This page contains links to all the films I have reviewed from the era when Hollywood was shifting into colour and epics. Big-scale historical dramas and Arthur Freed musicals are all the rage. Elsewhere Greats like Ozo, Kurosawa, Fellini, Bergman and Clouzot were in their pomp.
1950
 | All About Eve – Best Picture winning drama about theatrical feuds, full of biting witty dialogue and huge fun. | Director: Joseph L. Mankiewicz Cast: Bette Davis, Anne Baxter, George Sanders |
 | The Asphalt Jungle – one of the best small-scale “man with a plan” heist thrillers, with crooks falling out | Director: John Huston Cast: Sterling Hayden, Louis Calhern, Sam Jaffe, Jean Hagen |
 | Born Yesterday – Pygmalion-like comedy, as a Gangster’s moll learns about culture from an earnest journalist | Director: George Cukor Cast: Judy Holliday, Broderick Crawford, William Holden |
 | In a Lonely Place – Hollywood murder mystery, as a screenwriter is suspected of killing a waitress | Director: Nicholas Ray Cast: Humphrey Bogart, Gloria Grahame, Frank Lovejoy |
 | The Men – Brando makes his film debut in this earnest but realistic drama about paraplegic war veterans | Director: Fred Zinnemann Cast: Marlon Brando, Teresa Wright, Everett Sloane |
 | Orphée – a poet falls in love with Death in this magic realism masterpiece | Director: Jean Cocteau Cast: Jean Marais, François Périer, María Casares |
 | Panic in the Streets – a cop has to stop a deadly plague being unleashed in this exciting realist drama | Director: Elia Kazan Cast: Richard Widmark, Paul Douglas, Barbara bel Geddes |
 | Rashomon – everyone has a different story for what happened in the forest in this multi-narrative classic | Director: Akira Kurosawa Cast: Toshiro Mifune, Machiko Kyō, Masayuki Mori |
 | Rio Grande – by-the-numbers cavalry Western from Ford (literally done under contract so he could make another film) | Director: John Ford Cast: John Wayne, Maureen O’Hara, Victor McLaglen |
 | Sunset Boulevard – absolutely brilliant dark Hollywood drama murder mystery | Director: Billy Wilder Cast: Gloria Swanson, William Holden, Erich von Stroheim |
1951
 | Ace in the Hole – sharply bitter journalism satire, as an ambitious reporter exploits an accident for his own career | Director: Billy Wilder Cast: Kirk Douglas, Jan Sterling, Robert Arthur |
 | The African Queen – a working class sailor and a missionary sail down a jungle river and fall in love | Director: John Huston Cast: Humphrey Bogart, Katharine Hepburn, Robert Morley |
 | An American in Paris – romance, Gershwin and dancing in this gorgeous Best Picture winning musical | Director: Vincente Minnelli Cast: Gene Kelly, Leslie Caron, Oscar Levant, Nina Foch |
 | The Desert Fox – admiring biopic of the original ‘Good German’ Field Marshal Rommel | Director: Henry Hathaway Cast: James Mason, Jessica Tandy, William Reynolds |
 | The Lavender Hill Mob – a personal favourite as a bank clerk plots a heist in this surprisingly subversive comedy | Director: Charles Crichton Cast: Alec Guinness, Stanley Holloway, Sid James |
 | Quo Vadis – one of the first Roman epics, lots of Christian talk even more action and sex | Director: Mervyn LeRoy Cast: Robert Taylor, Deborah Kerr, Peter Ustinov |
 | Strangers on a Train – a man accidentally agrees to swop murders with a psychopath in Hitchcock’s sharp-footed thriller | Director: Alfred Hitchcock Cast: Farley Granger, Robert Walker, Ruth Roman |
 | Summer Interlude – a ballerina processes terrible memories in this early Bergman that establishes all his themes | Director: Ingmar Bergman Cast: Maj-Britt Nilsson, Birger Malmsten, Alf Kjellin |
1952
 | The Greatest Show on Earth – the film whose reputation the Best Picture Oscar destroyed, silly love triangles in a Circus | Director: Cecil B DeMille Cast: Charlton Heston, Cornel Wilde, Betty Hutton |
 | High Noon – brilliant against-the-clock western, as a sheriff does the best to get ready for the gang riding into town to kill him | Director: Fred Zinnemann Cast: Gary Cooper, Grace Kelly, Thomas Mitchell |
 | Ivanhoe – big, silly swashbuckler based on Walter Scott | Director: Richard Thorpe Cast: Robert Taylor, Elizabeth Taylor, Joan Fontaine |
 | Moulin Rouge – handsomely made biopic of Toulouse-Lautrec | Director: John Huston Cast: José Ferrer, Zsa Zsa Gabor, Suzanne Flon |
