Our Swedish entry is, unsurprisingly, from Ingmar Bergman, about an old man taking a road trip that also ends up as sort of a trip through his life.
Category Archives: 1950s Movies
LA STRADA (1954)
Italy brings a strong representative to our Winter Festival in Fellini’s modern fable of an innocent young woman who ends up on the road with a brutish circus performer.
CYRANO DE BERGERAC (1950)
With the latest in a long history of “Cyrano” adaptations currently in theaters (somewhere), we revisit perhaps the most faithful adaptation of the original play, for which José Ferrer became the first Hispanic actor to win an Oscar.
SCROOGE (1951)
Alastair Sim plays the title character in what was considered for decades to be maybe the definitive version of the Dickens story, though I was a little thrown by the way the movie makes up a bunch of extra bits of Scrooge’s origin story for no discernible reason.
ACE IN THE HOLE (1951)
An ultra-cynical satire of the news media and America in general, this is a movie that very much feels like it could have come out in 2021.
THE BAND WAGON (1953)
A big fun colorful 1950s musical that actually, for once, bothers to have characters and arcs and things, and also Fred Astaire dance-fights a bunch of guys.
INVASION OF THE BODY SNATCHERS (1956)
A classic of Cold War paranoia that still rings true today, about our friends, loved ones, and neighbors turning out not to be who they seem. Also there are giant plant pods from outer space.
THE EARRINGS OF MADAME DE… (1953)
A story of the dynamics between the sexes in Belle Epoque France, highlighted by the spectacular visuals of director Max Ophuls.
JOHNNY GUITAR (1954)
A deeply weird and strangely “psychosexual” Western, mostly centering on two women. Sort othe exact opposite of stereotypical John Wayne stoicism.
AN AFFAIR TO REMEMBER (1957)
A classic romance with Cary Grant and Deborah Kerr, who are both very agreeable as usual, but I have to say that something on a basic level did not work for me.
Movie Valhalla 