Must-sees of 1953
by vitale-daniele | created - 24 Dec 2012 | updated - 1 month ago | PublicThe titles hereby listed have been selected out of 100 1953-released works seen.
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1. Ugetsu (1953)
Not Rated | 96 min | Drama, Fantasy, War
A tale of ambition, family, love, and war set in the midst of the Japanese Civil Wars of the sixteenth century.
Director: Kenji Mizoguchi | Stars: Masayuki Mori, Machiko Kyô, Kinuyo Tanaka, Mitsuko Mito
Votes: 25,823 | Gross: $0.01M
2. Tokyo Story (1953)
Not Rated | 136 min | Drama
An old couple visit their children and grandchildren in the city, but receive little attention.
Director: Yasujirô Ozu | Stars: Chishû Ryû, Chieko Higashiyama, Sô Yamamura, Setsuko Hara
Votes: 68,638
3. The Wages of Fear (1953)
Not Rated | 131 min | Adventure, Drama, Thriller
In a decrepit South American village, four men are hired to transport an urgent nitroglycerine shipment without the equipment that would make it safe.
Director: Henri-Georges Clouzot | Stars: Yves Montand, Charles Vanel, Peter van Eyck, Folco Lulli
Votes: 66,590
4. Stalag 17 (1953)
Not Rated | 120 min | Comedy, Drama, War
After two Americans are killed while escaping from a German P.O.W. camp in World War II, the barracks black marketeer, J.J. Sefton, is suspected of being an informer.
Director: Billy Wilder | Stars: William Holden, Don Taylor, Otto Preminger, Robert Strauss
Votes: 58,823
5. The Earrings of Madame De... (1953)
Not Rated | 105 min | Drama, Romance
When an aristocratic woman known only as "Madame de . . ." sells a pair of earrings given to her by her husband in order to pay some debts, she sets off a chain reaction of financial and carnal consequences that can end only in despair.
Director: Max Ophüls | Stars: Charles Boyer, Danielle Darrieux, Vittorio De Sica, Jean Debucourt
Votes: 11,110
6. The Naked Spur (1953)
Passed | 91 min | Drama, Thriller, Western
A bounty hunter trying to bring a murderer to justice is forced to accept the help of two less-than-trustworthy strangers.
Director: Anthony Mann | Stars: James Stewart, Janet Leigh, Robert Ryan, Ralph Meeker
Votes: 12,666
7. Pickup on South Street (1953)
Passed | 80 min | Crime, Film-Noir, Mystery
A pickpocket unwittingly lifts a message destined for enemy agents and becomes a target for a Communist spy ring.
Director: Samuel Fuller | Stars: Richard Widmark, Jean Peters, Thelma Ritter, Murvyn Vye
Votes: 16,156
8. The Bullocks (1953)
Not Rated | 104 min | Comedy, Drama
A character study of five young men at crucial turning points in their lives in a small town in Italy.
Director: Federico Fellini | Stars: Alberto Sordi, Franco Fabrizi, Franco Interlenghi, Leopoldo Trieste
Votes: 19,913 | Gross: $0.10M
9. I Confess (1953)
Not Rated | 95 min | Crime, Drama, Thriller
A priest, who comes under suspicion for murder, cannot clear his name without breaking the seal of the confessional.
Director: Alfred Hitchcock | Stars: Montgomery Clift, Anne Baxter, Karl Malden, Brian Aherne
Votes: 23,274
10. The Big Heat (1953)
Passed | 89 min | Crime, Film-Noir, Thriller
Tough cop Dave Bannion takes on a politically powerful crime syndicate.
Director: Fritz Lang | Stars: Glenn Ford, Gloria Grahame, Jocelyn Brando, Alexander Scourby
Votes: 29,185
11. A Geisha (1953)
Not Rated | 85 min | Drama
A seasoned geisha and her apprentice maiko are forced to give in to their clients' sexual advances to survive.
Director: Kenji Mizoguchi | Stars: Michiyo Kogure, Ayako Wakao, Seizaburô Kawazu, Eitarô Shindô
Votes: 2,370
12. White Mane (1953)
Approved | 40 min | Adventure, Drama, Family
In the Camargue, France, a young boy bonds with a white haired horse that escaped from ranchers.
Director: Albert Lamorisse | Stars: Alain Emery, Laurent Roche, Clan-Clan, Pascal Lamorisse
Votes: 2,319
13. Angel Face (1952)
Approved | 91 min | Crime, Drama, Film-Noir
Ambulance driver Frank Jessup is ensnared in the schemes of the sensuous but dangerous Diane Tremayne.
