MY TOP 30+ MOVIES FOR 1959 (in list order)
Two comic geniuses star in the horror of war; Harvey and Signoret get naughty at the end of the conservative decade, and Marilyn drives them all crazy.
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- DirectorMario MonicelliStarsAlberto SordiVittorio GassmanBernard BlierThe Italian Army fought against the Austrians during World War I.A very underrated anti-war film that packs a punch...
- DirectorJack ClaytonStarsLaurence HarveySimone SignoretHeather SearsAn ambitious young accountant plots to wed a wealthy factory owner's daughter despite falling in love with a married older woman.Harvey is perfect, and Clayton gets the essence of the story right...
- DirectorRoberto RosselliniStarsVittorio De SicaHannes MessemerSandra MiloBardone, a petty con man, is arrested by the Gestapo and coerced into impersonating a partisan leader in order to expose another resistance organizer.De Sica is surprisingly amazing under Rossellini's master direction...
- DirectorBernhard WickiStarsVolker BohnetFritz WepperMichael HinzIn 1945, Germany is being overrun, and nobody is left to fight but teenagers.Teenagers forced to hold the frontline in a suicide battle was handled well by the young cast...
- DirectorBilly WilderStarsMarilyn MonroeTony CurtisJack LemmonAfter two male musicians witness a mob hit, they flee the state in an all-female band disguised as women, but further complications set in.Fun all the way...
- DirectorOtto PremingerStarsJames StewartLee RemickBen GazzaraAn upstate Michigan lawyer defends a soldier who claims he killed an innkeeper due to temporary insanity after the victim raped his wife. What is the truth, and will he win his case?Preminger pulls it off with a top cast...
- DirectorAlfred HitchcockStarsCary GrantEva Marie SaintJames MasonA New York City advertising executive goes on the run after being mistaken for a government agent by a group of foreign spies, and falls for a woman whose loyalties he begins to doubt.The Hitchcock magic...
- DirectorFrançois TruffautStarsJean-Pierre LéaudAlbert RémyClaire MaurierA young boy, left without attention, delves into a life of petty crime.Truffaut touches down...
- DirectorRichard FleischerStarsOrson WellesDean StockwellDiane VarsiTwo wealthy law-school students go on trial for murder in this version of the Leopold-Loeb case.Fascinating look into a cynical murder...
- DirectorHoward HawksStarsJohn WayneDean MartinRicky NelsonA small-town sheriff in the American West enlists the help of a disabled man, a drunk, and a young gunfighter in his efforts to hold in jail the brother of the local bad guy.Howard gets a peculiar cast together for a Western, and it works...
- DirectorJules DassinStarsGina LollobrigidaPierre BrasseurMarcello MastroianniIllicit passions pervade an Italian town, where men gather nightly for the cynical "game of the law."Dassin gets the best out of Lollobrigida, with cheeky Marcello backing up...
- DirectorDouglas SirkStarsLana TurnerJohn GavinSandra DeeAn aspiring white actress takes in an African American widow whose mixed-race daughter is desperate to be seen as white.Sirk sure knows how to make a sweeping melodrama...
- DirectorErmanno OlmiStarsNatale RossiRoberto SevesoPaolo QuadrubbiTwo workers at an isolated Alpine dam grow closer when an avalanche traps them in their hut without power or contact.Olmi always creates magic from a basic premise...
- DirectorMarcel CamusStarsBreno MelloMarpessa DawnLourdes de OliveiraA retelling of the Orpheus and Eurydice myth, set during the time of the Carnaval in Rio de Janeiro.Beautiful carnival of love...
- DirectorRanald MacDougallStarsHarry BelafonteInger StevensMel FerrerA miner trapped in a cave-in resurfaces, and upon discovering mankind has been wiped out in a nuclear holocaust, sets out to find other survivors.Belafonte can do more than just sing...
- DirectorFranco RossiStarsGianni GarkoSpyros FokasDidi PeregoTwo young people trickle and steal and exploit prostitutes.An interesting piece with an unknown cast...
- DirectorDelmer DavesKarl MaldenVincent ShermanStarsGary CooperMaria SchellKarl MaldenUnusual western about a doctor with a dark past, whose life is complicated and ultimately redeemed by a young thief, and a pretty Swiss immigrant whom he nurses back to health.Sloppy at times but still an interesting melodrama western...
