1. The Night of the Hunter
Year of Release: 1955
Overall Rating: 3.3 out of 4 stars
Language: English
Genre: Thriller/Drama
MPAA Rating: PG
Director: Charles Laughton
Actors: Robert Mitchum, James Gleason, Evelyn Varden, Lillian Gish, Shelley Winters, Peter Graves
Plot: Two young children who are basically left alone meet a killer posing as a preacher who is after their stack of their father's cash.
2. Rebel Without a Cause
Year of Release: 1955
Overall Rating: 3.1 out of 4 stars
Language: English
Genre: Drama
MPAA Rating: PG-13
Director: Nicholas Ray
Actors: James Dean, Natalie Wood, Jim Backus, Ann Doran, Corey Allen, Rochelle Hudson
Plot: A teenager who leaves his old home town to start a new continues to rebel against the rules and conformities while falling in love with someone unlike him.
3. Lady and the Tramp
Year of Release: 1955
Overall Rating: 3.0 out of 4 stars
Language: English
Genre: Drama/Family
MPAA Rating: G
Director: Clyde Geronimi, Wilfred Jackson
Actors: Peggy Lee, Barbara Luddy, Larry Roberts, Bill Thompson, Bill Baucom, Stan Freberg
Plot: A refined, upper class spaniel and a rapscallion mutt fall in love in this classic piece of Disney animation.
4. Song of the Little Road ( Pather Panchali )
Year of Release: 1955
Overall Rating: 3.1 out of 4 stars
Language: Bengali
Genre: Drama
MPAA Rating: PG
Director: Satyajit Ray
Actors: Karuna Bannerjee, Kanu Bannerjee, Uma Das Gupta, Subir Bannerjee, Chunibala Devi, Runki Banerjee
Plot: Follows the life of a struggling family in small Bengal village. The father, poet and priest, does not make enough to support them; his sister is constantly stealing guavas from a neighbor's orchard while the mother bickers with her sister - into this world, Apu is born.
5. East of Eden
Year of Release: 1955
Overall Rating: 3.0 out of 4 stars
Language: English
Genre: Drama
MPAA Rating: PG
Director: Elia Kazan
Actors: Julie Harris, James Dean, Raymond Massey, Burl Ives, Richard Davalos, Albert Dekker
Plot: In Salinas Valley, California, WWI looms as Cal Trask, a defiant, confused young man comes to terms with his estranged mother, his perfect brother and kind, yet distant father.
6. Marty
Year of Release: 1955
Overall Rating: 3.1 out of 4 stars
Language: English
Genre: Drama/Romance
MPAA Rating: NR
Director: Delbert Mann
Actors: Ernest Borgnine, Betsy Blair, Jerry Paris, Esther Minciotti, Joe Mantell, Karen Steele
Plot: A buthcer's family's son is an unglamerous man who is being pushed to be married by his family when he meets a non looker as they both try to creep into true love and the feelings that go along with it.
7. Diabolique ( diaboliques, Les )
Year of Release: 1955
Overall Rating: 3.0 out of 4 stars
Language: French
Genre: Crime/Horror
MPAA Rating: PG-13
Director: Henri-Georges Clouzot
Actors: Simone Signoret, Véra Clouzot, Charles Vanel, Michel Serrault, Paul Meurisse
Plot: After a wife and a man's mistress Kill her husband, the body mysteriously disappears as the two women appear cursed.
8. To Catch a Thief
Year of Release: 1955
Overall Rating: 3.0 out of 4 stars
Language: English
Genre: Crime/Mystery
MPAA Rating: PG
Director: Alfred Hitchcock
Actors: Cary Grant, Grace Kelly, Jessie Royce Landis, John Williams, Brigitte Auber, Charles Vanel
Plot: Light and breezy Hitchcock trifle about a retired jewel thief lured out of retirement by a copycat criminal. Romance ensues with a beautiful American heiress against the luscious backdrop of the French Riviera.
9. Night and Fog ( Nuit et brouillard )
Year of Release: 1955
Overall Rating: 3.0 out of 4 stars
Language: French
Genre: Documentary/Historical
MPAA Rating: NR
Director: Alain Resnais
Actors: Michel Bouquet, Adolf Hitler, Heinrich Himmler, Julius Streicher, Reinhard Heydrich
Plot: Alain Resnais presents a chilling history lesson - the horrors of Nazi Concentration Camps. With color footage and vintage news reel, and allies' footage as well - it's not just about the camps, but a reminder of how inhumane humanity can be.
10. Sansho the Bailiff ( Sanshô dayû )
Year of Release: 1955
Overall Rating: 3.0 out of 4 stars
Language: Japanese
Genre: Drama
MPAA Rating: NR
Director: Kenji Mizoguchi
Actors: Kinuyo Tanaka, Yoshiaki Hanayagi, Eitarô Shindô, Masao Shimizu, Ken Mitsuda
Plot: When a compassionate governor finds himself ousted and banished in medieval Japan, he attempts to keep his family together. Yet his wife and children become separated, and they are raised amidst suffering and oppression.
