In previous posts in our “Best of the 6’s” series, we’ve covered the top ten movies of each year ending in 6 as we work our way up to 2016 and the best films of this year. Thus far, we’ve covered 1966, 1946, 1996, 1986, 1916, 1936, 1976, and even 1896 and 1906. Now we’re back in slightly more familiar territory, with two Hitchcock films, epics both Biblical and American, some classic sci-fi, film noir from Hollywood and France, and what is often considered the greatest Western of all time. Join us as we journey back to 1956!
10. The Wrong Man
After the globe-trotting confections of To Catch a Thief and The Man Who Knew Too Much (see below), Alfred Hitchcock wanted to make something a bit more realistic, and The Wrong Man remains one of his most grounded and yet paranoid films. The story of Hitchcock’s brief imprisonment as a boy to teach him a lesson has become legendary as an explanation for his almost irrational fear of the police, and in this film that fear reaches its most pure cinematic expression. A mild-mannered musician (Henry Fonda) is mistaken for a man who recently held up an insurance agency, and despite protesting his innocence, he’s arrested and tried in an almost Kafka-esque miscarriage of justice. The fact that this is based on a true story rather than the pulp novels Hitchcock usually turned to for stories is sobering. – Jandy Hardesty
Global Ranking: #1187
Ranked 11,718 times by 708 users
Wins 47% of matchups
9. Bob le flambeur
Some film noir purists hold that noir is confined not only to the classic 1940s-1950s era, but also to the United States, but several of Jean-Pierre Melville’s crime films make an awfully good case for expanding noir to France. Bob is an ex-con who still struggles with gambling (“le flambeur” means “the gambler”); when he sees an opportunity for a major heist, he gathers a team and sets a plan in motion. Unfortunately, not all his compatriots are totally discreet, and soon the police are on the trail. What sets the film apart, though, is Bob’s unusual combination of values – part methodical conman and part ethical humanist. Also, Bob’s real struggle isn’t against the police at all, but against his own addictive tendencies. This places Bob le flambeur squarely in the morally gray area of traditional noir, but with a thoughtful bent that’s unmistakably French. – Jandy
Global Ranking: #1164
Ranked 7686 times by 378 users
Wins 53% of matchups
8. The Ten Commandments
In recent years, Hollywood has turned its eye back toward the Biblical epic, with productions such as Noah, Exodus: Gods and Kings, and the 2016 Ben-Hur remake all attempting to attract audiences. Those movies had at best mixed reviews from critics and audiences alike, so it’s worthwhile to look back in comparison at the movies that came out of that golden era of Bible epics. The Ten Commandments was Cecil B. DeMille‘s most successful work, and, as its status in the top 10 indicates, it still holds up today. The visuals are stunning, from the decadent costumes and sets of Egyptian royalty to the stunning scene where the Red Sea parts for the fleeing Israelites. Where the movie really gets it right, however, is in trying to flesh out its main character and his struggle between his faith and the family he’s always known. Dreamworks’ 1998 musical The Prince of Egypt portrayed this relationship in a similar way, but it’s the Ten Commandments version of the story that is the most iconic. Charlton Heston and Yul Brynner both beautifully capture the depths of these characters who could very easily be cardboard stereotypes. The film looks great, it tells a compelling story, and it has a dramatic grandeur that modern Hollywood hasn’t quite been able to reproduce. – Hannah Keefer
Global Ranking: #924
Ranked 3531 times by 3531 users
Wins 47% of matchups
7. Giant
It’s somehow fitting that James Dean‘s third and final film is a sprawling epic that gives him the long lifespan that real life did not. In fact, Giant was released over a full year after Dean’s death in a car crash. He even earned a posthumous Oscar nomination for his performance as Jett Rink, the third wheel to the film’s real leads, Elizabeth Taylor and Rock Hudson, who own up a Texas ranch threatened by Jett’s discovery of oil on his corner of it. In true American epic style, the film is about a little of everything – the modernization of the Old West and passing of an older way of life, multigenerational family melodrama, romance and unrequited love, prejudice and racism, and more. That last point is an interesting one looking back at this film from our vantage point – it’s easy to be outraged at the negative stereotypes and treatment of Mexicans in the film, but it’s actually pretty progressive for the 1950s, with the family’s son marrying a Mexican woman and Hudson overcoming his prejudice to fight for her honor. – Jandy
Global Ranking: #532
Ranked 17,636 times by 1349 users
Wins 48% of matchups
6. Forbidden Planet
