100 Greatest 1950-1959 Movies
by jordanhores | created - 26 Jan 2018 | updated - 29 Apr 2023 | PublicList of best films from 1950 to 1959 of USA. Excluding Disney films and films with mixed, negative or panned reception. --1984-1956 --M-1951 Between Midnight & Dream1950 Denver & Rio Grande1952
- Instant Watch Options
- Genres
- Movies or TV
- IMDb Rating
- In Theaters
- Release Year
- Keywords
1. Abbott and Costello in the Foreign Legion (1950)
Passed | 80 min | Adventure, Comedy
Two Brooklyn wrestling promoters go to French Algeria in search of a famous Algerian wrestler but accidentally end-up in the French Foreign Legion.
Director: Charles Lamont | Stars: Bud Abbott, Lou Costello, Patricia Medina, Walter Slezak
Votes: 3,119
--
2. 711 Ocean Drive (1950)
Passed | 102 min | Action, Crime, Drama
An electronics expert creates a huge bookie broadcast system for his crime boss, and takes over operations when his boss is murdered. His greed leads him on a deadly destructive path.
Director: Joseph M. Newman | Stars: Edmond O'Brien, Joanne Dru, Otto Kruger, Barry Kelley
Votes: 2,047
3. The Admiral Was a Lady (1950)
Approved | 87 min | Comedy, Romance
Ex-WAVE encounters four fun-loving, work-hating men, all of whom want to marry her.
Director: Albert S. Rogell | Stars: Edmond O'Brien, Wanda Hendrix, Rudy Vallee, Johnny Sands
Votes: 407
--
4. All About Eve (1950)
Passed | 138 min | Drama
A seemingly timid but secretly ruthless ingénue insinuates herself into the lives of an aging Broadway star and her circle of theater friends.
Director: Joseph L. Mankiewicz | Stars: Bette Davis, Anne Baxter, George Sanders, Celeste Holm
Votes: 138,799 | Gross: $0.01M
--
5. Ambush (1950)
Passed | 90 min | Drama, Western
In 1878, Ward Kinsman, a prospector and Indian scout, is persuaded by the US Cavalry to find Mary Carlyle, the daughter of a general, who has been taken by Apaches.
Director: Sam Wood | Stars: Robert Taylor, John Hodiak, Arlene Dahl, Don Taylor
Votes: 872
--
6. American Guerrilla in the Philippines (1950)
Approved | 105 min | Drama, War
American soldiers stranded in the Philippines after the Japanese invasion form guerrilla bands to fight back.
Director: Fritz Lang | Stars: Tyrone Power, Micheline Presle, Tom Ewell, Robert Patten
Votes: 1,334
7. Annie Get Your Gun (1950)
Passed | 107 min | Comedy, Musical, Romance
The story of the great sharpshooter Annie Oakley, who rose to fame while dealing with her love/professional rival, Frank Butler.
Directors: George Sidney, Busby Berkeley | Stars: Betty Hutton, Howard Keel, Louis Calhern, J. Carrol Naish
Votes: 5,277 | Gross: $8.00M
--
8. The Asphalt Jungle (1950)
Passed | 112 min | Crime, Drama, Film-Noir
A major heist goes off as planned, but then double crosses, bad luck and solid police work cause everything to unravel.
Director: John Huston | Stars: Sterling Hayden, Louis Calhern, Jean Hagen, James Whitmore
Votes: 29,967
9. Backfire (1950)
Passed | 91 min | Crime, Film-Noir, Mystery
While recuperating from wartime back injuries at a hospital, veteran Bob Corey is visited on Christmas Eve by a beautiful stranger with an even stranger message.
Director: Vincent Sherman | Stars: Viveca Lindfors, Dane Clark, Virginia Mayo, Edmond O'Brien
Votes: 1,790
10. The Baron of Arizona (1950)
Approved | 97 min | Biography, Crime, Drama
Master swindler James Reavis painstakingly spends years forging documents and land grants that will make his wife and him undisputed owners of the entire territory of Arizona.
Director: Samuel Fuller | Stars: Vincent Price, Ellen Drew, Vladimir Sokoloff, Beulah Bondi
Votes: 2,540
--
11. The Big Lift (1950)
Approved | 120 min | Drama, War
Experiences of two Air Force sergeants during the 1948 Berlin Airlift.
