200 Essential Films of the 1950s (1950-1959)
Films of the 1950s were of a wide variety. As a result of the introduction of television, the studios and companies sought to put audiences back in theaters. Big production and spectacle films perfect for this gained popularity, with the many historic and fantasy epics like The Seventh Voyage of Sinbad (1958), and Ben-Hur (1959). Other big-scoped films thrived internationally, too, such as Japanese director Akira Kurosawa's historic Seven Samurai, Throne of Blood, and Rashomon. Toshiro Mifune, who starred in those Kurosawa films, also starred in the color spectacle Samurai Trilogy. Director Alfred Hitchcock was at the peak of his craft, with films such as Strangers on a Train, Dial M for Murder, Rear Window, To Catch a Thief, The Man Who Knew Too Much, Vertigo, and North by Northwest. The Bengali Indian director Satyajit Ray, who began his career in the 1950s, was also at the peak of his career during this decade, with films such as The Apu Trilogy and Jalsaghar.
avg. score: 52 of 200 (26%)
required scores: 1, 14, 38, 60, 77
