 of bottom 25 are movies with English dialogue although almost half of the top 100 movies are not. Doesn't surprise me at all. I wonder when we see the first Asian film.
BleuPanda wrote: It’s a shame Nights of Cabiria didn’t make the final 100. (BleuPanda)
Nights of Cabiria could have been in top 50 if it had made the final (all 1957 and 1959 movies are still in the game).

Was Guncrazy really Greg's #92? I thought it would have been pretty high on his list.

Edit. It seems that fans and haters of Guncrazy are same as Mr. Hulot’s Holiday.
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Re: Films of the 1950s: The Results

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^Thanks for catching that.
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Re: Films of the 1950s: The Results

Post by BleuPanda »

75. Aparajito (1956)
Image
Director: Satyajit Ray
Points: 192.3 (528.5 raw)
Initial Year Rank: 10
Final Year Rank: 7
50s TSPDT Rank: 76
Voters: 5
Fans:
Haters:

Comments:
The Apu trilogy is a great work, but Aparajito lacks an emotional thrust that the other two pull off wonderfully. Still a great film, but Pather Panchali and World of Apu blew me away. (BleuPanda)

It is done with such rare feeling and skill at pictorial imagery, and with such sympathetic understanding of Indian character on the part of Mr. Ray, that it develops a sort of hypnotism for the serene and tolerant viewer. (Bosley Crowther, New York Times)

74. Stalag 17 (1953)
Image
Director: Billy Wilder
Points: 192.5 (528.7 raw)
Initial Year Rank: 4
Final Year Rank: 5
50s TSPDT Rank: unranked
Voters: 10
Fans:
Haters: Petri 75/77

Comments:
A lusty comedy-melodrama, loaded with bold, masculine humor and as much of the original's uninhibited earthiness as good taste and the Production Code permit. (Variety)

73. Ashes and Diamonds/Popiól i diament (1958)
Image
Director: Andrzej Wajda
Points: 193.8 (523.0 raw)
Initial Year Rank: 4
Final Year Rank: 8
50s TSPDT Rank: 35
Voters: 7
Fans:
Haters:

Comments:
Wajda's deeply romantic and personal vision, inspired by both Italian neo-realism and by the more baroque images of Expressionism, makes Ashes and Diamonds a gripping experience. (Derek Malcolm, The Guardian)

72. Limelight (1952)
Image
Director: Charles Chaplin
Points: 194.9 (531.1 raw)
Initial Year Rank: 4
Final Year Rank: 6
50s TSPDT Rank: 79
Voters: 12
Fans: Miguel 2/53, bonnielaurel 15/77
Haters: antonius 55/55

Comments:
The early 50s had this weird obsession with aging performers (largely due to the first film stars reaching old age), and Limelight is Chaplin’s take. It finds him at his most purely dramatic, using much of his comedy to comment on a bygone era. (BleuPanda)

Few cinema artists have delved into their own lives and emotions with such ruthlessness and with such moving results. (Geoff Andrew, Time Out)

71. The Asphalt Jungle (1950)
Image
Director: John Huston
Points: 196.3 (532.4 raw)
Initial Year Rank: 5
Final Year Rank: 6
50s TSPDT Rank: 63
Voters: 11
Fans: Charlie Driggs 19/76
Haters: Miguel 48/53

Comments:
One of the first films to depict crime from the POV of the deviants rather than the police, this seminal film (arguably Huston's best) had a huge influence on the genre, manifest in the early work of Kubrick--and decades later Tarantino's Reservoir Dogs. (Emanuel Levy, EmanuelLevy.com)
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Re: Films of the 1950s: The Results

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70. The Human Condition II: Road to Eternity/Ningen no joken III-IV (1959)
Image
Director: Masaki Kobayashi
Points: 197.3 (533.5 raw)
Initial Year Rank: 8
Final Year Rank: 10
50s TSPDT Rank: unranked
Voters: 8
Fans: Jirin 11/56, Stephan 15/42
Haters: bonnielaurel 75/77
Comments:
I actually preferred this to Part I, though they’re about equal in quality. One of the most stunning looks at WWII in the decade that followed. The type of movie to make you feel empty inside. (BleuPanda)

69. A Star is Born (1954)
Image
Director: George Cukor
Points: 198.0 (534.2 raw)
Initial Year Rank: 8
Final Year Rank: 9
50s TSPDT Rank: 60
Voters: 7
Fans:
Haters:
Comments:
An epic length musical about one star rising as another falls. A tale of devotion, but I’m not sure how convincing the love plot truly was. (BleuPanda)

George Cukor's musical drama, the second version of Star Is Born, is his masterpiece, an emotionally touching tale in which Judy Garland renders her most impressive performance as dramatic actress. (Emanuel Levy, EmanuelLevy.com)

68. Johnny Guitar (1954)
Image
Director: Nicholas Ray
Points: 198.2 (534.3 raw)
Initial Year Rank: 10
Final Year Rank: 8
50s TSPDT Rank: 43
Voters: 10
Fans:
Haters: Jirin 54/56
Comments:
Joan Crawford’s Vienna is one of my favorite leads in a Western film. (BleuPanda)

For all its violence, this is a surpassingly tender, sensitive film, Ray's gentlest statement of his outsider theme. (Dave Kehr, Chicago Reader)

67. Throne of Blood/Kumonosu-jô (1957)
Image
Director: Akira Kurosawa
Points: 199.5 (535.7 raw)
Initial Year Rank: 8
Final Year Rank: 10
50s TSPDT Rank: 49
Voters: 10
Fans: Petri 13/77
Haters: bonnielaurel 76/77
Comments:
The strongest film to place last in its own year. Kurosawa’s Throne of Blood is one of the greatest Shakespeare adaptations ever brought to the screen. The mise-en-scène is phenomenal. (BleuPanda)

No stage production could match Kurosawa's Birnam Wood, and, in his final framing of the hero -- a human hedgehog, stuck with arrows -- he conjures a tragedy not laden with grandeur but pierced, like a dream, by the absurd. (Anthony Lane, New Yorker)

66. Some Came Running (1958)
Image
Director: Vincente Minnelli
Points: 202.3 (538.5 raw)
Initial Year Rank: 9
Final Year Rank: 7
50s TSPDT Rank: 84
Voters: 5
Fans:
Haters:
Comments:
One of American cinema's first great masterpieces about the psychological dislocation of the war generation. (Tim Brayton, Antagony & Ecstacy)
Last edited by BleuPanda on Sun Nov 02, 2014 10:36 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: Films of the 1950s: The Results

Post by JimmyJazz »

Referring to Some Came Running:

I don't believe I have ever heard of this Vincente "Minnello". A new great previously undiscovered talent of 1950s American auterism? ;)
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Re: Films of the 1950s: The Results

Post by BleuPanda »

The sad thing is I had it right in my excel sheet but managed to mess it up both times while typing it up here.

