The 40 most popular 1950s 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.


12 Angry Men
1957 · 1h 37m · US
The defense and the prosecution have rested and the jury is filing into the jury room to decide if a young Spanish-American is guilty or innocent of murdering his father. What begins as an open and shut case soon becomes a mini-drama of each of the jurors' prejudices and preconceptions about the trial, the accused, and each other.


Seven Samurai
1954 · 3h 27m · JP
A samurai answers a village's request for protection after he falls on hard times. The town needs protection from bandits, so the samurai gathers six others to help him teach the people how to defend themselves, and the villagers provide the soldiers with food.


High Noon
1952 · 1h 25m · US
Will Kane, the sheriff of a small town in New Mexico, learns a notorious outlaw he put in jail has been freed, and will be arriving on the noon train. Knowing the outlaw and his gang are coming to kill him, Kane is determined to stand his ground, so he attempts to gather a posse from among the local townspeople.


Ikiru
1952 · 2h 23m · JP
Kanji Watanabe is a middle-aged man who has worked in the same monotonous bureaucratic position for decades. Learning he has cancer, he starts to look for the meaning of his life.


Sleeping Beauty
1959 · 1h 15m · US
Cursed to die by the evil fairy Maleficent when she was a baby, Princess Aurora is sent into hiding under protection from three good fairies. As she grows up far away, Maleficent becomes increasingly determined to seal the princess's fate.


Cinderella
1950 · 1h 14m · US
Cinderella has faith her dreams of a better life will come true. With help from her loyal mice friends and a wave of her Fairy Godmother's wand, Cinderella's rags are magically turned into a glorious gown and off she goes to the Royal Ball. But when the clock strikes midnight, the spell is broken, leaving a single glass slipper... the only key to the ultimate fairy-tale ending!


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.


Rear Window
1954 · 1h 53m · US
A wheelchair-bound photographer spies on his neighbors from his apartment window and becomes convinced one of them has committed murder.


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.


Vertigo
1958 · 2h 8m · US
A retired San Francisco detective suffering from acrophobia investigates the strange activities of an old friend's wife, all the while becoming dangerously obsessed with her.


The Ten Commandments
1956 · 3h 40m · US
Escaping death, a Hebrew infant is raised in a royal household to become a prince. Upon discovery of his true heritage, Moses embarks on a personal quest to reclaim his destiny as the leader and liberator of the Hebrew people.


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.


East of Eden
1955 · 1h 55m · US
In the Salinas Valley in and around World War I, Cal Trask feels he must compete against overwhelming odds with his brother for the love of their father. Cal is frustrated at every turn, from his reaction to the war, how to get ahead in business and in life, and how to relate to his estranged mother.


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.


Some Like It Hot
1959 · 2h 3m · US
In Prohibition-era Chicago, musicians Joe and Jerry witness a mob hit, and flee the state in an all-female band disguised as Josephine and Daphne, but further complications set in.


Sunset Boulevard
1950 · 1h 50m · US
A hack screenwriter writes a screenplay for a former silent film star who has faded into Hollywood obscurity.


Giant
1956 · 3h 21m · US
Wealthy rancher Bick Benedict and dirt-poor cowboy Jett Rink both woo Leslie Lynnton, a beautiful young woman from Maryland who is new to Texas. She marries Benedict, but she is shocked by the racial bigotry of the White Texans against the local people of Mexican descent. Rink discovers oil on a small plot of land, and while he uses his vast, new wealth to buy all the land surrounding the Benedict ranch, the Benedict's disagreement over prejudice fuels conflict that runs across generations.


Godzilla
1954 · 1h 36m · JP
Japan is thrown into a panic after several ships are sunk near Odo Island. An expedition to the island led by Dr. Kyohei Yamane soon discover something far more devastating than imagined in the form of a 50 meter tall monster whom the natives call Gojira. Now the monster begins a rampage that threatens to destroy not only Japan, but the rest of the world as well.


The Searchers
1956 · 1h 59m · US
As a Civil War veteran spends years searching for a young niece captured by Indians, his motivation becomes increasingly questionable.


Singin' in the Rain
1952 · 1h 43m · US
In 1927 Hollywood, a silent film star falls for a chorus girl just as he and his paranoid screen partner struggle to make the difficult transition to talking pictures.


Roman Holiday
1953 · 1h 59m · US
Overwhelmed by her suffocating schedule, touring European princess Ann takes off for a night while in Rome. When a sedative she took from her doctor kicks in, however, she falls asleep on a park bench and is found by an American reporter, Joe Bradley, who takes her back to his apartment for safety. At work the next morning, Joe finds out Ann's regal identity and bets his editor he can get exclusive interview with her, but romance soon gets in the way.


