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Digital Dream Door's 100 Greatest Movies of the '50s There are a lot of movie lists at Digital Dream Door, but they're wildly variable in quality and some are easy to tear apart. This is the best of them but their 1940s list is also very strong. It's great to see a list acknowledge that there's more than one country in the world and, of course, a 1950s list would be the best place to do that. If 1939 was the Golden Year of Hollywood, then 1957 is surely the Golden Year of World Cinema. The original version of the list can be found behind the Digital Dream Door. The List # Title Year Director IMDb 1 The Seven Samurai 1954 Akira Kurosawa IMDb 2 On the Waterfront 1954 Elia Kazan IMDb 3 Vertigo 1958 Alfred Hitchcock IMDb 4 The Bridge on the River Kwai 1957 David Lean IMDb 5 The Seventh Seal 1957 Ingmar Bergman IMDb 6 Sunset Boulevard 1950 Billy Wilder IMDb 7 Rear Window 1954 Alfred Hitchcock IMDb 8 Rashomon 1950 Akira Kurosawa IMDb 9 All About Eve 1950 Joseph L. Mankiewicz IMDb 10 Singin' in the Rain 1952 Gene Kelly & Stanley Donen IMDb 11 Some Like It Hot 1959 Billy Wilder IMDb 12 North by Northwest 1959 Alfred Hitchcock IMDb 13 Tokyo Story 1953 Yasujiro Ozu IMDb 14 Touch of Evil 1958 Orson Welles IMDb 15 A Streetcar Named Desire 1951 Elia Kazan IMDb 16 Les Diaboliques 1955 Henri-Georges Clouzot IMDb 17 Rebel Without a Cause 1955 Nicholas Ray IMDb 18 The African Queen 1951 John Huston IMDb 19 12 Angry Men 1957 Sidney Lumet IMDb 20 La Strada 1954 Federico Fellini IMDb 21 Ben-Hur 1959 William Wyler IMDb 22 Wild Strawberries 1957 Ingmar Bergman IMDb 23 The Searchers 1956 John Ford IMDb 24 High Noon 1952 Fred Zinnemann IMDb 25 The Night of the Hunter 1955 Charles Laughton IMDb 26 Shane 1953 George Stevens IMDb 27 The 400 Blows 1959 Francois Truffaut IMDb 28 The Ten Commandments 1956 Cecil B. De Mille IMDb 29 Ikiru 1952 Akira Kurosawa IMDb 30 Strangers on a Train 1951 Alfred Hitchcock IMDb 31 Kiss Me Deadly 1955 Robert Aldrich IMDb 32 From Here to Eternity 1953 Fred Zinnemann IMDb 33 Mr Hulot's Holiday 1953 Jacques Tati IMDb 34 Scrooge 1951 Brian Desmond Hurst IMDb 35 Rififi 1955 Jules Dassin IMDb 36 The Day the Earth Stood Still 1951 Robert Wise IMDb 37 Roman Holiday 1953 William Wyler IMDb 38 Old Yeller 1957 Robert Stevenson IMDb 39 Early Summer 1951 Yasujiro Ozu IMDb 40 Anatomy of a Murder 1959 Otto Preminger IMDb 41 The Wages of Fear 1953 Henri-Georges Clouzot IMDb 42 The Hidden Fortress 1958 Akira Kurosawa IMDb 43 A Man Escaped 1956 Robert Bresson IMDb 44 The World of Apu 1959 Satyajit Ray IMDb 45 Night and the City 1950 Jules Dassin IMDb 46 The King and I 1956 Walter Lang IMDb 47 An American in Paris 1951 Vincente Minnelli IMDb 48 Invasion of the Body Snatchers 1956 Don Siegel IMDb 49 East of Eden 1955 Elia Kazan IMDb 50 Orphée 1950 Jean Cocteau IMDb 51 Father of the Bride 1950 Vincente Minnelli IMDb 52 Sweet Smell of Success 1957 Alexander Mackendrick IMDb 53 The Asphalt Jungle 1950 John Huston IMDb 54 The Big Heat 1953 Fritz Lang IMDb 55 Blackboard Jungle 1955 Richard Brooks IMDb 56 Sabrina 1954 Billy Wilder IMDb 57 Pather Panchali 1955 Satyajit Ray IMDb 58 Mon Oncle 1958 Jacques Tati IMDb 59 The Band Wagon 1953 Vincente Minnelli IMDb 60 Giant 1956 George Stevens IMDb 61 Marty 1955 Delbert Mann IMDb 62 Harvey 1950 Henry Koster IMDb 63 Forbidden Planet 1956 Fred M. Wilcox IMDb 64 Rio Bravo 1959 Howard Hawks IMDb 65 The Thing From Another World 1951 Christian Nyby IMDb 66 Othello 1952 Orson Welles IMDb 67 Sansho the Bailiff 1954 Kenji Mizoguchi IMDb 68 Lola Montès 1955 Max Ophüls IMDb 69 A Star is Born 1954 George Cukor IMDb 70 The Life of Oharu 1952 Kenji Mizoguchi IMDb 71 Lady and the Tramp 1955 Clyde Geronimi, Wilfred Jackson & Hamilton Luske IMDb 72 Witness for the Prosecution 1957 Billy Wilder IMDb 73 Ashes and Diamonds 1958 Andrzej Wajda IMDb 74 The Ladykillers 1955 Alexander Mackendrick IMDb 75 The Wild One 1953 Laslo Benedek IMDb 76 Throne of Blood 1957 Akira Kurosawa IMDb 77 The Killing 1956 Stanley Kubrick IMDb 78 Nights of Cabiria 1957 Federico Fellini IMDb 79 Big Deal on Madonna Street 1958 Mario Monicelli IMDb 80 In a Lonely Place 1950 Nicholas Ray IMDb 81 Umberto D 1952 Vittorio De Sica IMDb 82 A Night to Remember 1958 Roy Ward Baker IMDb 83 Paths of Glory 1957 Stanley Kubrick IMDb 84 Johnny Guitar 1954 Nicholas Ray IMDb 85 I Want to Live! 1958 Robert Wise IMDb 86 Julius Caesar 1953 Joseph L. Mankiewicz IMDb 87 Born Yesterday 1950 George Cukor IMDb 88 Room at the Top 1959 Jack Clayton IMDb 89 Cinderella 1950 Clyde Geronimi & Wilfred Jackson IMDb 90 Show Boat 1951 George Sidney IMDb 91 Hiroshima Mon Amour 1959 Alain Resnais IMDb 92 The Seven Year Itch 1955 Billy Wilder IMDb 93 Around the World in 80 Days 1956 Michael Anderson IMDb 94 Stalag 17 1953 Billy Wilder IMDb 95 Gunfight at the OK Corral 1957 John Sturges IMDb 96 Gigi 1958 Vincente Minnelli IMDb 97 A Place in the Sun 1951 George Stevens IMDb 98 The Cranes are Flying 1957 Mikheil Kalatozishvili IMDb 99 The Diary of a Country Priest 1951 Robert Bresson IMDb 100 Night of the Demon 1957 Jacques Tourneur IMDb

Last update: 18th August, 2025