frankie's - 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die List
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Kiss Me Deadly (1955)Mickey Spillane's Kiss Me Deadly
When callous thugs beat Mike Hammer (Ralph Meeker) senseless and viciously murder the gorgeous blonde he's been trying to help, the hard-boiled detective retaliates the only way he can: by hitting first and asking questions later. Cutting a brutal swathe through the city's sleazy underside, Hammer uncovers a mysterious black container whose deadly contents not only solve the murder...but trigger an apocalyptic climax as well! - Director:
- Robert Aldrich
- Cast:
- Nat 'King' Cole, Ralph Meeker, Albert Dekker
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Under Mann's superb direction, Stewart departs from his well-loved "ordinary hero" role and gives a riveting performance as a resolute vigilante obsessed with finding the man responsible for his brother's death. Among the suspects are an arrogant cattle baron (Donald Crisp), his sadistic son (Alex Nicol) and his ranch foreman (Arthur Kennedy). One explosive confrontation, in which Stewart is dragged by a wild horse and shot in the hand at close range, is one of movie history's most memorable sequences. - Director:
- Anthony Mann
- Cast:
- James Stewart, Arthur Kennedy, Donald Crisp
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In one of cinemas most influential, and gripping, roles, James Dean plays Jim Stark, the new kid in town whose loneliness, frustration and anger mirrored those of most postwar teens - and reverberates more than 40 years later. Natalie Wood (as Jim's girlfriend Judy) and Sal Mineo (in his screen debut as Jim's tag-along pal Plato) were Academy Award nominees for their achingly true performances. - Director:
- Nicholas Ray
- Cast:
- James Dean, Natalie Wood, Sal Mineo
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"The Phenix City Story" begins when John Patterson (Richard Kiley) returns to his Alabama hometown after a stint in the Army. He plans to start practicing law with his father, Albert (John McIntire), but John's wife (Lenka Peterson) is reluctant to live in Phenix City because of the large number of casinos and brothels in the town that are controlled by a local crime syndicate. However, after the syndicate is involved with beatings, theft, and even murder, John and Albert decide to stay in Phenix City and help a group of concerned citizens clean up the town by having Albert run for Alabama attorney general. - Director:
- Phil Karlson
- Cast:
- John McIntire, Richard Kiley, Kathryn Grant
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Smiles of a Summer Night (1955)Sommarnattens leende
A middle-aged lawyer, Frederik Egerman (Gunnar Björnstrand), his inexperienced young wife, Anne (Ulla Jacobsson), and her step-son, Henrik (Björn Bjelfvenstam), are invited to spend the weekend at the country mansion of a beautiful actress, Frederik's ex-mistress, Desiree Armfeldt (Eva Dahlbeck). Amongst the guests are Desiree's current lover Count Malcolm (Jarl Kulle) and his wife Charlotte (Margit Carlqvist). During the course of the weekend these three couples meet, separate and exchange partners, providing some lively comedic action and illustrating. Bergman's sardonic attitude towards the vagaries of love. Behind the scintillating and witty approach to this charming period comedy of manners lie and illusions and pretensions of the haute bourgeois, which Bergman cleverly illustrates with his collection of fickle husbands and scheming women. - Director:
- Ingmar Bergman
- Cast:
- Ulla Jacobsson, Eva Dahlbeck, Harriet Andersson
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Night and Fog (1955)Nuit et brouillard
The film takes its title from Hitler's decree that anyone who 'endangered Germany's security' was to Vanish with out trace (in the) night and fog' of the Third Reich. A harrowing look at concentration camps and the Holocaust, it carefully juxtaposes documentary footage, shot in black and white by the Allied troops, who liberate the camps with contemporary colour footage of a tour of the ruins of Auschwitz in the 50s. The images that Resnais presents are so haunting that any attempt to describe them in words is almost futile. How does one comment on footage chronicling the German Army executing the logic' of the 'Final Solution'. - Director:
- Alain Resnais
- Cast:
- Michel Bouquet, Reinhard Heydrich, Heinrich Himmler
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A tall, handsome 'preacher' - his knuckles eerily tattooed with 'love' and 'hate' - roams the countryside, spreading the gospel...and leaving a trail of murdered women in his wake. To Reverend Harry Powell (Robert Mitchum), the work of the Lord has more to do with condemning souls than saving them, especially when his own interests are involved. Now his sights are set on $10,000 - and two little children are the only ones who know where it is. 'Chill...dren!' the preacher croons to the terrified boy and girl hiding in the cold, dark cellar...innocent young lambs who refuse to be led astray. - Director:
- Charles Laughton
- Cast:
- Robert Mitchum, Shelley Winters, Lillian Gish