Director: Otto Preminger | Stars: Robert Mitchum, Jean Simmons, Mona Freeman, Herbert Marshall
Votes: 9,032
14. Little Fugitive (1953)
Not Rated | 75 min | Drama, Family
A young boy fears that he shot his older brother, who is only faking. He then runs away to Coney Island, a crowded beach area, and gets money by returning soda bottles for their deposits.
Directors: Ray Ashley, Morris Engel, Ruth Orkin | Stars: Richard Brewster, Winifred Cushing, Jay Williams, Will Lee
Votes: 3,035 | Gross: $0.03M
15. The Unfaithfuls (1953)
99 min | Comedy, Crime, Drama
An industrialist has his wife tailed because he secretly hopes she is betraying him so that he can ask for a divorce and marry the model he's fallen in love with. This leads to a series of thefts, blackmail and a suicide as well.
Directors: Mario Monicelli, Steno | Stars: Gina Lollobrigida, May Britt, Pierre Cressoy, Tina Lattanzi
Votes: 239
16. The Band Wagon (1953)
Passed | 112 min | Comedy, Musical, Romance
A pretentiously artistic director is hired for a new Broadway musical and changes it beyond recognition.
Director: Vincente Minnelli | Stars: Fred Astaire, Cyd Charisse, Oscar Levant, Nanette Fabray
Votes: 12,581
17. Love Letter (1953)
98 min | Drama, Romance
Explores the wounds of war, the limits of love and the need to forgive. A sad and troubled man, Reikichi Mayumi finds a new job five years after the end of WWII, where he writes love letters for other people.
Director: Kinuyo Tanaka | Stars: Masayuki Mori, Yoshiko Kuga, Jûkichi Uno, Jûzô Dôsan
Votes: 518
18. From Here to Eternity (1953)
Passed | 118 min | Drama, Romance, War
At a U.S. Army base in 1941 Hawaii, a private is cruelly punished for not boxing on his unit's team, while his commanding officer's wife and top aide begin a tentative affair.
Director: Fred Zinnemann | Stars: Burt Lancaster, Montgomery Clift, Deborah Kerr, Donna Reed
Votes: 50,832 | Gross: $30.50M
19. Older Brother, Younger Sister (1953)
86 min | Drama
In Older Brother, Younger Sister, director Mikio Naruse's adaptation of an oft-filmed popular novel by Saisei Murô, the eldest daughter (Machiko Kyô) of a rural family comes home pregnant, ... See full summary »
Director: Mikio Naruse | Stars: Machiko Kyô, Masayuki Mori, Yoshiko Kuga, Yûji Hori
Votes: 487
20. El (1953)
Approved | 82 min | Drama, Romance
A husband's suave exterior unravels after his marriage, and he unleashes his paranoid and volatile temper on his wife, which escalates to more dangerous and unpredictable tantrums.
Director: Luis Buñuel | Stars: Arturo de Córdova, Delia Garcés, Aurora Walker, Carlos Martínez Baena
Votes: 6,574
21. Wife (1953)
89 min | Drama
Tokyo. Mihoko and Toichi Nakagawa's ten year marriage is crumbling out of inertia. Each knows the other isn't happy, they themselves aren't happy, but they don't talk about their problems ... See full summary »
Director: Mikio Naruse | Stars: Mieko Takamine, Ken Uehara, Rentarô Mikuni, Michiyo Aratama
Votes: 344
22. Dangerous Crossing (1953)
Approved | 75 min | Drama, Film-Noir, Mystery
When a beautiful bride boards an ocean liner with her new husband, he goes into hiding, and she becomes the target of a murder conspiracy.
Director: Joseph M. Newman | Stars: Jeanne Crain, Michael Rennie, Max Showalter, Carl Betz
Votes: 2,436
23. Crime Wave (1953)
Approved | 73 min | Crime, Drama, Film-Noir
Reformed parolee Steve Lacey is caught in the middle when a wounded former cellmate seeks him out for shelter.
Director: André De Toth | Stars: Gene Nelson, Sterling Hayden, Phyllis Kirk, Ted de Corsia
Votes: 4,547
24. Shane (1953)
Not Rated | 118 min | Drama, Western
A weary gunfighter in 1880s Wyoming begins to envision a quieter life after befriending a homestead family with a young son who idolizes him, but a smoldering range war forces him to act.
