Why I love 50s movies.
by MyEyesTheyBurn | created - 18 Sep 2011 | updated - 18 Sep 2011 | PublicSome are cheesy, some are classics, all are pretty enjoyable in different ways.
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1. The Thing from Another World (1951)
Approved | 87 min | Horror, Sci-Fi
Scientists and American Air Force officials fend off a bloodthirsty alien organism while at a remote arctic outpost.
Directors: Christian Nyby, Howard Hawks | Stars: Kenneth Tobey, Margaret Sheridan, James Arness, Robert Cornthwaite
Votes: 33,392
2. Strangers on a Train (1951)
PG | 101 min | Crime, Drama, Film-Noir
A psychopathic man tries to forcibly persuade a tennis star to agree to his theory that two strangers can get away with murder by submitting to his plan to kill the other's most-hated person.
Director: Alfred Hitchcock | Stars: Farley Granger, Robert Walker, Ruth Roman, Leo G. Carroll
Votes: 141,053 | Gross: $7.63M
3. The Day the Earth Stood Still (1951)
G | 92 min | Drama, Sci-Fi
An alien lands in Washington, D.C. and tells the people of Earth that they must live peacefully or be destroyed as a danger to other planets.
Director: Robert Wise | Stars: Michael Rennie, Patricia Neal, Hugh Marlowe, Sam Jaffe
Votes: 85,785
4. Invaders from Mars (1953)
Approved | 78 min | Horror, Sci-Fi
A young boy learns that space aliens are taking over the minds of earthlings.
Director: William Cameron Menzies | Stars: Helena Carter, Arthur Franz, Jimmy Hunt, Leif Erickson
Votes: 8,837
5. House of Wax (1953)
GP | 88 min | Horror
An associate burns down a wax museum with the owner inside, but he survives only to become vengeful and murderous.
Director: André De Toth | Stars: Vincent Price, Frank Lovejoy, Phyllis Kirk, Carolyn Jones
Votes: 20,263 | Gross: $23.75M
6. It Came from Outer Space (1953)
Approved | 81 min | Horror, Sci-Fi
A spaceship from another world crashes in the Arizona desert and only an amateur stargazer and a schoolteacher suspect alien influence when the local townsfolk begin to act strangely.
Director: Jack Arnold | Stars: Richard Carlson, Barbara Rush, Charles Drake, Joe Sawyer
Votes: 11,058
7. The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms (1953)
Approved | 80 min | Horror, Sci-Fi
A ferocious dinosaur awakened by an Arctic atomic test terrorizes the North Atlantic and, ultimately, New York City.
Director: Eugène Lourié | Stars: Paul Hubschmid, Paula Raymond, Cecil Kellaway, Kenneth Tobey
Votes: 8,729 | Gross: $5.00M
8. Phantom from Space (1953)
Approved | 73 min | Horror, Sci-Fi
When an asteroid crashes, the search begins to track down the mysterious aliens.
Director: W. Lee Wilder | Stars: Ted Cooper, Tom Daly, Steve Acton, Burt Wenland
Votes: 1,537
9. The War of the Worlds (1953)
G | 85 min | Action, Sci-Fi, Thriller
A small town in California is attacked by Martians, beginning a worldwide invasion.
Director: Byron Haskin | Stars: Gene Barry, Ann Robinson, Les Tremayne, Robert Cornthwaite
Votes: 38,550 | Gross: $4.36M
10. Donovan's Brain (1953)
Approved | 84 min | Sci-Fi, Horror
Three scientists unlawfully remove the still living brain of a dead tycoon and experiment with it but the evil brain begins to telepathically control the lead scientist.
Director: Felix E. Feist | Stars: Lew Ayres, Gene Evans, Nancy Reagan, Steve Brodie
Votes: 1,721
11. Rear Window (1954)
PG | 112 min | Mystery, Thriller
A wheelchair-bound photographer spies on his neighbors from his Greenwich Village courtyard apartment window and, despite the skepticism of his fashion-model girlfriend, becomes convinced one of them has committed murder.
Director: Alfred Hitchcock | Stars: James Stewart, Grace Kelly, Wendell Corey, Thelma Ritter
Votes: 522,253 | Gross: $36.76M
12. Killers from Space (1954)
Passed | 71 min | Horror, Mystery, Sci-Fi
An atomic scientist claims he was abducted by aliens after being injured in a plane crash.