Also, sorry if I go a bit slow, this weekend turned into a giant mess for me.
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Re: Films of the 1950s: The Results

Post by JimmyJazz »

BleuPanda wrote:Also, sorry if I go a bit slow, this weekend turned into a giant mess for me.
Oh, don't worry about it at all. Running and rolling out these polls is always hard work. Your prsesentation is great, and your selection of quotes is excellent. I have been noticing a pattern of Chicago/Illinois critics in particular. You come from a state with a great track record of quality American film criticism, I have always felt.

Hope all is well :greetings-waveyellow:
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Re: Films of the 1950s: The Results

Post by BleuPanda »

Note: A film that received absolutely no votes would appear between #66 and #65.

65. From Here to Eternity (1953)
Image
Director: Fred Zinneman
Points: 202.9 (539.1 raw)
Initial Year Rank: 7
Final Year Rank:4
50s TSPDT Rank: unranked
Voters: 10
Fans: bonnielaurel 6/77, Charlie Driggs 17/76
Haters: BleuPanda 91/91, JimmyJazz 94/97

Comments:
I was trying to figure out how to express my distaste for this film, but I’ll let the next quote speak for me. (BleuPanda)

Sominex is cheaper and probably safer. (Dave Kehr, Chicago Reader)

Rapturously received from the moment it was released in 1953, From Here to Eternity remains, half a century later, a singular cinematic experience, one of the landmarks of American film. (Kenneth Turan, Los Angeles Times)

64. Early Summer/Bakushū (1951)
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Director: Yasujiro Ozu
Points: 208.6 (544.8 raw)
Initial Year Rank: 7
Final Year Rank: 5
50s TSPDT Rank: 67
Voters: 6
Fans: Jirin 10/56
Haters:

Comments:
Ozu’s films are remarkably unstylized, finding beauty in the ordinary. (BleuPanda)

Early Summer is the apotheosis of Ozu's investigations of domestic, geographical and emotional space. (Leo Goldsmith, Not Coming to a Theater Near You)

63. All That Heaven Allows (1955)
Image
Director: Douglas Sirk
Points: 209.4 (545.6 raw)
Initial Year Rank: 10
Final Year Rank: 9
50s TSPDT Rank: 51
Voters: 7
Fans: Miguel 17/53
Haters:

Comments:
I found it hard to take seriously when I watched it in a film class a few years ago, but I’ve since found something oddly charming in Sirk’s melodramatic style. (BleuPanda)

Beneath the stunningly lovely visuals -- all expressionist colours, reflections, and frames-within-frames, used to produce a precise symbolism -- lies a kernel of terrifying despair. (Geoff Andrew, Time Out)

62. East of Eden (1955)
Image
Director: Elia Kazan
Points: 209.5 (545.7 raw)
Initial Year Rank: 8
Final Year Rank: 8
50s TSPDT Rank: 111
Voters: 10
Fans: Greg 9/95
Haters: Henrik 43/47

Comments:
It's a film of great performances, atmospheric photography, and a sure sense of period and place. (Geoff Andrew, Time Out)

61. Big Deal on Madonna Street/I soliti ignoti (1958)
Image
Director: Mario Monicelli
Points: 209.7 (545.9 raw)
Initial Year Rank: 10
Final Year Rank: 6
50s TSPDT Rank: 121
Voters: 5
Fans:
Haters:

Comments:
I’m taking an Italian Comedy class this semester and have discovered Monicelli as a supremely underappreciated director. I soliti ignoti is only the tip of the iceberg, with The Great War and For Love and Gold being equally great. An expert at dark comedy and social satire. (BleuPanda)

Monicelli's seminal Italian comedy, a spoof of heist movies with great performances by Gassman, Mastroianni, Toto, and Cardinale, had major impact on many American satires, past and present. (Emanuel Levy, EmanuelLevy.com)
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Re: Films of the 1950s: The Results

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60. 5 Fingers (1952)
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Director: Joseph L. Mankiewicz
Points: 209.9 (546.1 raw)
Initial Year Rank: 10
Final Year Rank: 5
50s TSPDT Rank: unranked
Voters: 3
Fans:
Haters:

Comments:
Mankiewicz's sharply observed Oscar-nominated espionage thriller is superlatively played by James Mason in the lead role of Cicero, the smart spy who operated within the British embassy in Turkey during WWII. (Emanuel Levy, EmanuelLevy.com)

59. Written on the Wind (1956)
Image
Director: Douglas Sirk
Points: 210.5 (546.7 raw)
Initial Year Rank: 6
Final Year Rank: 6
50s TSPDT Rank: 59
Voters: 8
Fans: Greg 7/95
Haters:

Comments:
In countless ways visible and invisible, Sirk's sly subversion skewed American popular culture, and helped launch a new age of irony. (Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times)

58. Imitation of Life (1959)
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Director: Douglas Sirk
Points: 215.5 (551.7 raw)
Initial Year Rank: 10
Final Year Rank: 9
50s TSPDT Rank: 31
Voters: 8
Fans: Miguel 7/53, JimmyJazz 18/97
Haters: Greg 88/95

Comments:
In my opinion, the best of Sirk’s films by quite a bit. A powerful portrayal of the issue of passing, and he manages to avoid his usual cheesiness. (BleuPanda)

Forget those who decry the '50s Hollywood melodrama; it is through the conventions of that hyper-emotional genre that Sirk is able to make such a devastatingly embittered and pessimistic movie. (Geoff Andrew, Time Out)

57. Hands Off the Loot/Touchez pas au grisbi (1954)
Image
Director: Jacques Becker
Points: 215.7 (551.9 raw)
Initial Year Rank: 9
Final Year Rank: 7
50s TSPDT Rank: unranked
Voters: 3
Fans: Charlie Driggs 16/76
Haters:

Comments:
Every filmmaker from Francois Truffaut to Quentin Tarantino owes something of a debt to Becker's black-and-white boldness. (Janice Page, Boston Globe)

56. In a Lonely Place (1950)
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Director: Nicholas Ray
Points: 217.9 (554.1 raw)
Initial Year Rank: 6
Final Year Rank: 5
50s TSPDT Rank: 45
Voters: 8
Fans: JimmyJazz 14/97
Haters:

Comments:
The grayest, most morally ambiguous of film noirs -- and arguably the most self-reflexive. (J. Hoberman, Village Voice)
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Re: Films of the 1950s: The Results

Post by Gillingham »

Great job BleuPanda!

