Tuesday, March 31, 2015

Forgotten Movies: 1955

Boy, 1955 was a great year for movies as you can see from the list here. 

LADYKLLERS

This was one of my favorites when I saw it decades later. Doubt I saw any of them at the theater that year.  The big disappointment of a few years ago was its remake.



Wait a minute. I think I saw this one. Still gorgeous today.




What is your favorite movie from 1955?

12 comments:

Deb said...

Wow--what a great list! It's hard to pick just one favorite, but I'd have to pick The Ladykillers.

Anders E said...

THE LADYKILLERS, closely followed by KISS ME DEADLY, LES DIABOLIQUES and THE NIGHT OF THE HUNTER.

Also worth mentioning:
THE MAN FROM LARAMIE
THE BIG COMBO
KILLER'S KISS
THE DESPERATE HOURS
ILLEGAL
REBEL WITHOUT A CAUSE
THE PHENIX CITY STORY
DU RIFIFI CHEZ LES HOMMES
THE TROUBLE WITH HARRY

Not great, but interesting is the Finnish TUNTEMATON SOTILAS / THE UNKNOWN SOLDIER. This is so iconic in Finland that it is shown on TV there every year on independence day (December 6th) even though the movie takes place during the continuation war of 1941-1944 which was some 25 years after Finland actually gained independence. It's an extremely uneven movie, sometimes brilliant but sometimes just hokey. Btw, judging by the subtitles the f-word is used quite often - in 1955!

Yes, it was a great year for movies.

Steve Oerkfitz said...

Night of the Hunter would be my first choice. Kiss Me Deadly, East of Eden, Rebel Without a Cause, Riffi, Diabolique I also like a lot.
The Court Jester with Danny Kaye? Have never found anything Kaye did remotely funny. His appeal escapes me.

Unknown said...

What a great year. I've seen most of those, and I'd completely forgotten one of them, THE LONG GRAY LINE, that impressed me when I was a kid. Maybe because it starred Maureen O'Hara, who always impressed me.

Rick Robinson said...

I saw LADY AND THE TRAMP in the theater, but only one or two of the others, I was just 10 years old.

Charles Gramlich said...

I like that movie myself.

Unknown said...

It is a toss-up: Lady and the Tramp or Davy Crockett.

Given my age at the time (9), and given my own playtime adventures, Davy Crockett wins the toss-up. I think my coonskin cap trumped shared spaghetti.

Jeff Meyerson said...

TARANTULA, obviously. No, seriously, I agree with you about LADY AND THE TRAMP. I've sure at the time it was my favorite, along with the DAVY CROCKETT movie.

I see RT feels the same.

Jeff M.

pattinase (abbott) said...

I started out doing a review of RIFIFI and ended up lost in the rabbit hole. Hollywood doesn't have years like this one anymore.

Jerry House said...

THE NIGHT OF THE HUNTER.

There certaininly were a lot of great films from 1955.

Kent Morgan said...

I was a tickettaker in the Lido Theatre in The Pas, Manitoba at the time so saw 75% of the ones in the first 50. The list reminded once again why I hated most musicials. There were so many, but Guy and Dolls and Love Me or Leave Me were two favourites. I also liked East of Eden and Picnic. If you want to see the inside of a beautiful theatre that is still operating check out the Lido on the Internet. When I went back for the town's 100th anniversary in 2012, a friend who was an usher and I received a tour of the theatre from the current fourth-generation owner and the box where I threw half the ticket stub for all those 1955 movies was still in use. Thanks for the memories, Patti.

pattinase (abbott) said...

Which reminds me of the gorgeous movie theaters in Philly in the early 1960s when I put on my white gloves, empire dress and pillbox hat and sauntered downtown. Thank you for the memory, Kent.