Best of 1961
by micdub2000 | created - 20 Jul 2018 | updated - 20 Jul 2018 | Public- Instant Watch Options
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1. The Guns of Navarone (1961)
Not Rated | 158 min | Action, Adventure, Drama
A team of Allied saboteurs is assigned an impossible mission: infiltrate an impregnable Nazi-held Greek island and destroy the two enormous long-range field guns that prevent the rescue of 2,000 trapped British soldiers.
Director: J. Lee Thompson | Stars: David Niven, Gregory Peck, Anthony Quinn, Anthony Quayle
Votes: 55,109 | Gross: $28.90M
2. The Hustler (1961)
Not Rated | 134 min | Drama, Sport
An up-and-coming pool player plays a long-time champion in a single high-stakes match.
Director: Robert Rossen | Stars: Paul Newman, Jackie Gleason, Piper Laurie, George C. Scott
Votes: 86,549 | Gross: $8.28M
3. Breakfast at Tiffany's (1961)
Approved | 115 min | Comedy, Drama, Romance
A young New York socialite becomes interested in a young man who has moved into her apartment building, but her past threatens to get in the way.
Director: Blake Edwards | Stars: Audrey Hepburn, George Peppard, Patricia Neal, Buddy Ebsen
Votes: 191,414
4. Fanny (1961)
Approved | 134 min | Drama, Romance
Young Marius dreams of leaving his dull provincial life and seeing the world. When the beautiful Fanny declares her adoration for him, Marius must choose between an adventurous life at sea and the grandest adventure of all: love.
Director: Joshua Logan | Stars: Leslie Caron, Maurice Chevalier, Charles Boyer, Horst Buchholz
Votes: 2,631 | Gross: $10.00M
5. West Side Story (1961)
Approved | 153 min | Crime, Drama, Musical
Two youngsters from rival New York City gangs fall in love, but tensions between their respective friends build toward tragedy.
Directors: Jerome Robbins, Robert Wise | Stars: Natalie Wood, George Chakiris, Richard Beymer, Russ Tamblyn
Votes: 120,729 | Gross: $43.66M
6. Judgment at Nuremberg (1961)
Approved | 179 min | Drama, War
In 1948, an American court in occupied Germany tries four Nazis judged for war crimes.
Director: Stanley Kramer | Stars: Spencer Tracy, Burt Lancaster, Richard Widmark, Marlene Dietrich
Votes: 84,795
7. The Parent Trap (1961)
Passed | 129 min | Comedy, Family, Romance
Teenage twin sisters swap places and scheme to reunite their divorced parents.
Director: David Swift | Stars: Hayley Mills, Maureen O'Hara, Brian Keith, Charles Ruggles
Votes: 23,835
8. Exodus (1960)
Approved | 208 min | Action, Drama, War
The State of Israel is created in 1948, resulting in war with its Arab neighbors.
Director: Otto Preminger | Stars: Paul Newman, Eva Marie Saint, Ralph Richardson, Peter Lawford
Votes: 11,312 | Gross: $18.97M
9. Splendor in the Grass (1961)
Not Rated | 124 min | Drama, Romance
The love of high school sweethearts Deanie and Bud is weighed down by the oppressive expectations of their parents and society in smalltown Kansas in 1928, threatening the future of their relationship.
Director: Elia Kazan | Stars: Natalie Wood, Warren Beatty, Pat Hingle, Audrey Christie
Votes: 22,555 | Gross: $8.72M
10. The Mark (1961)
Approved | 127 min | Drama
A man who served prison time for intent to molest a child tries to build a new life with the help of a sympathetic psychiatrist.
Director: Guy Green | Stars: Maria Schell, Stuart Whitman, Rod Steiger, Brenda de Banzie
Votes: 987
11. The World of Suzie Wong (1960)
Approved | 126 min | Drama, Romance
A businessman moves to Hong Kong to pursue a career as an artist and falls in love with a prostitute he hires as a model.
Director: Richard Quine | Stars: William Holden, Nancy Kwan, Sylvia Syms, Michael Wilding
Votes: 2,741 | Gross: $7.30M
12. A Raisin in the Sun (1961)
Approved | 128 min | Drama
A substantial insurance payment could mean either financial salvation or personal ruin for a poor black family.
Director: Daniel Petrie | Stars: Sidney Poitier, Claudia McNeil, Ruby Dee, Diana Sands
Votes: 9,505
13. The Alamo (1960)
Passed | 162 min | Adventure, Drama, History
In 1836, a small band of soldiers sacrifice their lives in hopeless combat against a massive army in order to prevent a tyrant from smashing the new Republic of Texas.