 | The Quiet Man – an ex-boxer returns home to Ireland to fall in love and try and put his past behind him in this romantic fable | Director: John Ford Cast: John Wayne, Maureen O’Hara, Victor McLaglen |
 | Singin in the Rain – the definitive Hollywood old-school musical with the most famous dance sequence of all time | Director: Stanley Donen, Gene Kelly Cast: Gene Kelly, Debbie Reynolds, Donald O’Connor |
 | The Sound Barrier – an obsessed engineer risks his son-in-law’s life to break the sound barrier | Director: David Lean Cast: Ann Todd, Ralph Richardson, Nigel Patrick |
 | Waiting Women – three women share stories of their marriage in Bergman’s experiment with form and genre | Director: Ingmar Bergman Cast: Anita Björk, Eva Dahlbeck, Maj-Britt Nilsson |
1953
 | The Band Wagon – love and creative differences abound behind-the-scenes of a Broadway show in a love-letter to theatre | Director: Vincente Minnelli Cast: Fred Astaire, Cyd Charisse, Jack Buchanan |
 | Beat the Devil – slightly surreal conmen drama set in Africa, the sort of bizarre film that becomes a cult favourite | Director: John Huston Cast: Humphrey Bogart, Jennifer Jones, Robert Morley |
 | The Big Heat – an obsessed cop takes on gangsters no matter what in Lang’s superb critique of America | Director: Fritz Lang Cast: Glenn Ford, Gloria Grahame, Lee Marvin |
 | The Cruel Sea – in WW2 a naval captain deals with the unbearable burden of command | Director: Charles Frend Cast: Jack Hawkins, Donald Sinden, John Stratten |
 | From Here to Eternity – Best Picture winning Pearl Harbor drama, as soldiers struggle against the system in late 1941 | Director: Fred Zinneman Cast: Burt Lancaster, Montgomery Clift, Deborah Kerr |
 | Julius Caesar – traditional version of the Shakespeare play, with Brando showing modern actors can do the Bard | Director: Joseph L. Mankiewicz Cast: James Mason, Marlon Brando, John Gielgud |
 | Pickup on South Street – a thief picks the wrong pocket in this spy thriller | Director: Samuel Fuller Cast: Richard Widmark, Jean Peters, Thelma Ritter |
 | The Robe – quaintly rubbish Christian Roman Epic that concentrates on the cinemascope | Director: Henry Koster Cast: Richard Burton, Jean Simmons, Victor Mature |
 | Shane – brilliant western: a gunslinger finds its difficult to hang up your guns when black hats dominate your adopted home | Director: George Stevens Cast: Alan Ladd, Jean Arthur, Van Heflin |
 | Stalag 17 – in a POW camp, a fixer is a suspected Nazi stoolie and has to prove his innocence | Director: Billy Wilder Cast: William Holden, Don Taylor, Otto Preminger |
 | Summer with Monika – Bergman’s advance kitchen-sink drama, as idealism turns bitter after a seemingly blissful summer | Director: Ingmar Bergman Cast: Harriet Andersson, Lars Ekborg, John Harrysone |
 | Tokyo Story – a retired couple are ignored by their children in one of the greatest, and simplest, films ever made | Director: Yasujirō Ozu Cast: Chishū Ryū, Chieko Higashiyama, Setsuko Hara |
 | The Wages of Fear – penniless workers have to drive explosive chemicals over dangerous terrain in this gripping thriller | Director: Henri-Georges Clouzot Cast: Yves Montard, Charles Vanel, Folco Lilli |
1954
 | The Barefoot Contessa – cynicism abounds in this curious semi-satire about a nobody who becomes a Hollywood star | Director: Joseph L. Mankiewicz Cast: Humphrey Bogart, Ava Gardner, Edmond O’Brien |
 | Hell and High Water – for-the-money below-the-waves men-on-a-mission film that is short on passion or inspiraton | Director: Samuel Fuller Cast: Richard Widmark, Bella Darvi, Victor Francen |
 | On the Waterfront – Best Picture winning whistle-blower drama, a wonderful film with some of the greatest scenes in history | Director: Elia Kazan Cast: Marlon Brando, Eva Maria Saint, Karl Malden |
 | Seven Samurai – brilliant action film as seven samurai protect a village; also a thoughtful character study. Kurosawa’s best film | Director: Akira Kurosawa Cast: Toshiro Mifune, Takashi Shimura, Daisuke Katō |
 | A Star is Born – long but rewarding version of the story of a fading star and his talented wife, with brilliant performances | Director: George Cukor Cast: Judy Garland, James Mason, Jack Carson |
1955
