Top 10 Films of 1955

1. "Bob le flambeur" (Jean-Pierre Melville, France)

2. "The Night Of The Hunter" (Charles Laughton, USA)

3. "Smiles Of A Summer Night" (Ingmar Bergman, Sweden)

4. "Les Diaboliques" (Henri-Georges Clouzot, France)

5. "Mister Roberts" (John Ford, Mervyn LeRoy, USA)

6. "Bad Day At Black Rock" (John Sturges, USA)

7. "Kiss Me Deadly" (Robert Aldrich, USA)

8. "I Live In Fear" (Akira Kurosawa, Japan)

9. "Lola Montes" (Max Ophuls, France)

10. "French Can-Can" (Jean Renoir, France)

Other great films:

The African Lion
Il Bidone (Italy)
The Big Combo
Blekitny krzyz (Poland)
Bride Of The Monster
The Bridges At Toko-Ri
Confidential Report
The Criminal Life Of Archibaldo de la Cruz (Mexico)
Daddy Long Legs
Davy Crockett, King Of The Wild Frontier
East Of Eden

Empress Yang Kwei Fei (Japan)

Ernst Thalmann: Fuhrer seiner Klasse (East Germany)
The Far Country
The First Echelon (Soviet Union)
Guys And Dolls
It's Always Fair Weather
A Journey To The Beginning Of Time (Czechoslovakia)
Jupiter's Darling
Kismet
Lady And The Tramp
The Ladykillers (UK)

Land Of The Pharaohs
Love Me Or Leave Me

La Lumiere d'en face (France)
The Man From Laramie
The Man With The Golden Arm

Mau-Mau

La Mome Pigalle (France)

The Night My Number Came Up (UK)

Oklahoma
Ordet (Denmark)

Pather Panchali (India)
Pokolenie (Poland)

Rebel Without A Cause
Rififi (France)
The Seven Year Itch

Taira Clan Saga (Japan)
To Catch A Thief
Underwater 

Young Love (Finland)

Short Top 3:

1. "Niedzielny poranek" (Andrzej Munk, Poland)

2. "The Mechanics Of Love" (Willard Maas, USA)

3. "Wonder Ring" (Stan Brakhage, USA)

Other great shorts:

Une Femme coquette (Switzerland)

Kasva terveeksi (Finland)

Men Against The Arctic 
Operation beton (Switzerland)

Top Commercial:

"Smells Like Coffee" (Hills Brothers)

Top TV:

"The Honeymooners: TV Or Not TV" (Frank Satenstein, CBS)

Cartoon Top 10

1. "One Froggy Evening" (Chuck Jones, Warner)

2. "Sh-h-h-h" (Tex Avery, Universal)

3. "The Hole Idea" (Robert McKimson, Warner)

4. "Cellbound" (Tex Avery, Michael Lah, MGM)

5. "Two Scents Worth" (Chuck Jones, Warner)

6. "Beezy Bear" (Jack Hannah, Disney)

7. "Bearly Asleep" (Jack Hannah, Disney)

8. "Deputy Droopy" (Tex Avery, Michael Lah, MGM)

9. "The Legend Of Rockabye Point" (Tex Avery, Universal)

10. "Four Wheels No Brakes" (Ted Parmelee, Columbia)

Other great cartoons:

All Fowled Up
Barnyard Actor
Beanstalk Bunny
Blinkity Blank (Canada)
Christopher Crumpet's Playmate
Designs On Jerry
Dime To Retire
Double Or Mutton
Good Will To Men
Hare Brush
Heir Conditioned
The Invisible Moustache Of Raoul Dufy
Jumpin' Jupiter
A Kiddie's Kitty
Lumber Jerks
Mouse For Sale
No Hunting
Pappy's Puppy
Past Perfumance
Pizzicato Pussycat
Pup On A Picnic
Rabbit Rampage
Ready Set Zoom
Rise Of Duton Lang
Roman Legion Hare
Sahara Hare
Speedy Gonzales
Square Shootin' Square
Stage Door Magoo
Stork Naked
That's My Mommy
Up A Tree

