MY TOP 35 MOVIES FOR 1956 (in list order)
The cinematic mind of Bresson; Ford and Wayne do it again, and Dean hangs out with Taylor and Hudson. (In list order.)
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35 titles
- DirectorRobert BressonStarsFrançois LeterrierCharles Le ClaincheMaurice BeerblockA captured French Resistance fighter during World War II engineers a daunting escape from a German prison in France.One of Bresson's finest...
- DirectorJohn FordStarsJohn WayneJeffrey HunterVera MilesAn American Civil War veteran embarks on a years-long journey to rescue his niece from the Comanches after the rest of his brother's family is massacred in a raid on their Texas farm.Wayne and Ford deliver their best...
- DirectorGeorge StevensStarsElizabeth TaylorRock HudsonJames DeanSprawling epic covering the life of a Texas cattle rancher and his family and associates.Dream cast in epic melodrama...
- DirectorElia KazanStarsKarl MaldenCarroll BakerEli WallachAn immature, naive teenage bride holds her anxious husband at bay while flirting with an amorous Sicilian farmer.Kazan pushes it and gets away with it...
- DirectorYasujirô OzuStarsChikage AwashimaRyô IkebeTeiji TakahashiA young man and his wife struggle within the confines of their passionless relationship while he has an extramarital romance.Ozu delivers again...
- DirectorJohn HustonStarsGregory PeckRichard BasehartLeo GennThe sole survivor of a lost whaling ship relates the tale of his captain's self-destructive obsession to hunt the white whale, Moby Dick.Huston captures the soul of the book...
- DirectorRobert AldrichStarsJack PalanceLee MarvinEddie AlbertIn 1944, an American Infantry company sets up an artillery observation post, but tensions between Captain Cooney and Lieutenant Costa run high.Perfect vehicle for Aldrich and cast...
- DirectorDon SiegelStarsKevin McCarthyDana WynterLarry GatesA small-town doctor learns that the population of his community is being replaced by emotionless alien duplicates.One of the best 50's sci-fi...
- DirectorJean-Pierre MelvilleStarsRoger DuchesneIsabelle CoreyDaniel CauchyAfter losing big, an aging gambler decides to assemble a team to rob a casino.Slick Melville and his cool Noir gangsters...
- DirectorHelmut KäutnerStarsNicole BergerMaximilian SchellViktor de KowaA love story between a German soldier and a young Flemish woman amidst World War I.An anti-war film that explores the importance of humanity through a romantic love affair.
- DirectorRobert WiseStarsPaul NewmanPier AngeliEverett SloaneBoxer Rocky Graziano's biopic, based on his autobiography, from childhood to his World Middleweight Championship title win at age 28 in 1947.Newman begins to stand out...
- DirectorJean RenoirStarsIngrid BergmanJean MaraisMel FerrerPolish countess Elena falls in love with a French radical party's candidate - a general - in pre-World War I Paris, but another officer pines for her. Starring Ingrid Bergman, with Mel Ferrer and Jean Marais as the rivals for her affection.Renoir's magic works a treat on Ingrid...
- DirectorMervyn LeRoyStarsNancy KellyPatty McCormackGage ClarkeRhoda Penmark seems like your average, sweet eight-year-old girl. After her rival at school dies in mysterious circumstances at the school picnic, her mother starts to suspect that Rhoda was responsible.Overlong, too theatrical, melodramatic campy performances, but still riveting stuff...
- DirectorStanley KubrickStarsSterling HaydenColeen GrayVince EdwardsCrook Johnny Clay assembles a five-man team to plan and execute a daring racetrack robbery.Kubrick prepares for the big one...
- DirectorKon IchikawaStarsRentarô MikuniShôji YasuiTatsuya MihashiA conscience-driven Japanese soldier traumatized by the events of WWII adopts the lifestyle of a Buddhist monk.Ichikawa finds peace in War...
- DirectorDouglas SirkStarsRock HudsonLauren BacallRobert StackAlcoholic playboy Kyle Hadley marries the woman secretly loved by his poor but hard-working best friend, who in turn is pursued by Kyle's nymphomaniac sister.Hudson and Bacall are perfect in this campy Sirk melodrama...
- DirectorWalter LangStarsYul BrynnerDeborah KerrRita MorenoA widow accepts a job as a live-in governess to the King of Siam's children.Lavish musical...
- DirectorFrank TashlinStarsTom EwellJayne MansfieldEdmond O'BrienA gangster hires a down-and-out press agent to make his airheaded girlfriend a singing star.Tashlin has fun with the jugs, and the music is great...