Haven't seen any of those last five films, but of the last 55 films, I've seen about 90%.
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Re: Films of the 1950s: The Results

Post by BleuPanda »

55. The Man Who Knew Too Much (1956)
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Director: Alfred Hitchcock
Points: 218.0 (554.1 raw)
Initial Year Rank: 4
Final Year Rank: 5
50s TSPDT Rank: unranked
Voters: 11
Fans: Miguel 9/53, bonnielaurel 14/77, Petri 17/77
Haters: Harold 68/70, antonius 52/55, Greg 90/95, JimmyJazz 90/97, BleuPanda 83/91

Comments:
Apparently the most hate it or love it film on the list. (BleuPanda)

While drawing the footage out a bit long, he still keeps suspense working at all times and gets strong performances from the two stars and other cast members. (Variety)

54. Life of Oharu/Saikaku Ichidai Onna (1952)
Image
Director: Kenji Mizoguchi
Points: 220.4 (556.6 raw)
Initial Year Rank: 7
Final Year Rank: 4
50s TSPDT Rank: 48
Voters: 6
Fans: Jirin 9/56
Haters:

Comments:
It's a devastating journey, and for Mizoguchi, a direct, blunt statement of purpose. (Scott Tobias, The Dissolve)

53. The Incredible Shrinking Man (1957)
Image
Director: Jack Arnold
Points: 221.2 (557.4 raw)
Initial Year Rank: 10
Final Year Rank: 9
50s TSPDT Rank: 122
Voters: 6
Fans: Miguel 13/53, Charlie Driggs 20/76
Haters:

Comments:
The most surprising film of the list. Takes a simple science fiction concept and forges it into one of the greatest existentialist films. A breath of fresh air from the communist paranoia expected of 50s sci-fi. (BleuPanda)

A moving, strangely pantheist assertion of what it really means to be alive. A pulp masterpiece. (Geoff Andrew, Time Out)

52. Pickpocket (1959)
Image
Director: Robert Bresson
Points: 226.5 (562.7 raw)
Initial Year Rank: 9
Final Year Rank: 8
50s TSPDT Rank: 20
Voters: 8
Fans: JimmyJazz 8/97
Haters:

Comments:
Bresson choreographs the complex techniques of lifting wallets and watches with such precision that one seems to be watching a kind of surreptitious ballet. (David Denby, New Yorker)

51. Kiss Me Deadly (1955)
Image
Director: Robert Aldrich
Points: 229.7 (565.9 raw)
Initial Year Rank: 6
Final Year Rank: 7
50s TSPDT Rank: 54
Voters: 10
Fans: BleuPanda 8/91
Haters:

Comments:
My highest placing movie that I hadn’t seen before attempting to watch all the movies on this list. Completely blew me away. The unrelenting paranoia and strangeness feels like a strong precursor to the works of David Lynch. Based on this and Starship Troopers, more directors need to adapt stories that they hate. (BleuPanda)

This independently produced low-budget film was a shining example for the New Wave directors -- Truffaut, Godard, et al -- who found it proof positive that commercial films could accommodate the quirkiest and most personal of visions. (Dave Kehr, Chicago Reader)
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Re: Films of the 1950s: The Results

Post by Stephan »

Can't believe The Human Condition: Part II is already gone after the #21 placement for Part III in the last decade (even though that is arguably the best of the 3). Here's to hoping Part I will finish much higher.

Great presentation BleuPanda!
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Re: Films of the 1950s: The Results

Post by BleuPanda »

50. Hidden Fortress/Kakushi toride no san akunin (1958)
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Director: Akira Kurosawa
Points: 230.2 (566.4 raw)
Initial Year Rank: 6
Final Year Rank: 5
50s TSPDT Rank: unranked
Voters: 9
Fans: Charlie Driggs 9/76, Petri 12/77
Haters: bonnielaurel 77/77, Michel 94/97, JimmyJazz 89/97

Comments:
By introducing comedy into the mixture and telling the tale from an atypical perspective, Kurosawa has differentiated The Hidden Fortress from nearly every similar feudal era Japanese epic ever committed to the screen. This is a masterpiece. (James Berardinelli, ReelViews)

49. Sweet Smell of Success (1957)
Image
Director: Alexander Mackendrick
Points: 231.5 (567.7 raw)
Initial Year Rank: 5
Final Year Rank: 8
50s TSPDT Rank: 36
Voters: 12
Fans: Stephan 13/42, Harold 14/70, Jirin 17/56
Haters: Henrik 45/47

Comments:
A lean, mean amorality tale that still goes down like a cookie laced with arsenic. (Chris Vognar, Dallas Morning News)

48. Elevator to the Gallows/Ascenseur pour l'échafaud (1958)
Image
Director: Louis Malle
Points: 238.1 (574.3 raw)
Initial Year Rank: 7
Final Year Rank: 4
50s TSPDT Rank: unranked
Voters: 8
Fans: Charlie Driggs 13/76, Gillingham 20/64
Haters: BleuPanda 84/91

Comments:
Fantastic soundtrack by Miles Davis that suits well with the jazzy atmosphere. (Gillingham)

Elevator to the Gallows is a treat for the film buff. Watching Moreau and Malle as they discover each other and a new trend in filmmaking, and listening to Miles Davis during their quest will remind you of what movies are all about. (Marta Barber, Miami Herald)

47. Strangers on a Train (1951)
Image
Director: Alfred Hitchcock
Points: 238.7 (574.9 raw)
Initial Year Rank: 2
Final Year Rank: 4
50s TSPDT Rank: 66
Voters: 13
Fans: bonnielaurel 11/77, Henrik 17/47
Haters: Jirin 52/56

Comments:
Given a good basis for a thriller in the Patricia Highsmith novel and a first-rate script, Hitchcock embroiders the plot into a gripping, palm-sweating piece of suspense. (Variety)

46. Anatomy of a Murder (1959)
Image
Director: Otto Preminger
Points: 240.2 (576.4 raw)
Initial Year Rank: 5
Final Year Rank: 7
50s TSPDT Rank: 92
Voters: 9
Fans: Charlie Driggs 5/76
Haters: Petri 77/77, Greg 89/95

Comments:
The highest of the 9 films I never watched. (BleuPanda)

As an entertaining look at legal process, this is spellbinding all the way, infused by an ambiguity about human personality and motivation that is Preminger's trademark, and the location shooting is superb. (Jonathan Rosenbaum, Chicago Reader)
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Re: Films of the 1950s: The Results

Post by BleuPanda »

45. The Music Room/Jalsāghar (1958)
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Director: Satyajit Ray
Points: 240.4 (576.6 raw)
Initial Year Rank: 8
Final Year Rank: 3
50s TSPDT Rank: 40
Voters: 5
Fans: Jirin 13/56
Haters:

