One of the best things about going back and viewing movies from decades past is seeing the medium of film grow and develop. Just about everything was dialogue-free for much of the 1920s, color started to be used alongside black-and-white in the 1930s, the 1940s saw filmmakers use cinema to comment on a global war (and perhaps provide relief from it), and the 1950s was when aspect ratios started to widen, and the idea of world cinema really started to take off internationally.
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The end of the 1950s was a point where the radical filmmaking of the 1960s was still a little while away, but seeds were being sown for the kinds of movies that would thrive during that decade. As such, it’s not surprising that 1958 was a year that saw numerous great titles that are worth seeking out for anyone who enjoys classic movies, and the following titles – ranked below from good to great – are some of the very best from the year in question.
10 ‘The Big Country’
Image via TCM
At 166 minutes, The Big Country might not be the longest Western of all time, but it’s at least up there with the long-runners. It’s an epic with some big-name actors – including Gregory Peck, Jean Simmons, and Charlton Heston – and follows a large number of characters embroiled in a land dispute during Old West times.
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It’s not the kind of Western that’ll convert anyone who’s not a fan of such a genre, but those who do have an affinity for old-fashioned takes on Old West stories will find plenty to like. The story unfolds slowly but proves rewarding, and it’s also a spectacular-looking movie, using color and an epic scale to great effect, serving plentiful beautiful images to the audience.
9 ‘Cat on a Hot Tin Roof’
While it wasn’t the first movie Paul Newman starred in, 1958’s Cat on a Hot Tin Roof was one that raised his profile considerably, and also gave the legendary actor his first Oscar nomination. It’s a similarly huge movie in the filmography of Elizabeth Taylor, though wasn’t quite as star-making a role for her, given she’d started out as a child actress.
Cat on a Hot Tin Roof is a film adaptation of the 1955 Tennessee Williams play, and tells the story of an ex-football player struggling with personal issues, a crumbling marriage, and a father who’s dying. It’s a heavy-going and explosive drama, and excels thanks to its expectedly sharp writing and the dynamite performances of its two lead actors.
8 ‘The Music Room’
Image via Contemporary Films
Between the second and third entries in his coming-of-age focused The Apu Trilogy, Satyajit Ray directed something quite different: The Music Room. This is a drama that centers on an old man, rather than a young boy growing into a man, and he’s someone who’s both wealthy and borderline obsessed with music.
It’s a slow-burn movie with a fairly simple premise, but the visuals and interesting use of music are what give The Music Room some more style and complexity. It’s a very confidently made film that tells a direct story in an appropriately straightforward and impactful way, and is certainly up there with the greatest and most acclaimed movies Satyajit Ray ever directed.
7 ‘The Defiant Ones’
A (sort of) prison escape movie that’s more about what happens after an escape, rather than centering on planning and executing it, The Defiant Ones is an interesting and dynamic drama. The two main characters – convicts of different races – break free at the same time, but have to contend with the fact that they’re both chained to each other and therefore are forced into an uneasy alliance.
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The two lead characters are played by Tony Curtis and Sidney Poitier, with both turning in some of the best work of their long and respected careers. It’s a socially conscious movie that may lay things on a little thick by modern standards, but can be appreciated when considered within the context it was made, with the premise and acting also helping to make things engaging.
6 ‘Ashes and Diamonds’
Image via Janus Films
A Polish film that provides an unexpected take on the war genre, Ashes and Diamonds is a strange but rewarding movie. Though it takes place just after World War II, its story is still very much influenced by that conflict and its aftermath, centering on the conflict between the anti-Communist underground and the Polish Workers’ Party during 1945.
The protagonist grapples with an assassination task he’s given, with the internal conflict driving much of the drama within the film. Ashes and Diamonds proves to be psychologically intense and stunningly shot, when it comes to visuals, overall being a disquieting, eerie, and overall memorable film about what happens to people once a great war finishes, but conflict inevitably continues in other ways.
5 ‘A Night to Remember’
It may not be as well-known as the iconic James Cameron movie about the Titanic, but there’s an argument to be made that A Night to Remember is the superior Titanic-focused movie. Admittedly, it’s more limited with how much spectacle it can show, and it lacks the sweeping romance that helped make Cameron’s 1997 film so popular, but those wanting something more direct and grounded ought to watch A Night to Remember.
It aims to show the Titanic disaster in a realistic and matter-of-fact way, in the process being almost entirely focused on the build-up to the disaster, what happens when disaster strikes, and the aftermath. It’s a classy, respectful, and technically excellent (for its time) film, and a movie about the Titanic that probably deserves to be more well-known than it currently is.
4 ‘The Hidden Fortress’
Image via Toho
When looking over the great samurai epics made by Akira Kurosawa, it’s his 1954 film, Seven Samurai, that most people will point to as being his best (understandably so). Yet his other samurai movies are all worth exploring, too, and the one that most successfully scratches the same itch as Seven Samurai is The Hidden Fortress, which was released just four years after that iconic 1954 film.
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It’s about two peasants forming an unlikely group with two members of royalty who are both in hiding, with the lot of them going on a treacherous and lengthy journey to the titular hidden fortress. It’s tremendously entertaining and extremely well-shot, mixing comedy, drama, action, and adventure with skill, and all in a way that makes for a great watch.
3 ‘Touch of Evil’
Image via Universal
Though some would say Orson Welles peaked with his directorial debut, 1941’s Citizen Kane, he made plenty of other noteworthy movies after. Perhaps one of the greatest of these was Touch of Evil, an ambitious crime/thriller movie that also stands out for being one of the last “true” film noir movies ever made.
Touch of Evil dazzles the most in its famous opening shot, which is an unbroken take that never cuts to keep the suspense up, but it’s obviously still worth sticking with once that’s over. It follows the investigation of a murder that seems to have involved numerous shady people, leading to intrigue, suspense, and a difficult-to-predict narrative that stays exciting and absorbing throughout.
2 ‘Elevator to the Gallows’
Elevator to the Gallows might well be the most effortlessly cool crime movie ever made, with a certain amount of style and class that’s ensured it’s aged extremely well. It follows one man attempting to pull off the perfect crime, yet things naturally go wrong, with Elevator to the Gallows then showing, in painstaking detail, how one misfortune leads to another, and so on.
Louis Malle directed plenty of great films throughout his career, but Elevator to the Gallows – his first non-documentary feature film – might well remain his very best. It looks great, is paced pretty much perfectly, and also benefits immensely from a memorable jazz score, which was improvised and performed by legendary musician Miles Davis.
1 ‘Vertigo’
Image via Paramount Pictures
Of all the great Alfred Hitchcock movies released over so many years, Vertigo could well be the greatest of the greats. It’s one of Hitchcock’s most unsettling and thought-provoking films, as well as arguably one of his darkest and most mature. Depending on how much you want to read into it, it’s also a very personal film for the director that could say a great deal about Hitchcock himself.
It follows a private detective who agrees to do a job for his friend, only for this to make him unhealthily obsessed with a woman, with this having unforeseen consequences. Vertigo’s a slow but also remarkably hypnotic movie, being beautifully shot and having an undeniably haunting quality that makes it arguably the greatest film released in 1958.
NEXT: The Greatest Movies of the 1960s, Ranked