With the new year having arrived, I’m going to start work on another decade critics poll. I like doing these as they are good starting points for folks who want to delve deep into film history.
This time I’ll asking for critics and industry people to submit their ten picks for the best films of the 1950s. The aim is to gather up almost 300 ballots. The ballots will start rolling out in the coming days.
The results will be very interesting to analyze as, when all is said and done, I expect Hitchcock’s “Vertigo” and John Ford’s “The Searchers” to figure very much at the top of the heap. But what comes after them?
Because this was such a rich period in movie history, despite the Hays Code, and especially with the incoming boom of foreign filmmaking entering the fray, I expect a rich variety of titles to make the list. Hitchcock might actually have a bunch in there, it was an incredible decade for him.
I started looking through the period between 1950-1959, and there are so many great films. I don’t know where to start! Vertigo, The Searchers, Touch of Evil, The 400 Blows, Singin' in the Rain, Ordet, Ugetsu, Rear Window, A Man Escaped, 12 Angry Men, Sunset Boulevard, Pickpocket, Sweet Smell of Success, Los Olidavos, In A Lonely Place, Umberto D, Wages of Fear, Night of the Hunter, Diabolique …
Our “Decade in Film” polls are an integral part of this site and I will continue to conduct them as long as there is interest from our readers — the goal is to go all the way back to the silent era. We’ve already covered the 1960s, 1970s, 1980s, 1990s, 2000s, and 2010s.
Results for “The Best Films of the 1950s” will be published sometime in February.