Comments:
Ray's social insight is not dimmed by treating his subject in this distant, allegorical manner; if anything it's intensified by the closer focus he's able to train on his characters. (Dave Kehr, Chicago Reader)

44. Night and Fog/Nuit et brouillard (1955)
Image
Director: Alain Resnais
Points: 245.1 (581.3 raw)
Initial Year Rank: 5
Final Year Rank: 6
50s TSPDT Rank: 47
Voters: 8
Fans: Michel 9/97
Haters:

Comments:
Only half an hour long, this is the greatest film ever made about the concentration camps. (Jonathan Rosenbaum, Chicago Reader)

43. Witness for the Prosecution (1957)
Image
Director: Billy Wilder
Points: 247.0 (583.2 raw)
Initial Year Rank: 7
Final Year Rank: 7
50s TSPDT Rank: unranked
Voters: 12
Fans: bonnielaurel 12/77, antonius 14/55, Henrik 14/47
Haters: JimmyJazz 92/97

Comments:
His theatrical mise-en-scene -- his proscenium framing -- serves the material well, as does Charles Laughton's bombastic portrayal of the defense attorney. (Dave Kehr, Chicago Reader)

42. Umberto D. (1952)
Image
Director: Vittorio De Sica
Points: 248.6 (584.8 raw)
Initial Year Rank: 5
Final Year Rank: 3
50s TSPDT Rank: 34
Voters: 10
Fans: Charlie Driggs 11/76, bonnielaurel 13/77
Haters: Henrik 46/47

Comments:
It's hard to think of a more remarkable tribute to the resilience of the human spirit than the one Umberto D. puts on the screen. (Kenneth Turan, Los Angeles Times)

41. The Bridge on the River Kwai (1957)
Image
Director: David Lean
Points: 249.1 (585.3 raw)
Initial Year Rank: 6
Final Year Rank: 6
50s TSPDT Rank: 53
Voters: 14
Fans: Henrik 4/47, Gillingham 10/64, Miguel 11/53
Haters: JimmyJazz 95/97, Petri 73/77

Comments:
The first of 15 films to be voted on by all 14 participants. (BleuPanda)

Part of the success of The Bridge is that its courageous hero is shown from all angles, in all kinds of mirrors. He is strong, stubborn, fallible, maniacal, silly, and wise; and in the end he is pathetic, noble, and foolish. (Philip Roth, The New Republic)
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Re: Films of the 1950s: The Results

Post by BleuPanda »

40. Ace in the Hole (1951)
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Director: Billy Wilder
Points: 254.0 (590.2 raw)
Initial Year Rank: 1
Final Year Rank: 3
50s TSPDT Rank: 115
Voters: 13
Fans: Stephan 9/42, Henrik 12/47, Michel 15/97, antonius 20/55, Miguel 20/53
Haters:

Comments:
This 1951 film, about a cynical reporter who seizes on the plight of a man trapped in a mine shaft to promote his career, is cold, lurid, and fascinating, propelled by the same combination of moral outrage and sneaky admiration. (Dave Kehr, Chicago Reader)

39. A Streetcar Named Desire (1951)
Image
Director: Elia Kazan
Points: 254.0 (590.2 raw)
Initial Year Rank: 3
Final Year Rank: 2
50s TSPDT Rank: 113
Voters: 13
Fans: Petri 14/77, Greg 15/95, bonnielaurel 17/77, antonius 17/55
Haters: Gillingham 61/64, Jirin 53/56, Miguel 50/53

Comments:
Inner torments are seldom projected with such sensitivity and clarity on the screen. (Bosley Crowther, New York Times)

38. The Human Condition I: No Greater Love/Ningen no jōken (1959)
Image
Director: Masaki Kobayashi
Points: 255.6 (591.8 raw)
Initial Year Rank: 6
Final Year Rank: 6
50s TSPDT Rank: unranked
Voters: 10
Fans: Jirin 6/56, Petri 10/77, Stephan 10/42
Haters: bonnielaurel 73/77

Comments:
The highest ranking film not featured on the They Shoot Pictures top 1000 films. (BleuPanda)

It all sounds like a downer, and Human Condition is an indisputably solemn film. Yet it also possesses a restless vitality, with hard cuts juxtaposing abject brutality with pastoral tranquility and romantic longing. (Matthew Connolly, Slant Magazine)

37. Diary of a Country Priest/Journal d'un curé de campagne (1951)
Image
Director: Robert Bresson
Points: 255.9 (592.1 raw)
Initial Year Rank: 4
Final Year Rank: 1
50s TSPDT Rank: 39
Voters: 9
Fans: Jirin 12/56, Greg 20/95
Haters: Gillingham 59/64

Comments:
The first best of a year to drop. (BleuPanda)

A film like Diary of a Country Priest gathers its strength as it continues. There's always the sense that Bresson knows exactly where he's going and the simplest way to get there. (Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times)

36. Voyage to Italy/Viaggio in Italia (1954)
Image
Director: Roberto Rossellini
Points: 256.1 (592.3 raw)
Initial Year Rank: 7
Final Year Rank: 6
50s TSPDT Rank: 22
Voters: 7
Fans: JimmyJazz 3/97
Haters:

Comments:
Voyage to Italy is close to watching actual strangers suffer loneliness despite being together. It can leave an aching bruise, but only if you're paying attention. (Michael Atkinson, Village Voice)
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Re: Films of the 1950s: The Results

Post by BleuPanda »

35. Pather Panchali (1955)
Image
Director: Satyajit Ray
Points: 260.7 (596.9 raw)
Initial Year Rank: 7
Final Year Rank: 5
50s TSPDT Rank: 15
Voters: 8
Fans: Jirin 7/56, Greg 16/95
Haters: Stephan 42/42

Comments:
It is a pastoral poem dappled with the play of brilliant images and strong, dark feelings, a luminous revelation of Indian life in language that all the world can understand. (Time Magazine)

34. Bigger Than Life (1956)
Image
Director: Nicholas Ray
Points: 261.0 (597.2 raw)
Initial Year Rank: 8
Final Year Rank: 4
50s TSPDT Rank: 102
Voters: 6
Fans: Greg 8/95
Haters:

Comments:
My favorite of the Nicholas Ray films. The most revolutionary of his work, and James Mason gives a phenomenal performance as the father. (BleuPanda)

It's hard to think of another Hollywood picture with more to say about the sheer awfulness of 'normal' American family life during the 50s. (Jonathan Rosenbaum, Chicago Reader)

33. Hiroshima mon amour (1959)
Image
Director: Alain Resnais
Points: 261.8 (598.0 raw)
Initial Year Rank: 7
Final Year Rank: 5
50s TSPDT Rank: 28
Voters: 11
Fans: antonius 1/55, Gillingham 6/64, BleuPanda 20/91
Haters: Charlie Driggs 72/76

