1950s Thriller Movies

141 movies found (page 1/5):

The Blob(1958)

3.1/5 (with 246 votes)

A drive-in favorite, this sci-fi classic follows teenagers Steve and his best girl, Jane, as they try to protect their hometown from a gelatinous alien life form that engulfs everything it touches. The first to discover the substance and live to tell about it, Steve and Jane witness the blob destroying an elderly man, then it growing to a terrifying size. But no one else has seen the goo, and policeman Dave refuses to believe the kids without proof.

Directed by Irvin Yeaworth - With Steve McQueen, Aneta Corsaut, Olin Howland, Earl Rowe, Hugh Graham, 1st Baron Atholstan, John Benson, ...

The House on Telegraph Hill(1951)

1h 33min | Drama, Mystery, Thriller

3.2/5 (with 25 votes)

Concentration camp survivor Victoria Kowelska finds herself involved in mystery, greed, and murder when she assumes the identity of a dead friend in order to gain passage to America.

Directed by Robert Wise - With Richard Basehart, Valentina Cortese, William Lundigan, Fay Baker, Steven Geray, Charles Wagenheim, ...

Where the Sidewalk Ends(1950)

1h 35min | Crime, Drama, Thriller

3.6/5 (with 70 votes)

A police detective's violent nature keeps him from being a good cop.

Directed by Otto Preminger - With Dana Andrews, Gene Tierney, Gary Merrill, Tom Tully, Karl Malden, Craig Stevens, ...

Sudden Fear(1952)

1h 50min | Drama, Thriller

3.7/5 (with 51 votes)

Actor Lester Blaine has all but landed the lead in Myra Hudson's new play when Myra vetoes him because, to her, he doesn't look like a romantic leading man. On a train from New York to San Francisco, Blaine sets out to prove Myra wrong...by romancing her. Is he sincere, or does he have a dark ulterior motive?

Directed by David Miller - With Jack Palance, Gloria Grahame, Joan Crawford, Mike Connors, Taylor Holmes, Bruce Bennett, ...

The Wreck of the Mary Deare(1959)

1h 45min | Action, Adventure, Crime, Mystery, Thriller

3.1/5 (with 17 votes)

A disgraced merchant marine officer elects to stay aboard his sinking cargo ship in order to prove the vessel was deliberately scuttled and, as a result, vindicate his good name.

Directed by Michael Anderson - With Gary Cooper, Charlton Heston, Michael Redgrave, Cecil Parker, Alexander Knox, Virginia Anne McKenna, ...

Thérèse Raquin(1953)

1h 46min | Thriller, Drama

3.3/5 (with 20 votes)

Star-crossed lovers Thérèse (Simone Signoret) and Laurent (Raf Vallone) think they've gotten away with murder after Thérèse's weakling husband "falls" from a speeding train. But when forced to contend with a blackmailer's demands and the mute accusations of Thérèse's mother-in-law (French stage and screen diva Sylvie, in a scene stealing performance), it's only a matter of time before the law, their passion or blind chance trips them up.

Directed by Marcel Carné - With Simone Signoret, Raf Vallone, Jacques Duby, Sylvie, Nerio Bernardi, Maria Pia Casilio, ...

It Happened in Broad Daylight(1958)

1h 40min | Crime, Thriller

3.7/5 (with 55 votes)

The search for a child murderer drags a once-respected detective into an all-consuming obsession.

Directed by Ladislao Vajda - With Michel Simon, Heinz Rühmann, Siegfried Lowitz, Gert Fröbe, Sigfrit Steiner, Heinrich Gretler, ...

Zero Hour!(1957)

1h 21min | Drama, Thriller

3.4/5 (with 16 votes)

In 1950s Canada, during a commercial flight, the pilots and some passengers suffer food poisoning, thus forcing an ex-WW2 fighter pilot to try to land the airliner in heavy fog.

Directed by Hall Bartlett - With Dana Andrews, Linda Darnell, Jerry Paris, Sterling Hayden, Elroy Hirsch, Katherine Warren, ...

Julie(1956)

1h 39min | Crime, Drama, Mystery, Thriller

2.9/5 (with 12 votes)

A terrified stewardess is stalked by her psychotic estranged husband.

Directed by Andrew L. Stone - With Doris Day, Louis Jourdan, Barry Sullivan, Jack Kelly, Ann Robinson, Jack Kruschen, ...

State Secret(1950)

1h 44min | Drama, Romance / Love, Thriller

3.3/5 (with 6 votes)

Visiting in England, an American surgeon Doctor John Marlowe is decoyed to a middle European country, and discovers the operation he is to perform is on the Vosnian dictator. When the latter dies, he is replaced by a look-alike, but Marlowe then becomes the object of a shoot-to-kill, vicious pursuit by the secret police of Vosnia since it is vital to Vosnia that the dictator's death does not become known. Fleeing, he seeks help from an actress, Lisa Robinson, and the two are harried across the countryside.