Director: George Stevens | Stars: Alan Ladd, Jean Arthur, Van Heflin, Brandon De Wilde
Votes: 44,155 | Gross: $20.00M
25. The Blue Gardenia (1953)
Not Rated | 90 min | Crime, Drama, Film-Noir
A telephone operator ends up drunk and at the mercy of a cad in his apartment. The next morning she wakes up with a hangover and the terrible fear she may be a murderess.
Director: Fritz Lang | Stars: Anne Baxter, Richard Conte, Ann Sothern, Raymond Burr
Votes: 6,198
26. The Lady Without Camelias (1953)
Not Rated | 101 min | Drama
A new starlet is discovered and has ups and downs in Italian films.
Director: Michelangelo Antonioni | Stars: Lucia Bosè, Gino Cervi, Andrea Checchi, Ivan Desny
Votes: 2,258
27. Sawdust and Tinsel (1953)
Not Rated | 93 min | Drama
The complicated relationships between a circus ringmaster, his estranged wife and his lover.
Director: Ingmar Bergman | Stars: Åke Grönberg, Harriet Andersson, Hasse Ekman, Anders Ek
Votes: 7,382
28. Hondo (1953)
PG | 83 min | Drama, Romance, War
Army dispatch rider Hondo Lane discovers a woman and young son living in the midst of warring Apaches and becomes their protector.
Director: John Farrow | Stars: John Wayne, Geraldine Page, Ward Bond, Michael Pate
Votes: 12,420
29. Gate of Hell (1953)
Not Rated | 89 min | Drama, History
A samurai pursues a married lady-in-waiting.
Director: Teinosuke Kinugasa | Stars: Machiko Kyô, Kazuo Hasegawa, Isao Yamagata, Yatarô Kurokawa
Votes: 4,280
30. Il sole negli occhi (1953)
98 min | Drama
A young and shy girl Celestina arrives from her small home village to Rome to become a housemaid. Her inexperience and naivety causes her to change her employers quite frequently. As she is... See full summary »
Director: Antonio Pietrangeli | Stars: Gabriele Ferzetti, Irene Galter, Pina Bottin, Maria Pia Trepaoli
Votes: 224
31. One of Those (1953)
89 min | Drama
Rocco and his brother Martino are two rich country-estate owners who descend upon the city in search of adventure.
Director: Aldo Fabrizi | Stars: Totò, Lea Padovani, Peppino De Filippo, Aldo Fabrizi
Votes: 108
32. Husband and Wife (1953)
87 min | Drama
A married couple looking for an apartment move in with the husband's co-worker, a widower. The husband becomes jealous of the widower and his wife.
Director: Mikio Naruse | Stars: Ken Uehara, Yôko Sugi, Rentarô Mikuni, Keiju Kobayashi
Votes: 189
33. Hiroshima (1953)
TV-PG | 85 min | Drama, War
Brilliant and extremely realistic retelling of the day in Hiroshima that the bomb dropped and following days.
Director: Hideo Sekigawa | Stars: Isuzu Yamada, Eiji Okada, Yoshi Katô, Yumeji Tsukioka
Votes: 649
34. Where Chimneys Are Seen (1953)
108 min | Comedy, Drama
Where Chimneys Are Seen focuses primarily on the interconnected lives of two couples in a lower-middle-class neighborhood in Senju, a poor industrial section of Tokyo.
Director: Heinosuke Gosho | Stars: Kinuyo Tanaka, Ken Uehara, Hideko Takamine, Hiroshi Akutagawa
Votes: 326
35. A Japanese Tragedy (1953)
116 min | Drama
Alternating in time, between the end of World War II and 1953, Haruko, a widow, does what she can to keep her daughter Utako and son Seiichi safe, fed, and sheltered. By 1953, it's clear ... See full summary »
Director: Keisuke Kinoshita | Stars: Yûko Mochizuki, Yôko Katsuragi, Masami Taura, Keiko Awaji
Votes: 403
36. Gun Fury (1953)
Approved | 83 min | Action, Adventure, Crime
In Arizona, Frank Slayton's gang robs a stagecoach and kidnaps Ben Warren's fiancée, prompting Warren to pursue Slayton.
Director: Raoul Walsh | Stars: Rock Hudson, Donna Reed, Philip Carey, Roberta Haynes
Votes: 1,804
37. Hokusai (1953)
23 min | Documentary, Short, Biography
A documentary about the life and art of wood-block artist Katsushika Hokusai.
Director: Hiroshi Teshigahara | Star: Yoshi Katô
Votes: 373
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