Comments:
Antonius is the first contributor to have their number one drop. The opening shot of Hiroshima mon amour is stunning, and the concept of truly remembering an experience as opposed to hearing about it is a blunt statement coming from a renowned documentarian. How much can we gain from simply viewing footage of Hiroshima or the Holocaust? (BleuPanda)

That rare movie in which present and past meld in every frame to convey a sense of time obliterated, or a dream having a nightmare. (Robert Abele, Los Angeles Times)

32. La strada (1954)
Image
Director: Federico Fellini
Points: 270.5 (606.7 raw)
Initial Year Rank: 5
Final Year Rank: 5
50s TSPDT Rank: 17
Voters: 12
Fans: Petri 2/77, antonius 4/55, Greg 13/95
Haters: Jirin 56/56, Harold 67/70

Comments:
Perhaps Fellini’s bleakest work. (BleuPanda)

Signor Fellini has used his small cast, and, equally important, his camera, with the unmistakable touch of an artist. His vignettes fill his movie with beauty, sadness, humor and understanding. (A.H. Weiler, New York Times)

31. On the Waterfront (1954)
Image
Director: Elia Kazan
Points: 270.9 (607.1 raw)
Initial Year Rank: 3
Final Year Rank: 4
50s TSPDT Rank: 30
Voters: 14
Fans: antonius 9/55, Greg 12/95, Stephan 12/42, Harold 17/70
Haters: Petri 70/77

Comments:
It is still possible to feel the power of the film and of Brando and Kazan, who changed American movie acting forever. (Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times)
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Re: Films of the 1950s: The Results

Post by BleuPanda »

30. The Cranes are Flying/Letyat zhuravli (1957)
Image
Director: Mikhail Kalalozov
Points: 281.7 (617.9 raw)
Initial Year Rank: 9
Final Year Rank: 5
50s TSPDT Rank: 65
Voters: 8
Fans: Charlie Driggs 6/76, Gillingham 12/64, Petri 18/77
Haters:

Comments:
A key post-war effort, both for its cinematic audacity and for its frank, moving depiction of families and lovers torn apart by violence. (Scott Tobias, A.V. Club)

29. Rebel Without a Cause (1955)
Image
Director: Nicholas Ray
Points: 289.0 (625.2 raw)
Initial Year Rank: 2
Final Year Rank: 4
50s TSPDT Rank: 83
Voters: 14
Fans: Greg 4/95, Petri 15/77, Harold 18/70, bonnielaurel 19/77
Haters:

Comments:
Like its hero, Rebel Without a Cause desperately wants to say something and doesn't know what it is. If it did know, it would lose its fascination. (Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times)

28. Paths of Glory (1957)
Image
Director: Stanley Kubrick
Points: 307.3 (643.4 raw)
Initial Year Rank: 3
Final Year Rank: 4
50s TSPDT Rank: 38
Voters: 14
Fans: Gillingham 8/64, Harold 10/70, Michel 11/97, Petri 16/77, Stephan 16/42, Henrik 20/47
Haters:

Comments:
This masterpiece still packs a wallop, though nothing in it is as simple as it may first appear; audiences are still arguing about the final sequence, which has been characterized as everything from a sentimental cop-out to the ultimate cynical twist. (Jonathan Rosenbaum, Chicago Reader)

27. Rio Bravo (1959)
Image
Director: Howard Hawks
Points: 316.8 (653.0 raw)
Initial Year Rank: 4
Final Year Rank: 4
50s TSPDT Rank: 21
Voters: 13
Fans: Stephan 4/42, JimmyJazz 6/97, Harold 9/70, Gillingham 11/64
Haters: bonnielaurel 70/77

Comments:
To watch Rio Bravo is to see a master craftsman at work. The film is seamless. There is not a shot that is wrong. It is uncommonly absorbing, and the 141-minute running time flows past like running water. (Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times)

26. The Killing (1956)
Image
Director: Stanley Kubrick
Points: 320.4 (656.6 raw)
Initial Year Rank: 1
Final Year Rank: 3
50s TSPDT Rank: 77
Voters: 12
Fans: Charlie Driggs 2/76, Miguel 3/53, Gillingham 13/64
Haters:

Comments:
Kubrick already showcases his talent here with his first all-around good film. (Gillingham)

At 27 Writer-Director Stanley Kubrick, in his third full-length picture, has shown more audacity with dialogue and camera than Hollywood has seen since the obstreperous Orson Welles went riding out of town on an exhibitors' poll. (Time Magazine)
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Re: Films of the 1950s: The Results

Post by BleuPanda »

25. All About Eve (1950)
Image
Director: Joseph L. Mankiewicz
Points: 338.7 (674.9 raw)
Initial Year Rank: 3
Final Year Rank: 4
50s TSPDT Rank: 27
Voters: 14
Fans: Henrik 7/47, antonius 13/55, Gillingham 16/64, Stephan 17/42, BleuPanda 18/91, bonnielaurel 18/77, Harold 20/70
Haters: Charlie Driggs 76/76

Comments:
Joseph Mankiewicz was Hollywood's midcentury master of comic drama, and All About Eve, from 1950, was one of his signal achievements. (Richard Brody, New Yorker)

24. Ikiru (1952)
Image
Director: Akira Kurosawa
Points: 352.6 (688.8 raw)
Initial Year Rank: 3
Final Year Rank: 2
50s TSPDT Rank: 26
Voters: 12
Fans: Miguel 6/53, Charlie Driggs 12/76, Gillingham 14/64, BleuPanda 17/91, Stephan 19/42
Haters:

Comments:
I think this is one of the few movies that might actually be able to inspire someone to lead their life a little differently. (Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times)

23. Ugetsu (1953)
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Director: Kenji Mizoguchi
Points: 358.0 (694.2 raw)
Initial Year Rank: 3
Final Year Rank: 3
50s TSPDT Rank: 14
Voters: 10
Fans: Petri 11/77, BleuPanda 13/91, JimmyJazz 16/97, Harold 16/70, Jirin 16/56, Michel 18/97, Greg 19/95
Haters:

Comments:
One of the most devastating films ever created, exploring just how depressing ghost tales really can be. (BleuPanda)

Densely plotted but as emotionally subtle as its name, Ugetsu is one of the great experiences of cinema. (Dave Kehr, Chicago Reader)

22. Ordet (1955)
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Director: Carl Theodor Dreyer
Points: 368.0 (704.1 raw)
Initial Year Rank: 4
Final Year Rank: 3
50s TSPDT Rank: 9
Voters: 9
Fans: Gillingham 1/64, Greg 2/95, JimmyJazz 10/97, BleuPanda 12/91
Haters: Miguel 52/53, Stephan 41/42

