1950s

  • Albert Lamorisse – Le Ballon rouge AKA The Red Balloon (1956)

    1951-1960Albert LamorisseClassicsFantasyFrance
    Le Ballon rouge (1956)
    Le Ballon rouge (1956)

    PLOT: A red balloon with a mind of its own follows a little boy around the streets of Paris.Read More »

  • Masaki Kobayashi – Ningen no jôken AKA The Human Condition: II. Road to Eternity (1959)

    Masaki Kobayashi1951-1960DramaJapanWar
    Ningen no jôken (1959)
    Ningen no jôken (1959)

    Quote:
    Masaki Kobayashi’s six-part magnum opus, The Human Condition, based on Junpei Gomikawa’s postwar novel, bears the imprint of Kobayashi’s tutelage under legendary filmmaker Keisuke Kinoshita at Shochiku’s Ofuna studio, a critical, introspective, and deeply personal account of wartime Japan framed from the perspective of an idealistic everyman (and Kobayashi’s alterego), Kaji (Tatsuya Nakadai). Opening to the ironic image of lovers Kaji and Michiko (Michiyo Aratama) meeting under an archway auspiciously called the Southern Gate of Peace in Manchuria as Imperial troops march in the street, Kobayashi presents an incisive image of 1930s Japanese society that is morally consumed—and ravaged—by increasingly extremist values of militarism, occupation, and nationalism.Read More »

  • Camillo Mastrocinque – Il peccato di Anna AKA Anna’s Sin (1953)

    Camillo Mastrocinque1951-1960DramaItaly
    Il peccato di Anna (1953)
    Il peccato di Anna (1953)

    A unique film for its time, Anna’s Sin is an adaptation of William Shakespeare’s Othello set in Rome of the early 1950s. In particular, Anna’s Sin stages an interracial relationship at the moment of the rise of the U.S. civil rights movement, Pan-Africanism and anti-colonial struggle. Originally debuting in Italy in 1952, Anna’s Sin was released in the U.S. in 1954 and later re-released in 1961 as an interracial exploitation film. For many years, Anna’s Sin was an out-of-circulation, “lost” film, with The Wisconsin Historical Society Archives in Madison, Wisconsin holding a rare English-dubbed version. In 2017, the UCLA Film & Television Archives digitized a 35mm print of the film held by the Wisconsin Center for Film and Theater Research and are pleased to organize a virtual screening of this rarely seen work.Read More »

  • Raoul Walsh – The Naked and the Dead (1958)

    1951-1960Raoul WalshUSAWar
    The Naked and the Dead (1958)
    The Naked and the Dead (1958)

    Hal Erickson writes:
    Despite an ad campaign wherein RKO Radio congratulated itself for its “guts”, this long-delayed film version of Norman Mailer’s bestselling WW2 novel The Naked and the Dead still had to pull most of its punches (especially when it came to four-letter words). Aldo Ray heads the cast as sadistic sergeant Croft, who’d as soon kill one of his own men as he would the Japanese. Sensitive, moralistic Lieutenant Hearn (Cliff Robertson) tries to put a leash on Croft, but he’s ordered to keep out of the situation by psychotic General Cummings (Raymond Massey), who is convinced that soldiers will fight harder the more they hate their superiors.Read More »

  • Richard Fleischer – The Narrow Margin (1952)

    1951-1960250 Quintessential Film NoirsCrimeFilm NoirRichard FleischerUSA
    The Narrow Margin (1952)
    The Narrow Margin (1952)

    A Fortune If They Seal Her Lips!…A Bullet If They Fail!

    (Taken from IMDB) Plot-When a mobsters wife decides to testify against his evil deeds she goes undercover to avoid being killed. Now that he’s coming to trial she has to be escorted across country via train in order to testify. Cop Walter Brown and his partner are assigned the task, but the mob are on their trail.

    A great low budget film noir with one of the greats, Charles McGraw.Read More »

  • Herbert Wilcox – Lilacs in the Spring AKA Let’s Make Up (1954)

    Herbert Wilcox1951-1960ClassicsFantasyUSA
    Lilacs in the Spring (1954)
    Lilacs in the Spring (1954)

    Plot Summary:
    A young entertainer, Carole Beaumont (Anna Neagle), is wooed by actor-producer Charles King (David Farrar) but, uncertain of her feelings, she resists his attentions. During an air raid, a bomb explosion rocks the cafe and Carole is knocked unconscious. In her confused state, fantasies flash through her mind, and she seems to become Nell Gwyn of Old Drury, with Charles King looking very much like King Charles. Recovering, she is advised by her doctor to take a rest in the country and, there,another beau, Albert Gutman (Peter Graves), prompts his grandmother, Lady Drayton (Helen Haye), to invite Carole to their family home at Windsor. Read More »

  • Jacques Rivette – Le divertissement AKA The Diversion (1952)

    Jacques Rivette1951-1960FranceShort FilmSilent
    Le divertissement (1952)
    Le divertissement (1952)

    Filmed in Parisian parks and on a terrace, LE DIVERTISSEMENT foreshadows the labyrinthine walks that would be a part of Rivette’s cinema, in which the characters look for, follow and find each other like in a romantic scavenger hunt.
    Quote:
    Rivette’s three shorts—Au quartre coins (“The Four Corners,” 1948), Le quadrille (1950), and Le divertissement (“The Diversion,” 1952)—were found in 2009 after the filmmaker and his wife, Véronique, discovered the 16 mm films when going through his materials. Describing them as amateur, made when the filmmaker was barely out of his teens, the trio have been dubbed “apprenticeship films.”(MUBI)Read More »

  • Phil Karlson – The Scarface Mob (1959)

    Phil Karlson1951-1960CrimeDramaUSA
    The Scarface Mob (1959)
    The Scarface Mob (1959)

    Story of how a group of incorruptible federal lawmen helped put 1920s’ Chicago gangster Al Capone in prison.Read More »

  • Wojciech Has – Moje miasto AKA My City (1950)

    Wojciech Has1941-1950ArchitectureDocumentaryPolandShort Film
    Moje miasto (1950)
    Moje miasto (1950)

    A personal and lyrical vision of Cracow presented by Wojciech Jerzy Has. The nostalgic tone of the narrator/protagonist talks about a city he regrets having to leave.Read More »

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