Forbidden Planet stars Leslie Nielsen, in only his second dramatic role, as Commander John Adams, the captain of a starship in the 23rd century. Like many, I had first encountered Nielsen as the unflappable, yet often ridiculous, straight man in a variety of comedy films (Airplane, The Naked Gun: From the Files of Police Squad!) and was surprised to learn that he had been a “serious” actor in his younger days. Commander Adams and his crew are seeking to discover the fate of an exploratory mission twenty years prior, which had travelled to a distant planet but had not been heard from since. Upon arrival, they discover a sole survivor from the original expedition, Dr. Morbius (Walter Pidgeon). Morbius lives with his daughter Altaira (Anne Francis) and Robbie the Robot (one of the first movie robots to have a distinct personality and play a significant role in the plot). Morbius warns Adams and his crew that they are in danger (the previous crew was killed by a mysterious force) and before long they are indeed attacked. While they struggle to identify and defeat this adversary, they discover that Morbius has been studying an ancient alien race which used to inhabit the planet. Adams attempts to persuade Morbius to return to earth and share his newfound knowledge, but Morbius wishes to study the aliens further, afraid that the alien technology would prove detrimental without full understanding. Amidst these struggles, a love triangle develops between Adams, Altaira, and a crewmember. For an early science fiction film, there is a strong narrative sophistication and the acting is quite direct, supported by an eerie futuristic soundscape (the film was the first to employ an entirely electronic musical score). Most people associate science fiction with aliens, robots, and spaceships, and while those are often key ingredients, the best science fiction is actually about exploring what makes us human. – Ben Shoemaker
Global Ranking: #500
Ranked 34,003 times by 2454 users
Wins 46% of matchups
5. The Man Who Knew Too Much
It’s pretty common in our day and age to decry remakes as unnecessary, exploitative, and even disrespectful to the original. So what if a director remakes his own work? This is Alfred Hitchcock’s second version of The Man Who Knew Too Much, which he originally made in 1934 in the UK. Hitchcock considered himself an entertainer first rather than an artist, so while he always made the best films he could, his first priority was making a SUCCESSFUL film, so it shouldn’t really be too surprising that he felt comfortable returning to the well when he thought he could make another hit film from the same material. This time he added color, bigger stars, and a bigger budget over what he had available to him in Britain, and he used all three to his advantage to create a fun and flashy kidnapping drama. (Also, no coincidentally, it let him film while traveling in Europe, another major factor in his decision-making in the mid-1950s.) James Stewart comes out for the third of his four Hitchcock films, and Doris Day, one of the most popular stars of the 1950s, joined him as the vacationing McKennas, along with their son. Through mistaken identity, their son is kidnapped by some spies and Stewart and Day try to navigate the foreign police system to get him back and uncover an assassination plot. This all climaxes in one of Hitchcock’s most well-remembered sequences, involving a full orchestra and an assassination attempt during a specific part of a concert. Of course, the film also introduced the song “Que Sera, Sera,” which won the Oscar and was one of Day’s biggest hits. – Jandy
Global Ranking: #457
Ranked 36,968 times by 2880 users
Wins 46% of matchups
4. Invasion of the Body Snatchers
Older science fiction films have a popular reputation for being cheesy and low-budget, but while they may not have had the more realistic CGI effects we see in sci-fi today, some of them sure knew how to tell an interesting story with what they had. This sci-fi body horror classic has been remade several times, but the original still stands out as a great movie that knows how to build tension for its viewers even when operating on a small, intimate scale. The film was released in the midst of the United States’ frenzied hunt for communists, and that sense of paranoia is easily felt in the film, as little by little the entire town is taken over by the titular body snatchers. Whether you’re a viewer who likes digging into the deeper political and cultural meanings of films or someone who just likes to be entertained, Invasion of the Body Snatchers fits the bill in both cases. It’s no surprise to me that it sits in our top 10 of 1956. – Hannah
Global Ranking: #409
Ranked 38,277 times by 2911 users
Wins 51% of matchups
3. A Man Escaped
