1950s movies on netflix

My Favorite Movies of the 1950s

The 1950s are often viewed through a gauzy screen of received cultural retention as a simpler and happier fourth dimension in America. Possibly non. In fact, the 1950s were an incredibly complicated decade. On the ane hand, the economy was robust and the national mood was optimistic. Just underneath this sunny picture, the inherent tensions in our society and around the earth were building upwardly, leading to the cultural explosions of the 1960s. World War II was over, but the brave new world that came into being in the years that followed was anything but the proficient old days. Things were tense in the 1950s. Problems of race, the Cold War, feminism, sexuality, and gender roles were barely kept contained under the pressure cooker of a globe recovering from a horrifying war. In fact, the British poet Due west. H. Auden chosen the era "The Historic period of Anxiety."

Despite the 1950s beingness the apex of the frothy confection that is the movie musical, the rest of the films of the 1950s were saturated with a mutely-spoken tension not seen before or since. Which is not to say that the movies were all grim. The musicals, of course, were glorious escapist fun, and the decade produced a number of vivid comedies. And so here we go, my favorite movies of the 1950s.

**My Five Favorite American Movies of the 1950s**

Well, this is it, folks: the greatest Western of them all. And i of the best American films ever. John Ford over again teamed up with John Wayne to tell a dark and haunting tale of a middle-aged Civil War Amalgamated veteran who engages in a long search for his niece ( Natalie Wood ), who has been abducted past a ring of Comanches. Wayne's character, Ethan Edwards, is one of the to the lowest degree appealing and notwithstanding utterly compelling characters ever to appear in American picture—a man filled with racial hatred and obsession who fought on the wrong side of two wars…and yet remains gripping to watch. If you've never seen this movie, it's time you rented it. And if yous've seen it, watch it again.

"Spike your seat belts. Information technology's going to be a bumpy dark." One of the most famous quotes ever from the movies uttered perfectly by the star of this pic, the fabulous Bette Davis . Davis plays slightly-by-her-expiration appointment Broadway star Margo Channing, who brings a besotted fan, Eve Harrington ( Anne Baxter ) under her wing. The pupil begins to overtake the master in increasingly unsettling ways. This is but a fabulous '50s melodrama. It was nominated for fourteen Academy Awards and certain is a lot of fun.

Betty Comden and Adolph Green were two masters of the musical comedy. They not simply wrote the libretto and screenplay for this masterpiece of the class, they likewise wrote libretti for " The Barkleys of Broadway" (1949), " On the Town" (1949), and the Broadway musical "Hallelujah, Baby" (1967). This gem was directed by Factor Kelly and Stanley Donen and features some of the best-loved numbers from musical one-act history, including the title song and "Brand 'Em Laugh." If you've had a bad week at work, and the kids are getting on your final nerve, hither is the film to sentry.

Great premise: two struggling musicians witness the 1929 St. Valentine'south Solar day Massacre and decide to hibernate out in elevate as members of a women's band…which is traveling to Florida for a mobster convention! Great cast: Marilyn Monroe , Tony Curtis , Jack Lemmon . Great director and screenwriter: Billy Wilder . And simply flat out funny. Two memorable moments: Tony Curtis imitating Laurence Olivier and, of course, the final joke of the movie: "Nobody'south perfect." Nobody may be perfect, but this moving picture certainly is.

Whenever you're sitting effectually with friends talking virtually your favorite romantic comedies, inevitably someone volition say, "How about Roman Holiday ?" And immediately everyone else will cheer and vigorously hold. A princess ( Audrey Hepburn ) goes incognito and flees from her regal duties during a visit to Rome. Everyone is looking for her, but American journalist Gregory Peck is the one who has found her and they hang out together until she has to return to her twenty-four hours job. Directed by William Wyler and co-written past John Dighton and "Ian McKellen Hunter," who was, in fact, blacklisted writer Dalton Trumbo. Pure fun, with a touch of melancholy at the end.

**My Five Favorite Foreign Movies of the 1950s**

This masterwork by French director Francois Truffaut is the image of the New Wave move in film. In the 1950s and '60s, French directors took a different approach to storytelling in film. These directors used film stock that required less light, shot anarchistic stories, and used a mixture of quick edits so long, lingering shots, creating an effect that was like a black and white filmed version of Impressionism. Hither, Truffaut tells the story of an adolescent boy, Antoine Doinel (beautifully played past Jean-Pierre Léaud ), who is going through an especially troubled period in a generally troubled life. And that's about it. There is no traditional story being told here, just a series of scenes from his life leading to an unexplained run on the beach that ends the film. Ambiguously. I beloved this movie.

Sweden's Ingmar Bergman is i of the giants of world picture palace. But you lot've probably heard that before and seen a scene or ii from one of his movies and it looked bleak and depressing. I'll requite you that. Bergman doesn't brand manic, low-cal-hearted comedies. He's not Baton Wilder . However, you should watch a Bergman film. They're relentlessly interesting. And this i, which tells the story of a cranky onetime retired professor on a non-very-sentimental journey to his Swedish hometown, is really quite moving. Everyone is unhappy in one mode or another in a Bergman movie. The interesting matter nearly his movies is uncovering the source of each individual'due south unhappiness. Definitely worth a rental.

First, I told you lot to sentinel Truffaut, and then Bergman, and now I'm insisting you check out Akira Kurosawa . Trust me, I'chiliad not trying to punish you. These are all wonderful movies, each gripping in their own way. Prepare in medieval Japan, this movie tells the same story over and over, each from the perspective of a different character. Information technology's a samurai motion-picture show, but a very unusual i. It likewise stars Kurosawa'southward favorite actor, Toshiro Mifune , as the bandit Tajumaro. Here's what you exercise: rent these three movies, watch them all on one weekend, and so next weekend go to a party and talk about them. You lot'll be surprised how many people at that place will have seen these as well, and volition love them as much as I practice.

Unremarkably, nosotros don't count British movies as foreign, technically, simply this film is prepare in ravaged and impoverished post-state of war Vienna and feels utterly non-American, so I'm counting information technology as a foreign moving picture from the UK. Joseph Cotten is a pulp fiction Western writer, Holly Martins, who comes to Vienna to find his onetime pal Harry Lime ( Orson Welles ). Martins gets sucked into a earth of expose and intrigue, where no one is every bit they seem. Shot in a chilling black and white with a haunting theme vocal, this moving-picture show is unforgettable. I've seen it a dozen times and in that location's e'er something new to discover in it.

This is, in my stance, the beginning truly bully film about World War II. Centered primarily on a woman, Veronika ( Tatiana Samojlova ), this Russian picture show follows her equally she searches for a boyfriend who volunteered to fight the invading Nazi army. Veronika ends upwards spending much of the state of war with her fellow's family as they are shunted effectually in increasing levels of agony during the horrific state of war. When the war finally ends, Veronika discovers her young man has died. This is a deeply moving picture show, and the graphic symbol of Veronika is 1 of the nearly fully-realized woman characters in the history of film. Information technology's a bit off the browbeaten rails, just I recommend you give this moving picture a rental.

David Raether is a veteran Goggle box writer and essayist. He worked for 12 years as a television sitcom writer/producer, including a 111-episode run on the ground-breaking ABC comedy "Roseanne." His essays have been published by Salon.com, The Times of London, and Longforms.org, and have been lauded past The Atlantic Magazine and the BBC World Service. His memoir, Homeless: A Picaresque Memoir from Our Times, is pending publication.

Source: http://blog.dvd.netflix.com/new-dvd-releases/my-favorite-movies-of-the-1950s