Favorite Movies of the 1950s?

I really like this film, also.

Still unavailable on BD for you Region A folks, but the RB Masters of Cinema release is excellent, and probably the source of the YouTube upload you found.

 

A legendary film now but not everyone was thrilled with Fred Zinnemann's 1953 allegory about courage and principle (the "Commie" witch hunts, in particular), High Noon. Howard Hawks squawked, "I didn't think a good town marshal was going to run around town like a chicken with his head cut off asking everyone to help. And who saves him? His Quaker wife. That isn't my idea of a good Western." Maybe not but it's a funny summary. John Wayne called it "downright Un-American". To my mind it's one of the best Westerns ever made. Great cast, too. It's a keeper, but here's a nifty little streamer.

 

1. Rear Window
2. War Of The Worlds
3. North By Northwest
4. Dial M For Murder
5. To Catch A Thief

 

Watching the special features on The Criterion edition of Elevator, director Louis Malle mentioned getting his start on feature films with the famous oceanographer, Jacques Cousteau, The Silent World, which premièred in 1956.


It's an intriguing and often disturbing look at man's influence on the ecology of the deep blue. Good streamer on The Tube -

 

Is there a shot like this from the opposite POV? Jean Peters was muy caliente back in the day!

 

I've always wondered how that movie would've seemed if it could've been cast with, for example, John Wayne in the Cooper role, Ward Bond as the old, broken-down retired sheriff, Ronald Reagan instead of Lloyd Bridges, Adolphe Manjou in the Thomas Mitchell role, Ginger Rogers instead of Grace Kelly, etc. Hawks' Rio Bravo and El Dorado are clearly his answer to High Noon, that a "good town marshal" would take who he was given and save the day with them and of course, the marshal being John Wayne he just couldn't lose, right? (I suppose Rio Lobo is more of the same but I've never watched it)

 

Nope. Come on now, Widmark's doing the pickin'! Peters is pretty, clueless and literally "in the dark" most of the time.

 

Zinneman wasn't about to do that. I could see Reagan as Frank Miller, though. He made a great adversary in The Killers. And while we're on the subject of the Hemingway story - it was in '56 that Andrei Tarkovsky made his first (student) film based on that scenario. Of the three that Criterion features in their Killers set I like the '64 Don't Siegel (w/Reagan) version best but the Tarkovsky version is fairly good (and short!), too:

 

Nah - other than being Westerns Rio Bravo is not at all similar to High Noon; different directors, different ethos, different set of artists and different messages to convey. Watch Rio Bravo ('59) and you'll see what I mean. Despite its stodgy structure The Western has been the vehicle for a very wide range of social and political statements.

 

Re-watched Witness for the Prosecution (1957) the other day. I always enjoy the interplay between Charles Laughton and Elsa Lanchester. I had forgotten that Una O'Connor had a nice small character part. Also, "Wanna kiss me, ducky? "

 

Never heard of it but looks like a good one!

 

The Bad Seed (1956)

 

Strangers on a Train was mentioned several times up-thread. This is such a great scene:



Hitchcock made some great movies in the 50s.

 

Damn, I forgot War of the Worlds from my list, and that definitely should be included.

 

Rio Bravo

 

I love vintage movie poster art. Finally getting around to watching UMBERTO D. tonight. Releasing it in 1952, Vittorio De Sica was another director who explored the lives of poor and working class Italians who found themselves struggling after WWII. It's a classic that's sat on my shelf until the right moment.

 

Here's one I've watched manny times over the years and can appreciate the latest Criterion restoration. It's fascinating to watch but if it really gives justice to a play (that I never cared for) about a pernious, self-loathing fake and a fatally deluded black man is open for argument. Still Orson Welles worked a bit of visual magic to make his 1952 film version of Othello:

 

Sweet Smell of Success
Rio Bravo
The Searchers
Rear Window
The Man Who Knew Too Much
The Fly
Quo Vadis?
Ben Hur

Overall no decade I'm too familiar with, but one with some great movies nonetheless

 

I rather like Welles’s film of Othello.

Here’s a photo I took last Xmas at Santa Maria dei Miracoli, Venice:



This is the location where Othello marries Desdemona in Welles’s film. The same church can also be seen, briefly, in Nicolas Roeg’s film Don’t Look Now.

 

Nice. Do you know if the church was captured in David Lean's film from '55, Summertime? I've never seen it though I remember flipping past it on numerous occasions while tv channel surfing. Seemed a bit like a postcard flick of a lonely old chick. Not the most promising scenario though variations of it keep getting produced.

 

I’ve not seen Lean’s film either, but there’s no mention of Santa Maria dei Miracoli in this link:

Cast in Stone

There’s no reason to assume Lean would use this particular church, anyway. The church is beautiful, but it’s just one of a great many stunning churches in Venice. Further, it’s squirrelled away on a Cannaregio backstreet, removed from the main tourist areas.

I have no direct evidence, but I’m guessing that Nic Roeg’s later use of the church, photographed from the same angle as in Othello (and my photo, above) was a cinematic nod to Welles.

 

I couldn't really pick just one, but I will anyway: "On the Waterfront".