1950s Movies Appreciation Thread

Was getting into 50s movies recently, so I thought to make a thread discussing them.

My favorite so far might have to be Witness for the Prosecution. Very good movie full of wit and dedication in inspecting its subject matter.

Some other 50s movies I've liked:

North by Northwest
The Bridge on the River Kwai
Bad Day at Black Rock
Ice Cold in Alex
The Narrow Margin
Winchester '73
Johnny Guitar
Detective Story
The Man Who Knew Too Much
Shadows

I was going to say welcome to MoFo, but I see you've been here 9 1/2 years! So you're probably aware of our MoFo Top 100 1950s Movie list...lots of great 50s films there. Witness for the Prosecution is one of the great films by one of the great directors, Billy Wilder. I reviewed it and gave it a .


The 1950s is my favorite decade for movies, what other ones have you seen and really liked?

Billy Wilder really sticks out to me because he really knows how to bring out the flare and wit in dialogue while still being able to take the characters seriously, yeah.

As for others I've liked, I think it would have to be these:

Anatomy of a Murder (1959)

Bad Day at Black Rock (1955)

The Narrow Margin (1952)

Johnny Guitar (1954)

Rebel Without a Cause (1955)

Kiss Me Deadly (1955)

Detective Story (1951)

The Man Who Knew Too Much (1956)

Shadows (1958)

Ah, all great ones! The only one I haven't seen was Shadows and I had planned to watch that. Seen and loved all the rest, good taste! Yes Wilder is the man, he made so many great ones.

These three qualify for the upcoming MoFo Top Film Noir Countdown that's coming up:

The Narrow Margin (1952)
Kiss Me Deadly (1955)
Detective Story (1951)
I hope you'll send in a voting ballot, voting rules are on the 1st post of that link.

I've been watching a Film Noir almost every single night, sometimes two of them. Have you seen this noir rating thread? Lots of great noirs reviewed there.

Shadows is probably one of the messiest 1950s movies that still has some competency and professionalism behind it. It's not like classical Hollywood at all. It's like a jazzy stream of consciousness that you just feel as a lot of worthwhile things to say, even if it's not always sure how to say them. I'm sure some people would call his sloppy filmmaking, but I like how it portrays it, like when the characters go to a park full of statues:

TOM: I don't know what you wanted to come here for, Dennis. This joint is nothing but a place
for a bunch of sexless women who don't have any love in their life. A lot of big deal professors. A lot of creeps trying to show off how much they know.

DENNIS: You couldn't be wronger.

TOM: I suppose professors don't come here?

DENNIS: Well, I didn't say that.

TOM: All right, Dennis. Look at that. I suppose you can tell me what he's about, huh, genius?

DENNIS: He's a statue.

TOM: I know he's a statue, Dennis. What kind of a statue? I know he's a statue.

DENNIS: Well, Tom, I don't know everything.

TOM: You know something, Dennis?

DENNIS: Yeah?

TOM: You don't know nothing.

DENNIS: Oh, yeah? What do you know?

TOM: A lot more than you do, pal.

DENNIS: Yeah? Well what you come here for if you know so much? You have no respect for art, no respect at all.

TOM: You listen to me, Dennis. You're nothing but an ignorant slob, Dennis, a little ignorant slob. I went to college, Dennis.

DENNIS: You?

TOM: All I ever got out of it was dissipation, and a lot of early bells disturbing my sleep. A lot of supercilious professors, slob professors, shooting off their mouth about something, trying to teach me something they'd already failed at in life themselves. So don't tell me I don't appreciate anything.

Cinema is dead!

LONG LIVE CINEMA!

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On The Waterfront
La Strada
Ace In The Hole
The Seventh Seal
Pickpocket
Ikiru
Rashomon
A Face In The Crowd
Cairo Station
Beautiful
The Roof
A Man Escaped
12 Angry Men
Wild Strawberries
Anatahan
Seven Samurai
Shane
Little Fugitive
Sunset Blvd
Miracle in Milan
All About Eve
The 400 Blows
Nights of Cabiria
Marty
Come Back, Little Sheba
The Cranes Are Flying
Paths of Glory
The Bridge
Man On The Tracks
Ordet
Kraner's Confectionary
The Harder They Fall
Pather Panchai
A Streetcar Named Desire
General Della Rovere
Hondo
Lust For Life
The Desperate Hours
Summer With Monika
The Killing
Tokyo Story
From Here To Eternity
Diary of a Country Priest
All That Heaven Allows
The Human Condition
Big Deal On Madonna Street
I Want To Live!
The Young And The Damned
Caged
On The Bowery
White Nights
Ballad of a Soldier
Home Before Dark
Salt of the Earth
It Happened In Broad Daylight
I Live In Fear
Il Gido
The Cousins
Le Beau Serge
The Destiny of Man
Love In The City
A Generation
These Wilder Years
Venom and Eternity
Ice Cold Alex

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Dialogue triumph from Witness for the Prosecution:

WILFRID: In this country we are inclined to take
a rather more serious view of marriage.
However, it would appear that when
you first met the prisoner in Hamburg you lied to him about your marital status.