Director: W. Lee Wilder | Stars: Peter Graves, James Seay, Steve Pendleton, Frank Gerstle
Votes: 2,559
13. Creature from the Black Lagoon (1954)
G | 79 min | Horror, Sci-Fi
A strange prehistoric beast lurks in the depths of the Amazonian jungle. A group of scientists try to capture the animal and bring it back to civilization for study.
Director: Jack Arnold | Stars: Richard Carlson, Julie Adams, Richard Denning, Antonio Moreno
Votes: 34,446 | Gross: $1.30M
14. Godzilla (1954)
Not Rated | 96 min | Horror, Sci-Fi
American nuclear weapons testing results in the creation of a seemingly unstoppable dinosaur-like beast.
Director: Ishirô Honda | Stars: Takashi Shimura, Akihiko Hirata, Akira Takarada, Momoko Kôchi
Votes: 39,698 | Gross: $2.42M
15. Them! (1954)
Not Rated | 94 min | Horror, Sci-Fi
The earliest atomic tests in New Mexico cause common ants to mutate into giant man-eating monsters that threaten civilization.
Director: Gordon Douglas | Stars: James Whitmore, Edmund Gwenn, Joan Weldon, James Arness
Votes: 24,198
16. It Came from Beneath the Sea (1955)
Not Rated | 79 min | Horror, Sci-Fi
A giant, radioactive octopus rises from the Philippine Trench to terrorize the North American Pacific Coast.
Director: Robert Gordon | Stars: Kenneth Tobey, Faith Domergue, Donald Curtis, Ian Keith
Votes: 6,358
17. Revenge of the Creature (1955)
Passed | 82 min | Horror, Sci-Fi
Men capture the Creature from the Black Lagoon and make him an aquarium attraction, from which he escapes.
Director: Jack Arnold | Stars: John Agar, Lori Nelson, John Bromfield, Nestor Paiva
Votes: 7,029
18. Creature with the Atom Brain (1955)
Approved | 69 min | Crime, Horror, Sci-Fi
An ex-Nazi mad scientist uses radio-controlled atomic-powered zombies in his quest to help an exiled American gangster return to power.
Director: Edward L. Cahn | Stars: Richard Denning, Angela Stevens, S. John Launer, Michael Granger
Votes: 1,752
19. Dementia (1955)
Not Rated | 61 min | Film-Noir, Horror, Mystery
This film, with no dialogue at all, follows a psychotic young woman's nightmarish experiences through one skid-row night.
Directors: John Parker, Bruno VeSota | Stars: Adrienne Barrett, Bruno VeSota, Ben Roseman, Richard Barron
Votes: 2,573
20. The Night of the Hunter (1955)
Not Rated | 92 min | Crime, Drama, Film-Noir
A self-proclaimed preacher marries a gullible widow whose young children are reluctant to tell him where their real dad hid the $10,000 he'd stolen in a robbery.
Director: Charles Laughton | Stars: Robert Mitchum, Shelley Winters, Lillian Gish, James Gleason
Votes: 97,395 | Gross: $0.65M
21. Tarantula (1955)
Approved | 80 min | Horror, Sci-Fi
A spider escapes from an isolated Arizona desert laboratory experimenting in gigantism and grows to tremendous size as it wreaks havoc on the local inhabitants.
Director: Jack Arnold | Stars: John Agar, Mara Corday, Leo G. Carroll, Nestor Paiva
Votes: 10,779 | Gross: $1.10M
22. Diabolique (1955)
Not Rated | 117 min | Crime, Drama, Horror
The wife and mistress of a loathed school principal plan to murder him with what they believe is the perfect alibi.
Director: Henri-Georges Clouzot | Stars: Simone Signoret, Véra Clouzot, Paul Meurisse, Charles Vanel
Votes: 69,414 | Gross: $1.09M
23. Day the World Ended (1955)
Approved | 79 min | Horror, Sci-Fi
In a post-Apocalyptic world after an atomic war seven disparate people find themselves in a protected valley in the home of a survivalist and his beautiful daughter.
Director: Roger Corman | Stars: Richard Denning, Lori Nelson, Adele Jergens, Mike Connors
Votes: 2,610
24. The Quatermass Xperiment (1955)
Not Rated | 78 min | Horror, Sci-Fi
Professor Bernard Quatermass' manned rocket ship returns to Earth, but two of the astronauts are missing and the survivor seems ill and unable to communicate.