Directed by Sidney Gilliat - With Douglas Fairbanks Jr., Jack Hawkins, Glynis Johns, Herbert Lom

Inferno(1953)

1h 23min | Romance / Love, Thriller, Crime, Drama

3.1/5 (with 16 votes)

When selfish and arrogant millionaire Donald Carson fractures his leg during a desert vacation, his wife, Geraldine, leaves with their friend Joseph Duncan to supposedly get help. However, the two of them are really lovers who are leaving Carson to die in the heat. Slowly, Carson realizes he is on his own and vows revenge on the traitorous couple. Having had a privileged life, Carson must now use his wits to stay alive.

Directed by Roy Ward Baker - With Robert Ryan, Rhonda Fleming, William Lundigan, Henry Hull, Larry Keating, Robert Burton, ...

Storm Warning(1951)

1h 33min | Crime, Drama

3.4/5 (with 11 votes)

On the way to her new job, Marsha Mitchell takes the opportunity to visit her sister Lucy, whom she has not seen in a few years. There she not only meets her husband for the first time, but also the Ku Klux Klan.

Directed by Stuart Heisler - With Ronald Reagan, Doris Day, Ginger Rogers, Steve Cochran, Hugh Sanders, Lloyd Gough, ...

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Captain Scarface(1953)

1h 12min | Action, Drama, Romance / Love

2.4/5 (with 3 votes)

A group of communist spies plan to blow up an essential commercial artery, the Panama Canal. To this end, they have kidnapped a nuclear scientist and are traveling by steamship to the coast of South America. Luckily for western civilization, the hard-nosed ship's captain, played by Barton MacLane, has other ideas.

Directed by Paul Guilfoyle

Cry Danger(1951)

1h 19min | Crime, Drama, Thriller

3.4/5 (with 20 votes)

After serving five years of a life sentence, Rocky Mulloy hopes to clear his friend who's still in prison for the same crime.

Directed by Robert Parrish - With Dick Powell, Rhonda Fleming, Richard Erdman, William Conrad, Regis Toomey, Jean Porter, ...

The Tall Target(1951)

1h 18min | Mystery, Thriller

3.5/5 (with 15 votes)

A detective tries to prevent the assassination of President-elect Abraham Lincoln during a train ride headed for Washington in 1861.

Directed by Anthony Mann - With Dick Powell, Paula Raymond, Adolphe Menjou, Bert Roach, Florence Bates, Frank Sully, ...

No Highway(1951)

1h 38min | Drama

3.5/5 (with 23 votes)

James Stewart plays aeronautical engineer Theodore Honey, the quintessential absent-minded professor: eccentric, forgetful, but brilliant. His studies show that the aircraft being manufactured by his employer has a subtle but deadly design flaw that manifests itself only after the aircraft has flown a certain number of hours. En route to a crash site to prove his theory, Honey discovers that he is aboard a plane rapidly approaching his predicted deadline.

Directed by Henry Koster - With James Stewart, Marlene Dietrich, Glynis Johns, Jack Hawkins, Bessie Love, Janette Scott, ...

Beware, My Lovely(1952)

1h 17min | Drama, Crime

2.9/5 (with 13 votes)

A psychopath on the run takes a job as a handyman at the house of a lonely widow.

Directed by Harry Horner - With Ida Lupino, Robert Ryan, Taylor Holmes, Oothout Zabriskie Whitehead

À double tour(1959)

1h 50min | Drama

3.0/5 (with 12 votes)

The mistress of the wealthy Henri Marcoux is murdered and the family accuses the milkman of committing the crime. But Marcoux's daughter's fiancé suspects that she may have been murdered by someone else.

Directed by Claude Chabrol, Philippe de Broca - With Antonella Lualdi, Jean-Paul Belmondo, Bernadette Lafont, Madeleine Robinson, Mario David, Jacques Dacqmine, ...

The Night My Number Came Up(1955)

1h 34min | Thriller, Drama, Mystery

3.5/5 (with 14 votes)

At a fashionable dinner party in Hong Kong a Royal Navy officer is coaxed into revealing details of a dream in which eight persons take off from Bangkok in a Dakota bound for Tokyo and crash in the Japanese mountains. Amongst those listening is Air Marshal Hardie who is due to fly to Tokyo the next day. Hardie initially dismisses the dream because he is scheduled to fly out in a Liberator, but as Hardie arrives at the airport he discovers that the Liberator has developed mechanical problems and has been replaced by a Dakota. When, just before the flight is due to depart, two soldiers board the plane making a complement of eight, Hardie fears that the dream may be coming true and he is destined to die.

Directed by Leslie Norman - With Michael Redgrave, Sheila Sim, Alexander Knox, Denholm Elliott

The Devil Strikes at Night(1957)

1h 40min | Drama, History, Thriller

3.5/5 (with 13 votes)

Hamburg, Germany, 1944, during World War II. A serial killer terrorizes the city. When it seems clear that the local police are unable to catch him, forces as dark and terrible as the criminal himself become involved in the case.