Robert Bresson is sometimes obscure and often austere, but in this prison-escape film (as well as his crime film Pickpocket) he manages to parlay his trademark aloof approach into a leisurely-paced but highly engrossing thriller. Escape films are all about the planning, and A Man Escaped is no exception, but it brings another element into play – waiting. That may not sound exciting, but it is, because Bresson builds the tension expertly, as the plans our French Resistance fighter patiently and methodically puts into place are in jeopardy of discovery by his Nazi captors all the time. The film rewards patience, as any good film about prison should do. – Jandy
Global Ranking: #387
Ranked 8515 times by 387 users
Wins 65% of matchups
2. The Killing
The Killing is director Stanley Kubrick‘s third feature film, and despite critical acclaim (even at the time), the movie was a box office failure. It’s hard to imagine now, when the full breadth of Kubrick’s career includes an incredible variety of films all made with a consistent quality of story and vision, but in 1956 he was still finding his footing in the movie industry. But Kubrick was already in fine form here, with a film noir starring Sterling Hayden as the seasoned crook who wants to pull one last job before walking away from a life of crime. He dreams up a heist big enough to justify and inspire a team of specialists (who are perfectly cast) and every detail is worked out in advance. Kubrick was an avid chess player, and the plot of this film exhibits layers of strategy you would expect to find on the chessboard. Hayden’s character has assembled all the pieces, put them in their proper places, and accounted for all the possible variations to ensure the desired outcome. The thrill of the film is not only in seeing the plans come to fruition, but in the team’s machinations and manipulations of each other, and how the unraveling of those plans directly results from their interactions. – Ben
Global Ranking: #152
Ranked 42,159 times by 2366 users
Wins 53% of matchups
1. The Searchers
What we forget about The Searchers is how funny it is. Instead we focus on the dark, indomitable figure of Ethan Edwards (John Wayne) and his dysfunctional relationships with his supposed niece Lucy (Natalie Wood) and his probable son Martin (Jeffrey Hunter). The racial themes are also close to the surface in this film that straddles the line between traditional and revisionist Westerns, providing plenty of fodder for socially-conscious criticism; there’s the villainous “Scar” (played by German actor Henry Brandon), hysterical white ex-captives, and an infantilizing portrayal of the squaw “Look” (Beulah Archuletta). Stylistically, the cup runneth over thanks to Technicolor genius and frequent John Ford collaborator Winton Hoch’s landscape shooting, Max Steiner’s score, and an indelible final shot that many consider the most iconic of Wayne and Ford’s long collaboration. Last summer when I watched it in a theater, though (my fourth or fifth viewing overall), what stood out wasn’t any of those much-discussed dimensions. It was the laughs, particularly in the second half when Martin and Charlie McCrory (singer Ken Curtis) fight fecklessly for the love of Laurie Jorgensen (Vera Miles). Or when Mr. and Mrs. Jorgensen gather around to read their second of an unprecedented two letters for the year (“Two letters! In one year, by golly!”) Or when Ford staples Ward Bond and Hank Worden bicker with the ornery Ethan over legalisms and rocking chairs. I thought I knew The Searchers pretty well, but until my most recent viewing I didn’t know that in a theater of self-selected Searchers fans it would play as a comedy. – David
Global Ranking: #104
Ranked 74,454 times by 4747 users
Wins 54% of matchups
BLOGGER’S CHOICE
The above list is calculated via hundreds of thousands of aggregated rankings on Flickchart. Through the collective effort of Flickchart users, the top films of each year and overall are determined. However, the bloggers on Flickchart have their own personal favorites for 1956 that may not have been cracked the site’s top ten. These are our choices for additional films that ought to be recognized.
Jandy Hardesty – Bigger Than Life
We’re used to exposes of 1950s suburbia by this point, as it’s become fashionable to be cynical of the era’s idealized family structure and “perfect” home life, but there are actually quite a few films from the 1950s that interrogate the stereotypical 1950s ideal (showing the time period wasn’t as monolithic as we sometimes think). Douglas Sirk’s melodramas that show the chinks in the “perfect home” idea are probably best known, but this one’s well worth a look, too. James Mason gives a fever dream of a performance as a teacher who struggles to earn enough to pay for his white picket fence home and support his family and eventually succumbs to stress-related illness and then becomes addicted to prednisone, which has paranoia-inducing side effects. Some of the drug-related scenes are over the top, but Mason’s performance and Nicholas Ray’s agitated direction remain compelling.
