Films of the 1950s

See also: Early Films, Films of the 1920s, 1930s, 1940s, 1960s, 1970s, 1980s, 1990s, 2000s, 2010s

Notable Film Franchises, 1950-1959

 * Carry On...
 * Carry On Sergeant (1958)
 * Carry On Nurse (1959)
 * Carry On Teacher (1959)
 * Colossal Man
 * The Amazing Colossal Man (1957)
 * War of the Colossal Beast (1958)
 * Universal Horror
 * The Creature Series
 * Creature from the Black Lagoon (1954) -- The grandfather of Jaws.
 * Revenge of the Creature (1955)
 * The Creature Walks Among Us (1956)
 * The Fly
 * The Fly (1958)
 * Return of the Fly (1959)
 * Godzilla
 * Gojira (1954) -- Created the "kaiju" genre of Japanese film.
 * Godzilla: King of the Monsters (1956)
 * Godzilla Raids Again (1955)
 * The Lassie series continues.
 * Challenge to Lassie (1950)
 * The Painted Hills (1951)
 * St Trinian's
 * The Belles of St. Trinian's (1954)
 * Blue Murder at St. Trinian's (1957)
 * The Jungle Jim series continues.
 * Mark of the Gorilla (1950)
 * Captive Girl (1950)
 * Jungle Jim in Pygmy Island (1950)
 * Fury of the Congo (1951)
 * Jungle Manhunt (1951)
 * Jungle Jim in the Forbidden Land (1952)
 * Voodoo Tiger (1952)
 * Savage Mutiny (1953)
 * Valley of the Headhunters (1953)
 * Killer Ape (1953)
 * Jungle Man-Eaters (1954)
 * Cannibal Attack (1954)
 * Jungle Moon Men (1955)
 * Devil Goddess (1956)

1950

 * All About Eve
 * Annie Get Your Gun
 * Born Yesterday
 * Broken Arrow
 * Cheri
 * Cinderella
 * Destination Moon
 * DOA
 * The Gunfighter
 * Harvey -- A man claims he sees an invisible six-foot tall rabbit
 * In a Lonely Place
 * Radar Secret Service
 * Rashomon
 * Rocketship X-M
 * Stage Fright
 * Sunset Boulevard -- An aging has-been takes a young man as her lover and wants to take over his life

1951

 * Ace in the Hole
 * Alice in Wonderland
 * Angels in the Outfield
 * The African Queen
 * An American in Paris
 * The Day the Earth Stood Still
 * The Desert Fox
 * Lost Continent
 * Los Olvidados -- Also known as The Forgotten Ones and The Young and the Damned. A crude story about the tragic lives of the destitute children living in the slums of Mexico City.
 * The Painted Hills
 * Racket Girls
 * Strangers on a Train
 * A Streetcar Named Desire - STELLLLLAAAAA! STELLLLLA!
 * The Thing from Another World

1952

 * The Bad and The Beautiful
 * High Noon -- Possibly the most famous movie Western.
 * Ikiru
 * Invasion U.S.A.
 * Road to Bali
 * Scaramouche
 * Shane
 * The Quiet Man
 * Singin in The Rain -- Classic musical that calls back to the first "talkies."
 * Don Camillo

1953

 * The 5000 Fingers of Dr. T -- Dr. Seuss's only live-action film, an early cult movie.
 * The Band Wagon
 * The Beast From Twenty Thousand Fathoms
 * Bully for Bugs
 * Cat-Women of the Moon
 * From Here to Eternity
 * Gentlemen Prefer Blondes
 * Glen or Glenda? — directed by Ed Wood
 * House of Wax
 * How to Marry a Millionaire
 * I Confess
 * I Vitelloni
 * It Came from Outer Space — Early subversion of the "alien invaders" genre.
 * Peter Pan
 * Project Moonbase
 * The Robe
 * Robot Monster
 * Roman Holiday
 * The Titfield Thunderbolt
 * Sadko
 * Sailor of the King
 * Stalag 17
 * The Wages of Fear
 * The Wild One

1954

 * The Caine Mutiny
 * The Dam Busters
 * Demetrius and The Gladiators
 * Devil Girl from Mars
 * Dial M for Murder
 * The Egyptian
 * The Glenn Miller Story
 * Gojira
 * On the Waterfront - "I could'a been a contenda. I coulda been somebody."
 * Rear Window
 * Sabrina
 * Seven Brides for Seven Brothers
 * Seven Samurai (Shichinin no samurai) -- Akira Kurosawa's Chanbara classic, which spawned The Magnificent Seven and others.
 * Them -- Along with Godzilla, introduced the durable "rampaging mutant animals" genre.
 * Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea
 * White Christmas

1955

 * Bad Day At Black Rock-- Where Spencer Tracy is a one-armed Badass.
 * Bride of the Monster
 * Cellbound
 * The Court Jester
 * Les Diaboliques
 * East of Eden
 * Godzilla Raids Again
 * Guys and Dolls
 * Kiss Me Deadly
 * Lady and the Tramp
 * The Lady Killers
 * Mister Roberts
 * The Night of the Hunter
 * The Prodigal
 * Rebel Without a Cause
 * The Seven Year Itch
 * Tarantula
 * Teenage Crimewave
 * This Island Earth
 * To Catch a Thief
 * The Trouble with Harry