- DirectorLewis GilbertStarsCurd JürgensOrson WellesSylvia SymsMark Conrad, a habitual drunk and troublemaker with a shady past, is expelled by Hong Kong police after one too many bar fights. He's sent to Macao on the Fa Tsan, a ferry owned by Captain Hart. Conrad's papers are out of order and Macao refuses him entry. Unable to go ashore, Conrad is a permanent passenger on the ferry with Hart, who detests him. It's all one long, lazy voyage for Conrad until one fateful trip when an encounter with a typhoon and pirates forces Conrad to choose between an aimless drifter's life and becoming a man again.One of my trashy favourite films as a child...
- DirectorBudd BoetticherStarsRandolph ScottKaren SteelePernell RobertsA bounty hunter (Randolph Scott) escorts a killer (James Best) to be tried for murder, but allows the man's outlaw brother (Lee Van Cleef) to catch up with them to have a showdown over a previous shocking murder.Great story, but lacked imagination in the overabundance of dialogue...
- DirectorMelville ShavelsonStarsDanny KayeBarbara Bel GeddesLouis ArmstrongDanny Kaye cuts loose with his trademark musical clowning. Louis "Satchmo" Armstrong plays his horn and croons in that famed gargling-granite voice. Big Band icons Bob Crosby, Ray Anthony and Shelly Manne join the fun.Just great seeing Danny and Louis together...
- DirectorJack ArnoldStarsPeter SellersJean SebergWilliam HartnellAn impoverished backward nation declares a war on the United States of America, hoping to lose, but things don't go according to plan.Quiet funny in a silly way...
- DirectorRobert BressonStarsMartin LaSalleMarika GreenJean PélégriMichel passes the time by picking pockets, careful to never be caught despite being watched by the police. His friend Jacques may suspect, while both men may have their eyes on Jeanne, the pretty neighbor of Michel's ailing mother.Some claim this is Bresson's best...
- DirectorAlain ResnaisStarsEmmanuelle RivaEiji OkadaStella DassasA French actress filming an anti-war film in Hiroshima has an affair with a married Japanese architect as they share their differing perspectives on war.Amazing to look at...
- DirectorLuis BuñuelStarsFrancisco RabalMarga LópezRita MacedoA priest in a poor community lives a charitable life in accordance with his religious principles, but many others do not return the favor.Bunuel begins to come out of his restricted shell in a subtle way...
- DirectorStanley KramerStarsGregory PeckAva GardnerFred AstaireAfter a global nuclear war, the residents of Australia must come to terms with the fact that all life will be destroyed in a matter of months.Interesting premises, but I still think I need another viewing...
- DirectorVincent ShermanStarsPaul NewmanBarbara RushAlexis SmithA promising lawyer tries to handle his social and professional problems while climbing the ranks in Philadelphia.The young Newman giving it his all...
- DirectorWilliam WylerStarsCharlton HestonJack HawkinsStephen BoydAfter a Jewish prince is betrayed and sent into slavery by a Roman friend in 1st-century Jerusalem, he regains his freedom and comes back for revenge.Epic campness on Heston's behalf...
- DirectorLes ClarkClyde GeronimiEric LarsonStarsMary CostaBill ShirleyEleanor AudleyAfter being snubbed by the royal family, a malevolent fairy places a curse on a princess which only a prince can break, along with the help of three good fairies.The classic done right...
- DirectorGuy HamiltonAlexander MackendrickStarsBurt LancasterKirk DouglasLaurence OlivierThe black sheep of a family and the local minister discover their true vocations during the Revolutionary War.Messy direction, but the corny script had some good moments, but worth it for Lancaster and Douglas...
- DirectorGiorgio BianchiStarsAlberto SordiVittorio De SicaFranco FabriziAugustino works as the General Secretary of Social Morality Union and takes fight to all kinds of mundane vices - striptease, nudity in movies and commercials. He is incorrupt and unyielding. Unfortunately, the rigid professional ethics sabotages his private life. Meanwhile, his boss plans to marry off his unattractive 29-year old daughter...to Augustino.Sordi and De Sica have fun with the moral crusaders of the time...
- DirectorJohn SturgesStarsKirk DouglasAnthony QuinnCarolyn JonesA marshal tries to bring the son of an old friend, an autocratic cattle baron, to justice for his role in the rape and murder of the marshal's Native American wife.Sturges does his best with a fine cast...
- DirectorEdward D. Wood Jr.StarsGregory WalcottTom KeeneMona McKinnonEvil aliens attack Earth and set their terrible "Plan 9" into action. As the aliens resurrect the dead of the Earth, the lives of the living are in danger.The mother of all things trashy...