Directed by Robert Siodmak - With Mario Adorf, Claus Holm, Hannes Messemer, Werner Peters, Peter Carsten, Carl Lange, ...

Jeopardy(1953)

1h 9min | Crime, Drama, Thriller

3.3/5 (with 15 votes)

A woman is kidnapped when she goes to get help for her husband who is trapped on a beach with the tide coming in to surely drown him.

Directed by John Sturges - With Barbara Stanwyck, Barry Sullivan, Lee Aaker, Ralph Meeker, Alex Montoya

The Snorkel(1958)

1h 30min | Thriller, Crime, Horror

3.6/5 (with 11 votes)

On the Italian coast, writer Paul Decker has grown unhappy in his marriage and executes what appears to be a perfect murder of his wife. While Paul is believed to be writing a book in France, his stepdaughter, Candy, suspects him of murdering her mother, as well as her father years before. With the police unwilling to investigate any further, Candy sets out to confirm her suspicions and take Paul down herself.

Directed by Guy Green - With Peter van Eyck

Split Second(1953)

1h 25min | Drama, Thriller, Crime

3.1/5 (with 10 votes)

Escaped convicts hold hostages in a ghost town targeted for a nuclear bomb test.

Directed by Dick Powell - With Stephen McNally, Alexis Smith, Jan Sterling, Keith Andes, Arthur Hunnicutt, Paul Kelly, ...

Woman in Hiding(1950)

1h 32min | Crime, Drama, Romance / Love, Thriller

3.2/5 (with 13 votes)

As far as the rest of the world is concerned, mill heiress Deborah Chandler Clark (Ida Lupino) is dead, killed in a freak auto accident. But Deborah is alive, if not too well. Having discovered a horrible truth about her new husband (Stephen McNally), Deborah is now a “woman in hiding,” living in mortal fear that someday her husband will catch up with her again. When a returning GI (Howard Duff) recognizes Deborah, however, she must decide whether or not she can trust him.

Directed by Michael Gordon - With Ida Lupino, Stephen McNally, Howard Duff, John Litel, Angela Clarke, Harry Harvey, ...

Cause for Alarm!(1951)

1h 14min | Drama, Thriller, Crime, Mystery

3.1/5 (with 14 votes)

A bedridden and gravely ill man believes his wife and doctor are conspiring to kill him, and outlines his suspicions in a letter.

Directed by Tay Garnett - With Loretta Young, Barry Sullivan, Bruce Cowling, Art Baker, Irving Bacon, Margalo Gillmore, ...

Time Lock(1957)

1h 13min | Thriller

3.0/5 (with 6 votes)

A boy is accidentally locked in a bank vault. With less than 10 hours of oxygen left in the vault, it becomes a race to save the boy.

Directed by Gerald Thomas - With Robert Beatty, Betty McDowall, Lee Patterson, Vincent Winter, Sean Connery

A Bullet for Joey(1955)

1h 25min | Drama, Thriller

2.8/5 (with 11 votes)

Raoul Leduc is a police inspector trailing a spy who plots to kidnap an important American atomic scientist. Joe Victor a gangster who is hired to carry out the abduction, balks when he learns what is at stake and helps Leduc out instead.

Directed by Lewis Allen - With Edward G. Robinson, George Raft, Audrey Totter, George Dolenz, Peter van Eyck, Sally Blane, ...

A Kiss for a Killer(1957)

1h 45min | Drama, Crime

2.7/5 (with 4 votes)

In Nice, the wealthy widow Betty Farnwell falls for the charms of a handsome young man, Philippe Delaroche. Mrs Farnwell is so taken with Philippe that she persuades her bank to allow him to manage her financial affairs. Philippe, an unscrupulous opportunist, is not slow to turn the situation to his advantage and within no time he is married to his wealthy benefactor. Philippe has barely grown accustomed to wearing a wedding ring when he begins a romantic liaison with his wife’s attractive secretary, Eva. It soon transpires that Eva is even more ruthless than Philippe...

Directed by Henri Verneuil - With Henri Vidal, Mylène Demongeot, Isa Miranda, Alfred Adam, André Roanne, Antonin Berval, ...

The Unguarded Moment(1956)

1h 35min | Crime, Drama, Mystery, Thriller

3.3/5 (with 4 votes)

A high-school music teacher is the victim of a student who writes indecent notes and assaults women.

Directed by Harry Keller - With Esther Williams, George Nader, John Saxon, Les Tremayne, Jack Albertson, Eleanor Audley, ...

The Long Memory(1953)

1h 36min | Crime

3.3/5 (with 7 votes)

An innocent man is released from prison after 12 years and tracks down the witnesses who lied about him in court.

Directed by Robert Hamer - With John Mills, John McCallum, Elizabeth Sellars, Geoffrey Keen