The 40 most popular 1950s adventure movies, ranked. Click any film for ratings, reviews, trailers, and where to watch.


North by Northwest
1959 · 2h 17m · US
Advertising man Roger Thornhill is mistaken for a spy, triggering a deadly cross-country chase.


Ben-Hur
1959 · 3h 32m · US
In ancient Judea, a Jewish aristocrat opposing Roman occupation of his homeland reunites with his childhood friend, now a Roman commander — setting in motion a saga of betrayal, adventure, tragedy, revenge, and faith.


Alice in Wonderland
1951 · 1h 15m · US
On a golden afternoon, wildly curious young Alice tumbles into the burrow and enters the merry, madcap world of Wonderland full of whimsical escapades.


Peter Pan
1953 · 1h 17m · US
Leaving the safety of their nursery behind, Wendy, Michael and John follow Peter Pan to a magical world where childhood lasts forever. But while in Neverland, the kids must face Captain Hook and foil his attempts to get rid of Peter for good.


Lady and the Tramp
1955 · 1h 16m · US
Lady, a golden cocker spaniel, meets up with a mongrel dog who calls himself the Tramp. He is obviously from the wrong side of town, but happenings at Lady's home make her decide to travel with him for a while.


20,000 Leagues Under the Sea
1954 · 2h 7m · US
A ship sent to investigate a wave of mysterious sinkings encounters the advanced submarine, the Nautilus, commanded by Captain Nemo.


Moby Dick
1956 · 1h 55m · US
In 1841, young Ishmael signs up for service aboard the Pequod, a whaler sailing out of New Bedford. The ship is under the command of Captain Ahab, a strict disciplinarian who exhorts his men to find Moby Dick, the great white whale. Ahab lost his leg to that creature and is desperate for revenge. As the crew soon learns, he will stop at nothing to gain satisfaction.


Ghost Captain
1953 · 1h 30m · IT
A disgraced member of the Spanish Navy must redeem his family's honor after his father betrays his country to the French.


Journey to the Center of the Earth
1959 · 2h 12m · US
An Edinburgh professor and assorted colleagues follow an explorer's trail down an extinct Icelandic volcano to the earth's center.


Passion
1954 · 1h 24m · US
In old Spanish California, dashing cattleman Juan Obregon returns to the rancho of his friend Gaspar Melo, to find he's fathered a son on Rosa, one of Gaspar's identical twin daughters. Overjoyed, he plans to formalize his "unofficial" marriage. But trouble brews; Melo's land is of unclear title and the new Don Domingo hopes to grab it for his own profit. Violence results. Without even knowing who survived, Juan (accompanied by Rosa's tomboy sister Tonya) rides for revenge, through spectacular pastoral and wilderness scenery.


Around the World in 80 Days
1956 · 3h 2m · US
Based on the famous book by Jules Verne the movie follows Phileas Fogg on his journey around the world. Which has to be completed within 80 days, a very short period for those days.


Kangaroo
1952 · 1h 24m · US
In turn-of-the-century Australia, two criminals ingratiate themselves with a rancher in order to swindle him. However, the two partners become rivals for the affection of the rancher's beautiful daughter.


The Wages of Fear
1953 · 2h 28m · FR
In a run-down South American town, four men are paid to drive trucks loaded with nitroglycerin into the jungle through to the oil field. Friendships are tested and rivalries develop as they embark upon the perilous journey.


Creature from the Black Lagoon
1954 · 1h 19m · US
When scientists exploring the Amazon River stumble on a “missing link” connecting humans and fish, they plan to capture it for later study. But the Creature has plans of his own, and has set his sights on the lead scientist's beautiful fiancée, Kay.