Director: George Seaton | Stars: Montgomery Clift, Paul Douglas, Cornell Borchers, Bruni Löbel
Votes: 1,734
--
12. The Black Rose (1950)
Approved | 120 min | Adventure, History, Romance
A disinherited 13th Century Saxon nobleman leaves Norman England with an archer friend to seek his fortune in the Far East.
Director: Henry Hathaway | Stars: Tyrone Power, Orson Welles, Cécile Aubry, Jack Hawkins
Votes: 2,458
13. Born to Be Bad (1950)
Approved | 94 min | Crime, Drama, Film-Noir
A woman's attempt to appear innocent and sweet clashes with her lover, who sees through her act, and the wealthy man she tries to trick into marrying her.
Director: Nicholas Ray | Stars: Mel Ferrer, Joan Fontaine, Robert Ryan, Zachary Scott
Votes: 2,756
14. Born Yesterday (1950)
Not Rated | 103 min | Comedy, Drama, Romance
A tycoon hires a tutor to teach his lover proper etiquette, with unexpected results.
Director: George Cukor | Stars: Judy Holliday, William Holden, Broderick Crawford, Howard St. John
Votes: 12,420
15. The Breaking Point (1950)
Approved | 97 min | Crime, Drama, Film-Noir
An otherwise moral captain of a charter boat becomes financially strapped and is drawn into illegal activities in order to keep up payments on his boat.
Director: Michael Curtiz | Stars: John Garfield, Patricia Neal, Phyllis Thaxter, Juano Hernandez
Votes: 4,403
16. Bright Leaf (1950)
Approved | 110 min | Drama, Romance
In 1894, Brant Royle shocks the aristocratic tobacco growers of Kingsmont by planning to mass-produce cigarettes.
Director: Michael Curtiz | Stars: Gary Cooper, Lauren Bacall, Patricia Neal, Jack Carson
Votes: 1,439
17. Broken Arrow (1950)
Approved | 93 min | Drama, Romance, Western
Tom Jeffords tries to make peace between settlers and Apaches in Arizona territory.
Director: Delmer Daves | Stars: James Stewart, Jeff Chandler, Debra Paget, Basil Ruysdael
Votes: 9,685
18. Caged (1950)
Not Rated | 97 min | Crime, Drama, Film-Noir
A gentle, naive, pregnant 19-year-old widow is slowly, inexorably ground down by the hardened criminals, sadistic guards, and matron at a woman's prison. Will she be the same person when her sentence is up?
Director: John Cromwell | Stars: Eleanor Parker, Agnes Moorehead, Ellen Corby, Hope Emerson
Votes: 4,715
19. Champagne for Caesar (1950)
Not Rated | 99 min | Comedy, Romance
In order to get even with the pompous president of a soap company, an eccentric genius goes on his quiz show in order to bankrupt his company.
Director: Richard Whorf | Stars: Ronald Colman, Celeste Holm, Vincent Price, Barbara Britton
Votes: 1,235
--
20. Cheaper by the Dozen (1950)
Approved | 86 min | Comedy, Drama, Family
Myrna Loy plays the wife of the persnickety father of her 12 children, Clifton Webb, who has uniquely humorous methods for dealing with the ordeals such an unwieldy family undoubtedly encounters.
Director: Walter Lang | Stars: Clifton Webb, Myrna Loy, Jeanne Crain, Betty Lynn
Votes: 5,678 | Gross: $9.65M
21. Comanche Territory (1950)
Approved | 76 min | Western
White settlers plan to defy the agreement between the government and the Comanche in order to mine for silver on Comanche lands, while scout Jim Bowie tries to keep the peace in the territory.
Director: George Sherman | Stars: Maureen O'Hara, Macdonald Carey, Will Geer, Charles Drake
Votes: 805
--
22. Convicted (1950)
Passed | 91 min | Action, Crime, Drama
A D.A. becomes the prison warden where he tries to help an inmate he prosecuted, because he believes his sentence was excessive.
Director: Henry Levin | Stars: Glenn Ford, Broderick Crawford, Millard Mitchell, Dorothy Malone
Votes: 1,487
--
23. Crisis (1950)
Passed | 95 min | Crime, Drama, Romance
While on vacation in a Latin American country, an American neurosurgeon and his wife become tangled in a revolutionary uprising against a tyrannical dictator.
Director: Richard Brooks | Stars: Cary Grant, José Ferrer, Paula Raymond, Signe Hasso
Votes: 1,926
24. Cyrano de Bergerac (1950)
Not Rated | 113 min | Adventure, Drama, Romance
The charismatic swordsman-poet helps another woo the woman he loves.