Comments:
A very stark film, but at the same time extremely beautiful. (Gillingham)

One of the most hopeful explorations of religion in cinema, even to a cynic like me. (BluePanda)

Tragedy strikes, and petty denominational squabbles disintegrate in Dreyer's sublime synthesis of humanistic and textual faith, a vision of purity and clarity. (Kelly Vance, East Bay Express)

21. Les diaboliques (1955)
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Director: Henri-Georges Clouzot
Points: 373.2 (709.4 raw)
Initial Year Rank: 3
Final Year Rank: 2
50s TSPDT Rank: 93
Voters: 13
Fans: Petri 6/77, Henrik 6/47, Michel 12/97, Stephan 14/42, Charlie Driggs 18/76, Miguel 19/53
Haters:

Comments:
With a deliciously curvy and complex plot, Diabolique is a masterpiece of suspense -- as accomplished as anything done by Hitchcock. (James Berardinelli, ReelViews)
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Re: Films of the 1950s: The Results

Post by BleuPanda »

20. Sansho the Bailiff/Sanshō Dayū (1954)
Image
Director: Kenji Mizoguchi
Points: 376.6 (712.8 raw)
Initial Year Rank: 4
Final Year Rank: 3
50s TSPDT Rank: 24
Voters: 8
Fans: Jirin 3/56, JimmyJazz 5/97, BleuPanda 11/91, Harold 11/70, Miguel 14/53
Haters: Gillingham 60/64

Comments:
One of the most devastating stories put on film. (BleuPanda)

It's a masterpiece in its simplicity of telling a compelling story and its depth of understanding the human condition. (Dennis Schwartz, Ozus' World Movie Reviews)

19. A Man Escaped or: The Wind Bloweth Where It Listeth/Un condamné à mort s'est échappé ou Le vent souffle où il veut (1956)
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Director: Robert Bresson
Points: 377.9 (714.9 raw)
Initial Year Rank: 3
Final Year Rank: 2
50s TSPDT Rank: 23
Voters: 9
Fans: Petri 4/77, JimmyJazz 7/97, Gillingham 9/64, Henrik 9/47
Haters:

Comments:
One of the tensest films ever created simply by letting the scenes run long. No extra flare but the power of the image itself. (BleuPanda)

Watching a film like A Man Escaped is like a lesson in the cinema. It teaches by demonstration all the sorts of things that are not necessary in a movie. By implication, it suggests most of the things we're accustomed to are superfluous. (Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times)

18. The Searchers (1956)
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Director: John Ford
Points: 390.5 (726.7 raw)
Initial Year Rank: 2
Final Year Rank: 1
50s TSPDT Rank: 3
Voters: 14
Fans: JimmyJazz 1/97, Harold 4/70, Greg 9/95, Stephan 7/42, Gillingham 18/64
Haters: Charlie Driggs 74/76, Petri 74/77

Comments:
I'm still not sure what to think about the controversies surrounding this film. But it's well made anyway. (Gillingham)

One of the greatest Westerns, painting a picture of a very flawed hero. Expertly constructed in every way. (BleuPanda)

The final shot of this genuine epic says everything the Western ever had to say about the price of the American frontier and those forgotten bones upon which a nation was built. (Tom Keogh, Film.com)

17. Los Olvidados (1950)
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Director: Luis Bunuel
Points: 397.4 (733.6 raw)
Initial Year Rank: 4
Final Year Rank: 3
50s TSPDT Rank: 25
Voters: 9
Fans: Jirin 4/56, Petri 8/77, Michel 10/97, Greg 14/95, Charlie Driggs 14/76
Haters:

Comments:
It's a masterpiece that tangles individual and social ills into a knot, which, as we're warned in an opening voiceover, it offers no easy way to untie, rousing a sickening sense of injustice. (Nick Funnell, Time Out)

16. Wild Strawberries/Smultronstället (1957)
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Director: Ingmar Bergman
Points: 397.7 (733.9 raw)
Initial Year Rank: 4
Final Year Rank: 3
50s TSPDT Rank: 18
Voters: 13
Fans: Gillingham 5/64, antonius 6/55, Michel 7/97, Jirin 14/56, BleuPanda 15/91, Greg 18/95, Petri 20/77
Haters: Charlie Driggs 69/76

Comments:
One of Ingmar Bergman's many masterpieces, this universal meditation on the meaning of life is extremely well-acted by Victor Sjostrom (also known as director) as the aging professor. (Emanuel Levy, EmanuelLevy.com)
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Re: Films of the 1950s: The Results

Post by BleuPanda »

15. The 400 Blows/Les Quatre Cents Coups (1959)
Image
Director: Francois Truffaut
Points: 399.5 (735.7 raw)
Initial Year Rank: 3
Final Year Rank: 3
50s TSPDT Rank: 7
Voters: 12
Fans: BluePanda 4/91, Petri 5/77, Jirin 8/56, Henrik 10/47, JimmyJazz 12/97, Michel 20/97
Haters:

Comments:
One of the finest stories about growing up. Antoine Doinel is a fantastic leading character. That final image is one of the greatest shots in all of cinema. (BleuPanda)

Still one of the cinema's most perceptive forays into childhood. (Derek Adams, Time Out)

14. The Wages of Fear/Le salaire de la peur (1953)
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Director: Henri-Georges Clouzot
Points: 409.6 (745.8 raw)
Initial Year Rank: 1
Final Year Rank: 2
50s TSPDT Rank: 46
Voters: 13
Fans: Charlie Driggs 1/76, antonius 5/55, Gillingham 7/64, Michel 13/97, BleuPanda 14/91, Harold 19/70, Jirin 20/56
Haters: bonnielaurel 71/77

Comments:
The excitement derives entirely from the awareness of nitroglycerine and the gingerly, breathless handling of it. You sit there waiting for the theatre to explode. (Bosley Crowther, New York Times)

13. 12 Angry Men (1957)
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Director: Sidney Lumet
Points: 414.0 (750.2 raw)
Initial Year Rank: 1
Final Year Rank: 2
50s TSPDT Rank: 85
Voters: 13
Fans: Gillingham 4/64, Henrik 5/47, bonnielaurel 8/77, Miguel 8/53, Stephan 8/42, BleuPanda 16/91, Petri 19/77
Haters: Greg 86/95

Comments:
This film doesn't use a lot of all the cinematic possibilities, but with the story and the acting this strong, it doesn't need to. (Gillingham)

This is a film where tension comes from personality conflict, dialogue and body language, not action. (Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times)

