Yeah, Wilder might be the best. But I’d also be inclined to say Hitch:
Wilder: Sunset Blvd., Ace in the Hole, Witness for the Prosecution, Some Like It Hot
Hitchcock: Strangers on a Train, Rear Window, To Catch a Thief, Vertigo, North by Northwest
Hmmm….yeah, I might have to lean towards Hitch.
Akira Kurosawa with Hitch as a close runner up.
Rashomon, Ikiru, Seven Samurai, Throne of Blood, The Hidden Fortress
Don’t try to cover up that Hitch also made Dial M For Murder. :-)
I’d probably go Kurosawa myself.
dial m for murder is better than to catch a thief. strong contenders here
yeah i think i’ll take kurosawa too
Mizoguchi made “Madame Yuki”, “Miss Oyu”, “The Lady of Musashino”, “The Life of Oharu”, “A Geisha”, “Ugetsu”, “A Woman in the Rumor”, “The Crucified Lovers”, “Sansho the Bailiff”, “Tales of the Taira Clan”, “Princess Yang kwei-fei” and “Streets of Shame” in the 50s, all within a period of six years, that’s impossible to top. The only director I can think of who’d come close during that decade would be Naruse.
Joshua Logan made arguably Monroe’s, Holden’s and Brando’s best films plus a classic musical:
1958 South Pacific 1957 Sayonara 1956 Bus Stop 1955 Picnic
Wilder, seriously?
Yeah, Sunset Boulevard is great, but Some Like It Hot needed less moronic female characters to work.
Kurosawa and Hitch are definitely near the top. But then Ozu, Ray, Bergman, Bresson, Mizoguchi.
Bergman: Wild Strawberries, Seventh Seal, Virgin Spring, Smiles of a Summer Night
Bresson: Pickpocket, A Man Escaped, Diary of a Country Priest
Between all those I mentioned, very close.
nah, i don’t think anyone can beat mizo’s record. thank you for pointing it out, apursansar. i’ve seen 5 of those, each more stunning than the last
I go with Hitchcock….
North by Northwest
Vertigo
Strangers on a Train
I Confess
The Wrong Man
Rear Window
To Catch a Thief
Dial M For Murder
2nd (and it’s JUST my opinion)
Preminger
Anatomy of a Murder
The Moon is Blue
Carmen Jones
The Man with the Golden Arm
Angel Face
Bonjour Tristesse
Where the Sidewalk Ends
That’s a heady collection of work right there…and then there’s the odd but still interesting Saint Joan, River of No Return, The 13th Letter
Well, Naruse does beat his record with I think 21 films made in the 50s, though only six of them are among his acclaimed works. Mizo made what are generally considered his three greatest masterpieces during that decade as well as four other highly regarded films, so in that regard one could say he beats Naruse.
They’re all just out opinions, Jaspar, that part of the fun.
About many films in a decade, I mentioned this with the 30s directors and it will come up again the 40s, does the pure quantity of a directors work in a decade or over an entire career, hurt his/her chances of being considered great?
No director is perfect and the more films they make, the better chance of having a misstep.
Richard Fleischer was pretty amazing too (20,000, Narrow and Vikings all completely different five star films)
1959 These Thousand Hills 1959 Compulsion 1958 The Vikings
1956 Between Heaven and Hell 1956 Bandido 1955 The Girl in the Red Velvet Swing 1955 Violent Saturday
1954 20000 Leagues Under the Sea 1953 Arena 1952 The Happy Time 1952 The Narrow Margin
“does the pure quantity of a directors work in a decade or over an entire career, hurt his/her chances of being considered great?”
Not over a career but definitely over a decade. For instance, it’s hard for me to say Kubrick was the greatest director of any decade because he made so few films in any given decade. But over a career, his slew of films are perfect.
Joseph H. Lewis
1958 Terror in a Texas Town
1957 The Halliday Brand
1956 7th Cavalry
1955 A Lawless Street
1955 The Big Combo (as Joseph Lewis)
1955 Man on a Bus (short)
1953 Cry of the Hunted
1952 Desperate Search (as Joseph Lewis)
1952 Retreat, Hell!
1950 A Lady Without Passport
1950 Gun Crazy
and Anthony Mann
The Furies (1950)
Winchester ‘73 (1950)
Side Street (1950)
Devil’s Doorway (1950)
The Tall Target (1951)
Bend of the River (1953)
Thunder Bay (1953)
The Naked Spur (1953)
The Glenn Miller Story (1954)
The Far Country (1954)
The Last Frontier (1955 Film) (1955)
The Man from Laramie (1955)
Strategic Air Command (1955)
Serenade (1956)
The Tin Star (1957)
Men in War (1957) — also producer
Man of the West (1958)
God’s Little Acre (1958)
Everything I was going to say has been said – Mizoguchi and Kurosawa both seem like great choices, and if Bresson ranks behind them, it’s only because he made so few films. Anthony Mann and Otto Preminger were the two names that came to mind from English-language cinema, along with Elia Kazan.
You’re forgetting some other good Billy films from the 50’s
Sabrina, The Seven Year Itch, Witness for the Prosecution. And from what I have heard, Love in the Afternoon is masterful as well.