Director: John Wayne | Stars: John Wayne, Richard Widmark, Laurence Harvey, Frankie Avalon
Votes: 17,577 | Gross: $17.26M
14. Summer and Smoke (1961)
Passed | 118 min | Drama, Romance
A plain, repressed spinster falls for a dashing young medical student who prefers the wilder life, until it's too late.
Director: Peter Glenville | Stars: Laurence Harvey, Geraldine Page, Rita Moreno, Una Merkel
Votes: 2,070
15. King of Kings (1961)
PG-13 | 168 min | Biography, Drama
The temporary physical life of the Biblical Savior, Jesus Christ.
Director: Nicholas Ray | Stars: Jeffrey Hunter, Siobhan McKenna, Hurd Hatfield, Ron Randell
Votes: 8,853 | Gross: $14.48M
16. Pocketful of Miracles (1961)
Approved | 136 min | Comedy, Drama
A New York gangster and his girlfriend attempt to turn street beggar Apple Annie into a society lady when the peddler learns her daughter is marrying royalty.
Director: Frank Capra | Stars: Glenn Ford, Bette Davis, Hope Lange, Arthur O'Connell
Votes: 7,930 | Gross: $5.45M
17. Saturday Night and Sunday Morning (1960)
Approved | 89 min | Drama, Romance
A rebellious, hard-living factory worker juggles relationships with two women, one of whom is married to another man but pregnant with his child.
Director: Karel Reisz | Stars: Albert Finney, Shirley Anne Field, Rachel Roberts, Hylda Baker
Votes: 9,258
18. The Absent Minded Professor (1961)
Approved | 97 min | Comedy, Family, Sci-Fi
A college professor invents an anti-gravity substance which a corrupt businessman wants for himself.
Director: Robert Stevenson | Stars: Fred MacMurray, Nancy Olson, Keenan Wynn, Tommy Kirk
Votes: 9,227 | Gross: $25.38M
19. One-Eyed Jacks (1961)
Not Rated | 141 min | Drama, Western
After robbing a Mexican bank, Dad Longworth takes the loot and leaves his partner Rio to be captured, but Rio escapes and searches for Dad in California.
Director: Marlon Brando | Stars: Marlon Brando, Karl Malden, Pina Pellicer, Katy Jurado
Votes: 13,154 | Gross: $9.37M
20. The Roman Spring of Mrs. Stone (1961)
Approved | 103 min | Drama, Romance
An aging actress travels to Rome with her husband; after he suddenly dies during the flight, she begins a passionate affair with a young gigolo.
Director: José Quintero | Stars: Vivien Leigh, Warren Beatty, Coral Browne, Jill St. John
Votes: 2,970
21. Come September (1961)
Approved | 112 min | Comedy, Romance
Younger generation vs. "older" folks on vacation at an Italian villa.
Director: Robert Mulligan | Stars: Rock Hudson, Gina Lollobrigida, Sandra Dee, Bobby Darin
Votes: 4,054 | Gross: $14.17M
22. Swiss Family Robinson (1960)
G | 126 min | Adventure, Family
A Swiss family must survive being shipwrecked on a deserted island.
Director: Ken Annakin | Stars: John Mills, Dorothy McGuire, James MacArthur, Janet Munro
Votes: 18,060 | Gross: $40.36M
23. Bachelor in Paradise (1961)
Not Rated | 109 min | Comedy, Romance
A bachelor author of sleazy books moves to a family-oriented subdivision where he becomes an unofficial relationship advisor to unhappy local housewives, to the dismay of their respective husbands who suspect him of sexual misconduct.
Director: Jack Arnold | Stars: Bob Hope, Lana Turner, Janis Paige, Jim Hutton
Votes: 1,865
24. One Hundred and One Dalmatians (1961)
G | 79 min | Animation, Adventure, Comedy
When a litter of Dalmatian puppies are abducted by the minions of Cruella De Vil, the owners must find them before she uses them for a diabolical fashion statement.
Directors: Clyde Geronimi, Hamilton Luske, Wolfgang Reitherman | Stars: Rod Taylor, Betty Lou Gerson, J. Pat O'Malley, Martha Wentworth
Votes: 181,323 | Gross: $144.88M
25. Where the Boys Are (1960)
Approved | 99 min | Comedy, Drama, Romance
Four very different college girls drive to Fort Lauderdale, Florida for spring break and seek out various adventures and romance for themselves.
Director: Henry Levin | Stars: Dolores Hart, George Hamilton, Yvette Mimieux, Jim Hutton
Votes: 3,075
26. The Devil at 4 O'Clock (1961)
Approved | 126 min | Adventure, Drama, Thriller
A crusty, eccentric priest recruits three reluctant convicts to help him rescue a children's leper colony from a Pacific island menaced by a smoldering volcano.