The Seventh Seal
1957 · 1h 36m · SE
When disillusioned Swedish knight Antonius Block returns home from the Crusades to find his country in the grips of the Black Death, he challenges Death to a chess match for his life. Tormented by the belief that God does not exist, Block sets off on a journey, meeting up with traveling players Jof and his wife, Mia, and becoming determined to evade Death long enough to commit one redemptive act while he still lives.


Hello Taxi
1958 · 1h 35m · AT
Leopold and Franz are coach drivers and best friends. Their relationship gets strained when Franz decides to modernize by buying a taxi cab. Leopold, grumpy keeper of tradition, is not pleased.


The 400 Blows
1959 · 1h 39m · FR
For young Parisian boy Antoine Doinel, life is one difficult situation after another. Surrounded by inconsiderate adults, including his neglectful parents, Antoine spends his days with his best friend, Rene, trying to plan for a better life. When one of their schemes goes awry, Antoine ends up in trouble with the law, leading to even more conflicts with unsympathetic authority figures.


El millonario
1955 · 1h 30m · AR
The story of a man who is mistaken for the winner of the Christmas lottery prize and starts handing out borrowed money.


Paths of Glory
1957 · 1h 28m · US
A commanding officer defends three scapegoats on trial for a failed offensive that occurred within the French Army in 1916.


The Bridge on the River Kwai
1957 · 2h 42m · UK
The classic story of English POWs in Burma forced to build a bridge to aid the war effort of their Japanese captors. British and American intelligence officers conspire to blow up the structure, but Col. Nicholson, the commander who supervised the bridge's construction, has acquired a sense of pride in his creation and tries to foil their plans.


Witness for the Prosecution
1957 · 1h 56m · US
An ailing barrister is thrust back into the courtroom in what becomes one of the most unusual and eventful murder cases of the lawyer's career when he finds himself defending a man being tried for the murder of a socialite.


Rashomon
1950 · 1h 28m · JP
Four people recount different versions of the story of a man's murder and the rape of his wife.


Tierra extraña
1951 · 1h 13m · AR
Based on the novel by Roberto Vagni, it narrates the exploitation of loggers from Corrientes and Chaco by the English company La Forestal.
Café Colón
Café Colón
1959 · 1h 25m
Expensively-kept woman unexpectedly falls for a Zapatista general. She sells her jewels to help finance the revolution and ends up fighting on the front lines. Yeah, right.


Rio Bravo
1959 · 2h 21m · US
A small-town sheriff in the American West enlists the help of a disabled man, a drunk, and a young gunfighter in his efforts to hold in jail the brother of the local bad guy.


Sabrina
1954 · 1h 54m · US
After two years in Paris, chauffeur's daughter Sabrina returns home elegantly transformed and immediately catches the attention of David, the playboy son of her father's rich employers. David woos and wins Sabrina, who has always been in love with him, however their romance is threatened by David's serious older brother Linus, who runs the family business and is relying on David to marry an heiress in order for a crucial merger to take place.


Der Feldherrnhügel
1953 · AT
No overview available


Pony Express
1953 · 1h 41m · US
Buffalo Bill and Wild Bill Hickok join forces to establish a mail route that can get mail from St. Joseph, Missouri, to Sacramento, California, in ten days. Along the way they must battle bad weather, hostile Indians and outlaws intent on robbing the mail and shutting down the entire operation.


The Human Condition I: No Greater Love
1959 · 3h 24m · JP
After handing in a report on the treatment of Chinese colonial labor, Kaji is offered the post of labour chief at a large mining operation in Manchuria, which also grants him exemption from military service. He accepts and moves with his newlywed wife Michiko, but when he tries to put his ideas of more humane treatment into practice, he finds himself at odds with scheming officials, cruel foremen, and the military police.
Estampida
Estampida
1959
No overview available


House on Haunted Hill
1959 · 1h 15m · US
Frederick Loren invites five strangers to the party of a lifetime and offers each of them $10,000 if they can stay the night in the reportedly haunted house. Armed with a gun for protection, each guest arrives in a hearse and will either leave in it much richer…Or dead.


Africa Laughs
1956 · 1h 5m · AR
Four men, known for their reckless actions, are arrested one night after ruining a dinner party. They are soon released and go to visit their uncle who is sick. The four of them decide to travel to Africa to try to find a cure for their uncle, but they get into a big mess.
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.