Distant Drums
1951 · 1h 41m · US
After destroying a Seminole fort, American soldiers and their rescued companions must face the dangerous Everglades and hostile Indians in order to reach safety


Forbidden Planet
1956 · 1h 38m · US
Starship C57D travels to planet Altair 4 in search of the crew of spaceship "Bellerophon," a scientific expedition that has been missing for twenty years. They find themselves unwelcome by the expedition's lone survivor and warned of destruction by an invisible force if they don't turn back immediately.


The 7th Voyage of Sinbad
1958 · 1h 28m · US
When the lovely Princess Parisa is shrunken by wicked Sokurah the Magician, Sinbad must embark on a quest to an island of monsters to cure her and prevent a war.


Ulysses
1954 · 1h 40m · IT
A retelling of Homer's The Odyssey, focusing on Ulysses's ten-year journey home to Ithaca following the Trojan War, where he faces various mythical challenges while his wife Penelope fends off suitors.


Sans famille
1958 · 1h 40m · FR
The Remi abandoned by his foster father sold to the troubadour Vasalis, in his living through the rural villages the people to entertain, gehoplen his three dogs and a monkey. In the beginning Remi takes its new master, but a demanding and hard man, and the animals have not been too much with the clumsy boy. But gradually creates a bond between Remi and his new comrades, until their friendship is suddenly disrupted when Vasalis is arrested for vagrancy and sentenced. Then Remi, alone in the world, along with his animal friends in position to try to keep ...


El encuentro
1952 · ES
No overview available


The Vikings
1958 · 1h 55m · US
Einar, brutal son of the viking Ragnar and future heir to his throne, tangles with clever slave Eric, for the hand of a beautiful English maiden.


Red Snow
1952 · 1h 15m · US
An Eskimo Army Sergeant is sent to his Arctic tribal village to gather information about a mysterious unmarked black airplane which shadows military planes in northern Alaska and equally-mysterious flashings lighting up the sky from Siberia across the Bering Strait. He soon discovers Soviet espionage at work. Along the way he must also deal with an ice-floe evacuation, an air-ice rescue, a fight with a polar bear and marriage to his fiancee.


Yankee Buccaneer
1952 · 1h 26m · US
A United States Navy ship in the first half of the 19th century, under the command of Captain David Porter, is expecting to put ashore after a year on the seas; but the arrival of one of Porter's ex-students, the willful and independent Lieutenant David Farragut, brings a new mission: to disguise the ship and crew as a pirate ship and help the Navy locate the criminals who have been robbing America's merchant fleet. But as Farragut's disobedience threatens the safety of the crew, they stumble upon an international conspiracy.


Burning Sands
1952 · BR
No overview available


Helen of Troy
1956 · 2h 1m · US
Prince Paris of Troy, shipwrecked on a mission to the king of Sparta, meets and falls for Queen Helen before he knows who she is. Rudely received by the royal Greeks, he must flee...but fate and their mutual passions lead him to take Helen along. This gives the Greeks just the excuse they need for much-desired war.


The Hidden Fortress
1958 · 2h 19m · JP
In feudal Japan, during a bloody war between clans, two cowardly and greedy peasants, soldiers of a defeated army, stumble upon a mysterious man who guides them to a fortress hidden in the mountains.


Abe Hayat
1955 · 2h 20m · IN
Saamri, an evil magician, causes trouble in the lives of Prince Jalal and his princess. As the situation worsens, the prince sets out to destroy the magician.


Holidays in Tyrol
1956 · 1h 40m · DE
10-year-old Rosmarin von Stetten lives with his widowed father Robert in the big city. During the holidays one day in the morning Rosmarin goes to the lake near the castle and meets Thymian, the poorest boy of the village, whose mother did not come back from the war and who has to do several jobs in the village for his living. The boys enter a boat, but both fall into the lake. Thymian crawls out of the water first and is found by a servant from the castle, who thinks he is Rosmarin and bring him to the castle and to bed. The boy doesn't know what happens and thinks he's spellbound...