Director: Michael Gordon | Stars: José Ferrer, Mala Powers, William Prince, Morris Carnovsky
Votes: 4,575
--
25. Dallas (1950)
Approved | 94 min | Western
A former Confederate officer hunting for an outlaw who wronged him finds him in Dallas, but now as a wealthy, respectable citizen.
Director: Stuart Heisler | Stars: Gary Cooper, Ruth Roman, Steve Cochran, Raymond Massey
Votes: 1,519
26. The Damned Don't Cry (1950)
Approved | 103 min | Crime, Drama, Film-Noir
A New York socialite climbs the ladder of success man by man until a life among rich gangsters gives her what she thought she always wanted.
Director: Vincent Sherman | Stars: Joan Crawford, David Brian, Steve Cochran, Kent Smith
Votes: 3,558 | Gross: $1.54M
27. Dark City (1950)
Not Rated | 98 min | Crime, Drama, Film-Noir
Gamblers who "took" an out-of-town sucker in a crooked poker game feel shadowy vengeance closing in on them.
Director: William Dieterle | Stars: Charlton Heston, Lizabeth Scott, Viveca Lindfors, Dean Jagger
Votes: 2,700
^
28. The Daughter of Rosie O'Grady (1950)
Approved | 104 min | Comedy, Musical
An Irish horsecar driver's daughter meets New York showman Tony Pastor and goes into vaudeville.
Director: David Butler | Stars: June Haver, Gordon MacRae, James Barton, S.Z. Sakall
Votes: 587
--
29. Devil's Doorway (1950)
Approved | 84 min | Western
After the Civil War, a highly decorated Shoshone Indian veteran plans to raise cattle in Wyoming but white farmers plan to grab fertile tribal lands by pitting the whites against the Indians.
Director: Anthony Mann | Stars: Robert Taylor, Louis Calhern, Paula Raymond, Marshall Thompson
Votes: 1,855
--
30. The Eagle and the Hawk (1950)
Not Rated | 104 min | Western
A Texas Ranger and a government agent team up to help Mexican patriot Juarez fend off European opposition.
Director: Lewis R. Foster | Stars: John Payne, Rhonda Fleming, Dennis O'Keefe, Thomas Gomez
Votes: 368
31. Edge of Doom (1950)
Not Rated | 99 min | Crime, Drama, Film-Noir
A mentally unbalanced young man kills a priest. One of the priest's colleagues sets out to find the killer.
Director: Mark Robson | Stars: Dana Andrews, Farley Granger, Joan Evans, Robert Keith
Votes: 932
--
32. Fancy Pants (1950)
Approved | 92 min | Comedy, Musical, Western
An American actor impersonating an English butler is hired by a woman from New Mexico to refine her husband and headstrong daughter. The complications increase when the town believes Arthur... See full summary »
Director: George Marshall | Stars: Bob Hope, Lucille Ball, Bruce Cabot, Jack Kirkwood
Votes: 1,493 | Gross: $2.60M
33. Father Is a Bachelor (1950)
Passed | 83 min | Adventure, Comedy, Family
William Holden plays a drifter who comes to a small town and discovers a cabin in the forest where five kids--January, February, March, April, and May--are living on their own. Their ... See full summary »
Directors: Abby Berlin, Norman Foster | Stars: William Holden, Coleen Gray, Mary Jane Saunders, Charles Winninger
Votes: 526
--
34. Father of the Bride (1950)
Not Rated | 92 min | Comedy, Drama, Romance
The father of a young woman deals with the emotional pain of her getting married, along with the financial and organizational trouble of arranging the wedding.
Director: Vincente Minnelli | Stars: Spencer Tracy, Joan Bennett, Elizabeth Taylor, Don Taylor
Votes: 12,537 | Gross: $8.84M
--
35. The File on Thelma Jordon (1949)
Passed | 100 min | Crime, Drama, Film-Noir
Assistant district attorney Cleve Marshall falls for the mysterious Thelma Jordon when she seeks help solving robberies of her aunt's estate.
Director: Robert Siodmak | Stars: Barbara Stanwyck, Wendell Corey, Paul Kelly, Joan Tetzel
Votes: 3,182
36. The Flame and the Arrow (1950)
Passed | 88 min | Adventure, Drama, Romance