1956

 * The 30 Foot Bride Of Candy Rock
 * Carousel
 * The Deadly Mantis
 * Earth vs. the Flying Saucers
 * Fire Maidens from Outer Space
 * Forbidden Planet -- Examines the danger of unlimited power without responsibility. Or control.
 * Giant
 * The Girl Can't Help It
 * Godzilla: King of the Monsters -- The American edit of the 1954 film, which would end up being released in Japan as well.
 * Gunslinger
 * Ilya Muromets -- Known outside Russia best as The Sword and the Dragon.
 * It Conquered the World
 * Invasion of the Body Snatchers -- A classic of paranoid sci-fi horror.
 * The Killing
 * The King and I
 * The Man Who Knew Too Much
 * The Man Who Never Was
 * The Mole People
 * Rodan -- Classic Toku film directed by Ishiro Honda
 * The Searchers -- If you have been to film school, you have seen this. And vice versa.
 * The She Creature
 * The Ten Commandments -- One of those films that is so grand in scale and sweeping in effects that they couldn't afford to make it today.
 * The Violent Years
 * The Wrong Man
 * Moby Dick

1957

 * An Affair to Remember
 * Attack of the Crab Monsters
 * Beginning of the End
 * The Black Scorpion
 * The Bridge on the River Kwai — A great story, completely different from what really happened.
 * Cinderella
 * The Curse of Frankenstein
 * Funny Face
 * The Giant Claw — Earth is attacked by a Giant Antimatter Space Buzzard.
 * I Was a Teenage Werewolf
 * The Incredible Shrinking Man
 * Invasion of the Saucer Men
 * Love in The Afternoon
 * The Monolith Monsters
 * Night of the Demon
 * Nights of Cabiria
 * Old Yeller — One of the classic Tear Jerkers of many a childhood.
 * The Pajama Game
 * Paths of Glory
 * Sayonara
 * The Seventh Seal
 * Sweet Smell of Success
 * The Mysterians - An alien invasion movie from Toho.
 * The Three Faces of Eve
 * Throne of Blood
 * Twelve Angry Men — A man's future hangs in the balance as 12 jurors decide whether he lives or dies.
 * The 27th Day
 * The Undead
 * The Unearthly
 * Witness for the Prosecution

1958

 * A Night to Remember
 * Andy Hardy Comes Home
 * Attack of the 50 Foot Woman
 * Auntie Mame
 * The Big Country
 * The Blob
 * Cat on a Hot Tin Roof
 * The Crawling Eye
 * Daddy-O
 * Earth vs. the Spider
 * The Fly -- The original Kurt Neumann version
 * Gigi -- The film often regarded as the greatest MGM musical ever made.
 * Hercules -- At the head of the "Sand And Sandal" genre
 * The Hidden Fortress
 * Horror of Dracula -- Hammer Horror's first take on the eponymous count.
 * I Want to Live
 * Ice Cold in Alex
 * The Last Hurrah
 * The Long Hot Summer
 * Mon Oncle
 * The Naked Truth
 * Night of the Blood Beast
 * Plan 9 from Outer Space -- Commonly cited as the "worst movie ever made".
 * Queen of Outer Space
 * Touch of Evil
 * The Screaming Skull
 * The 7th Voyage of Sinbad
 * The Space Children
 * Terror from the Year 5000
 * The Thing That Couldn't Die
 * A Town Like Alice
 * Varan the Unbelievable - A giant monster movie from the same people who made Godzilla.
 * Vertigo

1959

 * Anatomy of a Murder
 * Attack of the Giant Leeches
 * Battle in Outer Space -- Toho's second entry in the space opera "trilogy".
 * Ben-Hur -- The most famous version of the story.
 * The Big Fisherman
 * Darby O Gill and The Little People
 * The Day the Earth Froze
 * The Diary of Anne Frank
 * Fate of a Man
 * Der Frosch mit der Maske -- The first of over 30 German Edgar Wallace Films.
 * The Giant Gila Monster
 * The Girl in Lovers Lane
 * Girls Town
 * High School Big Shot
 * House on Haunted Hill -- The William Castle original.
 * The Killer Shrews
 * Last Clear Chance
 * The Little Island
 * Missile to The Moon
 * The Mouse That Roared
 * North by Northwest
 * On the Beach
 * ''Operation Petticoat"
 * Pillow Talk
 * Prince of Space
 * The Rebel Set
 * Rio Bravo -- John Wayne actually does act in this movie, but he's upstaged by the old man's dialogue. And Dean Martin.
 * Santa Claus
 * Sleeping Beauty
 * Some Like It Hot
 * Suddenly, Last Summer
 * Teenagers from Outer Space
 * The Tingler
 * Third Man on the Mountain

Cartoons and Live Action Shorts

 * The Three Stooges -- Their final shorts, post-Curly.
 * Classic Disney Shorts
 * Adventures in Music Duology (1953)
 * Popeye
 * Looney Tunes & Merrie Melodies
 * "Ali Baba Bunny" (1957)
 * "Duck Amuck" (1953)
 * "Duck Dodgers in the 24½th Century" (1953)
 * "Feed the Kitty (1952)
 * "One Froggy Evening" (1955)
 * "Rabbit Fire" (1951)
 * "Rabbit Seasoning" (1952)
 * "The Scarlet Pumpernickel" (1950)
 * "What's Opera Doc" (1957)
 * "Harold and The Purple Crayon" (1959)
 * Tom and Jerry and other classic shorts from Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
 * UPA shorts, including Mr. Magoo
 * "Gerald McBoing-Boing" (1951)
 * "Rooty Toot Toot" (1953)
 * "The Unicorn in the Garden" (1953)