The Crimson Pirate
1952 · 1h 45m · US
Burt Lancaster plays a pirate with a taste for intrigue and acrobatics who involves himself in the goings on of a revolution in the Caribbean in the late 1700s. A light hearted adventure involving prison breaks, an oddball scientist, sailing ships, naval fights and tons of swordplay.


Scaramouche
1952 · 1h 50m · US
In 18th-century France, a young man masquerades as an actor to avenge his friend's murder.


Don Juan
1950 · 2h 4m · ES
Don Juan leaves Venice and gets back to Seville, his home city. When he arrives there, he learns that his father is dead and has left all his properties to him, on codition that he marries Doña Inés. Don Juan makes up a former marriage, but when he meets her he becomes fascinated by her beauty.


Old Yeller
1957 · 1h 24m · US
Young Travis Coates is left to take care of the family ranch with his mother and younger brother while his father goes off on a cattle drive in the 1860s. When a yellow mongrel comes for an uninvited stay with the family, Travis reluctantly adopts the dog.


Treasure Island
1950 · 1h 36m · US
Enchanted by the idea of locating treasure buried by Captain Flint, Squire Trelawney, Dr. Livesey and Jim Hawkins charter a sailing voyage to a Caribbean island. Unfortunately, a large number of Flint's old pirate crew are aboard the ship, including Long John Silver.


The African Queen
1952 · 1h 45m · UK
At the start of the First World War, in the middle of Africa’s nowhere, a gin soaked riverboat captain is persuaded by a strong-willed missionary to go down river and face-off a German warship.


Zarak
1956 · 1h 39m · UK
A notorious bandit develops a grudging respect for the English military man assigned to capture him.


Uranium Boom
1956 · 1h 7m · US
Ex-lumberjack Brad Collins and mining engineer Grady Mathews find uranium in the Colorado badlands. While Grady guards the claim, Brad goes to register it in town, where he meets and marries Jean Williams. Returning to the claim, Brad learns that Jean was once Grady's fiancée. Grady, as one would expect, is somewhat put out and leaves the mine in Brad's hands, while he hooks up with a confidence man and engineers a scheme to break the back of Brad's somewhat rapidly-created mining empire.


River of No Return
1954 · 1h 31m · US
An itinerant farmer and his young son help a heart-of-gold saloon singer search for her estranged husband.


The Avengers
1950 · 1h 30m · US
The attractive Argentine Don Careless is an adventurer and an excellent swordsman. Don is in love with Maria Moreno, since he had to emerge her jewels and had thereby to kill a shark. Don tries to prevent the forced marriage of Mary with the ruthless revolutionary Colonel Luis Corral. An armed clash between Don and Luis seems inevitable.


Lost Lagoon
1957 · 1h 19m · US
Saddled with a loveless marriage and three ungrateful children, Charlie Walker (Jeffrey Lynn) dreams of escape. When he falls overboard on a boating trip and is presumed dead, his fantasy comes true. He washes up on a Caribbean island and meets a lovely local (Leila Barry). He gets a fresh start at life, opening a resort on his island home. But guilt and a few insurance agents may cut Charlie's dream short.


Congo Crossing
1956 · 1h 25m · US
Congotanga, West Africa, has no extradition laws; the government is controlled by foreign gangsters, headed by Carl Rittner. The latest plane from Europe carries lovely Louise Whitman, fleeing a French murder charge, and Mannering, who pays resident hit man O'Connell to kill her. Through a chain of circumstances Louise, O'Connell, and heroic surveyor David Carr end up alone in the jungle on Carr's mission to determine the true border of Congotanga... in which Rittner is keenly interested.
1950s cinema fought television with everything it had: widescreen formats, colour, and spectacle. Underneath the scale, it was also the decade of Japanese cinema's international breakthrough and the birth of the modern art film.
Adventure films are built on journey and discovery: lost worlds, long voyages, and heroes far from home. The genre overlaps heavily with fantasy and action, but its engine is always forward motion into unfamiliar territory.