Director: Val Guest | Stars: Brian Donlevy, Jack Warner, Richard Wordsworth, Margia Dean
Votes: 7,184
25. Bride of the Monster (1955)
Passed | 69 min | Horror, Sci-Fi
A mad doctor attempts to create atomic supermen.
Director: Edward D. Wood Jr. | Stars: Bela Lugosi, Tor Johnson, Tony McCoy, Loretta King
Votes: 7,646
26. Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956)
Approved | 80 min | Drama, Horror, Sci-Fi
A small-town doctor learns that the population of his community is being replaced by emotionless alien duplicates.
Director: Don Siegel | Stars: Kevin McCarthy, Dana Wynter, Larry Gates, King Donovan
Votes: 54,783
27. Forbidden Planet (1956)
G | 98 min | Adventure, Sci-Fi
A 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.
Director: Fred M. Wilcox | Stars: Walter Pidgeon, Anne Francis, Leslie Nielsen, Warren Stevens
Votes: 53,235 | Gross: $3.00M
28. The Creature Walks Among Us (1956)
Approved | 78 min | Horror, Sci-Fi
A scientist captures the Creature and turns him into an air-breather, only for him to escape and start killing.
Director: John Sherwood | Stars: Jeff Morrow, Rex Reason, Leigh Snowden, Gregg Palmer
Votes: 4,022
29. It Conquered the World (1956)
Approved | 71 min | Horror, Sci-Fi
A well meaning scientist guides an alien monster to Earth from Venus, so that he can rid mankind of feelings and emotions - but only death and sorrow results.
Director: Roger Corman | Stars: Peter Graves, Beverly Garland, Lee Van Cleef, Sally Fraser
Votes: 2,667
30. The Mole People (1956)
Approved | 77 min | Adventure, Fantasy, Horror
A party of archaeologists discovers the remnants of a mutant five-millennia-old Sumerian civilization living beneath a glacier atop a mountain in Mesopotamia.
Director: Virgil W. Vogel | Stars: John Agar, Cynthia Patrick, Hugh Beaumont, Alan Napier
Votes: 3,996
31. The Bad Seed (1956)
Approved | 129 min | Drama, Horror, Thriller
Rhoda 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.
Director: Mervyn LeRoy | Stars: Nancy Kelly, Patty McCormack, Gage Clarke, Jesse White
Votes: 15,780
32. Invasion of the Saucer Men (1957)
Passed | 69 min | Comedy, Horror, Sci-Fi
Aliens equipped with venomous claws invade a small town but the town's teenage population is mobilized to fight the menace.
Director: Edward L. Cahn | Stars: Steven Terrell, Gloria Castillo, Frank Gorshin, Raymond Hatton
Votes: 2,167
33. The Incredible Shrinking Man (1957)
Approved | 81 min | Horror, Sci-Fi
After Scott Carey begins to shrink because of exposure to a combination of radiation and insecticide, medical science is powerless to help him.
Director: Jack Arnold | Stars: Grant Williams, Randy Stuart, April Kent, Paul Langton
Votes: 19,976
34. I Was a Teenage Werewolf (1957)
Approved | 76 min | Drama, Fantasy, Horror
A hypnotherapist uses a temperamental teenager as a guinea pig for a serum which transforms him into a vicious werewolf.
Director: Gene Fowler Jr. | Stars: Michael Landon, Yvonne Lime, Whit Bissell, Charles Willcox
Votes: 2,863 | Gross: $2.00M
35. The Unearthly (1957)
Approved | 73 min | Sci-Fi, Horror
Mad doctor uses patients at his isolated psychiatric institute as subjects in his attempts to create longevity by surgically installing an artificial gland in their skulls, with disastrous results.
Director: Boris Petroff | Stars: John Carradine, Myron Healey, Allison Hayes, Marilyn Buferd
Votes: 1,889
36. Curse of the Demon (1957)
Approved | 96 min | Fantasy, Horror, Mystery
American professor John Holden arrives in London for a parapsychology conference, only to find himself investigating the mysterious actions of Devil-worshipper Julian Karswell.
Director: Jacques Tourneur | Stars: Dana Andrews, Peggy Cummins, Niall MacGinnis, Maurice Denham
Votes: 15,514
37. The Black Scorpion (1957)
Approved | 88 min | Horror, Sci-Fi
Volcanic activity frees giant scorpions from the earth who wreak havoc in the rural countryside and eventually threaten Mexico City.