 | The Dam Busters – iconic WW2 bombing raid film with bouncing bombs, a classic score and unfortunately named dog | Director: Michael Anderson Cast: Michael Redgrave, Richard Todd, Ursula Jeans |
 | Les Diabloques – his mistress and his wife murder a cruel schoolmaster. Can they cover their guilt? | Director: Henri-Georges Clouzot Cast: Simeone Signoret, Véra Clouzot, Charles Vanel |
 | Love Is a Many-Splendored Thing – a Eurasian doctor and an American journalist fall in love in this thin romance | Director: Henry King Cast: William Holden, Jennifer Jones, Torin Thatcher |
 | Marty – a shy butcher falls in love in this gentle Best Picture winner, adapted from a TV play | Director: Delbert Mann Cast: Ernest Borgnine, Betsy Blair, Esther Minciotti |
 | Picnic – a sexy new arrival in town leads to no end of trouble bubbling to the surface, in this dry Broadway adaptation | Director: Joshua Logan Cast: William Holden, Kim Novak, Rosalind Russell |
 | Rififi – small-time crooks try a big score in this absolutely brilliant French film noir, one of the greatest ever made | Director: Jules Dassin Cast: Jean Servais, Carl Möhner, Robert Manuel |
 | Smiles of a Summer Night – romantic complications come to a head one long night in Bergman’s comedy of manners | Director: Ingmar Bergman Cast: Eva Dahlbeck, Gunnar Björnstrand, Ulla Jacobsson |
 | Summertime – a lonely woman finds romance in Venice, in this luscious travelogue, one of the best of its genre | Director: David Lean Cast: Katharine Hepburn, Rossano Brazzi |
 | To Catch a Thief – Cary Grant is the retired thief falsely accused of a new crime in his luscious but middle-road Hitchcock | Director: Alfred Hitchcock Cast: Cary Grant, Grace Kelly, Jessie Royce Landis |
1956
 | Around the World in 80 Days – Best Picture winning global trip based on the novel, with a star face around every corner | Director: Michael Anderson Cast: David Niven, Cantinflas, Shirley MacLaine |
 | Bad Day at Black Rock – a one armed WW2 veteran arrives in town to find the killer of his friend, a Japanese businessman. Brilliant. | Director: John Sturges Cast: Spencer Tracy, Robert Ryan, Anne Francis |
 | Moby Dick – uniquely filmed adaptation of the American novel, with some brave casting and a wonderful sense of the sea | Director: John Huston Cast: Gregory Peck, Leo Genn, Richard Baseheart |
 | Reach for the Sky – the life story of Douglas Bader, who overcame losing his legs to fly for Britain during WW2 | Director: Lewis Gilbert Cast: Kenneth More, Muriel Pavlow, Lyndon Brook |
 | The Searchers – Ford’s masterpiece, a racist cowboy searches to find (and kill?) his kidnapped niece who has gone native | Director: John Ford Cast: John Wayne, Jeffrey Hunter, Vera Miles |
 | The Ten Commandments – DeMille’s swan song, the biggest, campiest, most famous Biblical epic of them all | Director: Cecil B DeMille Cast: Charlton Heston, Yul Brynner, Anne Baxter |
 | 23 Paces to Baker Street – despite the title, this murder mystery about a blind man has nothing to do with Sherlock Holmes | Director: Henry Hathaway Cast: Van Johnson, Vera Miles, Cecil Parker |
1957
 | The Bridge on the River Kwai – Best Picture winner: a British POW misguidedly builds a bridge for Japanese captors | Director: David Lean Cast: Alec Guinness, William Holden, Jack Hawkins |
 | Paths of Glory – after a doomed attack, a WW1 French colonel is ordered to choose three to be tried for cowardice | Director: Stanley Kubrick Cast: Kirk Douglas, Ralph Meeker, Adolphe Menjou |
 | Peyton Place – murder and (off-screen) sex but definitely no cuss words in this ridiculous but entertaining soapy drama | Director: Mark Robson Cast: Lana Turner, Diane Varsi, Hope Lange |
 | Sayonara – self-important and dull anti-racism film about American GIs overcoming prejudice to marry Japanese women | Director: Joshua Logan Cast: Marlon Brando, Miika Taka, Red Buttons |
 | The Seventh Seal – most influential arthouse film ever made? A medieval knight plays chess with Death for his soul. Great film. | Director: Ingmar Bergman Cast: Max von Sydow, Bengt Ekerot, Gunnar Björnstrand |
 | Sweet Smell of Success – a vicious newspaper columnist exploits a desperate PR man in this brilliant acidic comedy | Director: Alexander Mackendrick Cast: Burt Lancaster, Tony Curtis, Susan Harrison |
