1. North by Northwest
Year of Release: 1959
Overall Rating: 3.3 out of 4 stars
Language: English
Genre: Mystery/Thriller
MPAA Rating: PG
Director: Alfred Hitchcock
Actors: Cary Grant, Eva Marie Saint, James Mason, Martin Landau, Leo G. Carroll, Jessie Royce Landis
Plot: A advertising exec is chased cross country while he tries to clear his name in a government mistake. In the end, he can't tell who is on his side.
2. Some Like It Hot
Year of Release: 1959
Overall Rating: 3.2 out of 4 stars
Language: English
Genre: Comedy/Romance
MPAA Rating: PG
Director: Billy Wilder
Actors: Jack Lemmon, Marilyn Monroe, Tony Curtis, George Raft, Pat O'Brien, Nehemiah Persoff
Plot: When two men run from a murder, they disguise themselves as women, only to find themselves in more trouble when the both fall for the same girl, who only knows them as women.
3. Ben-Hur
Year of Release: 1959
Overall Rating: 3.2 out of 4 stars
Language: English
Genre: Adventure/Drama
MPAA Rating: PG
Director: William Wyler
Actors: Charlton Heston, Stephen Boyd, Jack Hawkins, Haya Harareet, Hugh Griffith, Finlay Currie
Plot: A Prince is accused of a crime he didn't commit and is betrayed by the ones he knows as he is sent into slavery. He rises to the top to gain his revenge.
4. 400 Blows, The ( quatre cents coups, Les )
Year of Release: 1959
Overall Rating: 3.2 out of 4 stars
Language: French
Genre: Drama
MPAA Rating: PG
Director: François Truffaut
Actors: Jean-Pierre Léaud, Claire Maurier, Guy Decomble, Albert Rémy, Patrick Auffay
Plot: A young boy is stuck in a world where no one understands him. He runs away from his hard life and commits to the life of a petty thief.
5. Anatomy of a Murder
Year of Release: 1959
Overall Rating: 3.2 out of 4 stars
Language: English
Genre: Mystery/Drama
MPAA Rating: PG
Director: Otto Preminger
Actors: James Stewart, Ben Gazzara, Lee Remick, George C. Scott, Orson Bean, Eve Arden
Plot: During a murder trial, a man claims that he was insane while he watched his wife being raped and killed. Will the jury buy his story....
6. Rio Bravo
Year of Release: 1959
Overall Rating: 3.1 out of 4 stars
Language: English
Genre: Western
MPAA Rating: PG
Director: Howard Hawks
Actors: Dean Martin, John Wayne, Angie Dickinson, Walter Brennan, Ricky Nelson, Ward Bond
Plot: A group of unimpressive men take on a series of gunfighters to protect a small town.
7. Imitation of Life
Year of Release: 1959
Overall Rating: 3.0 out of 4 stars
Language: English
Genre: Drama/Romance
MPAA Rating: NR
Director: Douglas Sirk
Actors: Lana Turner, John Gavin, Sandra Dee, Robert Alda, Susan Kohner, Dan O'Herlihy
Plot: A black woman has a biracial daughter and is hired by a white lady to manage her home.
8. Human Condition I, The ( Ningen no joken I )
Year of Release: 1959
Overall Rating: 3.2 out of 4 stars
Language: Japanese
Genre: Drama/Historical
MPAA Rating: NR
Director: Masaki Kobayashi
Actors: Tatsuya Nakadai, Michiyo Aratama, Ineko Arima, Chikage Awashima, Keiji Sada, Sô Yamamura
Plot: In the first part of a trilogy, a man named Kaji, hoping to avoid military service during WWII instead supervises a Manchurain POW camp, which functions as an iron ore mine. He treats the prisoners with respect and, in turn, improves production. But the influx of a large group of prisoners exposes the corrupt system, and when a foreman organizes an escape attempt, it ultimately leads to Kaji being accused of helping the rebels, being labeled a Red and sent to war after all.
9. On the Beach
Year of Release: 1959
Overall Rating: 3.1 out of 4 stars
Language: English
Genre: Drama/Sci-Fi
MPAA Rating: NR
Director: Stanley Kramer
Actors: Gregory Peck, Ava Gardner, Fred Astaire, Anthony Perkins, Donna Anderson, John Tate
Plot: After nuclear war wipes out most of humanity, the few survivors -- including a submarine commander, a young married couple and a party girl searching for true love -- wait for the fallout to hit them in this grim anti-war film.
10. Compulsion
Year of Release: 1959
Overall Rating: 3.0 out of 4 stars
Language: English
Genre: Biography/Crime
MPAA Rating: NR
Director: Richard Fleischer
Actors: Orson Welles, Diane Varsi, Dean Stockwell, Bradford Dillman, E.G. Marshall, Richard Anderson
Plot: This film is based on the trial of Leopold and Loeb in the 1920s. They were the two well to do young men, who murdered a boy just to experience murder.
