Year by year: 1951
My 50 favorite films of 1951
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50 titles
- DirectorAkira KurosawaStarsToshirô MifuneMachiko KyôMasayuki MoriThe rape of a bride and the murder of her samurai husband are recalled from the perspectives of a bandit, the bride, the samurai's ghost and a woodcutter.
- DirectorElia KazanStarsVivien LeighMarlon BrandoKim HunterDisturbed 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.
- DirectorGeorge StevensStarsMontgomery CliftElizabeth TaylorShelley WintersA poor boy gets a job working for his rich uncle and ends up falling in love with two women.
- DirectorMax OphülsStarsAnton WalbrookSimone SignoretSerge ReggianiSoldiers, chambermaids, poets, prostitutes, aristocrats-all are on equal footing in this multi-character merry-go-round of love and infidelity.
- DirectorJohn HustonStarsHumphrey BogartKatharine HepburnRobert MorleyIn 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.
- DirectorAlf SjöbergStarsAnita BjörkUlf PalmeMärta DorffAn heiress begins to realize her attraction to one of her family's servants.
- DirectorAlfred HitchcockStarsFarley GrangerRobert WalkerRuth RomanA 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.
- DirectorWilliam WylerStarsKirk DouglasEleanor ParkerWilliam BendixOn one day in the 21st Precinct squad room, assorted characters form a backdrop for the troubles of hard-nosed Detective Jim McLeod.
- DirectorVincente MinnelliStarsGene KellyLeslie CaronOscar LevantThree friends struggle to find work in Paris. Things become more complicated when two of them fall in love with the same woman.
- DirectorBilly WilderStarsKirk DouglasJan SterlingRobert ArthurA 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.
- DirectorAnthony AsquithStarsMichael RedgraveJean KentNigel PatrickAndrew 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.
- DirectorAkira KurosawaStarsSetsuko HaraMasayuki MoriToshirô MifuneA Japanese veteran, driven partially mad from the war, travels to the snowy island of Hokkaido where he soon enters a love triangle with his best friend and a disgraced woman.
- DirectorRobert BressonStarsClaude LayduNicole LadmiralJean RiveyreA young priest taking over the parish at Ambricourt tries to fulfill his duties even as he fights a mysterious stomach ailment.
- DirectorMichael PowellEmeric PressburgerStarsMoira ShearerRobert RounsevilleLudmilla TchérinaA 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.
- DirectorClyde GeronimiWilfred JacksonHamilton LuskeStarsKathryn BeaumontEd WynnRichard HaydnAlice stumbles into the world of Wonderland. Will she get home? Not if the Queen of Hearts has her way.
- DirectorJean RenoirStarsPatricia WaltersNora SwinburneEsmond KnightThe growing pains of three young women contrast with the immutability of the holy Bengal River, around which their daily lives unfold.
- DirectorJoseph LoseyStarsVan HeflinEvelyn KeyesJohn MaxwellAfter Susan Gilvray reports a prowler outside her house police officer Webb Garwood investigates and sparks fly. If only her husband wasn't in the way.
- DirectorYasujirô OzuStarsSetsuko HaraChishû RyûChikage AwashimaA family chooses a match for their daughter Noriko, but she, surprisingly, has her own plans.
- DirectorLucas DemareStarsTita MerelloArturo García BuhrAlita RománLeandro and the Carancha are inhabitants of the islands of the Parana Delta and agree a pair. They are rough persons done to the hard fight for the life in these places. They have a son who takes to the house a girl; the presence of her provokes the jealousies of the Carancha and his attitude leads dramatists moments.
- DirectorVittorio De SicaStarsEmma GramaticaFrancesco GolisanoPaolo StoppaAn open-hearted, unrelentingly energetic orphan struggles to make the best of his life on the streets of Milan.
- DirectorRobert WiseStarsMichael RenniePatricia NealHugh MarloweAn 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.
- DirectorPietro GermiStarsRaf ValloneElena VarziSaro UrzìThe story of a group of Sicilian miners and their families, and their hardships as they decide to illegally cross the border to France.
- DirectorJohn BoultingRoy BoultingStarsBarry JonesAndré MorellOlive SloaneWhen a scientist threatens to detonate a powerful bomb in the heart of London, Scotland Yard has just seven days to find him before it is too late.
- DirectorMark RobsonStarsArthur KennedyPeggy DowJulie AdamsAfter he gets blinded by a German sniper's bullet in 1943, Sergeant Larry Nevins begins the long and painful road to recovery.
- DirectorLaslo BenedekStarsFredric MarchMildred DunnockKevin McCarthyAn over-the-hill salesman faces a personal turning point when he loses his job and attempts to make peace with his family.
- DirectorBrian Desmond HurstStarsAlastair SimJack WarnerKathleen HarrisonEbenezer 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.
- DirectorHenry HathawayStarsJames MasonCedric HardwickeJessica TandyThe story of the final years of the respected World War II German general, Erwin Rommel.
- DirectorLuis BuñuelStarsFernando SolerAlicia CaroFernando SotoAfter discovering he's being cheated on by his wife María, Quintin kicks her out of the house. Upon leaving, his wife confesses that their daughter Martha is actually not Quintin'd daughter. Quintin abandons the child in front of a poor family's house. Ten years after, María is on her death bed, and tells Quintin that Martha is actually his daughter. Quintin must set out and look for his abandoned daughter.
- DirectorCarlos SchlieperStarsArturo García BuhrAmalia Sánchez AriñoZoe DucosBased on the play by Alejandro Casona. Mr. Balboa, without his wife's knowledge, one day throws his soulless grandson out of his house. Since then he himself sends letters that the grandson supposedly sent to his grandmother.