 | 12 Angry Men – a single juror tries to win over the rest in one of the greatest trial dramas ever made | Director: Sidney Lumet Cast: Henry Fonda, Lee J Cobb, Ed Begley |
 | Wild Strawberries – an aged doctor reflects on life and loss in Bergman’s surprisingly optimistic road-trip movie | Director: Ingmar Bergman Cast: Victor Sjöström, Bibi Andersson, Ingrid Thulin |
 | Witness for the Prosecution – Agatha Christie courtroom drama adaptation, with one of the best twists ever | Director: Billy Wilder Cast: Charles Laughton, Marlene Dietrich, Tyrone Power |
1958
 | The Big Country – a stranger arrives finds himself in the middle of a feud in this large scale, hugely entertaining Western | Director: William Wyler Cast: Gregory Peck, Charlton Heston, Burl Ives |
 | Gigi – dated Best Picture winning musical about a 19th century French girl training to become a courtesan. | Director: Vincente Minnelli Cast: Leslie Caron, Louis Jourdain, Maurice Chevalier |
 | The Last Hurrah – a mayor runs for another term in this political drama that has no idea what it thinks about anything | Director: John Ford Cast: Spencer Tracy, Jeffrey Hunter, Dianne Foster |
 | The Magician – a troupe of magicians are questioned by rationalists: fascinating meditation on performance | Director: Ingmar Bergman Cast: Max von Sydow, Ingrid Thulin, Gunnar Björnstrand |
 | Touch of Evil – late Welles masterpiece about a corrupt cop in a Southern border-town, dealing with murder and mayhem | Director: Orson Welles Cast: Charlton Heston, Janet Leigh, Orson Welles |
 | Vertigo – a detective has fear of heights and obsession with the woman he’s hired to follow. One of the greatest films ever. | Director: Alfred Hitchcock Cast: James Stewart, Kim Novak, Barbara bel Geddes |
 | The Vikings – swashbuckler about a Viking prince and a Saxon slave with a mysterious background | Director: Richard Fleischer Cast: Kirk Douglas, Tony Curtis, Janet Leigh |
1959
 | Anatomy of a Murder – brilliantly cynical courtroom drama about lawyers who will use almost any trick to get the result they need | Director: Otto Preminger Cast: James Stewart, George C Scott, Lee Remick |
 | Ben-Hur – massive Best Picture winning epic about a Jewish prince at the time of Jesus. An average film, right place at the right time | Director: Wiliam Wyler Cast: Charlton Heston, Stephen Boyd, Hara Hayeet |
 | The Diary of Anne Frank – rather dry and stagy adaptation of the famous diary, with all the passion strained out | Director: George Stevens Cast: Anne Perkins, Joseph Schildkraut, Shelley Winters |
 | The Four Hundred Blows – adults can’t see the artistic heart of a young tearaway in this marvellous coming-of-age tale | Director: François Truffaut Cast: Jean-Pierre Léaud, Albert Rémy, Claire Maurier |
 | The Hound of the Baskervilles – Hammer Horror version of the most famous Sherlock Holmes story of all time | Director: Terence Fisher Cast: Peter Cushing, Christopher Lee, André Morell |
 | North by Northwest – simply the best of all of Hitchcock’s US adventures: Grant is mistaken for a spy and goes on the run | Director: Alfred Hitchcock Cast: Cary Grant, Eva Marie Saint, James Mason |
 | The Nun’s Story – biography of a Belgian nun in the first half of the twentieth century, quiet but moving | Director: Fred Zinnemann Cast: Audrey Hepburn, Peter Finch, Edith Evans |
 | Odds Against Tomorrow – a foolproof plan falls apart as robbers fall out over racial tensions | Director: Robert Wise Cast: Harry Belafonte, Robert Ryan, Ed Begley |
 | Pickpocket – a thief is convinced he is a superman, in Bresson’s subtle parable about temptation and the possibility of redemption | Director: Robert Bresson Cast: Martin Lasalle, Marika Green, Jean Pelegri |
 | Rio Bravo – a sheriff and his mates shoot the breeze while waiting for a gang to ride into town in this response to High Noon | Director: Howard Hawks Cast: John Wayne, Dean Martin, Ricky Nelson |
 | Room at the Top – a chippy social climber has to choose between love and his career in this classic kitchen-sink drama | Director: Jack Clayton Cast: Simeone Signoret, Laurence Harvey, Heather Sears |
 | Some Like It Hot – musicians on the run from Prohibition disguise themselves as women – mayhem ensues. | Director: Billy Wilder Cast: Tony Curtis, Jack Lemmon, Marilyn Monroe |
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