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Best Crime Movies of the 1950s
#1 Witness for the Prosecution (1957) · ★ 8.2 · 1,759 votes · 1h 56m · drama, crime, mysteryAn ailing barrister is thrust back into the courtroom in what becomes one of the most unusual and eventful murder cases of the lawyer's career when he finds himself defending a man…
#2 Some Like It Hot (1959) · ★ 8.1 · 4,005 votes · 2h 3m · comedy, romance, crimeIn Prohibition-era Chicago, musicians Joe and Jerry witness a mob hit, and flee the state in an all-female band disguised as Josephine and Daphne, but further complications set in.…
#3 Big Deal on Madonna Street (1958) · ★ 8.1 · 807 votes · 1h 46m · comedy, crimeBest friends Peppe and Mario are thieves, but they're not very good at it. Still, Peppe thinks that he's finally devised a master heist that will make them rich. With the help of s…
#4 The Young and the Damned (1950) · ★ 8.1 · 562 votes · 1h 22m · drama, crimeA group of juvenile delinquents live a violent life in the infamous slums of Mexico City; among them Pedro, whose morality is gradually corrupted and destroyed by the others.…
#5 Dial M for Murder (1954) · ★ 8.0 · 2,937 votes · 1h 45m · thriller, drama, crimeWhen her American lover visits London, a wealthy woman’s jealous husband hatches a plan to murder her and inherit her fortune.…
#6 Rashomon (1950) · ★ 8.0 · 2,620 votes · 1h 28m · drama, crime, mysteryFour people recount different versions of the story of a man's murder and the rape of his wife.…
#7 The Night of the Hunter (1955) · ★ 7.9 · 1,910 votes · 1h 33m · thriller, drama, crimeIn Depression-era West Virginia, a serial-killing preacher hunts two young children who know the whereabouts of a stash of money.…
#8 On the Waterfront (1954) · ★ 7.9 · 1,840 votes · 1h 48m · romance, drama, crimeA prizefighter-turned-longshoreman with a conscience goes up against labor leaders to expose corruption, extortion, and murder among the union ranks.…
#9 Anatomy of a Murder (1959) · ★ 7.8 · 1,221 votes · 2h 41m · drama, crime, mysterySemi-retired Michigan lawyer Paul Biegler takes the case of Army Lt. Manion, who murdered a local innkeeper after his wife claimed that he raped her. Over the course of an extensiv…
#10 Rififi (1955) · ★ 7.8 · 658 votes · 1h 58m · thriller, drama, crimeOut of prison after a five-year stretch, jewel thief Tony turns down a quick job his friend Jo offers him, until he discovers that his old girlfriend Mado has become the lover of l…
#11 Strangers on a Train (1951) · ★ 7.7 · 1,943 votes · 1h 41m · thriller, drama, crimeA charming psychopath tries to coerce a tennis star into his theory that two strangers can commit the perfect crime by exchanging murders—each killing the other’s most-hated person…
#12 Touch of Evil (1958) · ★ 7.7 · 1,652 votes · 1h 51m · thriller, drama, crimeA border-town bombing draws Mexican investigator Miguel Vargas into a corruption-ridden police investigation led by crooked captain Hank Quinlan, setting off a deadly struggle over…
#13 The Big Heat (1953) · ★ 7.7 · 577 votes · 1h 29m · thriller, crimeAfter the suspicious suicide of a fellow cop, tough homicide detective Dave Bannion takes the law into his own hands when he sets out to smash a vicious crime syndicate.…
#14 The Killing (1956) · ★ 7.6 · 1,768 votes · 1h 25m · thriller, drama, crimeCareer criminal Johnny Clay recruits a sharpshooter, a crooked police officer, a bartender and a betting teller named George, among others, for one last job before he goes straight…
#15 Elevator to the Gallows (1958) · ★ 7.6 · 729 votes · 1h 32m · thriller, drama, crimeA self-assured businessman murders his employer, husband of his mistress, which unintentionally provokes an ill-fated chain of events.…
#16 In a Lonely Place (1950) · ★ 7.6 · 685 votes · 1h 33m · thriller, romance, dramaA violent screenwriter and a female neighbor fall in love after she clears him of murder, but she begins to have second thoughts.…
#17 The Asphalt Jungle (1950) · ★ 7.5 · 538 votes · 1h 53m · drama, crimeRecently paroled from prison, legendary burglar "Doc" Riedenschneider, with funding from Alonzo Emmerich, a crooked lawyer, gathers a small group of veteran criminals together in t…
#18 Pickpocket (1959) · ★ 7.3 · 593 votes · 1h 15m · drama, crimeMichel takes up pickpocketing on a lark and is arrested soon after. His mother dies shortly after his release, and despite the objections of his only friend, Jacques, and his mothe…
#19 The Ladykillers (1955) · ★ 7.3 · 577 votes · 1h 31m · comedy, crimeFive oddball criminals planning a bank robbery rent rooms on a cul-de-sac from an octogenarian widow under the pretext that they are classical musicians.…
#20 The Wrong Man (1956) · ★ 7.1 · 627 votes · 1h 45m · drama, crimeIn 1953, an innocent man named Christopher Emmanuel "Manny" Balestrero is arrested after being mistaken for an armed robber.…
#21 I Confess (1953) · ★ 7.1 · 500 votes · 1h 35m · thriller, drama, crimeWhen a priest hears a murderer’s confession, he becomes bound by his vow of silence—even as circumstantial evidence turns suspicion toward him. Torn between faith and self-preserva…
#22 Killer's Kiss (1955) · ★ 6.3 · 621 votes · 1h 8m · thriller, drama, crimeDavey Gordon, a New York City boxer at the end of his career, falls for dancer Gloria Price. However, their budding relationship is interrupted by Gloria's violent boss, Vincent Ra…