25 greatest films of 1951
by stuff_1004 | created - 19 Mar 2013 | updated - 19 Mar 2013 | Publicas listed in mewlists.com
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1. A Streetcar Named Desire (1951)
PG | 122 min | Drama
Disturbed Blanche DuBois moves in with her sister in New Orleans and is tormented by her brutish brother-in-law while her reality crumbles around her.
Director: Elia Kazan | Stars: Vivien Leigh, Marlon Brando, Kim Hunter, Karl Malden
Votes: 114,300 | Gross: $8.00M
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: 140,954 | Gross: $7.63M
3. The African Queen (1951)
PG | 105 min | Adventure, Drama, Romance
In WWI East Africa, a gin-swilling Canadian riverboat captain is persuaded by a strait-laced English missionary to undertake a trip up a treacherous river and use his boat to attack a German gunship.
Director: John Huston | Stars: Humphrey Bogart, Katharine Hepburn, Robert Morley, Peter Bull
Votes: 84,283 | Gross: $0.54M
4. An American in Paris (1951)
Passed | 114 min | Drama, Musical, Romance
Three friends struggle to find work in Paris. Things become more complicated when two of them fall in love with the same woman.
Director: Vincente Minnelli | Stars: Gene Kelly, Leslie Caron, Oscar Levant, Georges Guétary
Votes: 36,855 | Gross: $4.50M
5. 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: 85,731
6. Diary of a Country Priest (1951)
Not Rated | 95 min | Drama
A young priest taking over the parish at Ambricourt tries to fulfill his duties even as he fights a mysterious stomach ailment.
Director: Robert Bresson | Stars: Claude Laydu, Nicole Ladmiral, Jean Riveyre, Adrien Borel
Votes: 12,706
7. A Christmas Carol (1951)
TV-PG | 86 min | Drama, Family, Fantasy
Ebenezer Scrooge, a curmudgeonly, miserly businessman, has no time for sentimentality and largely views Christmas as a waste of time. However, this Christmas Eve, he will be visited by three spirits who will show him the error of his ways.
Director: Brian Desmond Hurst | Stars: Alastair Sim, Jack Warner, Kathleen Harrison, Mervyn Johns
Votes: 25,723
8. Ace in the Hole (1951)
Approved | 111 min | Drama, Film-Noir
A frustrated former big-city journalist now stuck working for an Albuquerque newspaper exploits a story about a man trapped in a cave to rekindle his career, but the situation quickly escalates into an out-of-control circus.
Director: Billy Wilder | Stars: Kirk Douglas, Jan Sterling, Robert Arthur, Porter Hall
Votes: 39,097 | Gross: $3.97M
9. Early Summer (1951)
Not Rated | 125 min | Drama, Romance
A family chooses a match for their daughter Noriko, but she, surprisingly, has her own plans.
Director: Yasujirô Ozu | Stars: Setsuko Hara, Chishû Ryû, Chikage Awashima, Kuniko Miyake
Votes: 9,662
10. The Browning Version (1951)
Not Rated | 90 min | Drama
Andrew Crocker-Harris (Michael Redgrave), a classics teacher at an English school, is afflicted with a heart ailment and an unfaithful wife (Jean Kent). His interest in his pupils wanes as he looks towards his final days in employment.
Director: Anthony Asquith | Stars: Michael Redgrave, Jean Kent, Nigel Patrick, Wilfrid Hyde-White
Votes: 5,436
11. The Lavender Hill Mob (1951)
Approved | 78 min | Comedy, Crime
A meek bank clerk who oversees the shipment of bullion joins with an eccentric neighbor to steal gold bars and smuggle them out of the country as miniature Eiffel Towers.
Director: Charles Crichton | Stars: Alec Guinness, Stanley Holloway, Sidney James, Alfie Bass
Votes: 15,548
12. 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: 33,332
13. The Steel Helmet (1951)
Approved | 85 min | Action, Drama, War
A ragtag group of American stragglers battles against superior Communist troops in an abandoned Buddhist temple during the Korean War.
Director: Samuel Fuller | Stars: Gene Evans, Robert Hutton, Steve Brodie, James Edwards
Votes: 4,734
14. Miracle in Milan (1951)
Not Rated | 97 min | Comedy, Drama, Fantasy
An open-hearted, unrelentingly energetic orphan struggles to make the best of his life on the streets of Milan.
