An evolving list of ★★★★ / ★★★★★ films released during the 1950’s. The following are my awards (as they currently stand):

Hutch d’Or (Best Film):
Vertigo (Director: Alfred Hitchcock)

Best Director:
Alfred Hitchcock for Vertigo and North by Northwest

Best Actor:
James Stewart for Vertigo

Best Actress:
Gloria Swanson for Sunset Boulevard

Best Screenplay:
Billy Wilder, Charles Brackett and D.M. Marsh man Jr. for Sunset Boulevard

Best Cinematography:
Henri Decae for The 400 Blows and Elevator to the Gallows

Best Original Score:
Bernard Herrmann for Vertigo and North by Northwest

Best Short: 
Chant d’Amour (Song of Love) (Director: Jean Genet)

Best Debut: 
The 400 Blows (Director: Francois Truffaut)

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A Brief Review of the Decade:

Only seven ★★★★★ films, but at the latest count I’ve seen barely more than 100 films from the decade, which is a woeful effort considering the reputation of the films I am yet to see. 

My entry point to the films of the 50’s came from frequenting the repertory cinemas in London in the mid-90’s. I recall seeing new prints of North By Northwest and Vertigo, and old scratchy prints of Bergman and early nouvelle-vague pioneers (Malle and Truffaut), along with double bills of classic French film noir, Japanese ghost stories, and American comedies. 

I associate the great films of the decade with a formal elegance. The films are stylish, whether ravishing and atmospheric like The Cranes are Flying, Chant d’Amour and Ugetsu Monogatari, noirishly moody like Elevator to the Gallows, The Killing, Sunset Boulevard or Touch of Evil, or formally austere like Paths of Glory. In all cases they exude style, but with a classical rigour that respects the past while demonstrating the rapid progress being made in cinematographic techniques and art direction. 

Hitchcock stands out with two absolute masterpieces in Vertigo and North by Northwest. Both contained wonderful, though very different scores by Bernard Herrmann. Both were hugely influential for future directors. Both films pushed the boundaries of form, genre and storytelling conventions.  Both were romantic, though one was tragic and the other comic. Hitchcock at this time was our Shakespeare. 

The 50’s were exciting because they passed the baton from the more staid, straightjacketed 40’s to the free-wheeling, firecracker potential of the 60’s. You could see the origins of new film languages being tested by the likes of Bresson, Dreyer, Bergman and Kubrick, and the first dawn of the French new wave through Truffaut and Malle. By the end of the decade cinema was soaring with exciting possibilities.

Best Films pre-1950 <<< >>> Best of the 1960s