Subgenre Sampler
Classics > Drama: 991 Films to Buy & Rent
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…
Eddy Duchin Story, The (1956)
- Dir. George Sidney
Feat. Tyrone Power, Kim Novak, James Whitmore
- Tearjerking, CinemaScope biopic of the beloved but short–lived pianist and bandleader Eddy Duchin. Nominated for four Academy Awards.
Flowing (Nagareru ) (1956)
- Dir. Mikio Naruse
Feat. Kinuyo Tanaka, Hideko Takamine, Isuzu Yamada
- Dir. Naruse’s compassionate portrait of the fading post–war geisha trade. Considered one of the director's best among his many films to…
Friendly Persuasion (1956)
- Dir. William Wyler
Feat. Gary Cooper, Dorothy McGuire, Anthony Perkins…
- Gary Cooper headlines this sentimental yet atmospheric and beautifuly crafted drama about a Quaker family in southern Indiana whose pacifist beliefs…
Giant (1956)
- Dir. George Stevens
Feat. James Dean, Rock Hudson, Elizabeth Taylor
- A beautifully conceived saga of life on a Texas cattle ranch told through two generations. James Dean's final performance.
Kanal (1956)
- Dir. Andrzej Wajda
Feat. Teresa Izewska, Tadeusz Janczar
- The darkest chapter of dir. Wadja's WWII 'Trilogy', is an unremitting portrayal of the last gasps of the 1944 Warsaw uprising. With desperate…