12. The Night of the Hunter (1955)
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Director: Charles Laughton
Points: 427.9 (764.1 raw)
Initial Year Rank: 1
Final Year Rank: 1
50s TSPDT Rank: 12
Voters: 14
Fans: Michel 1/97, Charlie Driggs 4/76, Harold 5/70, Jirin 5/56, antonius 11/55, JimmyJazz 15/97
Haters: Henrik 44/47, Stephan 39/42

Comments:
I possibly need to rewatch this film, because I didn't think it was good at the time, but the atmosphere has persisted and draws me to it. (Gillingham)

It's the most haunted and dreamlike of all American films, a gothic backwoods ramble with the Devil at its heels. (Tom Huddleston, Time Out)

11. Tokyo Story/Tōkyō Monogatari (1953)
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Director: Yasujiro Ozu
Points: 447.8 (784.0 raw)
Initial Year Rank: 2
Final Year Rank: 1
50s TSPDT Rank: 2
Voters: 14
Fans: Petri 1/77, JimmyJazz 2/97, antonius 2/55, Harold 7/70, Jirin 15/56, Henrik 18/47, Michel 19/97
Haters: Miguel 49/53, Stephan 38/42, bonnielaurel 72/77

Comments:
Ozu's long shots, knee-high camera placement, and collapsed perspective -- as gorgeous and unsettling as a Cézanne -- gather power over the duration, but time itself is the master's most potent weapon. (Eric Hynes, Village Voice)
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Re: Films of the 1950s: The Results

Post by BleuPanda »

10. The Seventh Seal/Det sjunde inseglet (1957)
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Director: Ingmar Bergman
Points: 464.5 (800.6 raw)
Initial Year Rank: 2
Final Year Rank: 1
50s TSPDT Rank: 19
Voters: 11
Fans: bonnielaurel 2/77, Gillingham 2/64, Greg 3/95, BleuPanda 5/91, Michel 17/97, Henrik 19/47
Haters: Stephan 40/42

Comments:
Probably the first really ambitious film by Bergman, and he pulls it off incredibly well. (Gillingham)

This is an uncompromising film, regarding good and evil with the same simplicity and faith as its hero. (Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times)

9. North by Northwest (1959)
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Director: Alfred Hitchcock
Points: 467.8 (804.0 raw)
Initial Year Rank: 2
Final Year Rank: 3
50s TSPDT Rank: 16
Voters: 14
Fans: Charlie Driggs 3/76, bonnielaurel 4/77, Miguel 4/53, Harold 8/70, BleuPanda 10/91, Henrik 13/47, JimmyJazz 19/97, antonius 19/55
Haters:

Comments:
The most straight up fun of Hitchcock’s big films. Feels like the beginning of the modern action style. (BleuPanda)

A great film, and certainly one of the most entertaining movies ever made, directed by Alfred Hitchcock at his peak. (Dave Kehr, Chicago Reader)

8. Rashomon (1950)
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Director: Akira Kurosawa
Points: 487.5 (823.7 raw)
Initial Year Rank: 2
Final Year Rank: 2
50s TSPDT Rank: 6
Voters: 13
Fans: Jirin 2/56, BleuPanda 3/91, Michel 8/97, Charlie Driggs 10/76, Stephan 11/42, antonius 12/55, Greg 17/95
Haters:

Comments:
Stands out as having one of the greatest narratives in all of cinema. Mifune is phenomenal. (BleuPanda)

Not many movies make such an impact that their names enter into the language. Rashomon is such a movie (Jonathan F. Richards, Film.com)

7. Rear Window (1954)
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Director: Alfred Hitchcock
Points: 520.8 (857.0 raw)
Initial Year Rank: 1
Final Year Rank: 2
50s TSPDT Rank: 13
Voters: 14
Fans: Henrik 2/47, bonnielaurel 3/77, Miguel 5/53, Michel 6/97, JimmyJazz 13/97, Harold 13/70, Charlie Driggs 15/76, Stephan 18/42
Haters:

Comments:
In an impressive oeuvre, Rear Window is arguably the most exquisitely handcrafted feature, because Hitchcock mastered the spatial as well as behavioral coordinates of his chosen universe inch by inch. (Jonathan Rosenbaum, Chicago Reader)

6. Sunset Boulevard (1950)
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Director: Billy Wilder
Points: 526.7 (862.9 raw)
Initial Year Rank: 1
Final Year Rank: 1
50s TSPDT Rank: 11
Voters: 14
Fans: BleuPanda 1/91, Michel 2/97, Stephan 2/42, bonnielaurel 7/77, antonius 8/55, Harold 15/70, Henrik 15/47, Gillingham 17/64, Jirin 19/56
Haters:

Comments:
Without this, Mulholland Drive wouldn't have existed. Also a great atmospheric film by itself. One of Wilder's best. (Gillingham)

My personal favorite film of the 50s and third favorite of all time after Mulholland Drive and Persona. Gloria Swanson gives an outstanding performance as Norma Desmond, possibly my favorite character to come out of film. It is a brutally cynical look at the film industry. (BleuPanda)

Remains the best drama ever made about the movies because it sees through the illusions, even if Norma doesn't. (Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times)
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Re: Films of the 1950s: The Results

Post by BleuPanda »

5. Some Like It Hot (1959)
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Director: Billy Wilder
Points: 539.6 (875.8 raw)
Initial Year Rank: 1
Final Year Rank: 1
50s TSPDT Rank: 8
Voters: 14
Fans: Henrik 3/47, Stephan 5/42, Greg 6/95, BleuPanda 7/91, Petri 9/77, Miguel 10/53, Harold 12/70, Michel 14/97, antonius 15/55, bonnielaurel 16/77, JimmyJazz 20/97
Haters: Jirin 55/56

Comments:
Simply one of the funniest movies ever made. (BleuPanda)

Wilder's 1959 comedy is one of the enduring treasures of the movies, a film of inspiration and meticulous craft. (Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times)

4. Seven Samurai/Shichinin no Samurai (1954)
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Director: Akira Kurosawa
Points: 541.1 (877.3 raw)
Initial Year Rank: 2
Final Year Rank: 1
50s TSPDT Rank: 4
Voters: 13
Fans: Stephan 1/42, BleuPanda 2/91, Harold 2/70, Gillingham 3/64, antonius 3/55, JimmyJazz 11/97, Michel 16/97, Jirin 18/56
Haters:

Comments:
The highest ranking foreign film of the list. A massive work with as much social consideration as it has epic battles. The high point of Kurosawa’s career. (BleuPanda)

Kurosawa's film is a model of long-form construction, ably fitting its asides and anecdotes into a powerful suspense structure that endures for all of the film's 208 minutes. (Dave Kehr, Chicago Reader)