Director: Edward Ludwig | Stars: Richard Denning, Mara Corday, Carlos Rivas, Mario Navarro
Votes: 3,412
38. The Giant Claw (1957)
Approved | 75 min | Fantasy, Horror, Sci-Fi
Global panic ensues when it is revealed that a mysterious UFO is actually a giant bird that flies at supersonic speed and has no regard for life or architecture.
Director: Fred F. Sears | Stars: Jeff Morrow, Mara Corday, Morris Ankrum, Louis Merrill
Votes: 4,420
39. From Hell It Came (1957)
Approved | 71 min | Horror, Sci-Fi
A wrongfully accused South Seas prince is executed, and returns as a walking tree stump.
Director: Dan Milner | Stars: Tod Andrews, Tina Carver, Linda Watkins, John McNamara
Votes: 1,975
40. Attack of the Crab Monsters (1957)
Approved | 63 min | Horror, Sci-Fi
Scientists become trapped on a shrinking island with intelligent, murderous giant crabs.
Director: Roger Corman | Stars: Richard Garland, Pamela Duncan, Russell Johnson, Leslie Bradley
Votes: 3,807
41. Attack of the 50 Foot Woman (1958)
Passed | 66 min | Horror, Sci-Fi
When an abused socialite grows to giant size because of an alien encounter and an aborted murder attempt, she goes after her cheating husband with revenge on her mind.
Director: Nathan Juran | Stars: Allison Hayes, William Hudson, Yvette Vickers, Roy Gordon
Votes: 6,267 | Gross: $0.48M
42. It! The Terror from Beyond Space (1958)
Approved | 69 min | Horror, Sci-Fi, Thriller
The first manned expedition to Mars is invaded by an unknown life form, which stows away on the rescue ship.
Director: Edward L. Cahn | Stars: Marshall Thompson, Shirley Patterson, Kim Spalding, Ann Doran
Votes: 6,270
43. The Fly (1958)
Not Rated | 94 min | Drama, Horror, Sci-Fi
A scientist has a horrific accident when he tries to use his newly invented teleportation device.
Director: Kurt Neumann | Stars: David Hedison, Patricia Owens, Vincent Price, Herbert Marshall
Votes: 25,673 | Gross: $3.00M
44. The Blob (1958)
Approved | 86 min | Horror, Sci-Fi
An alien lifeform consumes everything in its path as it grows and grows.
Directors: Irvin S. Yeaworth Jr., Russell S. Doughten Jr. | Stars: Steve McQueen, Aneta Corsaut, Earl Rowe, Olin Howland
Votes: 29,390
45. Horror of Dracula (1958)
Not Rated | 82 min | Drama, Horror
When Jonathan Harker rouses the ire of Count Dracula for accepting a job at the vampire's castle under false pretenses, his friend Dr. Van Helsing pursues the predatory villain.
Director: Terence Fisher | Stars: Peter Cushing, Christopher Lee, Michael Gough, Melissa Stribling
Votes: 27,984
46. The Spider (1958)
Passed | 73 min | Family, Horror, Sci-Fi
Teenagers from a rural community and their high school science teacher join forces to battle a giant mutant spider.
Director: Bert I. Gordon | Stars: Ed Kemmer, June Kenney, Eugene Persson, Gene Roth
Votes: 3,413
47. The Brain Eaters (1958)
Approved | 61 min | Sci-Fi, Horror
The inhabitants of a small Illinois town begin disappearing after a strange cone is found sticking out of the ground nearby.
Director: Bruno VeSota | Stars: Ed Nelson, Alan Jay Factor, Cornelius Keefe, Joanna Lee
Votes: 1,804
48. The Crawling Eye (1958)
Not Rated | 84 min | Horror, Sci-Fi
A series of decapitations on a Swiss mountainside appear to be connected to a mysterious radioactive cloud.
Director: Quentin Lawrence | Stars: Forrest Tucker, Laurence Payne, Jennifer Jayne, Janet Munro
Votes: 4,821
49. The Bride and the Beast (1958)
Not Rated | 78 min | Adventure, Fantasy, Mystery
When Laura and Dan get married, she's more interested in Dan's gorilla. It's revealed through hypnosis that she was Queen of the Gorillas in a previous incarnation. By: Mark Rowan
Director: Adrian Weiss | Stars: Charlotte Austin, Lance Fuller, Johnny Roth, William Justine
Votes: 679
50. Fiend Without a Face (1958)
Approved | 74 min | Horror, Sci-Fi
A scientist's thoughts materialize as an army of invisible brain-shaped monsters (complete with spinal-cord tails!) who terrorize an American military base in this nightmarish chiller.
