Subgenre Sampler
Classics > Drama: 991 Films to Buy & Rent
Country Girl, The (1954)
- Dir. George Seaton
Feat. Bing Crosby, Grace Kelly, William Holden
- Bing Crosby sobers up to play an alcoholic has–been actor aided to make a comeback by wife Grace Kelly and pal William Holden.
Elephant Walk (1954)
- Dir. William Dieterle
Feat. Elizabeth Taylor, Dana Andrews, Peter Finch…
- Love–triangle melodrama set on Ceylon tea plantation is a tad overblown, with thunder stolen from the good cast by a climactic elephant…
End of the Affair, The (1954)
- Dir. Edward Dmytryk
Feat. Deborah Kerr, Van Johnson, John Mills
- Original screen adaptation of Graham Greeneās tale of unrequited wartime love, with Deborah Kerr and Van Johnson entangled in a brief but illicit…
Generation, A (Pokolenie) (1954)
- Dir. Andrzej Wajda
Feat. Roman Polanski
- Fast–moving account of the Polish Resistance during WWII, as a scrappy young recruit falls in love with his unit leader. Depicts the spirited,…
Hell and High Water (1954)
- Dir. Samuel Fuller
Feat. Richard Widmark, Bella Darvi, Victor Francen…
- Cold war thriller with Widmark helming a submarine in pursuit of a Red freighter.
Unexceptional by Samuel Fuller's usual standards – he was…
Magnificent Obsession (1954)
- Dir. Douglas Sirk
Feat. Rock Hudson, Jane Wyman
- Douglas Sirk's famously tumultuous melodrama, starring Rock Hudson in his first leading role as a guilt–ridden playboy indirectly responsible…
On the Waterfront (1954)
- Dir. Elia Kazan
Feat. Marlon Brando, Karl Malden, Lee J. Cobb…
- Brooding tour–de–force with Marlon Brando in his prime as the square–jawed misfit entangled in corrupt union politics. Winner of 8…
Purple Plain, The (1954)
- Dir. Robert Parrish
Feat. Gregory Peck, Win Min Than, Bernard Lee…
- Strong psychological drama, shot in lush Technicolor, with Peck as a shell–shocked pilot stuck with wounded comrades behind enemy lines in the…
Salt of the Earth (1954)
- Dir. Herbert J. Biberman
Feat. Rosaura Revueltas, Will Geer
- An incendiary tale of racial prejudice, big business greed and feminist uprising that pushed plenty of buttons in the fifties, making it first of its…
Sansho Dayu (Sansho the Bailiff) (1954)
- Dir. Kenji Mizoguchi
Feat. Kinuyo Tanaka, Yoshiaki Hanayagi, Kyoko Kagawa…
- One of Mizoguchi's great classics, based on an 11th century Japanese folktale elaborated into a sprawling vision of a cruel, mysterious cosmos, where…