Ozu Yasujirô
The Munekata Sisters (1950)
Early Summer (1951)
Flavor of Green Tea Over Rice (1952)
Tokyo Story (1953)
Early Spring (1956)
Tokyo Twilight (1957)
Equinox Flower (1958)
Good Morning (1959)
Floating Weeds (1959)
Naruse Mikio (Top 12 [out of 24]; in chronological order)
Ginza Cosmetics (1951)
Repast (1951)
Mother (1952)
Lightning (1952)
Older Brother, Younger Sister (1953)
Sound of the Mountain (1954)
Late Chrysanthemums (1954)
Floating Clouds (1955)
A Wife’s Heart (1956)
Flowing (1956)
Untamed (1957)
Anzukko (1958)
Ozu and Renoir.
The greatest decade in cinema. Nick Ray, Yasujiro Ozu, Alfred Hitchcock, and Kenji Mizoguchi are all worthy contenders.
Kurosawa
Seven Samurai
Ikiru
Rashomon
Throne of Blood
The Idiot
I Live in Fear
The Lower Depths
The Hidden Fortress
Scandal
Mizoguchi
Sansho the Bailiff
Ugetsu
Life of Oharu
The Empress Yang Kwei Fei
Tales of the Tiara Clan
Crucified Lovers
Street of Shame
Gion Festival Music
Miss Oyu
The Lady From Musashino
Portrait of Madame Yuki
The Crucified Woman
Fellini
I Vitelloni
La Strada
Nights of Cabiria
+ Ozu, Naruse, S. Ray.
.
“The greatest decade in cinema”
Hard to argue with that.
Agree with Jack wholeheartadly. I’d also toss Ford in there (Wagon Master, The Quiet Man, The Sun Shines Bright, Mogambo, The Long Gray Line, The Searchers, The Rising of the Moon, The Wings of Eagles) and maybe Rossellini (Stromboli, Europa ’51, Voyage to Italy, India: Matri Bhumi)
Renoir also did some of his best post-30’s (and most underrated) work here: The River, The Golden Coach, French Cancan and Picnic on the Grass.
Too difficult to pick just one filmmaker. Like Jack said, this is the greatest decade in cinema.
Criteria: great range and certainly was incredibly impressive.
That might exclude Ozu, Mizoguchi, Hitch, and Mann – Naruse I can’t say.
FTW: Kurosawa
Look, you lot, it’s perfectly obvious who was the director of the decade
a teeny weeny clue: he was born on 16th May 1898, and Mais1 has already listed the films
The 1950s was a platinum era for Japan- Ozu, Naruse, Kurosawa too. Will we ever see such riches again?
How about Fritz Lang?
These are the films he made in the 50’s, all but one is excellent (in my opinion):
House By The River
An American Guerilla In The Phillipines (the one I don’t like: neither did Lang…)
Rancho Notorious
Clash By Night
The Blue Gardenia
The Big Heat
Human Desire
Moonfleet
While The City Sleeps
Beyond A Reasonable Doubt
The Tiger Of Eschnapur
The Indian Tomb
Add in his great work in the 20’s, 30’s and 40’s and I think he’s definetly one of the Top 10 Directors of all time, producing great work in so many different genres…..
I agree that this was cinema’s richest decade and concur with Ford, Rossellini and Naruse.
To which I would add:
Bunuel (already listed his films in the 60s thread)
Ophuls: Madame de…, La Plaisir, Lola Montes, La Ronde
Tourneur: Stars in My Crown, Nightfall, Wichita, Stranger on Horseback, Night of the Demon
Boetticher: The Bullfighter and the Lady, The Tall T, Seven Men from Now, Ride Lonesome, Buchanan Rides Alone
Ginza Cosmetics
Dancing Girl
Repast
Okuni and Gohei
Mother
Lightning
Husband and Wife
Wife
Older Brother, Younger Sister
Sound of the Mountain
Late Chrysanthemums
Floating Clouds
Sudden Rain
Wife’s Heart
Flowing
Untamed Woman
Anzukko
Summer Clouds
Mikio Naruse.
When you go 18-for-23 in a decade, producing essentially two great films a year, no one can really try and compare your greatness to anyone else’s. It helps when five or six of those films happen to be some of the greatest things anyone’s ever done, ever.
For me, Douglas Sirk was the greatest director of the 50’s. It was his most active decade in America after leaving Germany where he directed 23 features including the supposed masterworks of Imitation of Life, Written on the WInd, A Time to Live and Time to Die, All That Heaven Allows, There’s Always Tomorrow, The Tarnished Angels, and Magnificent Obsession.
I second Sirk. Quintessential 1950s, especially the Universal pictures in widescreen Technicolor.
I’m positive that he utilized that technique to it’s fullest potential. He created some of the most vibrant images.
Uli Cain, Cinefidel¹³
Starting with Sunset Boulevard in 1950 and closing the decade with Some Like It Hot in 1959 with Stalag 17 in the middle, Wilder built upon his 40s output with another great ten years, and I feel was the Director of the Decade it was a huge decade for films.
I will allow you all to expand upon who the other great directors were, but Wilder showed great range and certainly was incredibly impressive.