Director: Arthur Crabtree | Stars: Marshall Thompson, Terry Kilburn, Michael Balfour, Gil Winfield
Votes: 4,804
51. Night of the Blood Beast (1958)
Not Rated | 62 min | Horror, Sci-Fi
An astronaut is killed on reentry to Earth, but his body is seeded with rapidly gestating aliens.
Director: Bernard L. Kowalski | Stars: Michael Emmet, Angela Greene, John Baer, Ed Nelson
Votes: 2,270
52. Plan 9 from Outer Space (1957)
Not Rated | 79 min | Horror, Sci-Fi
Evil 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.
Director: Edward D. Wood Jr. | Stars: Gregory Walcott, Tom Keene, Mona McKinnon, Duke Moore
Votes: 40,433
53. House on Haunted Hill (1959)
Approved | 75 min | Crime, Horror, Mystery
A millionaire offers $10,000 to five people who agree to be locked in a large, spooky, rented house overnight with him and his wife.
Director: William Castle | Stars: Vincent Price, Carol Ohmart, Richard Long, Alan Marshal
Votes: 30,847
54. The Alligator People (1959)
Approved | 74 min | Horror, Mystery, Sci-Fi
A woman in a hypnotic state recounts to two doctors the details of a horrific experience from her past life that began with the mysterious and sudden disappearance of her husband.
Director: Roy Del Ruth | Stars: Beverly Garland, Bruce Bennett, Lon Chaney Jr., George Macready
Votes: 2,509
55. The Tingler (1959)
Not Rated | 82 min | Horror, Sci-Fi
An obsessed pathologist discovers and captures a parasitic creature that grows when fear grips its host.
Director: William Castle | Stars: Vincent Price, Judith Evelyn, Darryl Hickman, Patricia Cutts
Votes: 9,468
56. Teenagers from Outer Space (1959)
Not Rated | 86 min | Horror, Sci-Fi, Thriller
A young alien and a teenage earthling fall in love, and plot to stop the alien's race from using Earth as a food-breeding ground for giant lobsters from their planet.
Director: Tom Graeff | Stars: David Love, Dawn Bender, Bryan Grant, Harvey B. Dunn
Votes: 3,857
57. The Killer Shrews (1959)
Approved | 69 min | Horror, Sci-Fi
On an isolated island, a small group of people are terrorized by giant voracious shrews in the midst of a hurricane.
Director: Ray Kellogg | Stars: James Best, Ingrid Goude, Ken Curtis, Gordon McLendon
Votes: 5,656 | Gross: $1.00M
58. Attack of the Giant Leeches (1959)
Approved | 62 min | Horror, Sci-Fi
A backwoods game warden and a local doctor discover that giant leeches are responsible for disappearances and deaths in a local swamp, but the local police don't believe them.
Director: Bernard L. Kowalski | Stars: Ken Clark, Yvette Vickers, Jan Shepard, Michael Emmet
Votes: 4,856
59. The Wasp Woman (1959)
Not Rated | 63 min | Horror, Sci-Fi
The head of a major cosmetics company experiments on herself with a youth formula made from royal jelly extracted from wasps, but the formula's side effects have deadly consequences.
Director: Roger Corman | Stars: Susan Cabot, Anthony Eisley, Barboura Morris, William Roerick
Votes: 5,476
60. Night of the Ghouls (1959)
Unrated | 69 min | Horror
A phony spiritualist raises the dead.
Director: Edward D. Wood Jr. | Stars: Kenne Duncan, Duke Moore, Tor Johnson, Valda Hansen
Votes: 2,659
61. The Hideous Sun Demon (1958)
Unrated | 74 min | Horror, Sci-Fi
After exposure to radiation, an atomic research scientist finds himself changing into a murderous, lizard-like creature every time he is exposed to sunlight.
Directors: Robert Clarke, Tom Boutross | Stars: Robert Clarke, Patricia Manning, Nan Peterson, Patrick Whyte
Votes: 1,576
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