Director: Mervyn LeRoy | Stars: Spencer Tracy, Frank Sinatra, Kerwin Mathews, Jean-Pierre Aumont
Votes: 2,528
27. Pepe (1960)
Unrated | 180 min | Comedy, Musical
The young Mexican Pepe's beloved horse is sold to Hollywood director Ted Holt, leading to Pepe's journey to Hollywood to get the horse back, and Pepe's encounter with half the stars working in Hollywood at the time.
Director: George Sidney | Stars: Cantinflas, Dan Dailey, Shirley Jones, Carlos Montalbán
Votes: 1,139 | Gross: $9.60M
28. The Pleasure of His Company (1961)
Not Rated | 115 min | Comedy
San Francisco debutante, Jessica Poole, is marrying Napa Valley cattle rancher, Roger Henderson, and hopes her peripatetic father, "Pogo" Poole, whom she hasn't seen for years, comes to the... See full summary »
Director: George Seaton | Stars: Fred Astaire, Lilli Palmer, Debbie Reynolds, Tab Hunter
Votes: 829
29. Cimarron (1960)
Approved | 147 min | Drama, Romance, Western
The Oklahoma Land Run of April 1889 sets the stage for an epic saga of a frontier adventurer, his wife and family and their friends.
Directors: Anthony Mann, Charles Walters | Stars: Glenn Ford, Maria Schell, Anne Baxter, Arthur O'Connell
Votes: 3,390
30. Francis of Assisi (1961)
Not Rated | 105 min | Biography, Drama, History
In 13th century Italy, Francis Bernardone, the son of an Assisi merchant, renounces a promising army career in favor of a monastic life and starts his own religious order, sanctioned by the Pope.
Director: Michael Curtiz | Stars: Bradford Dillman, Dolores Hart, Stuart Whitman, Cecil Kellaway
Votes: 1,115
31. Romanoff and Juliet (1961)
Approved | 103 min | Comedy
A tiny, otherwise, inconsequential and powerless European country called Concordia holds the deciding vote in a crucial United Nations resolution. As the U.S. and Soviet Union try to ... See full summary »
Director: Peter Ustinov | Stars: Peter Ustinov, Sandra Dee, John Gavin, Akim Tamiroff
Votes: 523
32. Parrish (1961)
Passed | 138 min | Drama
In the Connecticut River Valley, Parrish McLean and his mother are newly employed by the Sala Post tobacco farm that is engaged in a competition war with the neighboring Judd Raike tobacco corporation.
Director: Delmer Daves | Stars: Claudette Colbert, Troy Donahue, Karl Malden, Dean Jagger
Votes: 1,202
33. The Great Impostor (1960)
Approved | 113 min | Comedy, Drama
Ferdinand Waldo Demara Jr. is a versatile man who gets his kicks out of impersonating a marine, a monk, a navy surgeon and a prison warden, eventually getting in trouble with the law for it.
Director: Robert Mulligan | Stars: Tony Curtis, Karl Malden, Edmond O'Brien, Arthur O'Connell
Votes: 1,694
34. The Grass Is Greener (1960)
Approved | 104 min | Comedy, Drama, Romance
Victor and Hilary have guided tours in their English mansion. A US oil tycoon "bumps" into Hilary during a tour and charms his way into her heart. Meanwhile, Hattie pursues Victor.
Director: Stanley Donen | Stars: Cary Grant, Deborah Kerr, Robert Mitchum, Jean Simmons
Votes: 5,808 | Gross: $6.00M
35. La Dolce Vita (1960)
Not Rated | 174 min | Comedy, Drama
A series of stories following a week in the life of a philandering tabloid journalist living in Rome.
Director: Federico Fellini | Stars: Marcello Mastroianni, Anita Ekberg, Anouk Aimée, Yvonne Furneaux
Votes: 77,910 | Gross: $19.52M
36. Village of the Damned (1960)
Not Rated | 77 min | Horror, Sci-Fi
In the English village of Midwich, the blonde-haired, glowing-eyed children of uncertain paternity prove to have frightening powers.
Director: Wolf Rilla | Stars: George Sanders, Barbara Shelley, Martin Stephens, Michael Gwynn
Votes: 19,064
37. Return to Peyton Place (1961)
Approved | 123 min | Drama
The residents of Peyton Place are not happy when its most famous resident, Alison Mackenzie, writes a "shocking" novel detailing the sinful secrets of the town.
Director: José Ferrer | Stars: Carol Lynley, Jeff Chandler, Eleanor Parker, Mary Astor
Votes: 998
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