- DirectorCecil B. DeMilleStarsCharlton HestonYul BrynnerAnne BaxterMoses, raised as a prince of Egypt in the Pharaoh's household, learns of his true heritage as a Hebrew and his divine mission as the deliverer of his people from slavery.De Mille sure knows how to make them bigger than the bible...
- DirectorAlessandro BlasettiStarsSophia LorenCharles BoyerMarcello MastroianniA photographer named Corrado snaps a picture of Antonietta. When it shows up on the front page of a magazine, she wants to take him to court over it.Sophia and Marcello warming up for better things to come...
- DirectorFred M. WilcoxStarsWalter PidgeonAnne FrancisLeslie NielsenA starship crew in the 23rd century goes to investigate the silence of a distant planet's colony, only to find just two survivors, a powerful robot, and the deadly secret of a lost civilization.It's a crazy kinky planet...
- DirectorAlfred HitchcockStarsJames StewartDoris DayBrenda de BanzieAn American doctor and his wife, a former singing star, witness a murder while vacationing in Morocco, and are drawn into a twisting plot of international intrigue when their young son is kidnapped.Hitchcock sure knows how to thrill an audience...
- DirectorIshirô HondaTerry O. MorseStarsRaymond BurrTakashi ShimuraMomoko KôchiA 400-foot (122-meter) dinosaur-like beast, awoken from undersea hibernation off the Japanese coast by atomic-bomb testing, attacks Tokyo.Loved it as a child...
- DirectorAlfred HitchcockStarsHenry FondaVera MilesAnthony QuayleIn 1953, an innocent man named Christopher Emanuel "Manny" Balestrero is arrested after being mistaken for an armed robber.One of the lesser interesting and safe Hitchcock projects...
- DirectorMichael AndersonJohn FarrowStarsDavid NivenCantinflasFinlay CurrieA Victorian Englishman bets that with the new steamships and railways he can circumnavigate the globe in eighty days.Pure fun with Niven and Co...
- DirectorRussell RouseStarsGlenn FordJeanne CrainBroderick CrawfordIn the western frontier town of Cross Creek, storekeeper George Temple is a polite and soft spoken man with a secret past. When 3 bank robbers on the lam stop in town to change horses, George's past comes back to haunt him.Perfect ending but had to sit through clunky wordy junk to get to it...
- DirectorFrank TashlinStarsDean MartinJerry LewisPat CrowleyA singer who can't pay his bookie joins a nerdy, star-struck movie fan and his Great Dane in a cross-country convertible ride to Hollywood.One of the better Dean and Jerry comedies…
- DirectorAlex SegalStarsGlenn FordDonna ReedLeslie NielsenAfter the child of wealthy parents gets abducted, the police and a member of the press intervene to assist the parents in their search but end up complicating their impending decisions.It keeps you intrigued even through all the corniness...
- DirectorVincente MinnelliGeorge CukorStarsKirk DouglasAnthony QuinnJames DonaldThe life of brilliant but tortured artist Vincent van Gogh.Just didn't have that edge like Van Gogh's life...
- DirectorRobert D. WebbStarsRichard EganDebra PagetElvis PresleyAt the end of the Civil War, a Confederate team is ordered to rob a Union payroll train but the war ends leaving these men with their Union loot, until the Feds come looking for it.Wrong title for this interesting Elvis film...
- DirectorNorman TaurogStarsDean MartinJerry LewisLori NelsonA rich momma's boy returns west with the son of his murdered father's partner to foil a gang trying to gain control of his family ranch.The lads have fun out West...
- DirectorRiccardo FredaStarsMicheline PresleGino CerviFausto TozziThe beautiful Beatrice Cenci, daughter of the noble Francesco, falls in love with the intendant Olimpio. But she has to face the jealousy of her violent and morbid father, and the hostility of her stepmother Lucrezia.An Italian melodrama that touches on incest and other taboo topics of the time, all in a corny fashion...
- DirectorFritz LangStarsDana AndrewsRhonda FlemingGeorge SandersA serial killer has been killing beautiful women in New York and the new owner of a media company offers a high ranking job to the first of his senior executives who can get the earliest scoops on the case.Cheap Fifties thrills…
- DirectorRaffaello MatarazzoStarsElsa MartinelliFolco LulliMichel AuclairA young girl hires herself for a low salary in order to snare herself in the rice fields. By the way, the landlord is also her unknown father, of whom she should know nothing. He stands by her paternal as she gets into trouble.All the Italian cliche melodramas squeezed into an interesting look at the life of a female rice field worker…
- DirectorRiccardo FredaStarsMicheline PresleGino CerviFausto TozziThe beautiful Beatrice Cenci, daughter of the noble Francesco, falls in love with the intendant Olimpio. But she has to face the jealousy of her violent and morbid father, and the hostility of her stepmother Lucrezia.A fiery campy melodrama…