- DirectorLeo C. PopkinRussell RouseStarsGwendolyn LasterRichard RoberMaidie NormanA small, racially-mixed American town succumbs to violence and utter mayhem after a white man suspected of kidnapping a missing black girl is released by the white authority.
- DirectorRaoul WalshStarsGregory PeckVirginia MayoRobert BeattyDuring the Napoleonic wars, a British Navy Captain has adventures in Central American waters.
- DirectorMervyn LeRoyAnthony MannStarsRobert TaylorDeborah KerrLeo GennAfter fierce Roman commander Marcus Vinicius becomes infatuated with beautiful Christian hostage Lygia, he begins to question the tyrannical leadership of the despotic emperor Nero.
- DirectorKenji MizoguchiStarsKinuyo TanakaYukiko TodorokiMasayuki MoriSet in post-war Japan, The Lady of Musashino tells the story of Michiko, a disillusioned young woman trapped in a loveless marriage. She confides in her younger cousin, Tsutomo, and the two become close.
- DirectorLuis BuñuelStarsRosita QuintanaFernando SolerVíctor Manuel MendozaAn unstable young woman escapes from a reformatory for very, very wayward girls and deceptively finds shelter in the kind home of a frighteningly nice and decent family. Little by little, she causes unrest and discord among the members of the household, until they are virtually fighting with each other.
- DirectorAnatole LitvakStarsRichard BasehartGary MerrillOskar WernerAs the US Army approaches Nazi Germany, they recruit German prisoners of war to spy behind German lines.
- DirectorHenry HathawayStarsPaul DouglasRichard BasehartBarbara Bel GeddesAn unhappy man threatens suicide by standing on the ledge of a high-rise building for 14 hours.
- DirectorChristian NybyHoward HawksStarsKenneth TobeyMargaret SheridanJames ArnessScientists and American Air Force officials fend off a bloodthirsty alien organism while at a remote arctic outpost.
- DirectorGeorges LacombeStarsJean GabinSimone ValèreGérard OuryAfter an accident Raymond has gone blind. His family treats him like a child. Fortunately, a nun comes to his rescue. She works in a center where blind people learn to read with the Braille alphabet.
- DirectorCurtis BernhardtBusby BerkeleyStarsJane WymanCharles LaughtonJoan BlondellLouise Mason is a young widow who fills her empty life with the task of becoming a children's nurse. As the years pass, and the widow tries to find her own place in life, her young charges, the children of various employers, grow and soon find themselves ready to face the world. When it seems that she will be alone, the nurse finds that her 'children' have ideas of their own in regards to helping their beloved mentor.
- DirectorMarcel CarnéStarsGérard PhilipeSuzanne CloutierJean-Roger CaussimonMichel has stolen from his employer, Mr Bellanger, for the love of Juliette. He is now in jail. One night, while sleeping in his cell, he wakes up all of a sudden, the gates open and he finds himself in a strange village where all the inhabitants have lost their memory. There, meets Juliette again who seems to agree to marry a powerful man, who might well be Bluebeard...
- DirectorJean NegulescoStarsIrene DunneAlec GuinnessAndrew RayAn urchin, scavenging on a bank of the River Thames, finds a cameo depicting Queen Victoria. So taken by her beauty, he is determined to see her and sets off for Windsor Castle.
- DirectorCarlos Hugo ChristensenStarsArturo de CórdovaVirginia LuqueAmérica BarrioA Captain with a mistress at another port leaves his wife on a routine trip with his son. There, after making a hasty retreat from his mistress, she, with the help of a local shaman, conspire to take him away from his family forever.
- DirectorJohn BerryStarsJohn GarfieldShelley WintersWallace FordNick and his partner Al stage a payroll holdup. Al is shot, and Nick kills a policeman. Nick hides out at a public pool, where he meets Peg Dobbs. They go back to her apartment, and he forces her family to hide him from the police manhunt.
- DirectorStanley DonenStarsFred AstaireJane PowellPeter LawfordA brother and sister dance act encounter challenges and romance when booked in London during the Royal Wedding.
- DirectorRobert WiseStarsRichard BasehartValentina CorteseWilliam LundiganConcentration camp survivor Victoria Kowelska finds herself involved in mystery, greed, and murder after she assumes the identity of a dead friend in order to gain passage to America.
- DirectorJacqueline AudryStarsEdwige FeuillèreSimone SimonMarie-Claire OliviaLate nineteenth century in a finishing school for young girls near in France, the principal, the fascinating Miss Julie, sows confusion in the heart of the newcomer, Olivia.
- DirectorNicholas RayIda LupinoStarsIda LupinoRobert RyanWard BondRough city cop Jim Wilson is disciplined by his captain and is sent upstate, to a snowy mountain town, to help the local sheriff solve a murder case.
- DirectorFred ZinnemannStarsPier AngeliJohn EricsonPatricia CollingeA reluctant soldier, Peter, serves in Italy during WWII. He marries a local girl named Teresa and brings her to the US.
- DirectorIrving RapperStarsBette DavisGary MerrillEmlyn WilliamsA mystery writer becomes involved in a tangled web of murderous deception not unlike the plots of her novels.
- DirectorCarol ReedStarsRalph RichardsonTrevor HowardRobert MorleyA man occupies a position of trust with a merchant in an East Asian port. He's sacked after he's caught stealing, but he pretends to commit suicide, and a Captain he befriended agrees to take him to a secret trading post.