Global Ranking: #1784
Ranked 3974 times by 209 users
Wins 54% of matchups
Hannah Keefer – The Court Jester
Far too few people have seen this marvelous Danny Kaye vehicle, but, in this blogger’s experience, those who have seen it tend to be big fans. Kaye plays a good-hearted entertainer for a group of freedom fighters seeking to overthrow a usurper to the crown. He longs to be more actively involved in the fight to restore the rightful heir, and he gets his wish when circumstances allow him to infiltrate the king’s palace posing as his new jester. Plotline after plotline arises to complicate matters, from magic spells to babies in need of rescue to assassination plots to secret tunnels. While Kaye carries much of the movie, the marvelous supporting cast contributes to the zaniness of these ever-increasing complications. It’s a hilarious and charming and delightful tangle every step of the way.
Global Ranking: #1320
Ranked 5107 times by 337 users
Wins 59% of matchups
David Conrad – Around the World in 80 Days
This Best Picture winner is among the unlucky few that don’t make the global Top 10 for their year. I understand why some Best Picture winners are disliked – Gigi is blithely distressing, Crash is oppressively self-important – but why Around the World in 80 Days is singled out for derision is a mystery to me. As cameo-laden adventure comedies go, this one is a lot friendlier and prettier than It’s a Mad Mad Mad Mad World, which sits over 2000 places higher on the global chart. Jules Verne, author of the source novel, remains beloved, as do many of the actors in the film, including David Niven, Shirley MacLaine, Frank Sinatra, John Gielgud, Trevor Howard, Marlene Dietrich, Buster Keaton, Peter Lorre, Robert Newton, and on and on. Mexican actor Cantinflas, who played Passpartout with show-stealing confidence and panache, was reportedly described by Charlie Chaplin in 1941 as the world’s greatest living comedian. A hot air balloon, a train, an Indian princess, a bullfight, a kabuki performance, a saloon fight; what on Earth isn’t to like about this? Maybe it’s that the humor is broad and dry, the runtime is long, and the direction feels stagebound. But this is a story about a gentleman’s wager conceived in a private club in Queen Victoria’s London – of course its humor is dry! The plot requires a trip around the entire planet, so of course it’s long! And stagebound? The movie features tens of thousands of extras, thousands of animals, and was shot on location in over a dozen countries using the Todd-AO high-resolution widescreen film format developed in part by the film’s producer, Mike Todd. Despite its Oscar success, they don’t make pictures like Around the World in 80 Days anymore, and I miss them, even if most Flickcharters don’t.
Global Ranking: #2959
Ranked 12848 times by 1215 users
Wins 31% of matchups
Doug van Hollen – High Society
The real question is not “did Grace Kelly have sex with Frank Sinatra the night before she was supposed to marry John Lund?”. The real question is “how did such a plot make it onto the screen prior to 1980?” This is an ambitious, subversive, loose-moraled morality play that looks askance at the “normal” American values of marriage, affluence, and social position, and does so from within the very heart of the decade that we falsely remember as having perfected them. Add to that the scene containing the greatest minute-for-minute male on-screen chemistry in the history of celluloid, and Satchmo’s sweet-dirty New Orleans jazz, and you’ve got an excuse to check the TCM listings every night for the rest of your life.
Global Ranking: #2212
Ranked 5630 times by 369 users
Wins 48% of matchups
Alex Lovendahl – Aparajito
The second film in Satyajit Ray‘s Apu Trilogy depicts one of cinema’s great cities. Its stone stairways are the stuff of legend; its waterways and docking ports are filled with more life than most gardens. This second Apu film, the sequel to the Indian-cinema revolution Pather Panchali, explores Apu’s maturation, a more inherently dramatic arc than his impoverished childhood. Removed from the final portion of the trilogy, its arc seems emotionally diminished compared to the former entry, which has beautiful contrast of joy and sorrow. Aparajito is less capable of capturing that joy, but with The World of Apu in mind, Aparajito makes a transition into adulthood that still rewards an exceptional excitement for learning and gaining independence while recognizing the sorrow that accompanies a death of innocence.
Global Ranking: #1982
Ranked 2626 times by 159 users
Wins 56% of matchups