CHRISTINE: I wanted to get out of Germany, so...

WILFRID: You lied, did you not? Just yes or no, please.

CHRISTINE: Yes.

WILFRID: Thank you. And in arranging the marriage, you lied to the authorities?

CHRISTINE: I, um, did not tell the truth to the authorities.

WILFRID: You lied to them?

CHRISTINE: Yes.

WILFRID: And in the ceremony, when you swore
to love, honour and cherish your husband, that too was a lie?

CHRISTINE: Yes.

WILFRID: And when the police questioned you
about this wretched man who believed himself married and loved, you told them...

CHRISTINE: I told them what he wanted me to.

WILFRID: You told them that he was at home
with you at 25 minutes past 9, and now you say that that was a lie?

CHRISTINE: Yes, a lie!

WILFRID: And when you said that he had accidentally cut his wrist, again, you lied?

CHRISTINE: Yes!

WILFRID: And today you told a new story entirely. The question is, Frau Helm,
were you lying then, are you lying now?

Or are you not, in fact, a chronic and habitual LIAR!

Nice picks!

I enjoy a lot of 50s monster movies:


Attack of the 50 foot Woman
The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms
The Black Scorpion
The Monster That Challenged the World
Creature from the Black Lagoon
Rodan
The Deadly Mantis
The Fly
The Blob
Them!
Godzilla
The Wasp Woman

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I'd like to find some more Independent movies from the 1950s. I'm guessing most are going to be non-English speaking.

I'm not familiar with non-English films, but two English independent films from this time that stand to me are Salt of the Earth, created by several people who had been blacklisted by Hollywood, and Shadows, John Cassavetes' offbeat, but easygoing film that very much seems to go against Hollywood's more "proper" style of filmmaking.

I saw and like both. Cassavetes is my third favorite director. I've seen all his movies at least 2-3 times. "Salt of the Earth" was a good labor movie.


Check out "On The Bowery" if you haven't seen it.

Most Alfred Hitchcock films from that decade are amazing, especially Rear Window, To Catch a Thief, Vertigo and North by Northwest.

Other favourites of mine from the 50's are:

The Desperate Hours
12 Angry Men
The Bridge on the River Kwai
Sunset Blvd.
On the Waterfront
Hobson's Choice
Harvey
The Searchers
The Seven Year Itch

According to https://www.ultimatemovierankings.co...e-stars-1950s/, the biggest box office stars of the 50s? James Stewart, Charlton Heston, and William Holden.

Doris Day was nr 1.

Don't forget Marilyn, Elvis and James Dean.

Doris Day could do no wrong

The possibly two greatest and founding filmmakers of the independent film movement, Lionel Rogosin with On the Bowery and Come Back Africa and John Cassavetes with Shadows got their start in the 1950s. Also the great, beautiful, and multi-talented Ida Lupino also was directing films like The Hitchhiker and Outrage in the 1950's too.

To me the 1950s is greatest decade in film bar-none because it combined the brilliance of the classicism and formalism of the pre-World War 2 studio system, but injected a post World War 2 daring and subversiveness into the system with the rise of an emerging America as a global power and the cynicism and ominous dread of a nuclear world with the very VERY real threat of global destruction.

Also foreign cinema was on the rise too as filmmakers such as Fellini, Bergman, and Kurosawa burst onto the scene.

So yeah the 1950s was that lightning strikes decade and a transitionary decade that brought the best of old Hollywood and gave a sampling of what new Hollywood was going to offer, while at the same time independent films and international films were really coming into their own and doing great things.

There will never be, nor could there ever be a decade of film as great and diverse as the 1950s if you look at the decades total body of work vs other decades.

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Doris Day’s $2.6 billion against James Stewart’s $4.1 billion, obviously Stewart wins out this decade.

If you know of any ones I'd like, I'd love to check out your recommendations, thanks!


Btw, I actually saw "On The Bowery" because it was mentioned in John's biography that he loved that movie