3. Touch of Evil (1958)
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Director: Orson Welles
Points: 564.7 (900.9 raw)
Initial Year Rank: 2
Final Year Rank: 2
50s TSPDT Rank: 10
Voters: 14
Fans: Greg 1/95, Harold 1/70, Michel 5/97, Stephan 6/42, Charlie Driggs 7/76, JimmyJazz 9/97, antonius 10/55, BleuPanda 19/91
Haters:

Comments:
At once ridiculous and masterful. Stretches the bounds of the film noir until it rips open. Fantastic cinematography. (BleuPanda)

Expressionistic in the extreme, filled with shadows, angles and cinematic flourishes, the film raises the usual brooding nightmare ambiance of film noir to a level few other pictures have attempted. (Kenneth Turan, Los Angeles Times)
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Re: Films of the 1950s: The Results

Post by BleuPanda »

2. Singin’ in the Rain (1952)
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Director: Stanley Donen and Gene Kelly
Points: 571.1 (907.3 raw)
Initial Year Rank: 1
Final Year Rank: 1
50s TSPDT Rank: 5
Voters: 14
Fans: Miguel 1/53, Henrik 1/47, Harold 6/70, Petri 7/77, BleuPanda 9/91, bonnielaurel 9/77, Greg 10/95, Gillingham 15/64, JimmyJazz 17/97, antonius 18/55, Stephan 20/42
Haters: Michel 89/97

Comments:
One of my favourite musicals. (Gillingham)

There is no movie musical more fun than Singin' in the Rain, and few that remain as fresh over the years. (Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times)


1. Vertigo (1958)
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Director: Alfred Hitchcock
Points: 802.9 (1139.0 raw)
Initial Year Rank: 1
Final Year Rank: 1
50s TSPDT Rank: 1
Voters: 14
Fans: bonnielaurel 1/77, Jirin 1/56, Petri 3/77, Harold 3/70, Stephan 3/42, JimmyJazz 4/97, Michel 4/97, BleuPanda 6/91, antonius 7/55, Charlie Driggs 8/76, Henrik 8/47, Greg 11/95, Miguel 15/53, Gillingham 19/64
Haters:

Comments:
Managed to garner up over 200 more points than second place. For comparison sake, that puts Singin’ in the Rain closer to Ikiru at #24 than it does to Vertigo. Every single person who submitted a list put Vertigo in their top 20. The numbers speak for themselves; this is the definitive film of the 1950s. (BleuPanda)

One of the landmarks -- not merely of the movies, but of 20th-century art. (Dave Kehr, Chicago Reader)
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Re: Films of the 1950s: The Results

Post by Live in Phoenix »

Great rollout, BleuPanda. For whatever reason, my brain doesn't work for compiling movie lists...I've seen the top 13 here and I would have no idea what order to put them in (well, except for Seven Samurai at #1).
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Re: Films of the 1950s: The Results

Post by bonnielaurel »

That was exciting! Vertigo's score is so high it's giving me acrophobia.
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Re: Films of the 1950s: The Results

Post by Gillingham »

Great stuff BleuPanda. Thanks a lot!

Neat list, I'm only slightly disappointed by the Hollywood-centric top 10. Only one Bergman and two Japanese films managed to slip in. And not in the top spots either. Not even a French film, probably Hollywood's biggest rival at the time. Feels to me like we had a bit more varied results in other decade lists, but I could be wrong.
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Re: Films of the 1950s: The Results

Post by bonnielaurel »

Gillingham wrote: Neat list, I'm only slightly disappointed by the Hollywood-centric top 10. Only one Bergman and two Japanese films managed to slip in. And not in the top spots either. Not even a French film, probably Hollywood's biggest rival at the time. Feels to me like we had a bit more varied results in other decade lists, but I could be wrong.
On the other hand only two films in the top ten were directed by someone born in the U.S.A. Hollywood was very international in those days.
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Re: Films of the 1950s: The Results

Post by Petri »

Great work BleuPanda and great results!
I assumed that this will be a Hollywood feast (with stuff like Vertigo, Singin in the Rain and Some Like It Hot in top 5). But still three Hitchcock movies in top 10 :o. Didn't see that coming. Seven Samurai and especially Seventh Seal were a bit lower than I expected. On the other hand Rashomon in top 10 and Sansho in top 20 were pleasant surprises. Thanks again BleuPanda for great job and comments.
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Re: Films of the 1950s: The Results

Post by Jirin »

Vertigo is in my top five of all time but North By Northwest is one of those films whose critical appeal I just don't get. To me a lot of the iconic scenes are too silly and implausible to be exciting. The very notion that a criminal would choose a crop duster as a method of assassination has my eyes rolling backflips.

Some Like It Hot I have mixed feelings about. On one hand it's like a tutorial about how to structure a comedy film. Structurally, it's an amazing film. Just the use of campy mafia cliches, gender stereotypes, and the ironic portrayal of women as lacking mental faculties in a film about how you should be nicer to women really puts me off about it. Most of the jokes just aren't funny.

I was surprised Tokyo Story didn't make the top ten. These results definitely tilt in favor of the spectacular rather than the contemplative.
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Re: Films of the 1950s: The Results

Post by Miguel »

Thanks for your excellent work, BleuPanda! :greetings-waveyellow:
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Re: Films of the 1950s: The Results

Post by Henrik »

Wonderful presentation, BleuPanda! And a great list!

In almost every thing that we discuss in these forums I argue that "foreign..." doesn't get the attention it deserves. Early movies is the exception. As much as I would like to, many of the foreign films just doesn't move me enough in the right places. I did however have three French films in my top 10 (Les Diaboliques, A Man Escaped, 400 Blows). But I am really happy that we got two comedies in the top 5, I did not expect that.

Also, Hitchcock rules. :happy-partydance:

bonnielaurel, I really find your lists intriguing. You're interested in all genres and I think you appreciate all of them too, but you still stand up for the big movies (and albums/songs too). Keep going!
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Re: Films of the 1950s: The Results

Post by Gillingham »

bonnielaurel wrote:
Gillingham wrote: Neat list, I'm only slightly disappointed by the Hollywood-centric top 10. Only one Bergman and two Japanese films managed to slip in. And not in the top spots either. Not even a French film, probably Hollywood's biggest rival at the time. Feels to me like we had a bit more varied results in other decade lists, but I could be wrong.
On the other hand only two films in the top ten were directed by someone born in the U.S.A. Hollywood was very international in those days.
True, but those are just by Hitchcock and Wilder, two directors that came to be epitome of what Hollywood was. Hollywood may have been quite international after the second world war, but it was international in a Hollywood kind of way. Those were the years of the Motion Picture Production Code, which made Hollywood quite conservative and narrowminded, unfortunately.
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