Subgenre Sampler
Classics: 3623 Films to Buy & Rent
Battle of the River Plate (1956)
- Dir. Michael Powell, Emeric Pressbuger
Feat. John Gregson, Anthony Quayle, Peter Finch
- Straight–ahead account of the British attempt to capture a gigantic German battleship in 1939 off the coast of South America.
Benny Goodman Story, The (1956)
- Dir. Valentine Davies
Feat. Steve Allen, Donna Reed
- Biopic of swing band leader Benny Goodman from age 10 (in 1919) to his landmark Carnegie Hall band concert in 1938. Not exactly historically…
Beyond a Reasonable Doubt (1956)
- Dir. Fritz Lang
Feat. Dana Andrews, Joan Fontaine, Sidney Blackmer…
- This bleak film noir from director Fritz Lang is a triumph of style and mood with a cynical take on fate and the human condition.
An impeccably…
Bigger Than Life (1956)
- Dir. Nicholas Ray
Feat. James Mason, Barbara Rush, Walter Matthau
- Enormously potent, landmark melodrama is also a career high for James Mason: he plays a suburban family man struck down with a rare heart disease,…
Burmese Harp, The (Biruma no tategoto) (1956)
- Dir. Kon Ichikawa
Feat. Rentaro Mikuni
- Another muted anti–war elegy conceived during Japan’s post–WWII recovery, this tells the journey of a Japanese private, who upon…
Bus Stop (1956)
- Dir. Joshua Logan
Feat. Marilyn Monroe, Don Murray
- Marilyn Monroe excels in this comedy/drama as a distraught southern showgirl who becomes the object of desire and marriage for an obsessive and naive…
Carousel (1956)
- Dir. Henry King
Feat. Gordon MacRae, Shirley Jones, Cameron Mitchell
- Rodgers and Hammerstein carnival musical has some of their best songs. A darker than usual storyline – possibly partly why it wasn't such a…
Conqueror, The (1956)
- Dir. Dick Powell
Feat. John Wayne, Susan Hayward, Pedro Armendariz…
- Notorious Howard Hughes produced flop with John Wayne woefully miscast as Mongol ruler Genghis Khan. Filmed downwind from a nuclear test site many of…
Court Jester, The (1956)
- Dir. Norman Panama, Melvin Frank
Feat. Danny Kaye, Basil Rathbone, Angela Lansbury
- Much–loved comedy thrives off the charms of Danny Kaye as a bogus jester entangled in spoofed up royal intrigues from the Middle Ages. Basil…
Creature Walks Among Us, The (1956)
- Dir. John Sherwood
Feat. Jeff Morrow, Rex Reason
- Second sequel to THE CREATURE FROM THE BLACK LAGOON this time focusing on a group of scientists on a mission to capture Gill Man and put him on show…