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Lola Montès (1955)Lola Montes / The Sins of Lola Montes
"Lola Montes" is a visually ravishing, narratively daring dramatization of the life of the notorious courtesan and showgirl, played by Martine Carol. With his customary cinematographic flourish and, for the first time, vibrant color, Max Ophuls charts the course of Montes's scandalous past through the invocations of the bombastic ringmaster (Peter Ustinov) of the American circus where she has ended up performing. Ophuls's final film, 'Lola Montes' is at once a magnificent romantic melodrama, a meditation on the lurid fascination with celebrity, and a one-of-a-kind movie spectacle. - Director:
- Max Ophüls
- Cast:
- Martine Carol, Peter Ustinov, Anton Walbrook
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"Forbidden Planet" is the granddaddy of tomorrow, a pioneering work whose ideas and style would be reverse-engineered into many cinematic space voyages to come. Leslie Nielsen plays the commander who brings his space-cruiser crew to Planet Altair-4, home to Dr. Morbius (Walter Pidgeon), his daughter (Anne Francis), a dutiful robot named Robby...and a mysterious terror. Featuring sets of extraordinary scale and the first allelectronic musical soundscape in film history, 'Forbidden Planet' is in a movie orbit all its own. - Director:
- Fred M. Wilcox
- Cast:
- Walter Pidgeon, Marvin Miller, Anne Francis
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The Burmese Harp (1956)Biruma no tategoto
At the close of World War II, a Japanese army regiment in Burma surrenders to the British. Private Mizushima is sent on a lone mission to persuade a trapped Japanese battalion to surrender also. When the outcome is a failure, he disguises himself in the robes of a Buddhist monk in hope of temporary anonymity as he journeys across the landscape - but he underestimates the power of his assumed role. - Director:
- Kon Ichikawa
- Cast:
- Rentarô Mikuni, Shôji Yasui, Tatsuya Mihashi
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With 'The Searchers', John Wayne and director John Ford forged an indelible saga of the frontier and the men and women who challenged it. Wayne plays Ethan Edwards, an ex-Confederate who sets out to find his niece, captured by Comanches who massacred his family. He won't surrender to hunger, thirst, the elements or loneliness. And in his obsessive quest, Ethan finds something unexpected: his own humanity. One of the most influential movies ever made. - Director:
- John Ford
- Cast:
- John Wayne, Jeffrey Hunter, Vera Miles
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A Man Escaped (1956)Un condamné à mort s'est échappé ou Le vent souffle où il veut
Based on the true story of Resistance fighter Andre Devigny, who was imprisoned and sentenced to death by the Nazis during the Second World War, the film reconstructs his actual cell at the Lyons fortress of Montluc, and follows his meticulous plans for escape. This totally involving and thrilling tale of courage and faith is all the more authentic for its use of non-professional actors and Bresson's spare style. - Director:
- Robert Bresson
- Cast:
- François Leterrier, Charles Le Clainche, Maurice Beerblock
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Renowned filmmaker Douglas Sirk directed this internationally acclaimed story of the very, very rich whose lack of morality and character leads to ruin and death. The stunningly photographed films stars Robert Stack as Kyle Hadley, the never-do-well son of Texas magnate Robert Keith whose dynasty begins to crumble due to the activities of his pleasure-seeking brood. Along for the downhill ride is an all-star cast that includes Lauren Bacall as Stack's unfortunate wife, Rock Hudson as his best friend and Dorothy Malone who picked up a Best Supporting Actress Oscar for her portrayal of Kyle's nymphomaniac sister. - Director:
- Douglas Sirk
- Cast:
- Rock Hudson, Lauren Bacall, Robert Stack
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The Man Who Knew Too Much (1956)Alfred Hitchcock's The Man Who Knew Too Much
James Stewart and Doris Day play Ben and Jo McKenna, innocent Americans vacationing in Morocco with their son, Hank. After a French spy dies in Ben's arms in the Marrakech market, the couple discovers their son has been kidnapped and taken to England. Not knowing who they can trust, the McKennas are caught up in a nightmare of international espionage, assassinations and terror. Soon, all of their lives hang in the balance as they draw closer to the truth and a chilling climatic moment in London's famous Royal Albert Hall. - Director:
- Alfred Hitchcock
- Cast:
- James Stewart, Doris Day, Brenda De Banzie
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"Giant" is a movie of huge scale and grandeur in which three generations of land-rich Texans love, swagger, connive and clash in a saga of family strife, racial bigotry and conflict between cattle barons and newly rich oil tycoons. It's also one of the most beloved works of director George Stevens, who won an Academy Award for this film, one of 10 Oscar nominations the film earned. - Director:
- George Stevens
- Cast:
- Elizabeth Taylor, Nick Adams, Rock Hudson
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