Weak films of 1955:

All That Heaven Allows
Blackboard Jungle
Le Fils de Caroline cherie (France)
Irena do domu (Poland)
Killer's Kiss
Love Is A Many-Splendored Thing
Marty
Murder Is My Beat
Picnic
The Rose Tattoo
Samurai 2: Duel At Ichijoji Temple (Japan)

The Shiinomi School (Japan)
La Tour de Nesle (France)
The Trouble With Harry

Weak shorts:

Castle Within The Castle (Denmark)

Weak cartoons:

Feather Dusted
Field And Scream
The First Bad Man
Guided Muscle
Helter Shelter
Hyde And Hare
Knight-Mare Hare
Lighthouse Mouse
Madcap Magoo
Magoo's Check Up
Oklahoma Gas Company
Pecos Pest
Pests For Guests
Private Eye Pooch
Red Riding Hoodwinked
Smarty Cat
Southbound Duckling
This Is A Life
Tom And Cherie
The Tree Medic
Tweety's Circus
Witch Crafty

Top 3 Musicals of 1955

1. "French Can-Can" (Jean Renoir, France)


2. "It's Always Fair Weather" (Stanley Donen, Gene Kelly, MGM)

3. "Daddy Long Legs" (Jean Negulesco, 20th-Fox)

Bob le flambeur (1955) *****

Ordet (1955) ****

Powerful film about faith.

I Live In Fear (1955) ****

One of Kurosawa's finest films, a complex study of insanity in Nuclear Age.

Taira Clan Saga (1955) ***

Il Bidone (1955) ***

Probably Federico Fellini's most conventional film, but extremely well-made.

The African Lion (1955) ***

Pather Panchali (1955) ***

The first part of the celebrated "Apu" trilogy. 

Young Love (1955) ***

Underwater (1955) ***

Ernst Thalmann: Fuhrer seiner Klasse (1955) ***

East German drama about the leader of the German Communist Party during the Nazi era. Superior to its prequel, "Ernst Thalmann: Sohn seiner Klasse" (1954), it has a few outstanding sequences (like the one showing Thalmann marching in the front row of a parade, only to be protected by younger Communists locking arms in front of him).

A Journey To The Beginning Of Time (1955) ***

Czech adventure film about four boys travelling back in time to the Jurassic era and even earlier.

Oklahoma (1955) ***

The First Echelon (1955) ***

Directed by Mikhail Kalatozov.

La Mome Pigalle (1955) ***

Land Of The Pharaohs (1955) ***

The building of the Cheops pyramid. Not among Howard Hawks' best films, but still impressive and fascinating.

Mau-Mau (1955) ***

Jupiter's Darling (1955) ***

Actually, the title should have been "Hannibal's Darling", since neither Jupiter, nor any other Roman god, appears in the film. Set during the Punic Wars, it's the story of the fiancee of the Roman dictator who seduces Hannibal to save her city. Musical numbers:

"If This Be Slav'ry"  *
"I Have A Dream"  **
"Hannibal's Victory March"  **
"I Never Trust A Woman" **
"Don't Let This Night Get Away"  **
"The Life Of An Elephant"  *

Pokolenie (1955) ***

Pierwszy film Andrzeja Wajdy, opisujacy dzialalnosc podziemna mlodych komunistow w okupowanej Warszawie.

La Lumiere d'en face (1955) ***

Empress Yang Kwei Fei (1955) ***

The Night Of The Hunter (1955) *****

A mix of a children's fairy tale, a "Southern Gothic" horror movie and a backwoods melodrama. A truly unique masterpiece, directed by Charles Laughton.

Summertime (1955) **

Katharine Hepburn and Venice. Old-fashioned and quite dated.

Samurai 2: Duel At Ichijoji Temple (1955) **

La Tour de Nesle (1955) *

Directed by Abel Gance.

The Shiinomi School (1955) *

Even though the director Hiroshi Shimizu also wrote the screenplay here (based on Saburô Yamamoto's novel), the film is quite boring and forgettable.