Director: Vittorio De Sica | Stars: Emma Gramatica, Francesco Golisano, Paolo Stoppa, Guglielmo Barnabò
Votes: 8,536
15. Pandora and the Flying Dutchman (1951)
Approved | 124 min | Drama, Fantasy, Mystery
A seductive woman falls in love with a mysterious ship's captain.
Director: Albert Lewin | Stars: James Mason, Ava Gardner, Nigel Patrick, Sheila Sim
Votes: 4,732
16. A Place in the Sun (1951)
Passed | 122 min | Drama, Romance
A poor boy gets a job working for his rich uncle and ends up falling in love with two women.
Director: George Stevens | Stars: Montgomery Clift, Elizabeth Taylor, Shelley Winters, Anne Revere
Votes: 24,750
17. The Man in the White Suit (1951)
Approved | 85 min | Comedy, Drama, Sci-Fi
An altruistic chemist invents a fabric which resists wear and stain as a boon to humanity, but big business and labor realize it must be suppressed for economic reasons.
Director: Alexander Mackendrick | Stars: Alec Guinness, Joan Greenwood, Cecil Parker, Michael Gough
Votes: 10,800 | Gross: $0.01M
18. Royal Wedding (1951)
Not Rated | 93 min | Comedy, Musical, Romance
A brother and sister dance act encounter challenges and romance when booked in London during the Royal Wedding.
Director: Stanley Donen | Stars: Fred Astaire, Jane Powell, Peter Lawford, Sarah Churchill
Votes: 6,103
19. The Red Badge of Courage (1951)
Passed | 69 min | Drama, War
Truncated adaptation of Stephen Crane's novel about a Civil War Union soldier who stuggles to find the courage to fight in the heat of battle.
Director: John Huston | Stars: Audie Murphy, Bill Mauldin, Douglas Dick, Royal Dano
Votes: 4,834
20. Alice in Wonderland (1951)
G | 75 min | Animation, Adventure, Comedy
Alice stumbles into the world of Wonderland. Will she get home? Not if the Queen of Hearts has her way.
Directors: Clyde Geronimi, Wilfred Jackson, Hamilton Luske, Jack Kinney | Stars: Kathryn Beaumont, Ed Wynn, Richard Haydn, Sterling Holloway
Votes: 153,945 | Gross: $1.07M
21. Show Boat (1951)
Approved | 108 min | Drama, Family, Musical
The daughter of a riverboat captain falls in love with a charming gambler, but their fairy tale romance is threatened after his luck turns sour.
Director: George Sidney | Stars: Kathryn Grayson, Ava Gardner, Howard Keel, Joe E. Brown
Votes: 5,381
22. People Will Talk (1951)
Approved | 110 min | Comedy, Drama, Romance
Dr. Noah Praetorius falls in love with Deborah, a student who discovers that she is pregnant by her old boyfriend.
Director: Joseph L. Mankiewicz | Stars: Cary Grant, Jeanne Crain, Finlay Currie, Hume Cronyn
Votes: 7,095
23. Detective Story (1951)
Approved | 103 min | Crime, Drama, Film-Noir
On one day in the 21st Precinct squad room, assorted characters form a backdrop for the troubles of hard-nosed Detective Jim McLeod.
Director: William Wyler | Stars: Kirk Douglas, Eleanor Parker, William Bendix, Cathy O'Donnell
Votes: 9,480
24. Fourteen Hours (1951)
Approved | 92 min | Drama, Film-Noir, Thriller
An unhappy man threatens suicide by standing on the ledge of a high-rise building for 14 hours.
Director: Henry Hathaway | Stars: Paul Douglas, Richard Basehart, Barbara Bel Geddes, Debra Paget
Votes: 2,967
25. The Tales of Hoffmann (1951)
Not Rated | 128 min | Fantasy, Music, Musical
A melancholy poet reflects on three women he loved and lost in the past: a mechanical performing doll, a Venetian courtesan, and the consumptive daughter of a celebrated composer.
Directors: Michael Powell, Emeric Pressburger | Stars: Moira Shearer, Robert Rounseville, Ludmilla Tchérina, Ann Ayars
Votes: 3,941 | Gross: $0.09M
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